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From the New York Times
The enemy forces were numerous, numbering in the thousands. They were particularly adept at hidden warfare. The fight, which endured for more than a decade, was complicated by the difficulty of detection, with the invader measuring an inch and a half, tops.
“If you took a cross section of a tree infested by Asian long-horned beetles, it would look like Swiss cheese,” said Rhonda Santos, a spokeswoman for the federal Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
But this month, New Jersey declared victory in its war against the Asian long-horned beetle, an invasive, hardwood-eating insect that arrived on the shores of New York City in 1996, most likely on wood pallets. The beetle has since surfaced in a total of five states and, by tunneling through tree trunks, has threatened some of the nation’s most common tree species, including maples, London planes, birches and poplars.
By Sandra Avant
March 8, 2013
Why do birds, monkeys and other animals rub themselves with citrus and creatures like millipedes? One likely reason is because certain plants and arthropods contain natural repellents.
Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) at the National Zoological Park in Front Royal, Va., examined citrus compounds and millipedes for effectiveness against ticks. John Carroll, an entomologist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Beltsville, Md., and SCBI researcher Paul Weldon tested the responses of ticks to more than 20 different compounds in citrus extracts. ARS is the chief intramural scientific research agency of USDA.
By Dennis O’Brien
January 7, 2013
First detected in the United States a decade ago, the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is now in at least 39 states, is wreaking havoc in homes and gardens, and is a major economic threat to orchard fruits, garden vegetables and row crops. It’s no wonder the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ranks this pest as its top “invasive insect of interest.”
By Dennis O’Brien
January 7, 2013
First detected in the United States a decade ago, the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is now in at least 39 states, is wreaking havoc in homes and gardens, and is a major economic threat to orchard fruits, garden vegetables and row crops. It’s no wonder the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ranks this pest as its top “invasive insect of interest.”
From Delta Farm Press:
Bats, an organic method of pest control, may become rare in the United States and Canada.
The primary predators of night-flying insects, bats reduce the need for chemical pesticides and save the agriculture industry an estimated $3 billion per year in pest-control costs. But bat populations across the Eastern United States are decreasing at alarming rates because of a fungus thought to be imported from Europe.
The Northeastern IPM Center has two new stories on their website:
Serving Up a Bitter End for Eggplant Pests
When researchers plant eggplant into crimson clover, they dish up trouble over and over for two unwanted beetles.
http://bit.ly/P7IibT
Scientists Draw Maps to Stop Stink Bug Pirates
An integrated pest management program running since the 1980s has led to fresh insights about a new invader. Scientists are deploying maps to aid the fight.
http://bit.ly/OFnKWA
For informational documents on IPM and green cleaning in child care facilities, go to http://www.informedgreensolutions.org under Cleaning for Healthier Child Care Fact Sheets. The grant focused on both traditional IPM and green cleaning, including antimicrobials. The group also developed Road Maps to direct people who want to work with child care networks to the right agencies.
The brown marmorated stink bug is advancing, yet its secrets are unraveling. Today a team of more than 50 researchers launches a website bringing its latest findings to growers in North America. This group is solving the mysteries of this pest that damages a huge range of fruit, vegetable, and ornamental crops. You’ll find a photo identification guide and recommendations for how to control it. Connect to the researchers’ sites, send a specimen for identification, and report a sighting. Go to:
ITHACA, NY: Cornell University plant pathologist George Hudler began Branching Out in 1994 as a newsletter providing plant health-care professionals with “hot off the press” information about insects and diseases on woody plants in New York landscapes. Each issue included a feature article providing in-depth discussions of individual pests and pathogens.
