Pest insects can have adverse and damaging impacts on agricultural production and market access, the natural environment, and our lifestyle. Pest insects may cause problems by damaging crops and food production, parasitizing livestock, or being a nuisance and health hazard to humans. The dark cloud of pests looming over the agriculture sector is spreading and increasing at an alarming rate! Pests, considered as an age-old enemy of agriculture, continue to thwart the sector by destroying the crops. Though tiny, they are capable of large-scale destruction. They appear in large numbers, attack the vegetation and many times destroy the entire field and the agricultural produce. On average the pests are known to cause 10-16% agricultural produce loss. Toxic and hazardous pesticides of worth million dollars are used to curb this pest problem to little effect.

It has been reported that pests are spreading towards the North and South Poles at a rate of nearly 3 km a year! This poses a great threat to global food security. With the increasing population, the demand for the food supply is increasing rapidly. In the midst of such situation, the report that the pests are spreading across the globe is surely alarming. The threat posed by these vile pests could lead towards a chaotic situation endangering the global food security and causing loss of millions.

Let’s take a look at the below article

 

 

Insects feast on plants, endangering crops and costing billions

David Montalvo| @montalvo_d; Saturday, 9 May 2015 | 9:00 AM ET

Behind the blossoming flowers and fields of fruit in the U.S. lurks a hungry threat that has crawled and eaten its way through much of the country. Sometimes, the menace infiltrates these places on the backs of unsuspecting hikers and travelers.

Almost always, the damage it wreaks comes at a high cost.

As summer approaches, swarms of invasive species—which the National wildlife federation refers to as “one of the leading threats to native wildlife”—are on a rampage. These organisms attack not just gardens, but also agriculture and the environment, costing the United States about $120 billion each year in damages, according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

“They are a serious threat to our economy,” says APHIS spokeswoman Abbey Powell. “Federal and state authorities are tirelessly working together to stop the spread of invasive pests.”

Of greatest concern to the government are a group of non-native ants, beetles, moths and flies, and one giant slug. APHIS has identified 18 of these pests that it believes pose the greatest threats to America’s crops, plants and trees, and which inflict damage on a range of businesses, from farmers and citrus growers to the lumber industry.

Oranges wither on the vine, costing billions

The adult Asian citrus psyllid is no bigger than a common gnat and feeds with the posterior of its body raised.

One of America’s most popular food staples is at war against an insect smaller than an apple seed that is spreading an incurable disease. And they are losing.

Over the last few years, the nation’s orange industry has taken a more than $4 billion hit as dead trees and useless crops recently sent orange harvests to their lowest in two decades.

“It’s like a patient that keeps getting sicker and sicker and sicker, until it dies,” says Michael Rogers, interim director of the Citrus Research and Education Center at the University of Florida.

The disease is called huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening. Producing oranges too bitter for juice and too misshapen and discolored for fresh fruit, the bacteria leaves farmers little choice but to destroy every one of their sick trees.

The crawling culprit facilitating its spread is the Asian citrus psyllid, a plant juice sucking bug that with a gust of wind can easily become airborne and carry the fatal bacteria that destroys oranges, limes, lemons, and grapefruits.

“If we don’t protect our citrus,” warns the USDA’s Save Our Citrus campaign, “that cup of juice you drink with your breakfast, the beautiful lemon tree in your yard and the curry you use to add zest to your cooking might not be there in the future.”

In Florida, disease-carrying bugs have ravaged citrus crops, triggering dire predictions about the coming extinction of orange juice. Indeed, “the majority of the citrus trees [in Florida] have the disease,” according to Rogers.

The state’s orange production has been steadily declining since the bacteria was first identified there in 2004, according to USDA data, along with the number of acres bearing the fruit.

Rather than invest time and money in grove regrowth, some citrus farmers are deciding to sell out to real estate developers, Rogers explains. Yet for those who try and stand their ground against the expanding threat, they are arming themselves with a variety of tools to try and control the psyllid population, including spraying, tenting and steam treatments, the USDA says.

Another possible solution being explored, but one that has been met with some controversy: genetically modifying oranges to make them more resilient to pests and diseases. While GMOs could be more of a long-term solution, says Rogers, a more short-term one is naturally cross-breeding oranges to create “new varieties” that can “better tolerate the disease.”

However, it would be at least four years before their effectiveness could be measured, when the new citrus trees finally yield, he acknowledged.

Insects are not only threatening produce but attacking forests and trees around the country.

Forest resources in the North Atlantic states are under siege. The Asian longhorn beetle is menacing “recreation and forest resources valued at billions of dollars” and has the potential to destroy “millions of acres of America’s treasured hardwoods,” according to the APHIS.

These are among the invasive pests currently under federal quarantine, which is designed to restrict their movement to greener pastures. Some states are following the federal quarantine.

In Hawaii, a rhinoceros-looking black beetle is attacking coconut-bearing palm trees. The beetle was detected less than two years ago, but the Plant Industry Division of the state’s Department of Agriculture is already calling it a “serious invasive pest.” It is forcing officials there to deploy thousands of traps to capture them, and even asking residents to check their mulch before discarding it.

Another bug in Hawaii also found in California is the light brown apple moth. It is a particularly hungry critter known to damage scores of crops such as avocados, grapes and raspberries, and thousands of plants and trees that include roses and eucalyptus. “It could expand its preferences as it is exposed to new plants and crops,” the USDA-APHIS warns.

Citizens can help in small ways, officials say, offering tips on how to prevent bugs from spreading. One effort is providing hikers, gardeners and international travelers with advice to keep invasive pests at bay—like not moving firewood, not bringing plants or produce across state lines, declaring agriculture items at customs, and washing the soil off tires and outdoor gear before and after trips.

“Most importantly,” says APHIS’ Powell, these “are pests that people can do something about by taking a few simple steps.”

A sure and effective way of combating these insects was devised by C Tech Corporation in the form of their product Termirepel™.

Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous, environment-friendly insect and pest aversive. It is 100% effective against a host of insects and pests like webworms, beetles, etc. Termirepel™ is available in liquid concentrate form which can be diluted further and made into sprays that can replace conventional harmful insecticides. The spray can then be just sprayed on the trees or plants affected.

Termirepel™ is also available in the form of lacquer which can be applied to the trees and the surrounding areas. Termirepel™ is unique in its aspect that it works by the mechanism of repellence and not by killing. Thus, target as well as non-targeted beneficial species are not harmed but are merely kept away from the application.

 

Termites though extremely small and tiny creatures have managed to stir us humans into noticing them and acknowledging their existence. The primary reason is the tune of damage they cause which has a direct impact on the economy of the country and thus the humans. Termites attack in groups and feed on any form of cellulose especially wood. This little bit of trivia makes us realize that almost everything around us is susceptible to a termite attack. Termites always seek for moisture filled places and therefore basements and space under wooden boards are their favorable infestation places. Termite damage often looks similar to water damage. Outward signs of termite damage include buckling wood, swollen floor sand ceilings, areas that appear to be suffering from slight water damage and visible mazes within walls or furniture. Termite infestations also can exude a scent similar to mildew or mold. Dry wood termite infestations may only become apparent after a colony has burrowed so deeply into an infested item that the veneer cracks and the maze-like tunnels beneath become visible. Such damage is common in antique furniture pieces.

One of the most favorite termite snacks is paper in any form. The below article proves my point;

 

 

Death penalty files ‘lost, eaten by termites’

Pradeep Thakur & Himanshi Dhawan, TNN | Aug 3, 2015, 01.41 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Records of death penalty convicts who have been executed since independence have gone missing from many prisons with the National Law University (NLU), conducting a first of its kind study, able to confirm data related to 755 executions since 1947.
“Some prison authorities have written to us that either the records have been lost or destroyed by termites,” NLU director Anup Surendranath told TOI, who is heading the death penalty research project. The NLU is compiling data on all prisoners who have been executed since independence with the help of the central government.

The missing files are not only a serious lapse on part of prison authorities but have also hampered an ongoing attempt to study all death row convicts to ascertain the fairness of the capital punishment jurisprudence, particularly those who have been executed in independent India.

The casual attitude towards death row convicts is reflected in the loss of mercy pleas of Krishna Mochi and three others in the Krishna Mochi & Ors vs. Bihar case of 2001. Convicted by the TADA court, mercy pleas of the four have been lost by the Union home ministry. Their pleas were sent to the President in 2003, and a recent RTI response to Suhas Chakma of Asian Centre for Human Rights has revealed that the home ministry has no records available. “These papers have evidently been lost,” Chakma said.

Loss of data on executed prisoners reflects poorly on the record-keeping of the government and the judicial system. Incidentally, the 35th report of the law commission had confirmed execution of at least 1,410 death row prisoners in a span of 10 years—between 1953 and 1963.

Data by the National Crime Records Bureau is also not without gaps. For example, the NCRB claims that as many as 2,052 individuals were awarded capital punishment by courts between 1998 and 2013. And the NCRB also says between 2001 and 2013 the number of those whose death sentences were commuted was double: 4,497 persons.

CHRI’s Venkatesh Nayak says that this is where the NCRB data becomes “questionable”. “The discrepancies probably crept in when jail authorities counted all commutations even those of shortened prison time,” he said.

“Information on executions are sourced from various prisons and courts across the country which do not reveal either the religious or caste backgrounds of the convicts who have been executed,” Surendranath points out. The NLU report on the death penalty is scheduled for release in mid-August where a detailed analysis of socio-economic profile, legal representation and duration on death row would be made public.

The NLU has conducted interviews of 373 surviving death penalty convicts and has drawn their socio-economic profile. The analysis of these surviving prisoners shows that an overwhelming majority of them are from backward class, religious minorities, and economically vulnerable classes. In the category of terror offenses, 94% prisoners sentenced to death are Dalits and religious minorities.

