There are a number of control methods to prevent and reduce the Banana Freckle disease. The paper bag method seems to be the most effective way to gain physical control of the pathogen. The infected leaves are the primary source of spores, and placing a bag over the bananas, once harvested, creates a barrier to prevent inoculum from spreading to the fruit.

Some cultural controls include pruning out infectious plant material, planting in pathogen-free fields, and practicing proper sanitation techniques. In the Philippines, pruning and cutting out patches of infected tissue have prevented the spread of the pathogen in the plant during disease outbreaks. General sanitation practices have also reduced the spread of inoculum. When planters failed to maintain sanitary equipment, seeds, and soil, they witnessed severe fruit infections. The more freckles seen on the leaves of the plant, the more the fruit develops symptoms of the disease. Inversely, less freckles corresponded to less disease.

In addition, multiple fungicides have been seen to reduce Banana Freckle disease. In Hawaii, spraying the leaves and fruit with maneb (1 lb./100 gal water plus 4 oz of sticker-spreader) every 2 weeks or once a month throughout the year has remarkably reduced the spread of inoculum. In Taiwan, spraying fungicides, such as phaltan, orthocide, chlorothalonil, dithiocarbamates, and propiconazole, biweekly have produced effective results against the disease. In the Philippines, chemical controls used against Black or Yellow Sigatoka disease have been helpful. These consist of mancozeb, triazoles, tridemorph, and strobilurin. Mancozeb seems to be the most effective fungicide against Banana Freckle disease in Hawaii and the Philippines . These fungicides do not eliminate the pathogen completely, but they reduce the inoculum levels and eventually reduce yield loss.

Lastly, eradication of infected plants can prevent further infection of other fruit around the area.

There is no resistance to Citrus Black Spot and once a tree has been infected there is no known cure causing tree removal to be the best option. Both Federal and State governments have recommended the following preventative measures.

To control "Guignardia citriparpa" fungicides like copper and/or strobilurins should be applied monthly from early May to the middle of September (in the northern hemisphere). Applications of the fungicides are recommended in early April (northern hemisphere) if that month has experienced more rainfall than usual resulting in the ideal conditions for citrus black spot to form.

Table 1. Recommended Chemical Controls for Citrus Black Spot

1)Lower rates can be used on smaller trees. Do not use less than minimum label rate.

2)Mode of action class for citrus pesticides from the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee (FRAC) 20111. Refer to ENY-624, "Pesticide Resistance and Resistance Management," in the 2012 Florida Citrus Pest Management Guide for more details.

3)Do not use more than 4 applications of strobilurin fungicides/season. Do not make more than 2 sequential applications of strobilurin fungicides.

Another method of control is to accelerate the leaf litter decomposition under the trees in citrus groves. Accelerating this decomposition reduces the chance for ascospore inoculation which generally takes place in the middle of March. There are three possible methods to hasten this decomposition. One method is the increase the mircrosprinkler irrigation in the grove to half an hour for at least five days of the week. This form of control should continue for about a month and a half. The second method is to apply urea or ammonium to the leaf litter. The last and final method to accelerate leaf decomposition is to apply lime or calcium carbonate to the litter. Urea, lime, and calcium carbonate reduce the number of fungal structures and spore production. Since the fungus requires wet conditions to thrive, air flow in the citrus grove should be maximized to reduce leaf wetness.

Along with these methods it is also important to get rid of debris such as fallen fruit or twigs in a manner that reduces the chances of infecting other plants. Citrus Black Spot can colonize and reproduce on dead twigs. To dispose of citrus debris it should either be heated to a minimum of 180℉ for two hours, incinerated, buried in a landfill, or fed to livestock. Plant trash should be moved with caution if at all to avoid spreading the infectious ascospores. Any trees that are infected with citrus black spot should be removed from the grove and disposed of. These trees must be removed because those that are declining and stressed will often have off season bloom. If there is more than one age of fruit present on the tree, it is possible for the asexual spores on the fruit to be transferred to new fruit, intensifying the disease. This off season blooming is often more problematic with Valencia oranges when old and new crops overlap.

"F. oxysporum" is a major wilt pathogen of many economically important crop plants. It is a soil-borne pathogen, which can live in the soil for long periods of time, so rotational cropping is not a useful control method. It can also spread through infected dead plant material, so cleaning up at the end of the season is important.

