Canyon Lakers are being notified of a battle in Canyon Lake, and it's not the one that surfaced briefly during this week's POA Board meeting. The battle is against a tiny bug called Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP), an aphid-like insect that feeds on the leaves and stems of citrus trees and other citrus-like plants.

The combatants are representatives from the California Department of Food and Agriculture who will be going door-to-door in Canyon Lake to apply insecticides to citrus trees and the soil beneath them. The CDFA learned the pests were here by hanging yellow traps in trees in the community, according Mayor Pro Tem Mary Craton, who had a trap placed in her tree.

Residents started receiving notices last week from CDFA that the tiny, flying insect had been detected here, with the potential of transmitting a bacterial disease to citrus trees called huanglongbing (HLB), also known as Citrus Greening Disease.

Trees infected with the HLB disease produce bitter and misshapen fruit and eventually die. It is considered the most serious citrus plant disease in the world and once a tree is infected, there is no cure.

Note: the disease has not been detected in Canyon Lake – only the carriers.

"The ACP is a threat to California's backyard and commercially grown citrus," the notice to residents states. "Emergency treatment and quarantine action is needed to protect California from the negative economic and environmental impacts the establishment of this pest throughout California would cause."

Residents received an invitation to attend an open house this past Tuesday at City Hall to learn more about the ground treatment with a formulation of a pyrethroid to be applied to the foliage of citrus trees on their property. At the same time, an imidacloprid insecticide is to be applied to the soil beneath the citrus trees for ongoing protection against the ACP.

Local spokesperson John Hooper explains that people will be given 48-hour notification on their doors before representatives will be in their neighborhood to spray trees in front and back yards. If necessary, a resident can call the hotline to request an alternate date; however, everyone is asked to cooperate. Treatment could take up to 20 minutes.

An advantage to the treatment, he explains, is that all insects on the tree will be killed and, as a result, the tree should be healthier. Pets should be kept away from the sprayed area until it is completely dry. Fruit from sprayed trees should be washed after picking but is still edible.

All types of citrus trees, including orange, lemon, tangerine, lime, grapefruit, kumquat and plants closely related to citrus, can be infected with HLB.

"Your cooperation with this program is needed to rid California of this harmful, invading pest while it is still possible," says Hooper. Those who have questions and couldn't attend the meeting are invited to call him at the toll-free pest hotline at 1-800-491-1899.To learn more about the disease and the pest that carries it, visit californiacitrusthreat.org.