Citrus mealybug
Sal Schettino (sals@rain.org)
Fri, 7 Oct 1994 14:57:13 -0700 (PDT)
I live on a ant hill in sunny southern Cal. I can grow mangos here so
the winters are low chile. I have to fight Citrus Mealybug every year.
Usually I hoe around the trees and lift up the skirts trying to keep the
ants out of the trees. I also put tanglefoot around the trunk of the
tree putting tap on frist so the tanglefoot doesn't touch the tree.. The
ants herd the
Mealybug as you know and are getting smarter every year. So if I can
only stop the ants the natural enemies will eat the soft mealybug. That
is really hard because I live on an ant hill. Is
anyone out there working on a organic biological pest control for Citrus
Mealybug? I lose so many fruit each year. About 30% of my Cherimoyas
turn black because of that darn Mealybug and those darn ants. I have to
give the ants the
whole tree sometime. If there was just a parasite or mealybug eater that
would work amoung the ants. What a great timesaver that would be. I'm
going to try Leptomastix dactyiopii when I find someone that has them
but have been told they will never control the problem. I
tryed Cryptolaemus montrouzieri but they just fly away. The ants may be
runing them away or maybe they just don't like to hang around. I wish
someone
could sell the Cryptolaemus as the larvae (Mealybug destroyer) and not just
the adults because I think the destroyer(larvae) would work amoung the
ants. Looking for other ideas . I heard there was a new ladybug that
liked mealybug more than Cryptolaemus. Help!
Sal Schettino,Organic Farmer,don't panic eat organic,sals@rain.org
or check out my homepage: http://www.rain.org/~sals/my.html