“We have been unable to find an exhaustive list of prisoners executed in India. However, as per a report of the Law Commission (1967), the total number of cases in which the sentence of death was executed from 1953 to 1963 was 1,410,” Surendranath said.

One can only imagine how much damage these insects can inflict on our ever powerful judicial system. Sure we can punish human criminals but what about these little criminals??

We at C Tech Corporation can provide a long-lasting and effective solution to combat termite infestations. Our product Termirepel™ is a non-toxic and non- hazardous termite aversive. It is effective against a host of termite species including damp wood termites as also the most aggressive ones. It is available in the form of polymer compatible masterbatches as well as in lacquer form. It can be mixed with paint or an organic solvent to create a solution for topical use.  Termirepel™ is the one and only effective solution to

Aphids are very common sap-sucking insects that can cause a lack of plant vigor, distorted growth and often excrete a sticky substance (honeydew) on foliage which allows the growth of sooty moulds. Some aphids transmit plant viruses which can be a problem on strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, dahlias, tulips, sweet peas and many other plants

Aphids range in size from 1 to 7mm (¼in or less) long. Some aphids are known as greenfly or blackfly, but there are species that are yellow, pink, white or mottled. Some species, like woolly beech aphid and woolly aphid on apple, cover themselves with a fluffy white waxy secretion and can be confused with some scale insects, mealy bug or whitefly. Most aphids feed on foliage, stems, and flowers but some suck sap from roots. There are more than 500 aphid species in Britain. Some species only attack one or two plant species, but others attack a wide range of plant hosts. Almost all plants can be affected, including ornamentals, vegetables, fruits, greenhouse plants, and houseplants.

The aphid is a key pest of sorghum and sugarcane in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including Africa, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. Although it was reported in Hawaii in 1896, it was first found in the continental United States on sugarcane in Florida in 1977. It was also observed on sugarcane in Louisiana in 1999. These infestations broke out in summer and declined by winter.

These aphid pests have infested grain sorghum in South and East Texas, southern Oklahoma, eastern Mississippi, northeastern Mexico, and central, northeast, and southwest Louisiana. In 2013, large populations of sugarcane aphids (Melanaphis sacchari) developed on sorghum plants. They produced large amounts of honeydew, which choked combines and caused lost grain in northeast Texas and Louisiana. Growers lost up to 50 percent of grain sorghum yield in infested fields during 2013. LSU Ag Center entomologist David Kerns said aphids have been a sugarcane pest in Louisiana since 1999, but in 2013 moved to grain sorghum for the first time. The 2013 infestation occurred late in the season and only caused harvest efficiency problems. The aphids produce sticky honeydew that can clog harvesters. According to Kerns, the pest arrived earlier and in higher numbers. “We’re seeing more acres affected. These aphids are being found throughout the whole state now.” He also stated that infestations, which began in the southern part of the state and moved north, can be fairly severe and cause yield loss.

The below article would further emphasize the damage caused by these pesky creatures.

 

 

 

Fighting back against an array of garden pests and diseases

By Kathryn McKenzie, Monterey Herald

There are few things more depressing than spending months nurturing a lovely rose, or delicious tomato, or beautiful plum tree, only to suddenly find it covered with weird spots and tiny insects.

The bad news is that these things can damage or even kill your precious plants. The good news is that there are some simple and sustainable solutions to get rid of the problem without using dangerous pesticides.

That’s the message at the twice-monthly pest and disease screening clinic held at McShane’s Nursery in Salinas.

On one recent Saturday, about a dozen people came to the free clinic with samples in hand, looking for answers to the pests that were plaguing their plants.

Aphids feast on a rose bush at a pest and fertilizer screening at McShane’s Nursery and Landscape Supply last week. (Vernon McKnight/Monterey Herald)

Nursery owner and general manager Steve McShane was there to console, diagnose and offer ideas for treating the various problems.

“When we’re talking, I tell them to go with what is least harmful to the environment,” said McShane.

Many homeowners have been coming in to find answers to aphid problems this year, he notes.

“This year has been worse because we’ve had a milder winter, and they’ve been able to overwinter successfully,” said McShane. “There’s been a lot of interest in aphid control.”

Aphids can attack many different kinds of plants, but are often most devastating for roses, sucking the life from new buds and leaves and causing them to wither.

However, it doesn’t take much to deter these soft-bodied bugs — even a well-directed spray of water will knock them off plants, McShane said, leaving them vulnerable to other insects and animals that eat them.

But if stronger measures are needed, he recommends horticultural oils such as neem oil, which has become part of the organic gardener’s arsenal in recent years. Derived from a plant native to Indian and Southeast Asia, neem oil is nontoxic to bees, birds and mammals but deadly for sucking insects. It’s also useful in controlling plant fungus.

Horticultural oils can help curb invasions of other sucking insects, like scale and mites, which weaken plants and are unsightly.

As for snails and slugs, McShane recommends the nontoxic snail bail Sluggo. Another formulation, Sluggo Plus, can control other pests that chew on leaves, such as earwigs.

“Earwigs are silent but deadly,” said McShane, noting that many people don’t realize the damage these insects can do because they feed at night. Another chewing insect is the leaf miner, an agricultural pest that often shows up in yards adjacent to commercial produce fields.

Chewing insects can be controlled by application of spinosad, a newer pesticide that is considered to be nontoxic to most beneficial insects, animals, and humans.

Other garden scourges include fungal issues such as powdery mildew and rust, which often affect roses, but may also infest vegetables, fruits, and other plants. Another disease showing up on a plum tree branch that came into the pest screening clinic was shothole fungus, which McShane identified from its appearance.

“It looks like someone shot a shotgun at the leaves, with little black holes through them,” said McShane.

Other plant problems may result not from an insect pest or a fungal disease, but from a nutrition deficit. Another gardener brought in leaves that had yellowed, but the leaf vein remained green, a condition that McShane diagnosed as chlorosis.

McShane said the unusual appearance of the leaf is due to a lack of nutrients such as magnesium, and the answer is to use a fertilizer with micronutrients that replace what the plant is lacking.

Other problems that are specific to tomatoes are bacterial speck, which spreads rapidly and can wipe out a whole tomato crop. Speck is just what it sounds like: brown or black specks develop on tomatoes, and leaves can be affected as well.

McShane said careful watering can help prevent the spread of this bacteria, which lives in soil, and can spread to leaves when water splashes up from soil during watering. Copper fungicide sprays can also help control the problem.

Another tomato issue is blossom end rot, which causes tomato blossoms to fall before setting fruit, and can be caused by humidity and moisture. McShane recommends a spray that is specifically made to address this.

He notes that McShane’s pest and disease screenings have been quite popular this summer due to a renewed interest in gardening and the desire of local gardeners to keep their plants healthy despite the drought.

What’s even better, though, is the fact that it offers them a place to gather and share tips and advice.

“It’s a chance for gardeners to help one another,” said McShane.

Aphid infestations can destroy an entire plant, and if left untreated, they can spread to surrounding plants, as well. Taming an aphid outbreak can be difficult, but a treatment at an early stage can save the plant. If large num­bers of aphids move into the estab­lish­ing plants, insec­ti­cide dress­ings will not pre­vent dam­age, as each aphid must feed to get a dose of the insec­ti­cide, and in doing so con­tribute to the plant damage. Therefore we need a solution that helps protect our plants and trees from damage, while at the same time does not harm the environment in any way. So, how do we fight this pest?

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these tiny insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously fending them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated in lacquer form or added in mulches or films. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the aphids and any other insect that could harm our plants.

 

 

Pinyon pine is a beautiful tree, offering incredible structure to a desert. One of the slowest growing trees among the conifers, the Pinyon pine can take up to a hundred years to produce a single cone. The trees yield edible pinyon nuts, which are widely eaten by the Native Americans. Annual harvest of wild pinyon nuts exceeds a million pounds! The wood, especially when burned, has a distinctive fragrance, making it a common wood to burn in chimineas.  The pinyon pine trees are also known to influence the soil in which they grow. Sadly, these amazing trees are under attack by small, black, bean shaped invasive insects known as the Pinyon needle scales. These insects can cause the leaves of Pinyon pine trees to fall off and could also kill the tree!

These tiny, sap-sucking insects kill the needles and severely weaken Pinyon pines in forests. Reduced new growth and stunted needles are common on trees suffering repeated attacks. The needle length is reduced and needles drop prematurely. Heavy infestations frequently kill small trees and predispose weakened larger trees to attack by other insects. Feeding by adult females and nymphs causes the needles to turn yellow and prematurely fall. Most defoliation occurs on older needles, producing a tufted appearance with younger needles primarily persisting on infested trees. Small trees with scales can die in a few years when untreated. However, larger trees suffer more slowly, losing one or a couple branches at a time until they die.

This insect is most common and damaging in the United States, particularly in southern Colorado. Historic outbreaks were noted in 1957-1963 in southeast Nevada and southwest Utah, affecting several hundred thousand acres. In 2009, approximately 7% of Nevada’s pinyon forest mapped was affected by this insect. In 2010, nearly 1,161,000 acres of the approximately 9,950,000 acres of pinyon in Nevada were mapped as scale-defoliated. This represents 11.6% of Nevada’s pinyon forest!

The graveness of the issue can be better understood from the following article,

Pinyon needle scale eggs killing trees in some AZ cities

 

Allison Miller

Apr 11, 2011

 PRESCOTT, AZ – Spring is providing us with warmer temperatures and beautiful spring blooms.

However, these warmer temperatures have already caused native insects, called pinyon needle scales to emerge. 

These insects can cause leaves of Pinyon pine trees to fall off and could also kill the tree.

Because of the warm temperatures, the female scales have already laid their eggs on the trees and will hatch in May. 

They can be found over thousands of acres including the Prescott area up the northwest to the Williamson Valley and are also spreading across the Payson area.

