Lethal yellowing is a disease that disturbs numerous species of palm. This marring disease can destroy landscapes in Tampa that depend on palms. Find out about lethal yellowing disease and treatment in this article.
Lethal Yellowing Disease Defined
As the name suggests, lethal yellowing is a deadly disease. A phytoplasma creates it. It is a tiny organism not as refined than bacteria. Insects referred to as planthoppers transport the phytoplasma from tree to tree.
Planthoppers can’t live at temperatures below freezing. This stops the infection from going into other areas of the U.S. Lethal yellowing can’t be regulated by killing the insect vector since insecticides frequently fail to come into contact with these flying, moving insects.
Lethal yellowing disease changes date palms, coconut palms and a couple of other palm species. In this nation, it happens in the lower third of the state of Florida where temps never fall under freezing. There isn’t a cure. Though, you can increase the life of your tree and stop lethal yellowing from spreading.
Lethal Yellowing Disease and Treatment
Before you start a campaign to control planthoppers and leafhoppers, be sure your tree is infested with lethal yellowing and not a non-lethal disease with similar symptoms.
In the first stage, the nuts drop from the trees too early. Fallen nuts have a browned or blackened area close to the point where they were linked to the stem. The second stage distresses the tips of the male flowers.
Trees contaminated with lethal yellowing has to be removed and replaced with a resistant type. Consider planting native trees which have a natural resistance to the protoplasm. Chop the tree down as soon as you notice the disease helps stop the spread to other trees. If you can’t detect any infection in your trees, schedule a tree inspection with a certified arborist.
When trees are valuable or rare, they can be inserted with antibiotics. This is a pricey treatment, and the antibiotics are only available to professional arborists in the lower part of the Sunshine State. Injections are just used as part of a more comprehensive control plan that includes the replacement of the tree.
