LAKE FOREST
Determined to save the city’s eucalyptus trees, homeowners and city officials are struggling to eradicate a rapidly spreading bug that feasts on the tree’s juices.
More than 30,000 eucalyptus trees in Lake Forest, most on private land, are infected by the red gum lerp psyllid, said Tony Plante, the city’s public works superintendent.
Researchers at UC Berkeley don’t know how the eighth-inch-long pests got from Australia to California, where they have no natural enemies.
To combat the spread, the researchers last year traveled to Australia to find a way to control the bug.
They came back with eight species of wasps, which they have begun releasing in selected parts of Southern California.
Until the wasps are freed here, landowners have little choice but to fight the psyllid invasion with chemicals.
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