Georgia under federal quarantine for citrus greening

Georgia has been put under a federal quarantine to help prevent the spread of a devastating citrus disease. The quarantine follows the discovery in Georgia of "citrus greening" (CG), a disease that causes citrus fruit to be bitter and unusable. The disease is also known as Huanglongbing or HLB and is caused by the bacterial pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. The disease was found on a lemon tree in Savannah. More details can be found at the Georgia Department of Agriculture and USDA APHIS Plant Protection and Quarrentine.

Thousand Cankers disease hits walnuts in Boulder, Colorado

Many of you have been watching for news about Thousand Cankers disease caused by an undescribe Geosmithia species and vectored by walnut twig beetle (Pityophthorus juglandis). The latest developments in Boulder, Colorado have pushed it back into the news. Approximately three hundered trees have been identified as infected and are scheduled for removal. Additional surveys are scheduled to begin to better delimit the infestation. The full story was published in the Colorado Daily.

Florida Cogongrass Cost-Share Program

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson announced today that the department’s Division of Forestry will offer a pilot Cogongrass Treatment Cost Share Program to eligible non-industrial private landowners in several north Florida counties beginning next week.
The initial focus of the program is to impede the spread of cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica), one of the world’s worst weeds, from Florida into Georgia. Therefore the nine counties sharing borders with Georgia - Baker, Columbia, Gadsden, Hamilton, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Madison, and Nassau - will be the first priority. If funding allows, the program may be expanded to include Wakulla, Suwannee, Union, Washington, Calhoun, Liberty, Clay, Duval, Bradford, Holmes and Taylor counties.
More Info at: http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/press/2009/06102009.html

The Bugwood Blog is moving!

We have switched our blog over to a new system to provide some more exciting features. You can find the new blog at www.bugwood.org/news. For those of you subscribing to the blog by RSS or Atom, please subscribe to the new RSS feed or the new Atom feed.

Soybean Rust and Kudzu: An invasive species tag team

For the first time, soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) has been documented as overwintering on kudzu (Pueraria montana) without any break in detection in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. Scientists are still exploring what the full effect of this may be, but it is possible for infected kudzu in these areas to act as a primary source for the disease.

For more information, take a look at the full story in The Gleaner. For the latest information on the distribution and spread of soybean rust, see the Soybean Rust ipmPIPE.

Introduced to the western hemisphere...a new mealybug of orchid!

Pseudococcus dendrobiorum has had its first report not only in this counrty but in this hemishpere. Currently it is known to only affect orchids and it is unsure as to what economic impact this may have. You can find out more information in the University of Florida/IFAS pest alert.

"Beyond the Ponderosa" images added

We have recently added the images taken by Tom DeGomez in the book "Beyond the Ponderosa: Successful Landscape Trees for Higher Elevations in the Southwest". These images are a wonderful example of well staged images for tree identification. You can see these images on the Author Page for Tom DeGomez.