They look like noticable clusters of yellow eggs held together in loose, white, cottony webbing found in branch crotches, along the underside of branches, on the trunk, and at the base of the tree.

Bob Celaya, Forest Health Specialist says the eggs need to be spotted and treated as quickly as possible since they can kill small trees within a few years and large trees may take several years to die.

Evidently, unless proper measures are taken, the Pinyon pines may soon become extinct due to the Pinyon needle scale. Infested pine trees can be treated with chemicals and insecticides or by washing off the eggs from the surface of the trees before they get a chance to hatch. However, the efforts and costs associated with these methods, as well as the environmental safety concerns about applying toxic insecticides, make these techniques less feasible on a broad scale in natural areas.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these tiny insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously fending them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated on the tree trunks in lacquer form. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the Pinyon needle scale and any other insect that could harm the pine trees. Thus, using Termirepel™ would effectively ensure that our cherished pines remain safe and protected from this destructive pest!

Aphids, also known as plant lice, are diminutive, soft-bodied, pear-shaped insects which feed on plants, typically during the spring and summer seasons. Aphids are amongst the most common type of garden pests and are commonly green in color, though they can also found in pink, brown, yellow and black. There are over 200 species of aphid s, some of which will only feed on specific types of plants, while the majorities are content to eat a myriad of different plants. Aphids are capable of asexual reproduction and can spawn throughout most of the year, sometimes producing nearly 100 young per aphid in the course of just one week. Because reproduction occurs so rapidly, what starts out as a small aphid problem in a garden, farm or greenhouse can quickly become an infestation without adequate intervention.

Aphids are mostly less than 1/4 in. (6 mm) long. Some are wingless; others have two pairs of transparent or colored wings, the front pair longer than the hind pair. In typical aphids (family Aphididae), two tubes called cornicles project from the rear of the abdomen and exude protective substances. Aphids feed by inserting their beaks and sucking sap from stems, leaves, or roots.

Many kinds of aphids secrete a sweet substance called honeydew, prized as food by ants, flies, and bees. This substance consists of partially digested, highly concentrated plant sap and other wastes, and is excreted often in copious amounts. Certain aphid species have a symbiotic relationship with various species of ants that resembles the relationship of domestic cattle to humans; hence the name “ant cows” for aphids. The ants tend the aphids, transporting them to their food plants at the appropriate stages of the aphids’ life cycle and sheltering the aphid eggs in their nests during the winter. The aphids, in turn, provide honeydew for the ants.

Damaging aphid populations may develop over a span of several years. Generally medium to low annual rainfall zones are at a greater risk than high annual rainfall zones. Although aphids usually arrive earlier in high rainfall zones, their populations are often kept at relatively low numbers. This is believed to be due to mortalities caused by a combination of strong winds and rain, high natural enemy numbers such as parasites, and fungi, which thrive in high humidity. Direct feeding damage, occurs when colonies of 30 or more aphids develop on individual growing tips.

The degree of damage depends on the varietal susceptibility, the growth stage of the crop, the percentage of plants infested, the number of aphids per growing tip, and the duration of the infestation. Feeding damage often has no obvious signs or symptoms, although heavily infested plants may be covered in black sooty molds, which live on the sugary honeydew excreted by aphids, and flowers may be aborted. Other signs of damage include down curled leaves and wilting. The damage causes yield and quality losses, by reducing seed size and weight and numbers of pods per plant.

The damage done by aphids is due to a number of causes, including loss of sap, clogging of leaf surfaces with honeydew, and growth of molds and fungi on the honeydew. Leaf curl, a common symptom of aphid infestation, occurs when a colony attacks the underside of a leaf, causing its desiccation. The downward curl provides protection for the colony, but the leaf becomes useless to the plant. Some species also transmit viral diseases of plants. Among the aphids causing serious damage to food crops are the grain, cabbage, corn root, apple, woolly apple, and hickory aphids and the alder and beech tree blights. Direct damage caused by aphids feeding can cause yield losses of more than 50% in susceptible Lupin varieties. Yellow lupins are the most prone to aphid colonization and occasionally feeding damage may be so bad that crops fail to yield.

Let us take a look at the below article:

Aphids damage early crops

06 Aug, 2013 05:00 AM

There has been significant aphid damage to early sown crops, particular in central NSW.

Pest Facts reported there were many accounts of damage in the Central Tablelands region around Mudgee, NSW.

The damage began in July once the resistance imparted by seed treatment wore off.

Oats have been one of the worst impacted crops.

Oat aphid, corn aphid, and rose grain aphid favor barley, but are found in all cereal crops. Heavy infestations of these sap-sucking insects cause the crop to turn yellow, be stunted and generally appear unthrifty.

All three aphids can damage crops by feeding on them and in some instances by spreading barley yellow dwarf virus.

The above article shows the extent of damage these creatures can cause. There have been various other articles published which illustrate the extent of damage caused by aphids. According to a recent study by researchers at Iowa State University aphids has become a threat to soybean in the recent years because they possess a unique ability to block the genetic defense response of soybeans and may open the door for other pests to do even more damage to the crops. Their research further made a significant contribution as the scientist stated that Aphids emerged as a serious threat to Iowa soybeans around 2000. The insects are native to Asia and most likely came to the United States via international travelers or plants brought into the country.  In the years since, aphids have caused soybean farmers major headaches, reducing yields in affected fields by up to 40 percent, a scientist said.

These creatures thus cause a lot of damage in the agricultural sector. Also, they invite more pests like the ants to the plants further endangering them. Conventional methods used to combat them include the use of toxic pesticides which are extremely hazardous to the environment. New methods need to be developed to do away with aphids for good. The method used should be 100% effective and should not endanger the environment in any way whatsoever.

Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous insect and pest repellant. It can be best described as a termite aversive. It is effective against a multitude of other insects and pests like weevils, beetles, thrips, bugs, aphids etc. It works on the mechanism of repellence and therefore does not kill the target as well as non-target species. Being non-toxic, it does not harm the soil and environment. Termirepel™ can be added to a thin agricultural film to protect plants and crops from insects like aphids. It can also be incorporated in irrigation pipes to ward off pests.

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata or Medfly) is considered the most important agricultural pest in the world. The Medfly has spread throughout the Mediterranean region, southern Europe, the Middle East, Western Australia, South and Central America and Hawaii. The first of numerous U.S. mainland infestations occurred in Florida in 1929. It has been recorded infesting a wide range of commercial and garden fruits, nuts and vegetables, including apple, avocado, bell pepper, citrus, melon, peach, plum, and tomato

The Mediterranean fruit fly attacks more than 260 different fruits, flowers, vegetables, and nuts. Thin-skinned, ripe succulent fruits are preferred. Host preferences vary in different regions. Although several species of cucurbits have been recorded as hosts of the medfly, they are considered to be very poor hosts. Some hosts have been recorded as medfly hosts only under laboratory conditions and may not be attacked in the field. Knowledge of the hosts in one country often aids in correctly predicting those which are most likely to be infested in a newly infested country, but what may be a preferred host in one part of the world may be a poor host in another.

In some of the Mediterranean countries, only the earlier varieties of citrus are grown, because the flies develop so rapidly that late-season fruits are too heavily infested to be marketable. Some areas have had almost 100% infestation in stone fruits. Harvesting before complete maturity also is practiced in Mediterranean areas generally infested with this fruit fly.

The damage to the crops caused by Medfly mainly results from oviposition in fruit and soft tissues of vegetative plant parts, feeding by the larvae and decomposition of plant tissue by invading secondary microorganisms.

Larval feeding damage in fruits is most destructive. When they attack fully mature fruit, it develops water-soaked appearance on them, thus making them undesirable to eat. Young fruits become distorted and usually drop. The larval tunnel provides entry points for bacteria and fungi that cause the fruit to rot. These maggots also attack young seedlings, succulent tap roots, and stems and buds of the host plant. In addition to physical damage, Medfly inflicts economic damage due to costs associated with quarantine and monitoring programs, limits on export from fly infested areas, and quarantine treatments of fruit from infested areas.

Let us take a look at the article below:

The Battle over the Medfly

MARCH 16, 2014

 Ceratitis capitata. To a Muggle’s ears, it sounds like an incantation from a Hogwarts wizard. If only the matter were whimsical.

Ceratitis capitata may be better known by its nonscientific name: the Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly to its friends. Only the Medfly has no friends, certainly not among fruit and vegetable growers, and certainly not among anyone interested in reasonably priced produce undamaged by these insects, whose eggs, hatched under the skin of, say, a tomato or a peach, develop into larvae that feast on the pulp. California, the nation’s fruit basket, with a $40-billion-a-year agricultural industry, feels especially vulnerable. How that state has handled Medfly scares going back more than three decades is the focus of the latest installment of Retro Report, a series of documentary videos that take a second look at major news stories from the past.

This week’s video returns us to the early 1980s. A severe Medfly infestation had led Jerry Brown — California’s governor then, as he is now again — to authorize widespread aerial spraying of malathion, an insecticide that shattered the fly’s nervous system. Unfortunately, it also shattered the nerves of many Californians, who feared that diffusing this pesticide in the air was unhealthy for children and other living things. They were hardly reassured by officials’ insistence that malathion had little toxicity for humans; it was even being used to kill head lice. Nor were they impressed when a state official named B. T. Collins — speaking of whimsical — drank a glass of diluted malathion in 1981 to demonstrate that it caused no harm beyond perhaps upsetting his stomach a tad. (Mr. Collins died 12 years later at a fairly young age, 52, but of a heart attack, not of malathion-induced complications.)

