Photos by James Glover II / Star staff "I've been blessed with a spectacular career," Phil Phillips said. "It's playing with insects basically." The integrated pest management adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension checks for damaged citrus foliage in a lemon orchard on Telegraph Road in Santa Paula earlier this month.

From the time Phil Phillips was 7 years old, he was fascinated with bugs.

"My mother used to raise butterflies," Phillips said, "and growing up in the Ojai Valley there was just a multitude of insect species."

Ojai proved a perfect place for a budding entomologist. As a kid, Phillips made blue-ribbon-winning butterfly collections, read about entomology adventures in National Geographic and worked on weekends at a local insectary.

Today, at 59, he retires from his job as integrated pest management adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension and the UC statewide integrated pest management program, a position he has held for 30 years. He's looking forward to spending time volunteering in Guatemala with his wife and swimming.

"I've been blessed with a spectacular career. It's playing with insects basically," Phillips said.

Phillips, who received his doctorate from UC Riverside, explains his job as "integrating a number of tactics to control pests." Those tactics have led to agricultural advances in Ventura County and around the world.

Ben Faber, a farm adviser who has worked with him for 18 years, said Phillips' work saved millions of dollars for California growers. One of Phillips' major contributions was developing the first baseline biological and life history of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect carrier of Pierce's disease, which devastated Southern California vineyards in the 1990s.

"In order to be able to start effective control programs, you really have to understand insects: where they come from, how they live," said Mary Bianchi, horticulture farm adviser in San Luis Obispo County. "That's where Phil's work was key: by building the framework where researchers could start their programs and integrate them into farming systems."

Phillips said the grape industry in Southern California never fully recovered from Pierce's disease. Even though his research led to area-wide containment and quarantine, he said he doesn't recommend growing grapes in the area because of the existing bacteria.

In 2000 Phillips became part of an emergency task force on the invasive pest and Pierce's disease. The following year, he was invited by the Australian government for a national awareness program throughout its commercial vineyards. The visit had an unexpected outcome.

The outbreak of Pierce's disease in California caused the Australian government to ban the importation of the state's table grapes.

"I wasn't there to advocate for California table grapes. I was invited there to talk about the glassy-winged sharpshooter," Phillips said.

After speaking at the University of Australia, Adelaide, he met with representatives from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, where he was grilled about the glassy-winged sharpshooter. Phillips' said he explained the insect doesn't feed on the grape or the grapevine itself, which is what would be imported, and the disease can only be transferred by a live insect.

The service decided to lift the ban.

"In my career I've had impacts like that," Phillips said.

Faber said Phillips has spoken to groups in Egypt, South Africa, Spain, Brazil and Argentina. He has studied agricultural pests in their original homelands, mostly in Mexico and Central America.

Phillips said the dreams he had of going on entomology adventures in rainforests, like the ones he read about as a kid in National Geographic magazine, came true the last 10 to 15 years of his career. He plans to continue traveling in his retirement.

"I already have three backpacking trips lined up for the summer in the Sierras," Phillips said. "Most years I'm lucky if I can get in just one."

Indiscriminate in nature'

Another part of Phillips' job is training licensed pest control advisers in Ventura County.

He teaches courses and writes manuals about pests affecting particular crops.

"He's done great in making sure they know what to do as far as what to look for as new pests come in," said Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail.

Bianchi said she relied heavily on his training and mentoring from the time she started her career in 1992.

Along with studying and teaching about insects, Phillips has worked with growers to move away from using broad-spectrum pesticides that kill all insects. He said these pesticides damage insect, human and all mammal nervous systems.

"The pesticides were indiscriminate in nature," Phillips said.

Phillips said the pesticides were also ineffective because the pests would come back stronger with all natural enemies gone.

Difficult to replace'

He said growers use more selective methods since the 1980s, with insecticides that target the pest population they hope to control.

Farmers also are using sticky barriers to keep pests out of crops and netting to keep birds out of vineyards.

"We're using less pesticides now, and it's made a safer environment and society," McPhail said.

"He's going to be difficult to replace."