#Efficacy of natural bed bug pesticides comparedconcerns over human-insecticide exposure has stimulated the development of alternative bed bug control materials
and marketed for bed bug control. The results are published in an article in the Journal of Economic Entomology.
The nonsynthetic bed bug pesticides--which contain ingredients such as geraniol rosemary oil mint oil cinnamon oil peppermint oil eugenol clove oil lemongrass oil sodium lauryl sulfate
-Bed bug 911--Bed bug Bully--Bed bug Fix--Bed bug Patrol--Ecoexempt IC2--Ecoraider--Eradicator--Essentria--Rest Assured--Green Rest Easy--Stop Bugging Mewhen
the researchers sprayed the 11 nonsynthetic pesticides directly on bed bug nymphs they found that only two--Ecoraider (1%geraniol 1%cedar extract
and 2%sodium lauryl sulfate) and Bed bug Patrol (0. 003%clove oil 1%peppermint oil and 1. 3%sodium lauryl sulfate)--killed more than 90 percent of them.
None of the nonsynthetic insecticides had any noticeable effect against bed bug eggs except for Ecoraider which killed 87 percent of them.
because it is extremely difficult to spray any product directly on bed bugs because of their ability to hide in tiny cracks and crevices.
Under field conditions bed bugs hide in cracks crevices creases and many other places where insecticide application may not be applied directly onto the hidden insects the authors wrote.
and Bed bug Patrol and how they can be incorporated into a bed bug management program. Curiously some of the active ingredients in Ecoraider and Bed bug Patrol are also found in some of the other tested products that exhibited very low rates of efficacy an indication that the products'inactive ingredients are also important.
Other factors besides the active ingredients must have accounted for the high efficacy of some essential oil-based pesticides the authors wrote.
and tossed by the wind a field of soybean plants presents a challenge for an Asian lady beetle on the hunt for aphids.
Lady beetles eat a major soybean pest the soybean aphid. Barton grew plots of soybeans in alfalfa fields protecting some with wind blocks
and twice as many soybean aphids on the plants growing in the open. Wind has no direct effect on the aphids tiny insects that hug the plants
and anchor themselves while feeding with a needle-like mouthpart called a stylet. The aphids appear on the plants
whether it's windy or not and we showed that in lab experiments Barton says.
But when you add the predators with the wind block the beetles eat something like twice as many aphids.
and it eats less than half as many aphids in an hour. Slower natural wind speeds could reduce the amount of pesticide required to keep soybean aphids from wrecking harvests.
And the wind research may present other opportunities for pest control. By growing trees or not harvesting them around a field you may be able to have an indirect effect on the number of aphids on your soybean plants says Barton who wonders what other close animal relationships may be disrupted by shifting winds.
The mechanism may be different for other predators but it's not hard to start thinking about effects he says.
Together with her colleague from GÃ rlitz Dr. John M. C. Hutchinson and a colleague from the United states Department of agriculture (USDA-APHIS) the scientist has studied the distribution of these mollusks
The European grape berry moth and the cicada Scaphoideus titanus are considered to be the major pests of cultivated grape.
in order to help APHIS meet its goals of early detection and mitigation of invasive pests he said.
and assessed immediately by APHIS personnel rather than waiting days or weeks until a trap might usually be checked said Baker.
Previous research suggested that plant climbing might be a way for salamanders to access additional prey items like aphids
What was surprising was that the salamanders collected on trees did not have anything one would associate with a plant-feeding insect like aphids.
#Greenhouse whitefly: Will the unwanted greenhouse guest make it in the wild? Greenhouses have improved the possibilities of invasion of greenhouse whitefly into the wild in the boreal region new study finds.
Genetic analysis sheds new light on the survival of whiteflies in Finland and helps to plan efficient pest management.