In September 1982, California officials pronounced themselves lords of the flies, proclaiming victory over the rascals. Their self-congratulatory toasts proved premature, as new infestations erupted in the late 1980s and early 90s. After another campaign to eliminate them, officials declared victory once more. But James R. Carey, an entomologist at the University of California, Davis, suggested even then that Californians should disabuse themselves of the notion that the Medfly and cousins like the Mexican fruit fly were alien invaders thumbing rides into the state in contraband fruit. Rather, he said, they had taken up permanent residence. And in a study issued last summer, Dr. Carey and colleagues reported finding at least five and maybe nine species of the pests across California. But the populations, the researchers said, were relatively small, which meant there was still time to devise new anti-fly strategies.

The preferred method of control today — actually, one that began as far back as the 1980s — is to radioactively sterilize male flies in the laboratory. By the billions each year, the altered males are released into the air, free to have their way with any female flies that may be around. No offspring are produced. Over time, Medfly populations have shrunk.

But they are still around. Yet one does not hear much about them these days. That may be because many Americans are less disturbed by winged pests than they are by certain methods of attempted eradication. Plain and simple, large-scale spraying frightens people, especially if they have small children. That is what really rattled Californians in the 1980s. We are, of course, not including fruit and vegetable farmers in that state, who had every reason to fear economic ruin.

The very word “pesticide” can be toxic. One result is the occasional food scare. America has had its share of them.

In 1959, after traces of a carcinogenic pesticide were found in some supplies of cranberries in Washington and Oregon, panic spread nationwide, around Thanksgiving no less. Cranberry sauce was conspicuously absent from many holiday tables that year. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” was published, leading to a ban on the pesticide DDT and creating for many a fear that the nation’s entire food supply might be tainted. In the late 1980s, apples became the fear du jour because orchards had been sprayed with the chemical Alar. In more recent years, outbreaks of the deadly West Nile virus had some New Yorkers wondering if they were better off taking their chances with mosquitoes bearing the disease than with pesticide sprayings.

Not everyone, however, believes the nation to be endlessly at risk. Some experts say that anti-pest chemicals are generally used in amounts far too small to harm humans. A federal review of malathion in 2000, for example, found that it posed no threat to people when used properly.

Still, Americans fret. One beneficiary is the organic-food movement. What could be better than natural?

But organic foods are not necessarily free of pesticides, many of which occur in nature. If mishandled, they could kill just as effectively as any lab-engineered product. There is, too, organic food’s relatively high cost; it is beyond the reach of many. And so one argument goes like this: If some people reduce their consumption of healthful fruits and vegetables, whether out of fear of pesticides or an inability to afford organic, are they not doing themselves at least as much potential harm as they would by simply accepting anti-pest chemicals as an inescapable part of modern life?

Debates over such matters seem unlikely to end anytime soon. Even Ceratitis capitata has had its defenders, hard as that may be to believe. The Evening Independent of St. Petersburg, Fla., reported in August 1929 that a play called “The Mediterranean Fruit Fly” was being performed at a local Methodist church. “This humorous little skit,” the newspaper said, “carries the moral that something good comes out of everything, even a Medfly plague.”

In this age of jet transportation, the “medfly” can be transported from one part of the world to some distant place in a matter of hours, which greatly complicates efforts to contain it within its present distribution. Once it is established, eradication efforts may be extremely difficult and expensive. In addition to the reduction of crop yield, infested areas have the additional expense of control measures and costly sorting processes for both fresh and processed fruit and also vegetables. Some countries maintain quarantines against the medfly, which could jeopardize some fresh fruit markets if it should be established in Florida.

It has been estimated that if control methods were not used, medfly would infest 100 percent of over 200 fruit and vegetable species. All citrus is especially susceptible to warm winters. Only early maturing varieties of stone fruit or fruit fly tolerant varieties of fruit such as some lemon cultivars and avocados can be grown without insecticide applications.

Thus a method needs to be devised to keep these creatures away from infesting the fruits and vegetables. The conventional toxic and hazardous chemicals used for combating the pest problems are inefficient and ineffective.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and effective solution to deal with these insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously repulse them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated in lacquer form or added in mulches or films. This product work on the mechanism of sustainability and green technology and therefore significant in today’s time and date as ecology salvation has become the prime focus.

Tent Caterpillars are moderately sized species in the genus Malacosoma and in the moth family Lasiocampidae. Species occur in North America, including Mexico, and in Eurasia. Twenty-six species have been described, six of which occur in North America. Some species are considered to have subspecies as well. They are often considered pests due to their habit of defoliating trees. They are among the most social of all caterpillars and exhibit many noteworthy behaviors.

Tent caterpillars are readily recognized because they are social, colorful, diurnal and build conspicuous silk tents in the branches of host trees. Some species, such as the eastern tent caterpillars, Malacosoma americanum, build a single large tent which is typically occupied through the whole of the larval stage, while others build a series of small tents that are sequentially abandoned. Whereas tent caterpillars make their tents in the nodes and branches of a tree’s limbs, webworms enclose leaves and small branches at the ends of the limbs.

Full-grown caterpillars (2 inches long) are sparsely hairy and black in color with a row of pale blue spots on each side. They have a white stripe down the center of their backs that makes them easy to identify. Adults (1-1/2 inches long) are reddish brown moths with two white bands running diagonally across each forewing. Host plants include cherry, apple, and crabapple, but may be found on a variety of shade trees as well.

They damage plants by chewing on leaves, flowers, shoots, and fruit and sometimes by boring into wood. Caterpillars in fruit or wood can be difficult to manage. They are hidden most of their life and can cause serious damage even when numbers are low.

In agricultural production, the preferred hosts of this pest are cherry, cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, crabapple, and apple. They also occasionally attack other deciduous ornamental shrubs, shade, and forest trees. The silky tents spun by the caterpillars make landscape trees unsightly, and the caterpillars are annoying when searching for food or a suitable place to spin their cocoons. When tent caterpillars are abundant, they frequently eat all the leaves on a tree which weakens it, but seldom kills it. The foliage on the host tree may be stripped from all the twigs within a distance of three feet from the nest.

Tent caterpillars can be fast- feeding and ruthless pests to have in your crop. The damage they can cause can be severe to the point of total crop loss through complete defoliation. Most medium-sized to large trees can handle two to three consecutive years of defoliation, but most of the crops produced by growers do not fall into this category. To most growers, a large infestation can spell doom.

Recently tent caterpillars are proving to be the newest threat to the electric industry. Dozens of power outages have been reported in recent times due to these caterpillars. Sam Houston Electric Cooperative’s line technician Virgil Cain said on the utility’s blog “The caterpillars can completely cover a piece of electrical equipment; they can actually disrupt the insulating ability of the equipment and cause a power outage”. “Members are seeing them all over their homes, on outbuildings and all over our power poles, transformers, and other equipment,” said Mary Kate Pedigo, communications specialist for Livingston-based Sam Houston EC.

“Line techs are seeing swarms so thick along the neutral that you can’t even see the line,” said Pedigo. “In recent years we’ve had to remove hundreds of thousands of dead trees from our sights of the way because of the drought, and we expect to see even more as a result of caterpillar damage.” In the northeast of Houston, undulating masses of moth larvae have coated transformers, utility poles and insulators, causing system faults, tripping breakers and sizzling fuses into failure mode. Line technicians have been changing out damaged components across several counties of the co-op’s service territory.

The following article will explain just how detrimental tent caterpillar can be:

Tent Caterpillars Cause Power Outages in East TexasTop of Form

Published at 10:55 AM CDT on Apr 8, 2015

 Over the past week, Sam Houston Electric Cooperative members have experienced dozens of power outages caused by “tent caterpillars.” The caterpillars can actually disrupt the insulating ability of electrical equipment and cause a power outage

Spring means bluebonnets are popping up across Texas, but that also means insects are back. Tent caterpillars are so abundant in East Texas that some residents have been left in the dark.

Sam Houston Electric Cooperative said the colorful caterpillars have been hatching by the millions and covering homes, trees, and electrical equipment. Line technicians report the caterpillars can engulf transformers, resulting in blown fuses.

“The caterpillars can completely cover a piece of electrical equipment,” said Sam Houston Electric Cooperative line technician Virgil Cain. “They can actually disrupt the insulating ability of the equipment and cause a power outage.”

The caterpillars not only swarm equipment they also feed on leaves, particularly of oak trees.

According to Texas A&M Agri Life, they can defoliate a tree causing permanent damage. The damage could cause trees to fall on power lines causing power outages.

Eventually, the caterpillars will emerge from cocoons as brown and yellowish moths with a one-inch wingspan. They no longer feed on vegetation but they do lay eggs and the life cycle starts all over again.

Tent caterpillars are not usually very difficult to detect. Regardless of size, color and area of activity all of which are easily identifiable for what they are and can be simple to control if multiple and aggressive steps are taken quickly.

There are very few solutions available to combat a modern-day plague of tent caterpillars. Damage can be reduced by removing and destroying tents and caterpillars as soon as they are noticed, but this technique is not always effective. Insecticides are used to control tent caterpillars, but this method is hazardous and may cause long-lasting consequences to the crops and humans who consume them.

C Tech Corporation offers a non-toxic and non-hazardous product, Termirepel™ to protect the crops and cables from these ravenous insects. It is an environmentally safe product that works by repelling the insects without causing any harm to the target or non-target species.  Termirepel™ is available in concentrate and lacquer form. It can also be used as a liquid solution.  Termirepel™ can be safely incorporated into the PVC insulation of wires and cables or coated on surfaces to keep tent caterpillars away from the application.  Termirepel™ can also be incorporated in agricultural films and mulches for the protection of crops against these creatures.

