It’s one of the premiere agricultural crops in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.
But, a tiny insect that’s native to Southeast Asia is posing a new threat to the region’s avocado industry. Paul Van Leer is a Santa Barbara County avocado rancher, and has been growing the fruit on the Gaviota coastline for more than three decades. He says they’re worried about the threat from this new to the region intruder, the Six Legged Asian Shot Hole Borers.
They first surfaced in Los Angeles County. It eventually turned up in Ventura County, and now, has just been found in Santa Barbara County.
Dr. Tom Dudley heads UC Santa Barbara’s Riparian Invasion Research Laboratory. The UCSB team found the new infestation in Montecito, and is working with the Agricultural Commissioner’s offices in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, as well as UC Riverside researchers to learn more about the destructive insects.
Dudley says the borers don’t just threaten agricultural crops. They also pose a threat to the natural habitat, because they can infest some types of native trees. Researchers belive they were hitchhikers on infested wood brought into the Unites States from Asia, entering the country through Los Angeles.
Dudley says that unfortunately, it looks like people have been unknowingly spreading the tiny insects through the movement of firewood. One of the big questions is about how to control the insects.
Dudley says UC Riverside teams are focusing on that part of the research, looking at natural predators as well as the use of pesticides. The UCSB researchers say they still don’t know the extent of the infestation in Santa Barbara County.
They’ve set up monitoring, but during the cold weather, the insects aren’t as active. It will be sometime this spring before they have a better picture of whether the tiny, but destructive pests have arrived in force.
