Ted Batkin, president of the California Citrus Research Board said the early finds are going to have to take some sleuth work to determine how the psyllids got into Tulare County, the heart of the Central Valley citrus industry.
Batkin said there is a possibility the bug could be “hitchhiking” on big citrus deliveries from southern California to the Central Valley for packing.
“It’s kind of one of those inevitable things that we’ve expected to happen,” said Batkin. “The psyllid was not going to stay contained in southern California.”
Batkin notes that there have not been any live populations, what we would classify as breeding populations, found in the Central Valley.
There will be a quarantine established, but at the time of the broadcast, the size and scope have not been determined.