Ash Whiteflies

QUESTION: For the last few years my pomegranate tree has been loaded with what I was told were ash whiteflies. This year there are none. I am delighted, but I wonder why they have gone away? ANSWER: Happily, reports like yours are coming in from many areas of the Southland. Some experts believe that the freezing temperatures we experienced last December wiped out the ash whiteflies in many of the colder zones.

QUESTION: For the last few years my pomegranate tree has been loaded with what I was told were ash whiteflies. This year there are none. I am delighted, but I wonder why they have gone away? ANSWER: Happily, reports like yours are coming in from many areas of the Southland. Some experts believe that the freezing temperatures we experienced last December wiped out the ash whiteflies in many of the colder zones.

Infestations of the ash whitefly, until recently confirmed only in the Los Angeles area, have spread north to the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, raising concerns about possible damage to the fruit industry. The pest, native to Mediterranean countries, apparently has not yet spread into groves of fruit trees it is known to attack, but agriculture officials say it is only a matter of time.

Even as a new California pest devastates vegetable and fruit crops in the Imperial Valley, University of California agriculture officials in Ventura County are declaring victory over its pesky cousin, the ash whitefly. Agriculture officials said Friday they have seen no sign of the fast-moving poinsettia whitefly, which in recent months has become the Imperial Valley's worst natural pest, according to some growers in the desert region.

After apparently eradicating a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation near downtown Los Angeles, state and county agricultural officials turned their attention Tuesday to an even more formidable winged enemy--the ash whitefly. Since its discovery last summer at a Van Nuys vegetable stand, the tiny ash whitefly has been reported in tens of thousands of ash and other trees through Los Angeles County, prompting scores of phone calls by anxious homeowners, officials said.

Last fall's biological warfare experiment against the ash whitefly, which has attacked trees in at least 15 California counties, was successful in killing the destructive pests, researchers reported Monday. However, ash whitefly experts said they need more money to continue the research that could provide a long-term solution to the ash whitefly problem. "We could really be set back if the University of California was unable to continue its research," said Peter J.

Scientists launched the first attack in a biological war against the ash whitefly Friday when they released 60 tiny parasitic wasps in a San Fernando Valley park. Perched atop ladders in Encino's Balboa Sports Center, researchers reached into nylon mesh bags that had been wrapped around branches of two infested trees and uncorked several narrow, inch-long vials containing the predators.

At the outset of another season of swarming ash whiteflies, agriculture officials said Thursday that, for the first time in a frustrating three-year battle against the tree-damaging insect, they have encouraging evidence of progress. California Department of Food and Agriculture officials said it appears that a strategy started last year to combat the pest by releasing stingless wasps to prey on it is working.

Agriculture officials and entomologists said Friday that there is "no quick fix" to countering the growing swarms of ash whiteflies in Orange County and other parts of Southern California, but the pesky insects could eventually be controlled through predators and parasites. During a meeting of the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Assn. subcommittee on the ash whitefly in Anaheim, Orange County Agricultural Commissioner James D.

Scientists waging a biological war against the pesky ash whitefly have deployed a new soldier in the fight--a tiny gold-and-brown beetle imported from Israel. Small swarms of the so-called ladybird beetles have been released over the last three weeks in Granada Hills, Gardena and Oceanside. Entomologists predict that the eighth-inch-long beetle--which poses no threat to humans--will reduce whitefly populations by eating juvenile flies that attach themselves to the underside of tree leaves.

Tom Bellows has a few thousand wasps he'd like to unload on the public--at $1 apiece, no less. But these aren't just any wasps. They are tiny, stingerless predators originally from Israel, with an insatiable taste for ash whiteflies. Bellows, an entomologist at UC Riverside, heads a unique program designed to help residents fight back against the swarming clouds of whiteflies that have infested the state for the past three years.

At the outset of another season of swarming ash whiteflies, agriculture officials said Thursday that, for the first time in a frustrating three-year battle against the tree-damaging insect, they have encouraging evidence of progress. California Department of Food and Agriculture officials said it appears that a strategy started last year to combat the pest by releasing stingless wasps to prey on it is working.

Scientists waging a biological war against the pesky ash whitefly have deployed a new soldier in the fight--a tiny gold-and-brown beetle imported from Israel. Small swarms of the so-called ladybird beetles have been released over the last three weeks in Granada Hills, Gardena and Oceanside. Entomologists predict that the eighth-inch-long beetle--which poses no threat to humans--will reduce whitefly populations by eating juvenile flies that attach themselves to the underside of tree leaves.

Agricultural crews are releasing tiny stingless wasps in Southern California this week as a weapon against the ash whitefly parasite, the state Department of Food and Agriculture said. Pesticides are ineffective and the fly has no known natural enemy in California. The speck-sized wasp is the first biological weapon to be used against the ash whitefly in California, where it was first detected in Los Angeles County in August, 1988.

State health officials on Thursday took on a new pest, the white ash fly, but they have found a more natural way to kill it off than the noisy and controversial spraying used against the Mediterranean fruit fly. Two vials of about 1,000 tiny, stingless wasps that naturally kill off the white ash fly were opened beneath a tree at the Fullerton Arboretum, starting off a process that officials hope will continue until the fly is eradicated.

Biological war has been declared against a fly that is ravaging trees in Ventura County, a state agricultural official said Friday. Agricultural officials are planning to release another bug in July as the latest weapon in the assault against the destructive ash whitefly, said Veda Federighi, a spokeswoman for the pest management division of the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

That other menacing fly--the pinhead-sized ash whitefly--has returned after a wintertime reprieve to renew its ferocious attack on Southern California shade trees. This year, though, a deadly surprise might be lurking in the foliage for the bothersome pest. While an army of state agriculture officials is engaged in a full-scale battle with the Mediterranean fruit fly, a handful of entomologists have laid plans to launch the first large-scale assault against the ash whitefly.

The first call came from the owner of a Van Nuys vegetable stand. Mysterious white insects, Felix Tapia told authorities, were invading his property. They were flitting around his ash trees, creating a nuisance that was interfering with business. "I knew they weren't aphids, you know, I'd have recognized them right away," Tapia said last week, recalling last summer's incident. "I didn't know what they were. And there were just so many of them."

That other menacing fly--the pinhead-sized ash whitefly--has returned after a wintertime reprieve to renew its ferocious attack on Southern California shade trees. This year, though, a deadly surprise might be lurking in the foliage for the bothersome pest. While an army of state agriculture officials is engaged in a full-scale battle with the Mediterranean fruit fly, a handful of entomologists have laid plans to launch the first large-scale assault against the ash whitefly.

Last fall's biological warfare experiment against the ash whitefly, which has attacked trees in at least 15 California counties, was successful in killing the destructive pests, researchers reported Monday. However, ash whitefly experts said they need more money to continue the research that could provide a long-term solution to the ash whitefly problem. "We could really be set back if the University of California was unable to continue its research," said Peter J.