Pryke, J. 2005 Recommendations for determining whether mealybug eggs are alive or dead.. Deciduous Fruit Producers Trust 3(2004-6): p. 25.
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Notes: Current inspection procedures in South Africa automatically reject pome fruits for export when mealybug eggs are found no matter if they are dead or alive. The reason for this is that inspectors have no way of knowing if the eggs are dead or alive. This paper describes a test kit for the determination of the viability of mealybug eggs found on pome fruits. The test kit only looks at Pseudococcus viburni, because the only other mealybug species found on South African pome fruits (P. longispinosus) does not lay eggs. The viability of eggs is determined based on egg shape (alive=oval; dead=collapsed/shrivelled), egg wall characteristics (alive=yolk meets the egg wall except at the tip; dead=yolk pulls away from the egg wall) and organization within the egg (alive=well organized with granular appearance; dead=reduced organization within the egg).
