Kate Burroughs 3/19/01

I asked her if she would sign a letter that we could present to Alameda Cty officials about her experiences with the very effective GWSS parasitism in the citrus grove (see kateburroughs3-17.htm), but she didn't want to because she was not sure it applies to Alameda. I should have made the point that her experience also is evidence that the GWSS has subsided in Southern California [corroborated by Everett Dietrich, but it did not occur to me at the time.

She said:

In Riverside and Ventura there is quite high parasitism. We (Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers) had meetings -- November in Oxnard, Feb in Riverside. Some guys from UC there called an impromptu meeting on the gwss to try to get ideas -- how to get the gwss to lay eggs over the winter (greenhouse insectiaries). There are "only" 2 generations per year. They were talking to people in the insectiary industry to ask them to let them know if they had other ideas

RE the question of not much being done on biocontrol research: No, UCR biocontrol researchers normally never have funding and are now ecstatic because the can actually get money.

Meeting in November included 2 from Riverside: Mark Hoddle and Dave Morgan. Bob Luck is the Chair of the Department.

She met Charlie Picket at the Eco-Farm Conference. He was saying that the parasitization is only 80% (contrary to her and others' experience).