Fillmore Citrus Protective District
Front of the Fillmore Insectary Building
Citrus, historically synonymous with California, was alongside oil production for the biggest facets of California’s economy. At it’s peak in the 20th century, California would have been covered in over 330,000 acres of citrus. One of the biggest impacts on this industry are the harmful insects. Pests like red or black scale moldered the trees and fruit and reduced the quality of the citrus and, in extreme cases kill the tree itself. These harmful insects, introduced to California in 1868 and 1880 respectively alongside other scale variants and pests were the main priority in which the Fillmore Citrus Protective District would be founded upon.
Workers spraying insecticides on trees
The Fillmore Citrus Protective District
The Fillmore Citrus Protective District (“FCPD”) was founded in 1922. It was organized as a co-operative led by A.S. Chesebrough, David Felsenthal and F.M. Erskin, along with local citrus growers. It was an effort created to eradicate the red scale pest invading the Bardsdale, Fillmore and Sespe orchards for the first time. This eradication effort was focused around fumigation methods using harsh chemicals such as cyanide and oil sprays. For the first four years of the FCPD’s establishment, it would be the main treatment.
The process would begin at sunset, where trees would be tented. Hauling fumigation guns on wheelbarrows, workers placed hoses under the tents and shot cyanide gas up into the trees: “You had to be fast… OSHA would have had a stroke, especially had they known that workers had no special containers [or protective clothing] for the cyanide- they carried it in glass coffee jars in their vehicles.” This was dangerous work and in many cases had to be done with abject carefulness as not to harm the worker as well as not harm the trees with the intense fumigation.
Howard B. Lorbeer among oleander stalks used for rearing of the black scale parasites
The FCPD jumped at the opportunity of alternative methods to eradicate pests by the use of biological pest control through beneficial insects. In 1926, the FCPD built their first insectary for the rearing of the Cryptolaemus montrouzieri ladybeetles (or crypts) against the common citrus mealybug choosing the right man to lead their newfound insectary and pest control initiative.
Howard B. Lorbeer was born in Pomona, California, where he graduated from college with an emphasis on botany and biology. However, it would be Dr. James Need of Cornell University where Lorbeer became inspired to go into insect ecology. He became an assistant to citrus expert Dr. J. Elliot, and would go on to work for both the Los Angeles Agriculture Department as a district inspector, and at the Los Angeles County Insectary as a lab technician before being offered to head the Fillmore Insectary for the FCPD. Lorbeer would manage the insectary from it’s founding in 1926 until his retirement in 1974, where the insectary would blossom as a pioneer of biological pest control.
Howard Lorbeer and the Fillmore Insectary
In the 1940s, the black scale reared it’s head against the Fillmore orchards and Lorbeer and the Insectary rose to meet it: they built the second insectary building in 1944 where they would begin rearing the black scale parasite: Metaphycus helvolus it turned this major pest into a minor one with quick work, saving the district $40 per acre at a benefit of $300,000 per year through the periodic release of these insectary reared parasites.
Banana squash racks used for rearing of red scale parasites
After 1960, the second insectary building shifted focus to a growing infestation of red scale found in over two thousand acres of trees in the Fillmore-Piru area. This new battle would rest on the red scale parasite: Aphytis melinus, which had never been tested before on such a massive scale.
Lorbeer noted that “it was a case of sink or swim… we had reared a quantity of Aphytis melinus… but they had never been tried to any degree. I was very reluctant to try them, but the growers were frantic…the results were fantastic. The next year we had to treat only one-hundred fifty acres and in 1962, ’63, and ’64 we treated none.”
The work of the insectary was around the clock, requiring work that went into the rearing of bugs seven days a week to maintain the demand needed, as well as upkeeping new rises in infestations. One would consider the inside of the insectary to be a strange scene to see veritable towers of banana squash and stalks of oleander throughout, which were the main components of growing these beneficial insects. At the FCPD’s peak, over three-hundred sixty growers were part of the district, covering over eight thousand acres of citrus groves from the eastern Santa Paula border to the Los Angeles County borders. Within the insectary, twenty species of beneficial insects had been reared and, in the fields, only two percent of groves had to undergo chemical treatment. By 1964, eight million black scale parasites and twenty-seven red scale parasites were being reared at the Fillmore Insectary, saving millions of dollars for California in the process.
