This week a project of the University of Idaho Extension, Oregon State University, and Idaho Master Gardeners (the Pacific Northwest Pest Alert Network) collected Psyllids with sticky traps in potato fields in these counties: Twin Falls (2 fields), Cassia (1 field), Power (1 field), and Minidoka (1 field). Seven psyllids were collected from sticky cards, six from Light sites and one from Intense sites. They had traps deployed in ninety three of the estimated ninety six fields that will be monitored this year and found psyllids in five of those ninety three fields a rate of 5.3%.
So far, all psyllids collected tested negative for Lso (liberibactr), the bacterium that causes zebra chip. Though as always the Pacific Northwest Pest Alert Network urges growers and crop consultants to have an IPM program in place.
