Killing Bark Beetles

Killing Bark Beetles

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Let's say that you have a bug that attacks crops. What if we could find a natural enemy of the bug we want to eliminate, grow it in a lab and let it loose to attack the targeted pest? This is the approach being used by Dr. Peter Shearer, Entomologist at Oregon State University. " A new pest shows up, you go find its natural enemy, do the necessary background work and then release it and quite often you can have a positive benefit from that. And it will control it in its new habitat. Knowing the form of research that are doing, I am particularly interested in the correct of the bark beetle to our national forests, we could use a similar strategy in going after dark beetles? Their populations are exploding due to other factors, not from a lack of bio-control agents, global warming, drought, mass die-off of trees are causing these beetles to spread and increase their native range. Is there a natural enemy to the bark beetle that could be encouraged to grow in mass and released to target the pest we are trying to eliminate? That is called inundative release where you mass rear and release."
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