I'm not sure how far back the search function will go but I remember horror stories from Floridians about backyard trees being cut down by the authorities. If you can find them, they won't be pleasant reading. Sorry.

If my trees ever got citrus greening I would cut them down myself and, for allowing it to happen, lash myself 100 times with a spiked whip.

Blaze, you're not going to be able to prevent it, so put away your whip :-) Dr. Dodds was pretty clear about that. Even a diligent commercial spraying program cannot eliminate 100% of the psyllids, and all it takes is ONE bite from ONE psyllid. So, truly, all we can do is be vigilant and report anything that looks like the disease to the correct folks.

Patty S.

Yeah, On another story. I called my local director of agriculture of whatever the name of the place is. It is the branch of The Universities of California that does all the testing for diseases and virus carrying pests. I told them that I found a glassy wing leaf hopper and now my plum tree is showing signs of a very serious virus as well as a huge avocado tree that could be a possible vector. She didnt seem alarmed and said in a snooty voice, "Well sir we are not allowed to tell you how to treat your trees. All we can do is tell you whats wrong with them and you can go to home depot where and "expert" can tell you what to do"...LOL I told her, I dont need advice on how to treat because if the tree is carrying the virus there is no cure. I will have to cut it down and burn it. I then told her that the glass wing leaf hopper is the wine grape and plum tree equivalent of the asian citrus psyllid and that YOUR OWN website has an entire section describing the dangers of the pest. I then asked her that if the tree samples Im bringing are positive would they come out to perform some kind of action? This pest and virus is serious according to the website. She said "Yes if you still have the remains of the bug" I said no but I seen it with my own eyes and if the two trees test positive that basically spells doom. Long story short she had no idea of what the bug or the virus was. Plus she was very rude...lol

What Im getting at is with this kind of treatment from the people who are supposed to be helping us no wonder things never get done.

I know Patty its sad. One bite from a bug and our trees are TOAST. Thats how I feel about my plum tree. I have done so much to keep it safe and imagined me and my family under it on hot days in the shade sharing plums. Well if things come back positive I have to start all over. Good thing I only have a few months invested in this tree. But with this huge "vector" avocado tree in my neighbors back yard that basically over shadows HALF of my yard, I cant grown anything without it eventually contracting a virus. I would have to get them to spray then chop the thing down. I hope there is no sign of the virus.

These diseases are basically TREE A.I.D.S.

Well, just so you know, AIDS (or actually HIV) is not a death sentence anymore, and it is very manageable (I'm an RN and do this sort of patient support all day long for a very serious chronic viral disease that can frequently be seen in conjunction with HIV). Sure wish it WAS like HIV. Let's hope that your plum tree is not infected. And, I would do some more searching online to see if you can contact someone actually connected with this disease state who might be more interested in what you think might be going on with your tree. Also, see if you can trap a sharpshooter and save it in a jar. That may help quite a bit. Let us know how it goes for you.

Patty S.

Well I took all the samples to my county extension office. Actually was the department of agriculture. I gave them cuttings of leaves branches and small fruit from my clementine mandarin, lanes late navel orange, improved meyer, santa rosa plum, satsuma plum, and my neighbors avocado. Ill let you know in 7-10 days what they say.

Oh BTW, I saw another leafhopper on my citrus and it escaped. Down at the county extension office they compared sharpshooter leafhoppers only second to asian citrus psyllids in southern California.

Sorry to go off topic. But I have no HLB stories;-)