One control method is to improve soil conditions because "F. oxysporum" spreads faster through soils that have high moisture and bad drainage. Other control methods include planting resistant varieties, removing infected plant tissue to prevent overwintering of the disease, using soil and systemic fungicides to eradicate the disease from the soil, flood fallowing, and using clean seeds each year. Applying fungicides depends on the field environment. It is difficult to find a biological control method because research in a greenhouse can have different effects than testing in the field. The best control method found for "F. oxysporum" is planting resistant varieties, although not all have been bred for every forma specialis.

"F. oxysporum" f. sp. "batatas" can be controlled by using clean seed, cleaning up infected leaf and plant material and breeding for resistance. Fungicides can also be used, but are not as effective as the other two because of field conditions during application. Fungicides can be used effectively by dip treating propagation material.

Different races of "F. oxysporum" f. sp. "cubense", Panama disease on banana, can be susceptible, resistant and partially resistant. It can be controlled by breeding for resistance and through eradication and quarantine of the pathogen by improving soil conditions and using clean plant material. Biological control can work using antagonists. Systemic and soil fungicides can also be used.

The main control method for "F. oxysporum" f. sp. "lycopersici", vascular wilt on tomato, is resistance. Other effective control methods are fumigating the infected soil and raising the soil pH to 6.5-7.

The most effective way to control "F. oxysporum" f. sp. "melonis" is to graft a susceptible variety of melon to a resistant root-stock. Resistant cultivars, liming the soil to change soil pH to 6-7, and reducing soil nitrogen levels also help control "F. oxysporum" f. sp. "melonis".

The fungus "Trichoderma viride" is a proven biocontrol agent to control this disease in an environment friendly way.

There are very few things that can be done to control the spread of bacterial soft rots, and the most effective of them have to do with simply keeping sanitary growing practices.

Storage warehouses should be removed of all plant debris, and the walls and floors disinfected with either formaldehyde or copper sulfate between harvests. Injury to plant tissues should be avoided as much as possible, and the humidity and temperature of the storage facility should be kept low using an adequate ventilation system. These procedures have proven themselves to be very effective in the control of storage soft rot of potato in Wisconsin.

It also helps if plants are planted in well-drained soils, at intervals appropriate for adequate ventilation between plants. Few varieties are resistant to the disease and none are immune, so rotating susceptible plants with non-susceptible ones like cereals is a practice positive to limiting soft rot infection.

The control of specific insect vectors is also a good way of controlling disease spread in the field and in storage. Soil and foliage insecticide treatment helps controls the bugs that frequently cause wounds and disseminate the bacteria.

Preventive measures are pruning which allows light and air to enter the tree, to achieve fast drying. Strong growth within the root area dams up moisture and facilitates infection.

A prognostic model called Sooty Blotch RIMpro has been developed, which still awaits validation. Similar to the apple scab model it numerically grades risk and degree of infection and can serve as a warning system. It allows conventional growers to spray more targeted. The parameters for calculation are wetness of leaves, amount of rain fall and temperature.

Conventional orchards that spray fungicides against apple scab, treat soot blotch and flyspeck at the same time. Therefore, the problem is not seen in conventional non-resistant varieties. However, scab-resistant varieties, which are not sprayed frequently show the infection. In organic orchards, spraying 4–5 with lime sulphur or coco soap during the main infectious periods is recommended.

The blotches are cosmetic damage "unacceptable to consumers" and downgrade fruit from premium fresh-market grade to processing use, i.e. reduce its market value, but leaf and fruit development are not affected.

Growth of the bacteria is possible between 32–90 °F, with the most ideal conditions between 70–80 °F. Post-harvest storage and transportation is difficult for tropical and other warm environments when the air is not properly ventilated during these processes. Higher temperatures and high humidity are ideal growing conditions for the bacteria making ventilation a big priority when trying to combat this disease.

