<p style="text-indent:0px; line-height:12px;"><span style="font-weight:bold;line-height:130%"></span>Ventura County, CA<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By ANUK Staff<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">3.11.13</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/hl_Citrus_Psyllid_mar_2013_wasps_BODY.jpg" alt="Cropped Images 031113" />The California citrus industry has a tiny new ally on its side. Tamarixia radiata, a parasitic wasp native to Pakistan, will join growers in the fight against citrus greening, which is threatening the state’s $1.8 billion citrus industry.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The insect is a natural predator of the slightly larger Asian citrus psyllid, which spreads the disease, said Brian Taylor, Field Program Director for the Visalia-based Citrus Research Board. He noted the wasp’s tendency to lay eggs beneath newly hatched psyllids, which are consumed when the wasps hatch.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">“It literally eats its way out” of the nymph’s carcass, said Taylor, an entomologist by trade.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The wasps are ideal as they consume no other psyllids or insect species native to California.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Researchers want to breed the Tamarixia at a rate of roughly 4 million a year, beginning in areas of Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange Counties.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013303080007&nclick_check=1" target="_new">Visalia Times Delta</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