 Pyrrhalta viburni is a species of leaf beetle native to Europe and Asia, commonly known as the viburnum leaf beetle. It was first detected in the United States in Maine in 1994. In England the Royal Horticulture Society has named Pyrrhalta viburni as the country’s “number one pest species”. The viburnum leaf beetle is approximately 4.5 to 6.5 mm in length. The head, thorax and elytra are generally brown, and the anterior edge of the elytra is slightly dark. The dorsal surface is covered with dense golden-grey hair. In overall appearance, VLB resembles the elm leaf beetle except for minor differences in size and color. Generally, the elm leaf beetle is slightly larger with a body length of 5.8 to 6.8 mm. In addition, the elm leaf beetle has a light brown body with a dark stripe on the edge of each forewing, almost reaching the apex.

viburnum leaf beetle a pest that has the potential to become a serious problem in nurseries and landscapes in Pennsylvania. Adults and larvae feed on plants belonging to the genus Viburnum, sometimes causing their death. This species is native to Europe, but it has been detected in Canada and more recently, in western and central New York and Maine. The viburnum leaf beetle was first detected in Erie County in 2001 in northwestern Pennsylvania. During 2008 it was found in Bradford, Centre, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Monroe, Montour, Pike, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango, Warren, and Wayne Counties. Recently, this species was also identified from Indiana and Butler counties in Pennsylvania. This species is closely related to the elm leaf beetle.

This pest feeds on viburnum and seems to prefer viburnums with little hair (pubescence) on the foliage that includes Viburnum opulus, EuroV. dentatum, arrowwood viburnum, and V. trilobum , American cranberrybush viburnum. This pest will also feed on V. lantana , wayferingtree viburnum, V. rafinesquianum , Rafinisque viburnum,V. acerifolium , mapleleaf viburnum, V. lentago , nannyberry viburnum, and V. sargentii , Sargent viburnum. Thus, many of the viburnums affected are species native to the United States.

Both larvae and adults feed on foliage between the midrib and larger veins. Feeding usually takes place on the lower leaf surface. Larvae can skeletonize young leaves by June. This is the first sign of an infestation. Emerging adults continue feeding on viburnum. Plants that have been defoliated for two or three consecutive years may die.

Let us take a look at how these beetles are causing damage in western Pennsylvania:

 

 

 

Viburnum leaf beetles have made way to Pa., but you can limit damage

By Jessica walliser ; Friday, July 3, 2015, 6:26 p.m.; Updated 8 hours ago

The viburnum leaf beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni) is a relatively new pest to Western Pennsylvania. Now found in parts of eastern Canada and several states in the Northeastern United States, this little beetle was accidentally introduced to North America from Europe in the 1940s. It was first noted in Pennsylvania in 2001. Gardeners have been reporting its presence in our part of the state for the past few years.

The viburnum leaf beetle targets only viburnums, with some species being more susceptible than others. This pest will not feed on any other species of plants. Heavy infestations can completely defoliate shrubs and cause significant dieback.

Adult beetles are about a quarter-inch long, with the females being slightly larger than the males. They are brown with darker markings along their sides. The antennae are almost as long as their bodies. Adult beetles can only be seen from early July through October, when females are actively chewing holes in small branches to insert their eggs. These egg-laying sites are often lined up in a straight row on the underside of a young twig.

The eggs overwinter on the plant, and by early May, they hatch. The resulting larvae are ¹⁄₂-inch long, wormlike, creamy-yellow grubs with dark markings. They’re found on the leaf undersides where they dine on the foliage. They can quickly skeletonize the tender, new growth, leaving only the leaf veins intact.

By early to mid-June, the larvae are finished feeding. They climb down to the ground to pupate. In early July, the adults emerge from pupation and go on to lay more eggs. There’s only one generation per year, but that single generation is capable of causing a whole lot of damage.

Viburnum leaf beetles are particularly fond of several species of viburnum, including arrow wood viburnums, American cranberry bush viburnums, black haw viburnums and European cranberry bush viburnums.

However, there are also several species of viburnum that seem to be fairly resistant to the beetles. These include Korean spice viburnums, Burk wood viburnums, and leather leaf viburnums.

Though viburnum leaf beetles are new kids on the block, there are some ways you can keep them from damaging your viburnums. First, plant only resistant species. Second, prune and destroy any infested twigs after the egg-laying period ends in the fall. Simply lift the twigs up to inspect their undersides. This is best done after the leaves have fallen off. Prune off any twigs with evidence of the characteristic lined-up egg-laying sites (they’ll appear as little bumps of sawdust-like material in a straight row).

Many predatory insects feed on viburnum leaf-beetle larvae, including ladybugs, lacewing larvae, soldier beetles, predatory stinkbugs, and ground beetles. Encourage these insects by planting lots of flowering herbs and annuals in your landscape.

Organic pesticides are also effective against the feeding larvae, especially when used as soon as damage is noted. Spinosad-based products (such as Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew) are useful, as is insecticidal soap. Be sure to spray both upper and lower leaf surfaces.

Pesticides used to control this viburnum pest, several (including organic pyrethrins) are contact poisons that also kill the beneficial insects. What makes this pest such a problem is that it feeds rapidly, and can defoliate a shrub (eat all the leaves) in a few days, leading to the death of the plant if this happens for two or three consecutive years. This pest has a fairly simple life cycle, beginning with larvae hatching from eggs in spring. These feed on leaves, then in early summer crawl down the stems to pupate in the soil. The adults emerge in midsummer, feed again on leaves, mate, and lay eggs which overwinter until next spring. Luckily, not all viburnums are created equal when it comes to feeding preference of this pest. Species that are most resistant to this pest still may become partially infested yet usually have little or no feeding. The most resistant species you should consider for landscapes if this pest is in your area include the Koreanspice, Judd, double file , leather leaf tea, and Siebold viburnums.

The most susceptible species you should avoid planting or consider replacing if this pest is nearby included arrowwood (dentatum), possum-haw (nudum), and cranberrybush (opulus) viburnums. Still susceptible, yet not as much so, are the mapleleaf (acerifolium), wayfaringtree (lantana), Sargent (sargentii), and Wright (wrightii) viburnums. Many of the other species you may find are likely moderately susceptible.

If planting resistant species or replacing susceptible ones isn’t an option, consider least-toxic control options before reaching for an insecticide. There are several beneficial insects that feed on viburnum leaf beetle larvae, including lady beetle larvae and adults, lacewing larvae, and spined soldier bug nymphs. Adults of both the lady beetle and spined soldier bug also eat viburnum leaf beetle adults. Thus one needs to b very careful in taking measures against these pests. We need a solution that helps protect our shrubs and plants from damage, while at the same time does not harm the environment or other beneficial insects in any way. So, how do we fight this pest?

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and effective solution to deal with these insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously repulse them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated in lacquer form or added in mulches or films. The repelling mechanism of the product would keep off the viburnum leaf beetle and any other insect that could harm our shrubs and plants.

 Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), or simply the stink bug, is an insect in the family Pentatomidae, and it is native to China, Japan, and Taiwan. It was accidentally introduced into the United States, with the first specimen being collected in September 1998. The brown marmorated stink bug is considered to be an agricultural pest, and by 2010–11 had become a season-long pest in U.S. orchards.

According to North Dakota State University, there are 4,700 species of stink bugs in the world, with about 250 in the U.S. and Canada. It is known as the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) as it gets its name from the brown marbling pattern on its back.

Brown marmorated stink bug are sporadic pests of most deciduous tree fruits and can occasionally cause severe damage. The name stink bug comes from the insects’ habit of exuding a fluid, which has a strong and usually disagreeable odor, from glands between the legs.

The brown marmorated stink bug is an agricultural pest that can cause widespread damage to fruit and vegetable crops. In Japan it is a pest to soyabean and fruit crops. In the U.S., the brown marmorated stink bug feeds, beginning in late May or early June, on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and other host plants including peaches, apples, green beans, soybeans, cherries, raspberries, and pears. It is a sucking insect, a “true bug“that uses its proboscis to pierce the host plant in order to feed.

This insect is becoming an important agricultural pest in Pennsylvania. In 2010, it produced severe losses in some apple and peach orchards by damaging peaches and apples.  It also has been found feeding on blackberry, sweet corn, field corn and soyabeans.  In neighboring states, it has been observed damaging tomatoes, lima beans, and green peppers.

These insects can produce allergic reactions in some individuals who are sensitive to the bugs’ odor (an aeroallergen). These chemicals are produced by dorsal scent glands. Individuals sensitive to the odors of cockroaches and lady beetles are also affected by the stink bug.  Additionally, if the insects are crushed or smashed against exposed skin they have been reported to produce dermatitis at the point of contact.  This is particularly important regarding agricultural workers picking fruits and vegetables.

In agriculture, stink bugs have been more of a problem in the Mid-Atlantic States like Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The U.S. Apple Association estimated that stink bugs caused $37 million in damage to apple growers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia in 2010.They have also been a real headache for home gardeners in these states.

The article below would better explain the damage caused by these insects.

Farmers worry about harvest as stink bugs make a mess in NW region

Originally published June 22, 2015 at 8:50 pm Updated June 24, 2015 at 3:39 pm

By Hal Bernton – Seattle Times staff reporter

VANCOUVER, Wash. — on a hot June day, Joe Beaudoin ducked into the shade of his orchard to check for peaches with shallow dimples — the telltale signs left by the brown marmorated stink bug.

This invader from Asia has a formidable appetite for the berries, tree fruits and vegetables that Beaudoin grows on his 80-acre farm.

This spring, even before the trees sprouted all their leaves, the bug already had begun to pierce the tiny peaches to suck out juice.

“This is our third year finding them,” Beaudoin said. “But I have never seen the damage so early.”

Beaudoin expects more crop losses in what is shaping up to be a big year for the stink bugs.

The same mild temperatures that sabotaged the region’s snowpack were a boon to these bugs, reducing their mortality during the coldest months and generating plenty of early spring bounty for forage and as climate change unfolds in an increasingly interconnected world, the warmer weather forecast for the decades ahead could make the Northwest a more welcoming region for some of the pests that arrive from elsewhere.

The stink bugs get their name from the scent they release, which some describe as akin to a musky cilantro. They are well-entrenched in the Portland-Vancouver area, and — to a lesser extent — in Seattle. In both cities, some urban homeowners have been beset by infestations as the bugs find indoor spaces to overwinter.