Currently, fungicides and other chemical and biological control agents have proven fairly unsuccessful, or only successful in vitro or in greenhouses, in the face of Panama disease of bananas. The most commonly used practices include mostly sanitation and quarantine practices to prevent the spread of Panama disease out of infected fields. However, the most effective tool against Panama disease is the development of banana trees resistant to "Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense". Unfortunately, the clonal reproduction of banana has led to a consequential lack of other varieties. Efforts are being made to produce resistant varieties, but with bananas being triploids which do not produce seeds, this is not an easy task. Creating clones from tissue cultures, rather than suckers, has proven somewhat successful in breeding resistant varieties, however these tend to have decreased success in stress-tolerance, yield, or other beneficial traits necessary for commercial varieties. Nevertheless, these efforts are leading to the best control measure for Panama disease of banana.

Recently, an R gene (RGA2) was transformed into Cavendish bananas which confers disease resistance to Fusarium wilt tropical race 4. This is the first case of successful resistance in the field and is a promising step towards preventing the loss of the Cavendish cultivars that are a huge portion of banana export production and subsistence of many communities.

Fusarium wilt is a common vascular wilt fungal disease, exhibiting symptoms similar to Verticillium wilt. The pathogen that causes Fusarium wilt is "Fusarium oxysporum" ("F. oxysporum"). The species is further divided into forma specialis based on host plant.

Citrus Black Spot is a fungal disease caused by Guignardia citricarpa. This Ascomycete fungus affects citrus plants throughout subtropical climates, causing a reduction in both fruit quantity and quality. Symptoms include both fruit and leaf lesions, the latter being critical to inter-tree dispersal. Strict regulation and management is necessary to control this disease since there are currently no citrus varieties that are resistant.

Banana Freckle is a disease caused by the fungus "Guignardia musae" (telomorph) or "Phyllosticta musarum" (anamorph). Generally, the causal agent of disease is referred to as Guignardia-Phyllosticta sp. There are several different strains of the fungus that exist to infect different banana varieties around the globe. Symptoms include yellowing of the tissue and formation of small dark brown spots on the leaves and fruit. Within the spots, conidia or pycnidia can be found. Banana Freckle is easily propagated and spread from plant to plant by rain splash and movement of infected tissue or fruit. Management of the disease consists of cutting out infected leaves, the paper bag method, fungicide application, and proper sanitation techniques. This devastating disease is extremely relevant for the major banana exporting countries of the world. In the absence of chemical control, there is about a 78% yield loss. Banana Freckle disease needs to be carefully monitored in order to prevent further spread of the disease.

Panama disease is a plant disease of the roots of banana plants. It is a type of Fusarium wilt, caused by the fungal pathogen "Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense" (Foc). The pathogen is resistant to fungicide and cannot be controlled chemically.

During the 1950s, Panama disease wiped out most commercial Gros Michel banana production. The Gros Michel banana was the dominant cultivar of bananas, and the blight inflicted enormous costs and forced producers to switch to other, disease-resistant cultivars. New strains of Panama disease currently threaten the production of today's most popular cultivar, Cavendish.

The most widely used potassium fertilizer is potassium chloride (muriate of potash). Other inorganic potassium fertilizers include potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate, and monopotassium phosphate. Potassium-rich treatments suitable for organic farming include feeding with home-made comfrey liquid, adding seaweed meal, composted bracken, and compost rich in decayed banana peels. Wood ash also has high potassium content. Adequate moisture is necessary for effective potassium uptake; low soil water reduces K uptake by plant roots. Liming acidic soils can increase potassium retention in some soils by reducing leaching; practices that increase soil organic matter can also increase potassium retention.

The first step in treatment following a bee sting is removal of the stinger itself. The stinger should be removed as quickly as possible without regard to method: studies have shown the amount of venom delivered does not differ whether the sting is pinched or scraped off and even a delay of a few seconds leads to more venom being injected. Once the stinger is removed, pain and swelling should be reduced with a cold compress. A topical anesthetic containing benzocaine will kill pain quickly and menthol is an effective anti-itch treatment. Itching can also be relieved by antihistamine or by a steroid cream.

Many traditional remedies have been suggested for bee stings including damp pastes of tobacco, salt, baking soda, papain, toothpaste, clay, garlic, urine, onions, aspirin or even application of copper coins. As with jellyfish stings, ammonia and ammonia-containing liquids, such as window cleaner, are often suggested as a way to immediately cleanse the skin and remove excess venom, and sweat itself (which also contains small amounts of ammonia) may provide some small relief.