Irina Ovcarenko research scientist at the MTT Agrifood Research Finland has studied genetic diversity and ecology of greenhouse whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) in her thesis. Greenhouse whitefly is a widespread invasive pest
which has occurred in Finland since the year 1920. It does not belong to the original fauna of the country
Genetic analyses revealed that the same whitefly populations persist in the majority of the sampled greenhouses for two years.
Year-round greenhouse crop producers should avoid planting new crop without complete extermination of whiteflies not only from the old crop but also from the greenhouse premises Ovcarenko says.
Insecticide-treated populations able to recoverovcarenko's findings show that genetic diversity of greenhouse whitefly is lower in the Finnish greenhouses compared with Greece where whiteflies are able to persist outdoors all year round.
Furthermore global genetic diversity of greenhouse whitefly is low. Generally low genetic diversity results in species'decreased ability to adapt.
However whiteflies are able to recover from insecticide treatments and maintain even high levels of genetic diversity in their local populations.
and no signs of harmful genetic bottlenecks in whiteflies from greenhouses where new crops are planted every year
Whitefly is a generalist herbivore which feeds on many plant species but it may also specialize in feeding on greenhouse crops.
Despite initial signs of host race formation whiteflies prefer natural species to cultivated crops as host plants which could facilitate pest dispersal into natural vegetation in spring.
Whiteflies are able to use numerous outdoor plants around greenhouses as seasonal habitats in summer.
The same population of whiteflies may therefore return from these wild plants to newly planted greenhouse crops in August
Biological pest control pays offthe study showed that resistance to common insecticide pymetrozine varies considerably among the Finnish whitefly populations.
If biological pest control was used whitefly populations were more susceptible to insecticides whereas whiteflies from greenhouses treated with insecticides over the years showed initial signs of resistance development.
The most important step to reduce crop damage and tackle invasion is to standardize practices in dense greenhouse areas.
The study has motivated farmers to exchange information and monitor whiteflies outside greenhouses in potato and strawberry fields.
To find new weapons especially against superbugs that resist nearly all antibiotics synthetic chemists pursue the complex process of mimicking the structures of effective natural molecules as they build drug candidates atom by atom.
Recent studies found that scale insect populations increase on oak and maple trees in warmer urban areas which raises the possibility that these pests may also increase with global warming says Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt a research associate at NC State
More scale insects would be a problem since scales can weaken or kill the trees they live on Youngsteadt says.
whether warming causes scale insect population explosions in rural forests the way it does in cities.
and Georgia. By evaluating the scale insect remains attached to each specimen Youngsteadt estimated scale population density
Scale insect density in rural areas was not as high as it was in the city but there was a common pattern Youngsteadt says Scale insects were most likely to be present on specimens collected during warm historical time periods
and scales were most abundant when temperatures were similar to modern urban Raleigh. Given the shared urban and historical pattern the researchers also predicted that scale insects would be more abundant in rural forests today than in the past as a result of recent climate warming.
To test this prediction Youngsteadt went to 20 sites where historical specimens were collected from 1970 to 1997
and sampled their modern scale insect populations. Sure enough scale abundance had increased at 16 of the 20 sites Youngsteadt says.
Overall we found a total of about five times more scale insects in 2013 than on the historical specimens from the same locations.
The urban and historical data are aligned so well that we can view scale insect populations in cities as a preview of what to expect elsewhere Youngsteadt adds.
which showed that two species of scale insects infesting maple and oak benefit from urban warming.
Eastern hemlock trees have died throughout much of their range due to the hemlock woolly adelgid an exotic invasive insect said Steven Brantley a postdoctoral researcher at Coweeta
Since hemlock woolly adelgid was detected first in 2003 all the eastern hemlock trees in both watersheds died resulting in a loss of 26 percent of forest basal area (that area occupied by tree trunks
of young produced by the gloomy scale insect--a significant tree pest--by 300 percent which in turn leads to 200 times more adult gloomy scales on urban trees.
Temperature was the most important predictor of gloomy scale abundance--the warmer it was the more scale insects we found Dale says.
