Reduced Pest Status of the Florida Red Scale on Texas Citrus Associated with Aphytis holoxanthus123

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Chrysomphalus aonidum (L.) was considered only an incidental pest of Texas citrus in 1980 as compared with a pest status of ninth most important pest in 1950. Certain pesticides were associated with the kill of an effective parasite Aphytis holoxanthus DeBach when this scale insect became an economic pest. The greatest numbers of scales were found during the July–November period, whereas the smallest numbers were found in the March–April period. A. holoxanthus varied by the abundance of scales, but were most numerous in June and November from 1972 to 1980. The scale-to-parasite ratio was larger during the July–August period when scales were rapidly increasing. Evidence of the regulatory effect of the introduced parasite was based on the pest-to-parasite relationships in specific months, along with reduced scale abundance for several consecutive years.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: