Urban Warfare: Using Biocontrol To Manage To Invasion Bridgeheads In Urban Areas

Many invasive species that affect agriculture, wilderness and urban areas often establish invasion bridgeheads in highly populated residential areas. Tackling invasive species in the urban environment is extraordinarily challenging because of private ownership of residential properties, sensivities over access to properties for pest surveilance, and community outrage over proposed control measures that utilize pesticides or plant eradication. California acquires 9 exotic terrestrial arthropod species… Show more per year, of which several become major pest problems. Often these pests are first detected in urban areas and from here populations spread to threaten agriculture and wilderness areas. This presentation will focus on two pests, the Asian citrus psyllid, and the red palm weevil, both of which have established populations in urban areas in southern California. Asian citrus psyllid threatens citrus production areas because of its ability to vector a bacterium that causes a lethal citrus disease, Huanglongbing. Red palm weevil threatens iconic palm plantings in urban and recreational areas, the date industry in the Coachella Valley, and native palms that inhabit fragile desert oases. Managment of these pests in the urban environment is essential to slow spread to more sensitive areas where environmental damage and economic loses will be much greater. Biological control is one suppression tactic that is viewed favorably for use by most homeowners and potentially affected industries, and programs on Asian citrus psyllid and red palm weevil will be discussed to illustrate this.
Location : Genomics Building 1102A

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