That supports the differences we saw in scale insect abundance on the trees. Populations at the warmest sites were over 200 times more abundant than those at the coolest sites.
and other pest species. The research on scale insect abundance is published in Urban warming trumps natural enemy regulation of herbivorous pests which is forthcoming from the journal Ecological Applications.
The Ecological Applications study's findings are also consistent with an earlier study from Frank's lab that found another scale insect species is more abundant at warmer temperatures due to increased survival rates.
and rising temperatures associated with global climate change could lead to increases in scale insect populations which could have correspondingly negative effects on trees like the red maple Dale says.
which host high numbers of introduced hemipterans and targeted control of ant nests in the most disturbed habitats.
For example this method is used to play a trick on grape phylloxera a notorious pest of commercial grapevines that attacks the roots of the plants.
Some ant species support colonies of plant-feeding insects such as aphids or plant hoppers even protecting them from predators.
It's like having dairy cattle Winkler said. Through this technique the ants consume the sugar-rich honey dew the aphids secrete
much as humans use cow's milk. When the ants are need in of protein they simply eat the aphids.
Ants also distribute organic matter by moving dead insects into the colonies and their dead nest mates away from the colonies Winkler added.
Citrus greening first enters the tree via a tiny bug the Asian citrus psyllid which sucks on leaf sap
UF/IFAS researchers have attempted everything from trying to eradicate the psyllid to breeding citrus rootstock that shows better greening resistance.
The jumping plant louse Diaphorina citri hones in on the odor methyl salicylate that is released by damaged young leaves of citrus trees
The wasps were attracted strongly to the smell of both bacteria-infected and louse-infested citrus plants and also to pure methyl salicylate.
and his colleagues used data from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to compare wood packaging infestation rates from 2 years prior to U s. implementation
and lead author of the study. â#oewe are also working with two other natural enemies a psyllid
Citrus greening first enters the tree via a tiny insect the Asian citrus psyllid which sucks on leaf sap
To battle greening UF/IFAS researchers have attempted everything from trying to eradicate the psyllid to breeding trees that show better greening resistance.
while psyllid control is essential growers should make careful decisions on how many resources to devote to any management strategy for greening-infected trees based on their economic means until field trials have been completed.
The study titled Aphid amino acid transporter regulates glutamine supply to intracellular bacterial symbionts is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS.
The findings show how a simple mechanism allows an insect the pea aphid to regulate the manufacturing of essential nutrients supplied by its symbiotic bacteria called Buchnera aphidicola.
The pea aphid feeds on plant sap. Its diet is deficient in essential nutrients called amino acids.
The aphid can produce some amino acids on its own but the rest it must get from beneficial bacteria that live inside aphid cells.
In turn the symbiotic bacteria can't produce amino acids that the aphid can make so the partners exchange insect-produced amino acids for symbiont-produced amino acids.
That conversion of going from a diet with an inappropriate nutritional profile to an appropriate profile occurs in collaboration between the bacteria
To help answer this question the researchers looked at amino acids that are fundamental to the pea aphid-Buchnera symbiotic function.
which is made in the aphid. Glutamine is important because it's the precursor for all amino acids produced both by the aphid and by the symbiont.
The other amino acid is arginine which is made in Buchnera and it's deficient in the pea aphid's diet.
Glutamine is ferried across a membrane that surrounds the cells where the bacteria lives by an amino acid transporter named Apglnt1.
and where it is localized in the pea aphid the researchers built a model that describes how the amino acid factory responds to supply and demand.
when there is a buildup of arginine in the pea aphid arginine binds to Apglnt1 and inhibits glutamine uptake.
When aphid demand for essential nutrients is high the transporter imports large amounts of precursor
and the precursor is converted into essential nutrients that are returned to the aphid Price says. Conversely when there is low aphid essential nutrient demand little precursor is imported
and the essential nutrient production factory is shut down. A remarkably basic mechanism regulates the biosynthesis of symbiont-produced arginine in response to the needs of the pea aphid.
