Michael, nice to hear from you. Our Citrus Leaf Miner flights have begun in earnest. I’m catching 25 moths/night in a single pheromone trap. I’m disappointed to report that the Beauvaria bassiana hasn’t worked as successfully as I had hoped. The first wave of moths hit Cara Cara navels and some grapefruit varieties. Seeing the damage, I immediately applied the MalEx (pheromone + imidacloprid) drop to every tree AND sprayed Spinosad just on those varieties. This stopped the infestation abruptly. The spinosad was certainly working as the leaf miner turned red in its tunnel and died. Very dramatic. From my picture in this post string, I was devastated last season and have no tolerance for CLM. Two more months to go so I’ll continue sharing.

Salicylic acid… what an interesting idea. I knew it had bactericidal properties (activates the Systemic Acquired Resistance SAR mechanism) but did a little searching and found papers that said it can increase efficacy of insecticides. Maybe the SAR. Certainly worth a try. We have Citrus Canker threats here (Xanthomonas bacteria) and it would be worth adding aspirin to any foliar treatment.

I’d be interested in the citrus agro-ecology paper that you mentioned from India if you have the reference available. All the best.