Record Number of Exotic Insects Found
Record numbers of exotic insect pests are showing up in Los Angeles County and posing an unprecedented threat to California’s $16-billion farm economy.
“We are being literally swamped,” said Rosser W. Garrison, a county entomologist. “The variety of insects is increasing, and the sheer number is increasing.”
As of July, Garrison has counted 1,185 potentially harmful insect pests foreign to California, ranging from scores of fruit flies to devastating gypsy moths, fire ants, Russian wheat aphids, Japanese beetles and a variety of mealy bugs and scales.
“The number of quarantine reports that I have to do are higher than ever before,” Garrison said.
One of the new pests, the ash whitefly, already has reached epidemic proportions in Southern California and is racing for the state’s agricultural heartland.
Los Angeles has become a magnet for imported insects for a number of reasons, not least of which is the mild climate and the ease of international travel, officials said.
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