Releasing beneficial insects into citrus groves
End of an Era
As the citrus industry began to wane, so did the Insectary. Many growers struggled to make enough profit in order to justify paying the annual treatment prices through the FCPD. Once Ventura County’s second biggest cash crop, the Valencia orange, it barely made the top ten by the early 2000s. The overall land dedicated to oranges had plummeted significantly in recent decades, dropping sixty percent in the previous thirty years.
Accordingly, membership of the protective district fell to just one-hundred twenty members consisting of only three thousand acres, a significant drop from the over eight thousand acres at its peak, the insectary had to close its doors in 2003.
The Fillmore Insectary and the Fillmore Protective District left behind a legacy of innovation of biological pest control, and an outlook for alternative methods and adaptations. Not only did it affect the orchards of the area, it also influenced the insectary to stretch past Ventura County and through beyond with its innovation alongside environmental movements to limit harmful substances being released into the air. Not only harmful chemicals related to insecticides but also work in mines and industrial plants for the betterment of orcharding and the livelihoods of beneficial insects and the community.
In conclusion, the work of the insectary and of the Fillmore Citrus Protective District was heavily influential and a saving grace of the area it served, creating a legacy remembered by many citrus growers in the area and throughout the state.
Extra Piece:
Processes of the Insectary
The Insectary, noted by Monte Carpenter, manager of the Fillmore Insectary from 1985 to 2000, and had been employed there since 1961, was around the clock work where in many cases these cultures of beneficial insects were maintained by the demand needed, and the upkeep in infestations. The main two insects reared at the insectary during Carpenter’s tenure were the black and red scale parasites, and nothing the work that went into the rearing.
It was a strange scene to see veritable towers of banana squash and stalks of oleander throughout the insectary. These two essential components of daily rearing were used in unique ways.
Black scale parasites are reared on host plants: a process in which oleander cuttings grown by the insectary are taken with black scale crawlers infested on them, after about a month, the parasites are released into the culture room to lay their eggs inside the scale, after the eggs are hatched, the process is repeated. Parasites are collected on screens and then into containers to be released in orchards
In the case of the red scale parasite, banana squash is used for the rearing. Similar to the black scale culture, the surface of the banana squash is infected with a scale and oleander scale crawlers are used, rather than red or black scale as to not contaminate the holding rooms where they are held. After two months, they are taken to be “stung” with the red scale parasites and then harvested inside the production rooms by injecting carbon dioxide into the room drawers, where they will be collected and released.
Much of the harvesting and releasing was done six days a week, showing the intense process in which the insectary was run around the clock.
Resources
David Geissler and William R. Horwath, Citrus Production of California in “Assessment of Plant Fertility and Fertilizer Requirements for Agriculture Crops of California,” via University of California, Davis. June 2016.
Howard B. Lorbeer, “Biological Control of Citrus Pests in Ventura County,” California Citrograph (August 1965).
Jane Hulse, “Integrated Pest Management: It Happened at Night,” Broadcaster Magazine, (Summer 1997) 7. Citrograph
Cal Gustafson, “Howard B. Lorbeer: His Work Guards Citrus.” Ventura County Star Free Press (Ventura, CA), May 8, 1966.
Paul DeBach, “Citrus in California, South Africa and Isreal” in Biological Control by Natural Enemies. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974) 286-288
Gustafson, Star Free Press.
Fred Alvarez, “Pioneering Insectary Squashed,” Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), August 10, 2003.
Monte Carpenter, “Statement by Monte Carpenter, Manager, Fillmore Protective District Regarding Boulder Creek Mining Project,” September 13, 1991.
Monte Carpenter, “Oral History with Monte Carpenter,” interview by Barbara Heron, Museum of Ventura County, October 26, 1992.