Surveying Avocados in the Baja Peninsula for Pests that May Enter California

Over the period 23-25 January 2011 residential areas in Tijuana Mexico were surveyed for the presence of avocado trees, and when possible trees were inspected for arthropods associated with trees. Google Earth was used to pre-select six separate residential areas that showed high levels of greenery (i.e., parks, and well maintained residential gardens). In these six areas, 267 residential street blocks were surveyed. From these blocks, a total of 634 properties were inspected from the road. The percentage of street blocks with avocados in pre-selected sections of Tijuana ranged from 23% to 45% of blocks having at least one tree. A total of 80 avocado trees were found from these surveys. Of surveyed properties, 10% or 64 properties had at least one avocado tree. The number of avocados per property ranged from 1 to 5 trees. The GPS coordinates were recorded for each tree and when possible foliage was inspected for avocado pests.