Print40 interesting facts about ethanol
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David Bartels is an entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Edinburg, Texas. Among his studies is the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), the only known insect to vector HLB. Bartels believes that California could be on the brink of an HLB explosion similar to what is currently being seen in Texas.
At a meeting with citrus growers and industry officials in Visalia in early December, Bartels placed an emphasis on qualifying statements, staying away from solid predictions of an upcoming HLB outbreak in California.
According to Bartels, Texas saw a rapid rise of HLB-positive psyllids over period of two years leading up to nearly 2,000 HLB discoveries in the Rio Grande Valley.
“You have to make a lot of assumptions there, but if you want to make the assumptions that the conditions are the same you might see this in California in the near future,” he said.
