Alex Trelinski
VALENCIA CITY COUNCIL has started a mass programme of spraying fungicide on 100,000 trees to stop a cochinal infection that’s causing a serious problem.
Above average October temperatures have produced an increase in mealybugs which are common-sap feeding bugs that enjoy moist and warm habitats.
They produce sticky molasses on melia trees that fall on roads, pavements, terraces, and vehicles.
Opposition parties on the council like Compromis claim the situation has got ‘out of control’.
Three teams from the council’s garden service are working to apply fungicide treatment to 10,000 melia or chinaberry trees in the city.
In reality, it means they can only treat around 200 trees per day.
During June and July, workers injected the fungicide approved by the European Union to combat the mealybugs, but the autumn weather appears to have caught out the council.
Another issue is that the secreted substance that falls onto streets and pavements can only be got rid of by using pressurised water.
Parks and gardens are said to be in permanent contact with cleaning teams to advise them on which areas need to be sorted out.
