How A Tiny Insect Decimated Florida’s Citrus, And What Orchardists Are Doing About It

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

Lifelong citrus farmer Sidney Tillett cut a path through a grove that has endured in his family for four generations, stopping his SUV between two rows of trees. On one side was a long plot of lush green saplings, covered with protective mesh bags tied to stakes in the ground.

Directly on the other side, a row of petite orange trees with withering leaves were all battling a bacterial infection, caused by an invasive insect that has decimated the state’s orange industry in just two decades.

“It’s a story of survival,” Tillett told The Epoch Times, remembering his father’s 25-foot-tall citrus trees that could sometimes produce 1,000 pounds of fruit in a single season.

Now, what trees survive are lucky if their canopies get half that size, or produce any fruit that can be sold at market. What was once 600 acres of citrus trees in the 1970s has now dwindled to five.

The orange – Florida’s inextricable insignia that emblazons license plates, T-shirts, and bumper stickers from affluent coastal towns to rural farming communities – was once the state’s largest cash crop, and positioned the Sunshine State as the country’s majority citrus producer.

Florida harvested a record 244 million boxes of oranges during the 1997-1998 season. This year, the Department of Agriculture estimates Florida will only produce 12.2 million boxes, a stunning 95 percent drop in just under 30 years.

While occasional freezes, catastrophic hurricanes, and an on-and-off, decades-long battle with the citrus canker disease proved to be frustrating setbacks for many orange growers, the destruction of Florida’s citrus industry kicked into high gear in 2005.

That was the year an invasive insect from China – which made its way to the United States through Mexico – introduced a disease that would ultimately decimate Florida’s citrus industry.

The Asian citrus psyllid feeds on citrus tree leaves, causing the plant to contract a bacterial infection known as huanglongbing, commonly called citrus greening.

The disease causes rapid root loss, slowly draining the life from healthy trees as they struggle to absorb and retain nutrients. Oranges languish, struggling to reach full maturity and normal sugar composition – losing the sweet taste that made the fruit an in-demand crop worldwide.

There is no known cure. And the impacts extend far beyond the Sunshine State.

Citrus greening has slashed total U.S. orange production by 80 percent and grapefruit production by 88 percent since 2000, according to a report from the American Farm Bureau Federation. California has now overtaken Florida to become the United States’ largest citrus producer, and nations such as Egypt and South Africa now export more oranges worldwide.

But Florida citrus farmers are not giving up.

Recent studies by the University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center have offered several paths for the industry to take.

Insecticides are a major component of citrus greening management, the center stated in an August 2025 production guide, but a specialized protective netting known as exclusion mesh “is currently the only tool that can fully prevent [Asian citrus psyllid] infestation in citrus.”

Farmers have covered young saplings with translucent mesh bags that tent the tree’s canopy to keep the Asian citrus psyllid out long enough for the tree to take hold and mature.

Meanwhile, light and moisture can pass through the cover’s fine mesh.

While effective at stopping immediate tree death – as many saplings are infected within the first six months – the bags have some limitations.

They allow citrus trees to produce quality fruit for at least 30 months after they’re planted, but the trees eventually begin to falter after the bags are removed two to three years later.

That’s why citrus farmers such as Katie and Shane Bevilacqua are trailblazing a different, even more radical approach to fighting citrus greening.

They have built massive permanent mesh tents over their nearly 750 acres of grapefruit trees at Golden Ridge Groves in Bartow, Florida, where customers can self-pick or buy bushels of fruit in the couple’s market. The tents are known as “citrus under protective screen” structures.

“It’s early, but it’s proving to keep the psyllid out, allow the tree to remain healthy, and put on the healthy crop and beautiful fruit that Florida has been known for for decades,” Shane Bevilacqua told The Epoch Times.

“Even if this could be our small contribution to keeping it going, we’re excited about that.”

Road to Ruin

The near-total decimation of Florida’s citrus industry did not happen overnight.

When officials first found citrus greening in the state in 2005, farmers had already battled irregular cold seasons with freezing temperatures that damaged their crops.

Citrus canker – a different, but still harmful bacterial infection – arrived in Florida more than 100 years ago, and was believed to be eradicated until subsequent outbreaks in the 1980s and ’90s.

Despite strong efforts to eradicate citrus canker, the historic 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons spread the disease far and wide across the state. It was later found in Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama, but is currently considered endemic in Florida.

Those years would not see the end of hurricanes’ impact on Florida’s once famous orange market either, as the catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Ian would buzz-saw through the center of the state in 2022, slicing through thousands of trees in its path.

Then just two years later, two back-to-back major hurricanes – Helene first, then Milton – would slam into Florida in the course of less than two weeks, further devastating the state’s citrus crops.

Tillett lost a fifth of his grove during those storms, as the hammering winds blew over many of his younger trees.

But citrus greening, Tillett said, has been the biggest factor in so many multigenerational growers choosing to leave the state’s cherished orange industry.

“The groves fell into nonproduction. Everybody lost,” he said. “I mean, it’s hard to justify a citrus grove when you’re not making money.”