rec.gardens.ecosystems homepage -> archive: MOD$991103.12568@rec.gardens.ecosystems



Subject: Re: Beneficial Insects
From: Harriett Wright <harriett@ix.netcom.com>
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 99 03:02:42
Message-ID: <MOD$991103.12568@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$991019.10583@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



Would replacing your E. uniflora monoculture with a mixed border of
native shrubs be an option?

Harriett

Bill Robinson wrote:

> We have an interesting situation involving the use
> of beneficial insects in Southern California.
>
> We use a lot of Eugenia as an evergreen hedge. It
> grows well in our climate and up to a few years ago,
> it was essentially trouble-free. There are a number
> of different species of Eugenia listed in Hortus and
> I'm not sure which species is the one sold in most of
> our nurseries - probably E. uniflora.
>
> It then began to have problems with a psyllid. The
> story is that Disneyland was also using a lot of Eugenia
> and they worked at finding a solution to their psyllid
> problem. They imported a predatory wasp from
> Australia that feeds on this particular psyllid and for a
> while it looked like they had solved the psyllid problem
> for Southern California. The psyllid population dropped
> off, I guess the predatory wasps then died of starvation,
> and now, once again, we have a psyllid problem on our
> Eugenias.
>
> Do we have to go back to square one and wait for
> Disneyland to import more wasps from Down-Under?
>
> Bill
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> The rec.gardens.ecosystems FAQ, course and archive are available at
> http://metalab.unc.edu/rge
>
> submissions can be mailed to: ecosys-submit@metalab.unc.edu
> the moderators can be contacted at: ecosys-admin@metalab.unc.edu
>
> Please note that crossposts are automatically rejected