UF/IFAS researchers are working on a decision-support app to help policy makers and growers decide the best regional treatment options for laurel wilt disease, which is challenging Florida’s $35 million-a-year avocado crop. Laurel wilt disease is spread by several ambrosia beetle vectors. People, whether they grow avocados or not, can spread the beetles when they move infested wood products – …
UF/IFAS Researchers Honored for Avocado Integrated Pest Management
(UF/IFAS) — University of Florida officials recognized a team of research scientists with a High Impact Research Publication award for an article published in the May 2018 edition of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, an international scholarly science journal. The publication, “Identification of the Achilles heels of the laurel wilt pathogen and its beetle vector,” introduces new pest management tactics for …
UF Scientists to Help California, Florida Growers Control Dangerous Avocado Pathogen
University of Florida experts know all too well about laurel wilt, the pathogen endangering the state’s $100 million-a-year avocado industry – and they’re trying to find ways to prevent it from spreading. Now, they’re taking their data to California to talk to scientists, growers, and regulators. Faculty from the UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center are in California this week …
UF study: Cloning insect-fungus duo kills 500 million trees
by Ellison Langford, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Laurel wilt disease has killed as many as half-a-billion trees. And,a new study by a researcher with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences suggests it may have been spread by a single insect cloning itself. “In biology, there is no evidence of a single strain …