These insects have also spread south through the Willamette Valley, where Oregon State University researchers have purposefully mixed in the stink bugs with the grape crush to try to figure out how many insects it takes to mess with the taste of the region’s fabled Pinot Noir.

“We should be able to keep them out of the wine, but even if they get in, we’re looking at some processing steps so that you can get rid of the flavor,” said Elizabeth Tomasino, an Oregon State University researcher.

So far, in the orchard country of Central Washington, only a few stink bugs have been found in nearby residential areas, and there are still plenty of questions about how well they can adapt to such an arid area.

But these farmers are on alert.

Spurred by the government phase out of some insecticides, they have under taken a major effort to develop alternative pest controls. If the population booms in their orchards, they would likely dramatically step up their spraying.

The weird warm weather has also boosted the populations of another recent Asian invader: a tiny fly called the spotted winged drosophila that lays its eggs in the fruit of cherries, berries and other crops. This year, Beaudoin says he had to spray his strawberries, marionberries and blackberries once a week to keep these fruit flies at bay.

The stink bugs attack a broader range of crops — including the apples that are Washington’s most valuable harvest.

Hurting harvests

The brown marmorated stink bugs grow to less than an inch long and are shaped like a shield.

They can be differentiated from native U.S. stink bugs, which have not been a big pest problem, by two white bands on their antennae.

These insects have a complicated life cycle, living for up to a year and evolving through five different stages before adulthood, when their wings enable them to cover many miles in search of food. In the Northwest, they typically produce one generation per year, but due to the warm weather this year, they may produce two.

Their destructive power was amply demonstrated in Pennlysvania, which was where the bug was first detected in the United States back in 1998. Over time, their numbers grew, and in 2010 the bug contributed to severe losses in apple orchards, scarring the fruit with so many blemishes that some acreage was not worth harvesting.

Homeowners also have had creepy experiences with the stink bugs, with some in eastern states reporting thousands infesting their residences.

Beaudoin’s farm location — within the Vancouver urban boundaries and close to residential subdivisions where stink bugs overwinter — makes his acreage particularly vulnerable to attacks. And during the past three years, his operations have evolved into a kind of field laboratory for the study of the insect’s Northwest behavior.

Beaudoin was surprised to find, at least in his orchards, the bugs appeared to show a decided preference for Russet and Granny Smith apples but left more than a dozen other varieties untouched. He lost several rows of one variety of peaches, but not others. And 90 percent of his French pumpkins were lost to the stink bugs, which penetrated from the ground,

Researchers are scrambling to figure out not only what are the most effective insecticides to use on the stink bugs, but also when best to apply them. So far, for Beaudoin, that’s still uncertain.

“This is all new. For timing, it’s just going to be a guess,” Beaudoin said.

Tastes like … bugs

As the bugs spread from the Portland area in search of food, the vineyards of Western Oregon represent close-by targets. So far, they have not shown up on grapes in sufficient quantities to pose a problem for winemaking, according to Tomasino, the OSU researcher. If they did, blowers used during sorting could hopefully keep them out of the crush.

But with so much at stake, OSU researchers decided to figure out how many stink bugs it would take to taint the wine, and what consumers thought of that product.

They made wine in 2012, 2013 and 2014, then served it up after a year of aging in blind taste tests with untainted vintage. (All the wine fell well within the Food and Drug Administration thresholds for insect levels in the crush, according to Tomasino.)

The researchers concluded that the recipe for a decidedly stink-bug flavored Pinot was three and a half insects per cluster of grapes, which is well above the levels found to date in the vineyards.

 About 10 percent of those who blind tasted the stink- bug wine didn’t mind the flavor.

Others who sampled the wine either disliked or strongly disliked the stink- bug taint.

“It does two different things,” Tomasino said. “It masks a little bit of the fruitiness, and then in your mouth the main compound from stink bugs is cilantro, and of course that’s not something you would associate with a high-quality wine.

Hopes for a treatment

The stink bug could potentially wreak the most damage in Washington east of the mountains, where many high-value crops are grown with irrigation.

Even amid this desert agriculture, invasive species can sometimes take hold. In the orchards of the Yakima basin, farmers have long battled the codling moth of West Asian origin.

To fend off the codling moth, farmers for years repeatedly sprayed apples with azinphos-methyl, an organophosphate pesticide derived from World War II-era nerve agents.

Brown marmorated stink bugs crawl on a peach in Allentown,… (Peter Shearer / Oregon State University) 

The chemical was phased out of the orchards in 2012 by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Today, most apple growers get much of their control by a gentle alternative. They hang small wire dispensers in the trees that flood the orchards with pheromones and disrupt the moth’s mating cycle. This approach also enables more beneficial insects to build up in the orchards and help keep other pests under control.

“It’s been a major success but it’s been a long, long road to figure out how to manipulate those moths to keep them from finding each other,” said Peter Landolt, a U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist based in Wapato.

There’s no similar treatment for stink bugs.

Instead, with azinphos-methyl now off-limits, farms in areas with stink bugs have turned to other compounds — such as pyrethroids — that kill a wide range of insects. Then, with the beneficial insects knocked back, they sometimes have to turn to additional sprays to treat other pests that move in.

“We’re afraid of what will happen if they get here,” said Jim Doorink, an apple grower in the Yakima Basin. “The products we use against it are broad spectrum and indiscriminate.”

Researchers are hoping to come up with alternative treatments, such as introducing natural predators that can feed on the stink bugs, or finding some way to attract masses of the bugs to a lethal trap.

At the Wapato research station, stink bugs dwell in a plexiglass cage. Chemist Lee Ream picks one up with tweezers and tickles its belly so the stressed-out bug emits a pungent aroma.

The scent has undergone detailed analysis, but researchers still have a long way to go to figure out the stink bugs.

Some, such as Landolt, are hopeful that the lack of water and climate extremes of the desert climate will limit the bugs’ populations.

Doorink, as he gazes out from his hilltop house on thousands of verdant irrigated acreage, is less optimistic.

“I think all the (dry climate) is going to do is affect how quickly they can get established here,” he said. “There are plenty of places out there for them.”

Management options for this invasive insect are currently limited. Agricultural setting management relies on chemical control. Brown marmorated stink bug is susceptible to several widely used insecticides but they are ecologically harmful to both target and non-target species.  Leaching of these insecticides in the ground causes soil pollution and also reduces the fertility of the soil.

C Tech Corporation, an Indian based company has come up with a novel solution to deal with such problems. Termirepel™ is an aversive for termites and insects. It has unique qualities which range from being non-toxic and non-hazardous to being “ECO-FRIENDLY”. Aggressive species are further deterred from attacking by advanced mechanisms like aversion, feeding deterrents, mating disruption, reproduction cycle inhibition, growth impairment and chemo sterilization thus modifying their response towards the Termirepel™ containing products resulting in them staying away from the application. Thus, Termirepel™ actually helps in modifying insect behavior. It does not harm or kill the insect but just repels them away from the application.

One insect that is a major concern for gardeners and owners is the sod webworms. These are a common surface feeding insect that damage lawns. They live in virtually everyone’s lawn, but most of the time the damage is never noticed because there aren’t enough webworm larvae or the lawn is healthy and strong enough to repair itself.  No harm, no foul.  However, there are times when sod webworms become a problem and damage turf. Damage usually manifests itself as irregular dead patches that spread over time.  The grass blades seem to cut off at the crown and sometimes you can see little balls of worm dropping or frass.

These pests look like tiny caterpillars but may not be visible as they hide in the soil. However, green pellets may be seen that they leave behind on grass blades. Sod webworms chew off the grass blades in lawns and the damage looks similar to a badly-cut lawn. What’s worse, sod webworms are drawn to beautiful looking lawns that are healthy and lush. They are small lawn caterpillars that feed on lawns, causing severe damage very quickly. Mature sod webworms can cause quite a bit of damage before they develop into dingy brown moths. They can consume enough grass in a short period of time to cause homeowners to think that the damage has occurred “overnight.”

Small brown spots may appear in the grass, a little at first, and then as the season progresses with rising temperatures and drier conditions, grass growth slows and the brown spots become larger and intersect. This is an indication of possible sod webworm infestation. They have even been noted to cause damage to small grain crops such as corn, wheat, and oats. The most severe damage usually shows up in July and August when the temperature is hot and the grass is not growing vigorously. In fact, most sod webworm damage is mistaken for heat and drought stress. Sod webworm-damaged lawns may recover slowly, without irrigation and light fertilization. These thin turf areas allow weeds to establish in the lawn making it unsightly.

The article given below would better explain the damage caused by these insects.

Tropical sod webworms active in local lawns

 By Larry Williams, October 2, 2014

During the past few weeks, numerous people have contacted the Okaloosa County Extension Office seeking diagnostic assistance and control options concerning fall sod webworms in their lawns.

Sod webworms are not consistently a problem every year. Some years their numbers are low enough that they are not a problem. Some years we do not see them at all.

Those years when they are a problem, it’s usually not until late summer and early fall that they become active. And, they may continue to feed on lawns until frost occurs.

Sod webworm larvae are commonly found feeding on St. Augustinegrass, bermudagrass and zoysiagrass.

Sod webworms tend to feed in patches and feed at night.

Adults of these species are fairly small grayish to brown moths.

Because sod webworms feed at night, don’t be surprised if you can’t find them during the day. The greenish or tan caterpillars will be resting, curled up near the soil line.

If you have damaged spots in your lawn, look closely for notched leaf blades, the telltale signs of their chewing damage.

They may also be found by parting the grass and looking for small green caterpillars (no larger than ¾-inch in length) curled up on the soil surface and for small green or brown pellet-like droppings.