But the model goes further than that. Since Apglnt1 localizes to the membrane of aphid cells where the bacteria resides
and because of other features peculiar to aphid metabolism transporter Apglnt1 not only regulates arginine biosynthesis but all amino acid biosynthesis Wilson said.
The system is simple and elegant. Thus amino acid transporters play a key role in the evolutionary success of these insects.
#Whitefly confused by cacophony of smellsbombarding pests with smells from many different plants temporarily confuses them
Exposing the whitefly to a heady aroma of cucumber courgette watercress watermelon cabbage and bean the team found the insects became temporarily disorientated.
Like other insect pests whitefly feed by pushing their long mouthpiece--or stylets--into the leaf until it reaches the plant's main source of nutrients travelling through the phloem.
and the team found the whiteflies failed to feed while they were being bombarded with the different plant chemicals.
--or at least not properly or efficiently--and it's the same for the whitefly. Whiteflies use their sense of smell to locate tomato plants.
By bombarding its senses with a range of different smells we create'sensory confusion 'and the result is that the insect becomes disorientated
Trialeurodes vaporariorum--or whitefly--is a major worldwide pest of greenhouse crops and is controlled traditionally using chemical pesticides or biological methods such as parasites.
Previous studies have shown that whitefly become'restless 'when a number of plant species are mixed together rather than being exposed to a single crop.
Measuring the time it took from the insect settling on a plant to accessing the plant sap the team showed that hardly any of the whiteflies exposed to a range of smells started feeding from the phloem within 15 hours from the time of exposure.
By comparison the majority of whiteflies exposed to just the single smell released by the tomato plants started feeding within this time.
A bacterium called Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLAS) vectored by the Asian citrus psyllid is presumed the causal agent of the disease.
and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrates that it is possible to qualify bison coming from an infected herd as free of brucellosis using quarantine procedures.
In response to Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) guidelines on federal and state bison management actions the USDA APHIS Brucellosis Eradication:
Rhyan APHIS Veterinary Officer. Additionally this study was a great example of the benefits to be gained from several agencies pooling resources
#Controlling zebra chip disease from the inside outzebra chip disease in potatoes is currently being managed by controlling the potato psyllid with insecticides.
which is transmitted by the psyllid said Dr. Ron French Agrilife Extension plant pathologist in Amarillo.
Biological control methods can target psyllid populations in a field but it takes a while for them to be effective
if that psyllid flew into the field. It only takes a few hours for a psyllid to acquire
and transmit the bacterium from plant to plant French said. French is conducting his studies using alternative controls as a part of the U s. Department of agriculture-National Institute of Food
so that any negative impacts the psyllid bacterium disease or pesticide use are having on the plant can translate into improved yields.
when psyllid populations in the field and the instances of zebra chip were said significant French.
and the psyllid as well he said. We hope to be able to do laboratory studies to determine
The third and last approach he is studying is using plant nutrients to offset the damage caused by the psyllid
and is transmitted by the citrus psyllid. After several years of work French said his studies are beginning to raise more interest from the industry to get products labeled or at least tested.
New and improved varieties of cowpeas have numerous adaptive traits of agronomic importance such as 60-70 day maturity drought tolerance heat tolerance aphid resistance
and heat tolerant genes but also develop a platform for mapping genes controlling several other biotic and abiotic stress tolerances such as aphid resistance and low phosphorus tolerance both
Seed treatments help manage chinch bugs grape colapsis thrips and soil insects such as wire worms and white grubs and get the plants off to a good healthy start.
Herbicide drift was associated also with the declines of three species of herbivores including pea aphids spotted alfalfa aphids
The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) can spread the lethal and incurable citrus disease known as huanglongbing (HLB)
In 2011 for the first time entomologists at the University of California Riverside released Tamarixia radiata a wasp that is the natural enemy of the ACP in a citrus grove in Riverside to help control the psyllid.