Bee venom is acidic, and these interventions are often recommended to neutralize the venom; however, neutralizing a sting is unlikely to be effective as the venom is injected under the skin and deep into the tissues, where a topically applied alkali is unable to reach, so neutralization is unlikely to occur. In any case, the amount of venom injected is typically very small (between 5 and 50 micrograms of fluid) and placing large amounts of alkali near the sting site is unlikely to produce a perfectly neutral pH to stop the pain. Many people do claim benefit from these home remedies but it is doubtful they have any real physical effect on how much a sting hurts or continues hurting. The effect is probably related to rubbing the area or the mind perceiving benefit. Furthermore, none of these interventions have been proven to be effective in scientific studies and a randomized trial of aspirin paste and topical ice packs showed that aspirin was not effective in reducing the duration of swelling or pain in bee and wasp stings, and significantly increased the duration of redness. The study concluded that ice alone is better treatment for bee and wasp stings than aspirin.

The sting may be painful for a few hours. Swelling and itching may persist for a week. The area should not be scratched as it will only increase the itching and swelling. If swelling persists for over a week or covers an area greater than , medical attention should be sought. Doctors often recommend a tetanus immunization. For about 2 percent of people, a hypersensitivity can develop after being stung, creating a more severe reaction when stung again later. This sensitisation may happen after a single sting, or after a series of stings where they reacted normally. A highly allergic person may suffer anaphylactic shock from certain proteins in the venom, which can be life-threatening and requires emergency treatment. People known to be highly allergic may carry around epinephrine (adrenaline) in the form of a self-injectable EpiPen for the treatment of an anaphylactic shock.

For patients who experience severe or life-threatening reactions to insect stings, allergy injections composed of increasing concentrations of naturally occurring venom may provide protections against future insect stings.

Treatment is predominantly preventive. Avoidance of topical phenols and diets low in tyrosine may help. Replacement and repair of damaged tissue is also possible.

Potassium deficiency, also known as potash deficiency, is a plant disorder that is most common on light, sandy soils, because potassium ions (K) are highly soluble and will easily leach from soils without colloids. Potassium deficiency is also common in chalky or peaty soils with a low clay content. It is also found on heavy clays with a poor structure.

A honey bee that is away from the hive foraging for nectar or pollen will rarely sting, except when stepped on or roughly handled. Honey bees will actively seek out and sting when they perceive the hive to be threatened, often being alerted to this by the release of attack pheromones (below).

Although it is widely believed that a worker honey bee can sting only once, this is a partial misconception: although the stinger is in fact barbed so that it lodges in the victim's skin, tearing loose from the bee's abdomen and leading to its death in minutes, this only happens if the skin of the victim is sufficiently thick, such as a mammal's. Honey bees are the only hymenoptera with a strongly barbed sting, though yellow jackets and some other wasps have small barbs.

Bees with barbed stingers can often sting other insects without harming themselves. Queen honeybees and bees of many other species, including bumblebees and many solitary bees, have smoother stingers with smaller barbs, and can sting mammals repeatedly.

The sting's injection of apitoxin into the victim is accompanied by the release of alarm pheromones, a process which is accelerated if the bee is fatally injured. Release of alarm pheromones near a hive may attract other bees to the location, where they will likewise exhibit defensive behaviors until there is no longer a threat, typically because the victim has either fled or been killed. (Note: A bee swarm, seen as a mass of bees flying or clumped together, is generally not hostile; it has deserted its hive and has no comb or young to defend.) These pheromones do not dissipate or wash off quickly, and if their target enters water, bees will resume their attack as soon as it leaves the water. The alarm pheromone emitted when a bee stings another animal smells like a banana.

Drone bees, the males, are larger and do not have stingers. The female bees (worker bees and queens) are the only ones that can sting, and their stinger is a modified ovipositor. The queen bee has a barbed but smoother stinger and can, if need be, sting skin-bearing creatures multiple times, but the queen does not leave the hive under normal conditions. Her sting is not for defense of the hive; she only uses it for dispatching rival queens, ideally before they can emerge from their cells. Queen breeders who handle multiple queens and have the queen odor on their hands are sometimes stung by a queen.