Picking the bugs off grass by hand is obviously not an effective solution. Thus we need a solution which would effectively keep the sod webworm population in check, keeping them away from our lawns and crops, while at the same time not having any negative impact on the environment.

C Tech Corporation offers a product called Termirepel™, which is a non-toxic, non-hazardous, environmentally safe insect repellent. It can repel more than 500 species of insects on account of it being a broad spectrum anti-insect repellent. The most striking feature of Termirepel™ is that it neither kills the target species, nor the non-target species. It will simply keep the insects away from the application. This product is available in masterbatch and lacquer form and as a liquid solution. Termirepel™ can be added in mulches or incorporated in agricultural bags and films, which could be used to keep our lawns safe and guarded against the pesky sod webworms!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A farmer has to take into consideration a number of factors during the germination and subsequent growth of seedlings and crops. Bad weather, unavailability of nutrients and pest damage are just some of the issues that a farmer has to be prepared for. While bad weather is something that cannot be controlled no matter what, prevention or control of pest damage is one thing that farmers can take care of to make sure they get abundant produce. One such pest of agriculture is the Ruther­glen bug.  Rutherglen bugs are mainly sapsuckers and may cause damage to susceptible plants in a way similar to that caused by aphids.

Rutherglen bug is best known as a seed-feeding pest, attacking grain as it develops and fills. However, in some seasons, large numbers of nymphs and adults can cause damage to establishing winter or summer crops. Their populations can build up in summer weeds, and move from these into establishing winter crop, feeding on and killing small seedlings. Large numbers of Rutherglen bugs moving out of crops pose a threat to nearby establishing summer crop. The adults migrate into fields from local weed hosts, or more distant sources in spring. Infestations can be large and the period of invasion prolonged. The damage caused by these bugs may include flower abortion, reduced pod set, and seed development. Direct feeding on developing seed may affect oil quantity, quality, and seed viability. These bugs can persist into windrows, and at harvest cause problems with seed flow through harvesters, and by raising the moisture content of the grain to above acceptable standard.

The main issue with Rutherglen bugs around har­vest time is con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of har­vested grain. When they are in very large num­bers they can cause a num­ber of issues at harvest; live bugs in the sam­ple can result in rejec­tion of a load at the deliv­ery point. In some seasons the infestation can reach plague proportions, typically when the senescence of weed hosts in spring and early summer forces adults and nymphs into nearby crops. Although Rutherglen bug is usually a pest in spring, in rare instances large infestations have occurred in autumn with seedling crops decimated by the feeding of adults and nymphs. In very large num­bers, these bugs can dam­age seedling crops purely by weight of num­bers feed­ing on seedlings. The bugs maintain their populations on fallen sunflower seeds and migrate to cotton as the seedlings emerge. They suck the cotton seedlings dry resulting in establishment problems and gappy stands. This situation can also arise in fields with poor hygiene where weeds act as a winter host. They can also build in some winter crops such as canola and then move into adjacent seedling cotton in the spring.

The below article would further emphasize the damage caused by these pesky creatures.

Rutherglen bugs storm northern crops

18/12/12

An infestation of Rutherglen bugs that may have ridden recent storms into the northern grains region is causing headaches for growers from northern NSW to Central Queensland.

Dr Melina Miles, Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) says large numbers of Rutherglen bugs have migrated into cropping regions since early November.

“While the exact origin of the bugs is unknown, it is likely they are being carried on storm fronts from inland regions where they have bred up over winter and spring on native host plants,” Dr Miles said.

“Large numbers are affecting seedling establishment, simply by weight of numbers feeding on the emerging seedlings.

“In some instances the seedling crops are invaded by large numbers of nymphs walking out of weedy fallows into establishing crops.”

Dr Miles says ploughing a deep furrow between the seedling crop and the source of bugs, or a border spray may be sufficient to prevent ongoing infestation.

She says sorghum is vulnerable to Rutherglen bug from flowering to soft dough stage.

Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)-supported research shows sorghum crops infested during flowering will fail to set seed, and infestations at milky dough stage will result in seed covered in small, dark feeding wounds.

Dr Miles says developing grain affected by Rutherglen bug feeding is light in weight, with poor germination. Under wet conditions, fungal and bacterial infections further degrade Rutherglen bug-damaged grain, infecting through feeding wounds on the seed.

If large num­bers of Rutherglen bug move into the estab­lish­ing crop, insec­ti­cide seed dress­ings will not pre­vent dam­age to seedlings, as each bug must feed to get a dose of the insec­ti­cide, and in doing so con­tribute to the plant damage. Therefore we need a solution that helps protect our plants and trees from damage, while at the same time does not harm the environment in any way. So, how do we fight this pest?  Keep reading!

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these tiny insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously fending them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated on the tree trunks in lacquer form or added in mulches or films. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the Rutherglen bug and any other insect that could harm our crops.

 Locusts are the swarming phase of certain species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. In the solitary phase, these grasshoppers are innocuous, their numbers are high and they cause an economic threat to agriculture. However, under suitable conditions of drought followed by rapid vegetation growth, serotonin in their brains triggers a dramatic set of changes and they start to breed abundantly becoming gregarious when their populations become dense enough. They form bands of wingless nymphs which later become swarms of winged adults. Both the bands and the swarms move around and rapidly strip fields and cause damage to a crop. The adults are powerful fliers they can travel great distances, consuming most of the green vegetation wherever the swarm settles.

Locusts eat plant material. They are a problem because swarming locusts will strip an area of its vegetation including the crops. Locusts very often live singly or in small groups, sometimes the numbers build up and they can do a great deal of damage to the crops. A locust plague is threatening the livelihoods of 13 million people in Madagascar, nine million of whom earn a living from agriculture. Locust infestations, if untreated, could wipe out food crops and livestock grazing lands – and with it a family’s ability to provide for itself.

Locust swarms devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage and attendant human misery—famine and starvation. They occur in many parts of the world, but today locusts are most destructive in sustenance farming regions of Africa.

The desert locust is notorious. Found in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, they inhabit some 60 countries and can cover one-fifth of Earth’s land surface. Desert locust plagues may threaten the economic livelihood of one-tenth of the world’s humans.

A desert locust swarm can be 460 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) in size and pack between 40 and 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile (one square kilometer).

Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds (192 million kilograms) of plants every day.

Like the individual animals within them, locust swarms are typically in motion and can cover vast distances. In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain. In 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean.

From October 2003 to May 2005, West Africa faced the largest desert locust outbreak in 15 years. The costs of fighting this upsurge were estimated by the FAO to have exceeded US$400 million, and harvest losses were valued at up to US$2.5 billion, which had disastrous effects on the food security situation in West Africa.

In 2010 in mid-August, eastern Australia was hit with the biggest locust plague in more than 30 years. Without intervention, there was more than $1.8 billion worth of damage to pastures, cereal crops, and forage crops. Chris Adriaansen, the director of the Australian Plague Locust Commission, said that 5 million hectares of land were affected. But he also said that Australian farmers are as prepared as they can be: aircraft contractors are organized for surveillance and insecticide aerial sprays, and farmers have been alerted to the risks. In Victoria, where the government has allocated $39.9 million to combat the plague, government authorities will have the power to enter farms and spray locusts without farmer consent.

Heavy rainfall during the Australian summer led to higher numbers of the insects. Those that hatched in autumn managed to destroy 35,000 hectares of wheat and barley crops in Forbes Shire in central-west New South Wales. Graham Falconer, deputy mayor of Forbes, calculates $36.7 million worth of damage. Falconer believes that Australia wasn’t prepared for the locusts in March and is even more worried about what will happen in August. “It’s like a war,” he says. “If we don’t win it, we lose billions of dollars in the crop.”

According to the U.N., the FAO began a $45 million pesticide campaign in Madagascar after the 2012 locust plague, but funding has stalled with many millions still needed.

Let’s take a look at the below article regarding the problem faced to overcome the battle against locusts:

 

 

 

Funds are running out in battle against Madagascar’s locusts

21/01/2015

 In Madagascar, the battle against an ongoing plague of locusts risks being lost as funds to continue operations to subdue widespread infestations of the crop-hungry insects run out, posing a serious food security challenge for 13 million people.

Failure to carry through the joint 2013-16 FAO/government anti-locust programme would annul the more than $28.8 million mobilized so far and could trigger a food-security crisis in a huge part of the country.

Some $10.6 million is needed to complete the locust programme, including monitoring and spraying operations going through the end of the rainy season in May 2015.

Extra $10.6 million urgently needed to avoid a resurgence of locust plague

 The locust plague that started spreading across Madagascar in 2012 was successfully halted last year but the risks of relapse are high during the rainy season, which provides ideal breeding conditions for the pests.

“Taking action now is critical to ensure the significant efforts made so far, financially and technically, are built upon rather than lost,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division.

“The current campaign is essential to reinforce the decline of the current plague, avoiding any relapse, and then continue towards a full-fledged locust recession,” he added.

“The costs that will result from ceasing locust control activities will be far greater than the amount spent so far, so it is critical for the international community stay the course and complete the Locust Emergency Response Programme,” said Patrice Takoukam Talla, FAO’s Representative in Madagascar.

No time to waste to combat wingless hoppers

The first quarter of the year is especially critical as it corresponds to the second generation of breeding and to the formation of wingless “hopper” locust bands.

It is easier to combat hoppers, which are more sensitive to the pesticides and move more slowly than winged adults. As control operations have already been successfully carried out for one year, the hoppers are likely to form a smaller group, which however makes them harder to find and requires more ground and aerial surveys.

Biologically, even a short two-month interruption in monitoring and spraying operations could significantly erase much of the progress made so far.

Food production sharply down in southern regions

As much as 40 percent of crops in southern Madagascar are at risk from the locust crises in combination with the droughts and cyclones to which the island nation is prone, according to FAO.

More than three-fourths of the population in the Autism Andrefana and Androy regions, where maize and cassava production have declined sharply and rice output remains well below trend, currently face food insecurity, up notably from a year earlier.

