How to Manage Pests

UC Pest Management Guidelines

SYMPTOMS

Leaves are dwarfed, crinkled, and rolled upward and inward. Veins on the lower side of infected leaves are irregularly swollen. If roots are cut crosswise, dark rings of vascular tissue can be seen.

COMMENTS ON THE DISEASE

Beet curly top virus is vectored by the beet leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus , which has an extensive host range, a high reproductive capacity, and can migrate long distances from its breeding grounds in the coastal foothills and desert areas to cultivated areas. The leafhopper overwinters on a wide range of annual and perennial weeds and readily acquires the virus when it feeds on infected plants. In spring, it migrates to agricultural lands when the overwintering host plants dry out. Beet curly top virus also can cause significant losses in beans, cucurbits, peppers, and tomatoes.

MANAGEMENT

Grow resistant varieties in virus prone areas, especially along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Also, control overwintered weeds and other plants that serve as hosts for the leafhopper vector and/or the virus. Treatment can be applied at planting to protect against the virus. Under conditions of moderate infestation, new seed treatments using imidicloprid have proven as effective as soil-applied chemicals. Neither seed nor soil-applied insecticides at planting can be relied upon to provide economic control under conditions of heavy infestation early in crop development.

PUBLICATION

UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines: Sugarbeet
UC ANR Publication 3469
Diseases
S. Kaffka, Agronomy and Range Science, UC Davis
R. T. Lewellen, USDA, Salinas
C. A. Frate, UC Cooperative Extension, Tulare Co.
T. A. Turini, UC Cooperative Extension, Imperial Co.

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