The main component of bee venom responsible for pain in vertebrates is the toxin melittin; histamine and other biogenic amines may also contribute to pain and itching. In one of the alternative medical uses of honey bee products, apitherapy, bee venom has been used to treat arthritis and other painful conditions. All currently available evidence supporting this practice is either anecdotal, animal studies, or preliminary evidence, most of which has poor methodology. While a preliminary, in-vitro proof of concept has demonstrated that isolated melittin may attenuate the infectivity of two specific HIV strains, apitherapy is not currently accepted as a viable medical treatment for any condition or disease; the risk of allergic reaction and anaphylaxis outweighs any benefits. According to the American Cancer Society, there is no scientific evidence that apitherapy or bee venom therapy can treat or change the course of cancer or any other disease. Clinical trials have shown that apitherapy is ineffective in treating Multiple sclerosis or any other disease, and can cause a worsening in multiple sclerosis symptoms.

The stinger consists of three parts: a stylus and two barbed slides (or lancets), one on either side of the stylus. The bee does not push the stinger in but it is drawn in by the barbed slides. The slides move alternately up and down the stylus so when the barb of one slide has caught and retracts, it pulls the stylus and the other barbed slide into the wound. When the other barb has caught, it also retracts up the stylus pulling the sting further in. This process is repeated until the sting is fully in and even continues after the sting and its mechanism is detached from the bee's abdomen.

When a honey bee stings a person, it cannot pull the barbed stinger back out. It leaves behind not only the stinger, but also part of its abdomen and digestive tract, plus muscles and nerves. This massive abdominal rupture kills the honey bee. Honey bees are the only bees to die after stinging.

"Ephelides" describes a freckle which is flat and light brown or red and fades with reduction of sun exposure. Ephelides are more common in those with light complexions, although they are found on people with a variety of skin tones. The regular use of sunblock can inhibit their development.

Liver spots (also known as sun spots and lentigines) look like large freckles, but they form after years of exposure to the sun. Liver spots are more common in older people.

Freckles are clusters of concentrated melaninized cells which are most easily visible on people with a fair complexion. Freckles do not have an increased number of the melanin-producing cells, or melanocytes, but instead have melanocytes that overproduce melanin granules (melanosomes) changing the coloration of the outer skin cells (keratinocytes). As such, freckles are different from lentigines and moles.

The best treatment of lentigo maligna is not clear as it has not been well studied.

Standard excision is still being done by most surgeons. Unfortunately, the recurrence rate is high (up to 50%). This is due to the ill defined visible surgical margin, and the facial location of the lesions (often forcing the surgeon to use a narrow surgical margin). The use of dermatoscopy can significantly improve the surgeon's ability to identify the surgical margin. The narrow surgical margin used (smaller than the standard of care of 5 mm), combined with the limitation of the standard bread loafing technique of fixed tissue histology - result in a high "false negative" error rate, and frequent recurrences. Margin controlled (peripheral margins) is necessary to eliminate the false negative errors. If breadloafing is utilized, distances from sections should approach 0.1 mm to assure that the method approaches complete margin control.

Where the lesion is on the face and either large or 5mm margins are possible, a skin flap or skin graft may be indicated/required. Grafts have their own risks of failure and poor cosmetic outcomes. Flaps can require extensive incision resulting in long scars and may be better done by plastic surgeons (and possibly better again by those with extensive LM or "suspicious of early malignant melanoma" experience.

Mohs surgery has been done with cure rate reported to be 77%. The "double scalpel" peripheral margin controlled excision method approximates the Mohs method in margin control, but requires a pathologist intimately familiar with the complexity of managing the vertical margin on the thin peripheral sections and staining methods.

Some melanocytic nevi, and melanoma-in-situ (lentigo maligna) have resolved with an experimental treatment, imiquimod (Aldara) topical cream, an immune enhancing agent. In view of the very poor cure rate with standard excision, some surgeons combine the two methods: surgical excision of the lesion, then three months treatment of the area with imiquimod cream.

Studies seem to conflict about the level of certainty associated with using imiquimod.

Another treatment to be considered where standard margins cannot be achieved or cosmetics are a major consideration is ultra-soft x-ray/grenz-ray radiation.

