A few tiny heroes may help fight Florida’s long-running battle against citrus greening disease. That’s good news for commercial growers as well as for residents who plant citrus trees in their yards at home, according to the University of Florida scientists.
Researchers with the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) have found three commercially available insect species that devour the eggs of the Asian citrus psyllid, the notorious pest responsible for spreading Huanglongbing (HLB), the disease that has severely damaged the state’s citrus groves for two decades.
For growers who have watched orchards wither and yields collapse, the discovery feels like a rare bright spot.
These natural predators could become an important new line of defense in a fight that has stretched on for years and cost billions. This is particularly true for organic growers who have limited options to control the psyllid, said Xavier Martini, a UF/IFAS associate professor of entomology.
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Those who grow citrus at home might also deploy the predatory bugs to battle psyllids.
There’s still a journey ahead. Researchers need to see how these bugs perform in real-world conditions.
In the past, scientists have tested the predatory bugs’ ability to eat nymphs and adult psyllids. This was the first experiment on psyllid eggs, Martini said.
Romain Exilien, a post-doctoral researcher at the North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC), led the new study, supported with funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The research shows that three of the four predatory bugs eat psyllid eggs at high rates.
Scientists studied the minute pirate bug, the green lacewing larva, a ladybeetle named mealybug destroyer, and the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii.
All except Amblyseius swirskii significantly reduced the egg numbers.
Over two days, minute pirate bugs consumed 67 eggs, whereas lacewing larvae ate 111, and mealybug destroyer 153. At 93 and 97%, green lacewing and mealybug destroyer ate the most eggs.
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Those statistics come as encouraging news for citrus growers and homeowners.
“Homeowners are the main target here,” said Martini, who serves as Exilien’s supervisor at NFREC. “I am confident that our lab experiment will transfer pretty well to a single tree in a garden with minimal to no insecticide spray. Homeowners are interested in biological control of all bugs, but particularly psyllids.”
Jawwad Qureshi, an associate professor of entomology at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center and a co-author on the current study, said growers will appreciate these findings.
“The findings on their egg consumption are encouraging,” Qureshi said. “These findings indicate that targeting Asian citrus psyllid eggs with lacewings or mealybug destroyers may substantially enhance sustainable psyllid management and support long-term HLB mitigation in citrus groves.”
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