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