In the very elderly or those with otherwise limited life expectancy, the impact of major day surgery for excision with 5mm margins and large skin flap could be worse than doing nothing or the possibility of failed treatments with imiquimod or Grenz ray.

The use of steroids (Dexamethasone) coupled with an antibiotic (Amoxicillin) will support the kitten in a number of ways, the steroid enhancing maturation and the antibiotic addressing the possibility of underlying infection and compensating for the immuno-depressant properties of the steroid. The steroid will also encourage the kitten to feed more energetically, keeping its weight up. Several breeders believe that Taurine plays a part in the condition, and it may be that some cases are Taurine-related. These breeders give the queen large doses of Taurine (1000 mg) daily until the kittens recover – apparently within a few days. Given that most FCKS cases take weeks rather than days to recover, this supplement may be relevant.

An experimental treatment, enzyme potentiated desensitization (EPD), has been tried for decades but is not generally accepted as effective. EPD uses dilutions of allergen and an enzyme, beta-glucuronidase, to which T-regulatory lymphocytes are supposed to respond by favoring desensitization, or down-regulation, rather than sensitization. EPD has also been tried for the treatment of autoimmune diseases but evidence does not show effectiveness.

A review found no effectiveness of homeopathic treatments and no difference compared with placebo. The authors concluded that, based on rigorous clinical trials of all types of homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments, there is no convincing evidence that supports the use of homeopathic treatments.

According to the NCCIH, the evidence is relatively strong that saline nasal irrigation and butterbur are effective, when compared to other alternative medicine treatments, for which the scientific evidence is weak, negative, or nonexistent, such as honey, acupuncture, omega 3's, probiotics, astragalus, capsaicin, grape seed extract, Pycnogenol, quercetin, spirulina, stinging nettle, tinospora or guduchi.

Antibiotic treatments for one to three days shorten the course of the disease and reduce the severity of the symptoms. Use of antibiotics also reduces fluid requirements. People will recover without them, however, if sufficient hydration is maintained. The World Health Organization only recommends antibiotics in those with severe dehydration.

Doxycycline is typically used first line, although some strains of "V. cholerae" have shown resistance. Testing for resistance during an outbreak can help determine appropriate future choices. Other antibiotics proven to be effective include cotrimoxazole, erythromycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and furazolidone. Fluoroquinolones, such as ciprofloxacin, also may be used, but resistance has been reported.

Antibiotics improve outcomes in those who are both severely and not severely dehydrated. Azithromycin and tetracycline may work better than doxycycline or ciprofloxacin.

Allergen immunotherapy is useful for environmental allergies, allergies to insect bites, and asthma. Its benefit for food allergies is unclear and thus not recommended. Immunotherapy involves exposing people to larger and larger amounts of allergen in an effort to change the immune system's response.

Meta-analyses have found that injections of allergens under the skin is effective in the treatment in allergic rhinitis in children and in asthma. The benefits may last for years after treatment is stopped. It is generally safe and effective for allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis, allergic forms of asthma, and stinging insects.

The evidence also supports the use of sublingual immunotherapy for rhinitis and asthma but it is less strong. For seasonal allergies the benefit is small. In this form the allergen is given under the tongue and people often prefer it to injections. Immunotherapy is not recommended as a stand-alone treatment for asthma.

Liver spots (also known as age spot, solar lentigo, "lentigo senilis", "old age spot", "senile freckle") are es on the skin associated with aging and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. They range in color from light brown to red or black and are located in areas most often exposed to the sun, particularly the hands, face, shoulders, arms and forehead, and the scalp if bald.

The spots derive their name from the fact that they were once incorrectly believed to be caused by liver problems, but they are physiologically unrelated to the liver, save for a similar color. From the age of 40 onward the skin is less able to regenerate from sun exposure, and liver spots are very common in this age group, particularly in those who spend time in the sun.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, liver spots pose no threat and require no treatment, though they occasionally have been known to obscure the detection of skin cancer. However, despite being a benign condition, liver spots are sometimes considered unsightly and some people choose to have them removed. This can be done by electrosurgery, laser treatment, cryotherapy, or the use of depigmentation agents, such as hydroquinone, tretinoin, topical cysteamine, azelaic acid or alpha hydroxy acids.