Fruit & Vegetable Prices?

[hoodat]

Yes, it was by accident. Right now it's as far north as Kern County, which is halfway up the state. It's been in the US for the past 2 seasons from what I understand. Who knows what "great" idea folks will come up with to deal with it.

I've been watching that critter in my own garden. I think it's going to be a bigger problem than they think. They are presuming it will limit itself to cole crops. It started on my mustard but then went on to get into clover and my chayote vines. I think it can attack more crops than they realize. They'd better get busy finding and importing a natural predator. Our native ones don't seem to go after it.

terrible news........Not sure I want any genius importing a predator as that's how we got the asian beetle, starling, etc.........now fight the pests plus the predators. Instead of one problem, man made 2 problems. Let's just exterminate them.

Sorry but it's too late for that. It has a good hold in most of Southern and Central California, Arizona and New Mexico. It's also beginning to show in Texas and probably Florida soon. We may as well face it, this bug is going to be part of our garden environment from now on. You can spray an area and eliminate them temporarily but they are good fliers and will be right back. Sooner or later one of our native predators will learn to eat them but till then we can only learn to live with it unless we bring in predators keyed into them from where they originated.
Remember the millions California spent spraying malathion willy nilly for the Mediteranean fruit fly? It did no good. They were only brought under control by releasing sterile males since they only mated once and they would then produce sterile eggs. That was a solution that did the trick without spraying poison in residential neighborhoods where kids play. Spraying also did no good with the cottony cushion scale on citrus. Predators got them under control and now they are a minor problem.

 

[seedcorn]

No problem if predator is already in USA.

The problem w/predators is that the damaging insect has to do it's damage, then the predators move in after damage done. The host numbers have to be built up, then the predator numbers build up. I'm all for solutions that don't involve insecticides but I'm also firmly against importing more problems. To solve one problem by bringing in another is pure madness. See starlings.........one of natures filthiest birds.