General News
27 March, 2026
Help to protect our citrus industry
A NATIONAL program that aims to protect the Australian citrus industry through pest surveillance, training, and research wants your help.
CitrusWatch is a five-year national program that aims to protect the Australian citrus industry which is free from many harmful pest species affecting other countries.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade’s Plant Biosecurity team is now conducting surveillance for exotic citrus pests, one of which is the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) which can cause the serious disease huánglóngbìng (HLB), also known as citrus greening.
HLB is having a devastating impact on overseas orchards, reducing crop yield, killing trees, and causing significant financial losses for growers.
Exotic pests such as ACP can travel to Australia via busy trade or passenger routes by “hitchhiking” with imported freight, food and plant material. If they evade border biosecurity inspections, the next stop could be residential yards.
CitrusWatch is looking for volunteers to place a sticky insect trap in an ACP host plant (citrus, curry leaf or Murraya paniculata work well), and contribute to an early warning system for the commercial citrus industry.
The program is seeking more volunteers from FNQ including citrus orchardists, residents with a citrus tree in their backyard, community gardens, schools, local councils and research stations.
All locals need to do is place the provided trap and leave it in place for two weeks. After that, it’s a simple case of removing the trap and putting it in the post for checking by entomologists in Darwin.
CitrusWatch will provide everything needed including sticky traps, instructions and pre-paid envelopes to return the trap.
Go to www.daf.nt.gov.au/biosecurity/citruswatch/citruswatch-volunteer-form to register for the program.
