Development of California's state biological control program, milestones over a 34-year career

My career with CDFA’s Biological Control Program began in 1990 with the invasion of ash whitefly. That year the Department suddenly needed extra help in the effort to control a very rapidly spreading whitefly pest native to Europe and the middle east. No one involved, including myself, realized it would become probably one of the most cited, text-book examples of classical biological control, at its best. Within two years of importing a single species of parasitoid, and a whitefly specific coccinellid, the ash whitefly was difficult to impossible to find anywhere in the state. The very last project I had with CDFA before retirement in 2022 was the historical documentation of the Department’s first effort at classical biological control in 1975. The western grapeleaf skeletonizer (Harrisina metallica), new to southern California in the early 1940’s was first reported in central California in 1961and was widespread throughout the state by 1975. In 2021 Mike Pitcairn and Ricky Lara discovered a file cabinet full of data buried in departmental correspondence from the late 1970’s. The resulting publication describes the previously unknown role that the Department played in the discovery and dissemination of key parasitoids, plus a pathogen in central and northern California. Other projects addressed in this presentation and that played a role in the development and maturation of CDFA’s Biological Control Program, include the target pests squash bug (Anasa tristis), Lygus bug, Bemisia spp. (silverleaf whitefly), and cereal leaf bug (Oulema melanopus).