See guidelines for timing insecticide applications for citrus to help Florida citrus growers to achieve optimal results for their citrus operations.

Pest management through insecticide applications for citrus is most effective when it’s timely; this is when applications line up with insect life cycles, behaviors, and more. A UF/IFAS Tip of the Week article shared basic guidelines for timing insecticide applications for citrus so “growers can…manage pests successfully and economically in their groves.” See those guidelines below.

Timing Insecticide Applications for Citrus

The guidelines for insecticide applications for citrus are from the article:

  • “Apply broad-spectrum insecticide at general budbreak to reduce psyllids before they have a chance to begin reproducing in the spring.
  • Monitoring for psyllids with tap sampling can inform spray decisions. When tap samples reach 1.0 psyllid per tap, it’s time to spray. This is based on an average sample from 10 trees per block.
  • An attempt can be made to keep psyllids below damaging levels with three to four sprays per year. Piggyback leafminer sprays onto those targeting psyllids.
  • It is important to make leafminer sprays count. It’s best not to apply leafminer products until larvae infest leaves (active mines). These products only work on living larvae in mines.
  • For best control of leafminer, apply leafminer-specific sprays 13 days after general budbreak at the earliest. The last potential date for leafminer application is 31 days after budbreak.
  • If diaprepes are a problem in your grove, combining Mustang + Micromite rotation is a good start to reduce populations. After that, rotate in soil applications of a neonicotinoid with Verimark to kill larvae in soil at times when psyllid applications would be made for combined benefit of reducing psyllid populations.
  • For diaprepes, spray in the canopy for adults and use soil-applied formulations against larvae to make headway. Both the adults in the canopy and the larvae in the soil need control to break the lifecycle.
  • For reducing the HLB pathogen, initial results indicate that trunk-injected oxytetracycline should provide much more benefit than earlier attempts with foliar sprays.”

Griffin Fertilizer is committed to helping both growers and ranchers make sound agronomic and economic decisions in order to maximize the health of their grove and pasture. As a full-service custom dry & liquid fertilizer blender and crop protection product distributor, we will continue our mission to further advance Florida agriculture. For questions -or concerns about your farm or pasture, contact us and one of our team will be in touch.