PEST FROM DOWN UNDER OVERWHELMS VALLEY TREES.

Byline: Michael Coit Staff Writer

Two stately eucalyptus trees that shade Joyce Gorstein's apartment building bear the markings of infestation by a tiny Australian insect sucking the life from eucalyptus trees in California.

Leaves are covered with tiny plant lice called psyllids and their nymphs that are coated with cones of sticky white lerp. As leaves wither and drop, trees under stress become more vulnerable to the lethal pests.

The lerp, excreted as protective covering from excess sugar and water, coats the ground and gets tracked indoors by people and pets. It stinks when mixed with water.

Woodland Hills neighborhoods cherished for their eucalyptus stands are the latest battleground in the war against the psyllids that have spread across Southern California and the Bay Area in the year since they were detected as tiny U.S. invaders.

``It looks like a science-fiction movie. Every time I turn around, the leaves are more and more covered. It looks like snow,'' Gorstein said.

``It sticks to everything. It's gotten to the point where it is so bad that if I just take my dog out for five seconds, I come in loaded with the white dots in my hair. I have to leave my shoes outside. It gets on his paws, and it's like glue. I clean his feet all day long.''

Across the street at Woodland Hills Auto Body, cars must be repeatedly washed and buffed to prevent damage from the dripping honeydew mess.

``It is a pain. It does wash off with a little work,'' said Steve Hull, a shop worker. Looking at a nearly barren eucalyptus across the street, he said the insects are weakening once-beautiful trees. ``That one looks about done.''

Not the only infested area

Similar problems have plagued Valley Village Park, Griffith Park and other pockets of Los Angeles and the surrounding county.

Los Angeles city parks and public works officials are deploying ladybugs and lacewing larvae to feed on the pests. They also are injecting insecticide into trees in some areas of thick psyllid infestation. Recognizing the struggle ahead, city officials will host a public meeting July 28 to discuss strategies and long-term funding.

The Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture has published a pamphlet so residents can do their part to help the trees. Watering is particularly critical.

Eradication efforts

The aphidlike pest is expected to remain a nuisance until its numbers dwindle with cooler fall and winter temperatures. The reprieve should give entomologists time to find and breed wasps that prey on the pest, said David Atkins, chief deputy for the county Department of Agriculture.

``We lost the war by the time we discovered we were invaded,'' Atkins said.

``It's too widespread to consider eradication. Once a pest gets that widespread a foothold, particularly this type, it's beyond any economic means of eradication,'' he explained.

Instead, he said, agriculture officials hope for some unpeaceful coexistence of the pest and a natural enemy.

County agriculture officials were surprised when the Australian pest infested three trees across Interstate 10 from their El Monte office in June 1998.

The pest showed up in the Bay Area about the same time, and it has since turned up in the San Gabriel Valley and Orange County. Infestations have been reported in Sacramento and Phoenix, as well as across Los Angeles County.

While entomologists said psyllids alone probably can't kill the trees, they can put them under stress and leave them susceptible to attack by the eucalyptus longhorn borer and other insects lethal to trees.

Concern for trees

The prospect of losing eucalyptus trees has many Woodland Hills residents worried. The west San Fernando Valley is noted for its stands of numerous eucalyptus varieties. Woodland Hills is packed with them.

``We're getting a lot of calls. For the people in Woodland Hills, it's an identity crisis,'' said Carole Fetner, a Valley field deputy for City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. ``A lot of people have moved there for the eucalyptus trees. They're stately, and the people are very attached to them.''

Infestations have forced Los Angeles Zoo keepers to make a wider search across the city for eucalyptus branches and leaves to feed to the koala bears.

``A lot of trees were really infested and lost all their leaves, but now some of those trees are getting their leaves back,'' said Michael Dee, the zoo's general curator.

Zoo officials consulted Berkeley entomologist Don Dahlsten, who is leading the wasp project. Dahlsten said ladybugs and lacewings would not be enough to control the psyllids.

``He said it would be like using a tennis ball to knock down bowling pins. It will only make a dent,'' said Judy Shay, a zoo spokeswoman.

Atkins explained that ladybugs and lacewings are indiscriminate predators that eat more than just psyllids. ``They eat too many different things. It's not focused enough really to have a significant impact.''

Officials hope a tiny wasp from Australia, where it is a natural psyllid parasite, will be more effective. But it will take as long as a year for the wasps to be bred and introduced into the control effort.

While ladybugs eat psyllids, the wasp lays its eggs in the white cone that the psyllid nymphs create. When the baby wasp hatches, it feeds on the nymph.

Dahlsten is leading the process of locating the right wasp, separating it from its own parasites, obtaining permission from federal officials to bring it to the United States and growing a large enough population to release into the wild.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) The leaf of a red gum eucalyptus in Woodland Hills is coated with psyllids, insect invaders from Australia, and their goo.

(2) With a scarf protecting her from sticky, falling leaves, Joyce Gorstein frets that lerp psyllids have invaded neighborhood trees.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer