California Report features UCCE biocontrol scientist

The public radio daily magazine program The California Report this morning featured a three-minute interview with UC Cooperative Extension biological control specialist Mark Hoddle. The interview-format story comes a day before the release of Asian citrus psyllid natural enemy Tamarixia radiata in Los Angeles County neighborhoods. Hoddle and his wife Christina Hoddle, an assistant specialist in entomology, had collected colonies of the parasitoid in the Punjab region of Pakistan.

Reporter Rachael Myrow told listeners the release of natural enemies on Friday is the first major release in a major urban area, and then allowed Hoddle to explain the developments and their implications.

For more on Tamarixia radiata, see the UC ANR press release.

Myrow also posted a story on newsfix, KQED's Bay Area news blog.