Our work demonstrates that Tamarixia radiata is very specific to the target it is being released to kill--the nymphs of the Asian citrus psyllid in this case said Mark Hoddle the director of the Center for Invasive Species Research whose lab performed the tests.
To test the safety of Tamarixia different species of native California psyllids were exposed to the wasp in a series of tests.
and a non-target psyllid speices or there was no choice (that is the wasp was given only access to a non-target species one it had evolved not with).
This was the native pest potato psyllid which spreads a bacterium that causes zebra chip disease.
Native psyllids are hard to find and the native plants they grow on are difficult to culture in the laboratory he said.
#Increase in hemlock forest offsetting effect of invasive hemlock woolly adelgid for nowdespite the accumulating destruction of a nonnative invasive insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid hemlock forests in the eastern United states appear to have held their own
and succession in the eastern U s. may have offset the negative impacts of the adelgid at the regional scale.
The study Changes in the regional abundance of hemlock associated with the invasion of hemlock woolly adelgid was published recently in the journal Biological Invasions.
A native of Japan the hemlock woolly adelgid was detected first In virginia in the 1950s and for decades remained a primarily urban pest.
Hemlock trees in the United states do not have natural defenses against hemlock woolly adelgid which coupled with a lack of natural predators has resulted in high levels of tree mortality in the 18 states where it is known to have spread particularly in southern states.
Trotter believes that this study which is based on forest data through 2007 may have caught hemlock at a tipping point in the balance between losses from hemlock woolly adelgid and increases due to forest regrowth.
Even if there were continued increases in hemlock abundance in northern climates where cold temperatures slow damages from hemlock woolly adelgid the loss of trees in the south is a loss to the species Trotter said.
Nonnative forest insects like the hemlock woolly adelgid are devastating on many levels because trees are so important to a region's culture
which they use to hunt for mainly leafhoppers and planthoppers renowned common garden insect pests says Archibald.
The newly discovered species were preserved in Eocene epoch fossil beds that are 49 million to 52 million years old
nigrispinus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) may aid companies that rear these beneficial insects and the growers who use them in the field.
Light technology can combat superbugs A universal vaccine for superbugs is possible Researchers discover anti-pathogenic drugs to treat superbugs War against superbugs:
A coating that can kill MRSA upon contact The fight for life against superbugs Scientists can shut down a superbug's CPU
say, major wheat production centers with concentrations of Russian wheat aphids, a crop pest. The idea behind the Internet-based, bilingual maps, collectively called Agroatlas, is to promote world food security--with specific attention to nations who were a part of the former Soviet union.
Unlike many useful gadgets these days, it can sniff out bed bugs. Literally. The Bed bug Detective--modeled after canine bed bug detectives
which can nose out bed bugs with 98%accuracy--sniffs the air much the way dogs do.
Sensors inside the device detect the three signatures of a bed bug's scent: a combination of pheromones, carbon dioxide and methane.
It won one of Popular Science's 2011 Invention Awards
Water Wednesday: Smarter home irrigation technologiescontributor s Note: This is an ongoing column in water sustainability, consumption and management issues.
Artificial plants could beat bed bugsbean leaves effectively trap bed bugs Bean plant leaves won't bite bed bugs back,
You might be wondering why bed bugs-the subject the famous childhood idiom sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite-are being taken so seriously by science.
The pests have become a silent scourge in homes, hotels, and even movie theaters throughout major cities worldwide.
Social constructs don't matter to bed bugs: domiciles of the rich and poor are afflicted equally with infestations that can be costly and difficult to treat.
New york has a major bed bug problem. As a New yorker, I've been witness to friends being forced to vacate their apartments,
TV spots starring Roscoe the bed bug sniffing dog, mattress encasement ads on the subway, commercials with people freezing bugs,
when English philosopher John Locke traveled across Europe with a supply of kidney bean leaves as defense against bed bug bites.
Bedbug genome uncovers pesticide resistance Beyond bedbugs-lay your head to rest in the greenest hotel Watch robots climb trees,  helicopter  in and sniff bugs
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