Home gardeners are being called on to take part in a new surveillance program from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and help monitor crops for an unwanted pest.
Biosecurity Collections Curator at NSW DPI, Peter Gillespie said gardeners across the Sydney Basin could use free sticky traps (pictured) to monitor crops for the unwanted tomato potato psyllid pest.
“If you grow tomato, potato, sweet potato, chilli, capsicum, eggplant, tamarillo or goji berry plants, please contact NSW DPI for a free sticky psyllid trap and instructions,” Mr Gillespie said.
“Tomato potato psyllid is a significant plant pest which can affect plant growth, reduce yield and spread a serious disease, known as zebra chip, which affects potatoes,” he said.
“It was first detected in Western Australia in 2017 and hasn’t been found in NSW.”
Mr Gillespie said gardeners from Newcastle to Ulladulla and west to Muswellbrook, Bylong, Lithgow and Katoomba were all invited to take part in the surveillance program.
“NSW DPI has been conducting seasonal surveillance programs to detect tomato potato psyllid and other pest psyllids, which have posed biosecurity threats since 2017,” he said.
Mr Gillespie said gardeners and citizen scientists could get their free sticky trap surveillance kits and instructions by sending an email to [email protected].
The NSW DPI’s psyllid surveillance program application form can be accessed at this PS News link.
