Jay,

It must be your unlucky year. I'm sorry your plants are under attack.

I won't say I've never had psyllid damage here because I don't want to jinx my plants, but I don't believe I've ever seen a psyllid.

So, is my understanding correct that once you start seeing psyllid yellows on your plant, you can't do anything to save that plant? How about surrounding plants? Do these things spread from plant to plant like spider mites? Or, are they more of a hit-and-miss type pest?

I know you've probably read a lot of stuff on the internet about them, but I especially learned a lot from the doctoral dissertation I've linked below. Even if you've already read it, I included it here for people like me who don't know much about psyllids. I know the focus of his paper is on greenhouse tomatoes, but to a certain extent, the same integrated pest management techniques that work in greenhouses also work outside, except for certain beneficial insects that need a controlled environment and can't handle our heat.

I thought it interesting that Spinosad is mentioned as a possible organic solution. At this point, Spinosad looks like the new 'miracle' solution for many pest problems if it controls all the pests they say it will. Of course, I have to see with my own eyes that it works before I say it does. So far, Spinosad has seemed to be effective in my garden, but I haven't tried the spray yet (although I do have some). The granular fire ant killer and slug/snail/pillbut/sowbug killer I've used which contain Spinosad have been very effective though.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: IPM For Psyllids

Dawn,
My experience has been that they seem to move on. I only saw the telltale white granulars on one plant. But probably missed the others. And if you aren't really looking for it you might not see it. And then I used the BT powder on some and also the Daconil spray on all so probably washed off the signs from the others. I've found they are usually hit one area. In my experience they seem to of moved on by the time I see the damage. Even when you see them they seem to move on and then the damage starts appearing afterwards. It stunts a plant and it seems to never recover. I've tried about every foliar spray and nothing seems to help that I've tried. I pulled another this morning. And sure that is what my Ed's Millenium has but still being hard headed and giving it a little longer. You get the purple veins you see from other things like you've said before it is hard to decide at first if the symptoms are one problem or a combination. In time you can usually tell. They hit mainly the east end where I had more open wind flow. I understand they travel on the wind. I thinks the Ed's, my Cherokee Purple and Indian Stripe all have it. I will pull them probably soon if I don't see any improvement and they should be ok. I will try the Spinosad next year. Jay