On October 26, 2023, the Office of Rosselkhoznadzor for the Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions while conducting quarantine phytosanitary control of imported plant products entering the territory of the Chelyabinsk region from Uzbekistan identified a case of contamination of products with a quarantine harmful object.
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During the phytosanitary examination carried out by the Chelyabinsk branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution ARRIAH in relation to a batch of persimmons with a total weight of 19 tons, a quarantine object for the Russian Federation was identified the Comstock bug (Pseudococcus comstocki Kuwana).
Department officials explained to the owner of the product the quarantine phytosanitary requirements provided for by legislation in the field of plant quarantine.
In accordance with current international legislation, contaminated products are not allowed for sale.
Since the beginning of 2023, the Rosselkhoznadzor Office has identified 157 batches of contaminated plant products (vegetables and fruits) with a total weight of over 1 thousand tons.
The Comstock bug is a dangerous and difficult to eradicate pest that has quarantine status in many countries of the world, including in Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union.
This is an extremely broad polyphagous plant that damages a wide variety of crops: fruit trees pear, apple, peach, grapes, mulberry; vegetables beets, carrots, potatoes, as well as ornamental flower crops, including potted plants.
Feeding by scale insects causes drying and death of shoots and growth points, and yellowing of foliage.
During their life, mealybugs secrete a sticky and sweet liquid (honeydew), which serves as an excellent environment for the development of sooty fungi, which leads to a deterioration in the conditions of transpiration and photosynthesis of plants.
Infected fruits become woody, their weight decreases, and their taste deteriorates. When the Comstock bug population is high, shoot deformation, growth retardation, partial drying out, and then complete death of the plant occur. ■