Abstract
It is extremely important to identify potentially highrisk pests and to respond quickly to eradicate, constrain, or manage them. Some factors that increase the chance of a pest being high risk include newly introduced pests that have little or no known natural enemies, pests with a wide host range particularly if they cross commodity groups or affect native or rare species, pests involved in the transmission of disease, pests that are difficult to detect or easily spread, and pests with short life cycles and high reproductive rates. Communication is key in the process of monitoring and diagnosing highrisk pests. It is important that pertinent information is shared among all interested parties but particularly to the clients who are many times the first to see a potential new pest. Some of the high-risk pests in ornamental and other crops in Florida include Diaprepes root weevil, Sri Lanka weevil, pink hibiscus mealybug, lobate lac scale, and Asian cycad scale.
