LAKE COUNTY ? Ill-maintained pear and apple trees that are causing pest problems for neighboring commercial orchards will be a topic of discussion before the Lake County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
Lake County Agricultural Commissioner Steve Hajik is asking the board to consider adopting a measure that would require the owners of the problematic trees to control any pests found in the trees.
“What happens is the people who had orchards, if they are able to, they sell them in five-acre blocks. They”re often sold to people who are not experienced in taking care of pear or apple trees, and pests can build up there. This would require them to either take care of the bests or pull the trees,” Hajik said.
The proposed ordinance would give Hajik”s office the right to investigate for pests when a commercial grower reports that pests are spreading to their orchards from neighboring trees that have not been properly maintained. Hajik said his office receives complaints about as many as 10 such groups of trees annually. Some of the groups of trees have between 10 and 12 trees, enough to cause a problem.
Current ordinances require growers to control fire blight, a bacteria that kills tree branches, and psylla, bugs that suck juice out of young pear branches and can introduce disease that can kill an entire tree.
Hajik said the current ordinances require his investigators to prove that the pests are present in ill-maintained trees in numbers significant enough to cause damage. Under the proposed ordinance, a complaint from a commercial grower would trigger investigation. Hajik said if investigators confirm the trees in question have not been pruned after full bloom, his office can search for pests and require the owner to control any pests that are found.
Hajik said no ordinance exists to require control of the codling moth, an apple worm that can also attack pear and walnut trees.
“If there is a significant presence of the codling moth in pears, a pear grower can”t even sell the pears,” Hajik said.
Devices that release pheromone into the air are used in commercial orchards to control the moth. The devices are less effective in trees growing next to abandoned trees that harbor the moth, according to Hajik. The new ordinance would allow his office to require owners to control the moth. Hajik said a possible result would be that commercial growers would use less pesticide when a pheromone program is working effectively.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