Successful programme

FAO, working with the government, designed a three year $39.4 programme starting in 2013 that has already surveyed more than 30 million hectares – an area almost as large as Japan – and controlled locust infestations over more than 1.3 million hectares with pesticides and biopesticides, all without triggering any major impact on human health and the environment.

FAO’s has also invested resources in training personnel so that Madagascar has national capacity to monitor and combat the insects.

The resources raised so far in support of this effort have come from the governments of Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, Madagascar through a World Bank loan, Norway and the United States of America as well the European Union, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund and the International Fund for Agriculture Development. Algeria, Mauritania, and Morocco also donated pesticides.

These measly creatures are surely causing us a lot of agricultural and economic losses. In countries like Africa, the Middle East where there is already a scarcity of food and poverty, the havoc caused by these creatures is proving too much of trouble for the people. Traditional methods of using insecticides and pesticides are very harmful and toxic to the crops, environment as well as human race. These insecticides harm the target species along with nontarget species. Some important insects are also killed which indirectly affects the ecological system. Thus some eco-friendly, non-toxic and non-hazardous method is needed to overcome such problems.

C Tech Corporation has designed a new coming era revolutionary product called Termirepel™.

Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous and eco-friendly polymer additive which works on a unique mechanism of repellency. It works at effectively creating a repellent response within the termite species against the application in which Termirepel™ has been incorporated and used. This response is temporary and does not kill the termite colony. This is a very important aspect as every species has a role to play in the ecological cycle. Termirepel™ is also available in the form of a liquid concentrate as well as lacquer that can be applied on the wooden floorings and other wooden construction in the houses. It can also be incorporated in agricultural films to provide protection against the insects/termites.

Nasutitermes Corniger, more commonly referred to as the conehead termite, is an invasive species of termite that aggressively eats wood in just about any form. Its nickname stems from the cone shape of its soldier termites’ heads. Soldiers make up an unusually large portion of the total conehead termite colony – anywhere from 20-30% of the colony. Only 1-2 percent of subterranean and dry wood colonies are soldiers. Another way to distinguish conehead termites is by the appearance of their tunnels. While subterranean termites also build mud tunnels, coneheads build wider and much more extensive tunnels than subterranean. Still another distinctive characteristic is the appearance of their nest. Visible conehead termite nests are usually built in the open, perhaps in a tree, and look like a large, dark-brown “bumpy” round or oval shaped ball.

Conehead termites are species native to the Caribbean. They were first brought to Florida via wooden Pallets delivered from Caribbean Island in 2001. Residents in Florida referred to them as ‘Tree Termites’ for years but they were renamed conehead termites to alleviate the misconception that this pest is only found in trees. They act like peers infesting any wood it can find to feed, build colonies, and generally wreak havoc.

They grow in hot, humid environment, which is why they prefer tropical and subtropical region. Unlike most termites, the conehead termite does not rely on underground tunneling to travel. Instead, they forage on the ground like ants, allowing them to spread quickly. Conehead termites are an extremely aggressive termite species known for causing widespread property damage in a short period of time.

Termites are nothing new to South Florida; 20 or so species provide a challenge to homeowners and a steady income to the pest-control industry. What makes this termite different is that it lives above ground, so it doesn’t compete with the more common subterranean termites.“The behavior and biology of conehead termites are entirely different from what the industry is accustomed to,” said Allen Fugler, executive vice president of the Florida Pest Management Association. “It will build a nest in a tree. It looks like a paper wasp nest, and it could be easily overlooked, even by trained professionals.”

In early 2000, The Department of agriculture along with Florida Pest Management Association and Certified Pest Control Operators of Florida worked together to devise consistent, reliable control methods the average pest-control operator can use. The department had requested $202,000 from the state Legislature and the National Pest Management Association lobbying Congress for matching funds on a three to one ratio, for a maximum of $606,000 in federal money. The funds were used towards training and subsidizing termite control for property owners, who can’t afford it, said Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the National Pest Management Association.

Let us have a look at the below article regarding how this coneheads again invaded the colonies in south Florida’s Dania Beach.

 

 

Conehead termites invade Dania Beach

Species first discovered in city in 2001

Author: Jenise Fernandez

DANIA BEACH, Fla. –

Broward County is experiencing a major bug problem, as conehead termites are spreading throughout the area just before termite swarming season.

The conehead termites popped up in Dania Beach about 14 years ago. Since then, experts have been able to contain the species. On Tuesday they were out at several properties, destroying nests before swarming season.

Experts said the colonies of conehead termites are nestled in the trees and not visible to the naked eye.

The insect is a ravenous Caribbean termite that’s easily recognizable by its pointy head. The species is also considered dangerous and highly adaptable.

“It can also get into ornamentals, fruit trees. There’s almost nothing that it won’t eat,” science adviser Barbara Thorne said.

The species first popped up in Dania Beach in 2001.

To prevent them for spreading, experts go out once a year to try to destroy the nests in hopes of eradicating the species altogether.

“What you want to do is contain them here and kill them before they swarm to another location,” Andy Rackley, with the Florida Department of Agriculture, said.

A property off of Southwest 45th Street is one of two active nesting grounds for the conehead termites. But despite that, experts believe they’re doing a good job at making sure the species doesn’t spread throughout the county.

Experts said once they spot a nest, they destroy and incinerate it. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of termites are expected to take to the air and find their territories during swarming season.

“This termite is very capable of spreading quickly and probably quite far in South Florida if not beyond,” Thorne said.

The process of killing the termites takes about a day and a half. Once the nests are destroyed, experts will come back out to make sure no more pop up.

These pointy heads are responsible for much of the estimated $40 billion in economic losses attributed to termites annually. Their habitat ranges over in South Florida, already home to a daunting number of invasive plant and animal species thriving where they should not. It is not always possible for an untrained individual to see evidence of termites; however, homeowners can sometimes identify a potential termite problem by being vigilant in and around the home. Thus termination of these termites is need of an hour.

C Tech Corporation, an Indian based company has come up with a novel solution to deal with such problems. Termirepel^™ is an aversive for termites and insects. It has unique qualities which range from being non-toxic and non-hazardous to being “ECO-FRIENDLY”. Aggressive species are further deterred from attacking by advanced mechanisms like aversion, feeding deterrents, mating disruption, reproduction cycle inhibition, growth impairment and chemo sterilization thus modifying their response towards the Termirepel^™ containing products resulting in them staying away from the application. Thus, Termirepel^™ actually helps in modifying insect behavior. It does not harm or kill the insect but just repels them away from the application.

Coptotermes acinaciformis is a species of subterranean termites in the family Rhinotermitidae, native to Australia. Coptotermes acinaciformis is commonly found throughout Queensland particularly in urban areas or where eucalypt gum trees are highly prevalent. Coptotermes acinaciformis are a very secretive termite species; they build their nest out of sight, often within the base of eucalyptus or other susceptible trees, or completely under the ground; often within an enclosed patio or under concrete (on ground) flooring which is ideal for moisture retention, temperature and humidity control within the termite colony nest. This species often build subsidiary nests away from the main colony nest. A subsidiary nest can be contained in a wall cavity of a building where there is a reliable moisture source, for example, from a leaking shower recess or faulty guttering or rusted downpipes.

Coptotermes acinaciformis are highly destructive in nature to buildings and other timber structures. They are the most widely distributed and destructive timber pests in Australia. A single colony may consist of more than one million termites. The most voracious timber pest one needs to be taken seriously. A previous study by Archicentre found that 650,000 homes nationwide were attacked by termites over a five-year period with average $10,000 damage. The most common and destructive — accounting for 70 per cent of all serious damage to buildings nationwide — is coptotermes acinaciformis.

Let’s have a look at how destructive these termites are in our day to day living.

 

 

Queensland’s perfect conditions for termite movement, new threat emerges

Dec 13, 2014

The week’s hot and humid conditions are producing a plague of termites seeking new homes — and they could be headed for your place.

After months of dry weather, the stormy downpours in the last few days have created an ideal situation for the little timber-munching monsters, and pest management experts say millions of them are on the move.

 “You will get 200,000 of them flying from a colony on dusk seeking somewhere to establish new nests,’’ Dunrite Pest Control owner Steve Annells said.

“This weather is just about perfect for them. When it begins to rain, they spread quickly.’’

Queensland has seven species of termites which pose a risk to property. The most common and destructive — accounting for 70 percent of all serious damage to buildings nationwide — is coptotermes acinaciformis.

 They will often spread from nearby gum trees to properties in urban areas and establish nests under concrete working their way through behind walls where there is moisture from leaky plumbing or poor weatherproofing.A previous study by Archicentre found that 650,000 homes nationwide were attacked by termites over a five-year period with average $10,000 damage.

While improvements in building techniques, termite barrier installation and chemical treatment appear to be reducing damage in Queensland, a new threat is looming.

More than three times the size of more common types, it can tear through buildings quickly and has also been recorded as damaging rubber tyres and even bitumen.

Its traditional habitat has been the tropics of northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia. But changing weather patterns and warmer conditions have seen it expanding its territory — with colonies found as far south as the Gold Coast.

“Once they are here, they don’t just go away,’’ Mr Annells said.

“They are an incredibly destructive and voracious species. If they come through Brisbane, the old-style chemical barriers are not going to keep them out. That’s a big problem.’’

Mr Annells said the first time most people suspected they had a termite infestation was “when they push the vacuum cleaner head through the skirting board’’.

If householders found evidence of termites, it was essential not to disturb them before calling in professionals to eradicate the pests.

“That will just cause them to set up a nest somewhere else,’’ he said.

And he cautioned against the idea of ‘’sacrificial timber” such as leaving an old log in the backyard in the belief it would keep termites away from the house.

“While they are setting up a sub-nest in your garden, they are also looking to expand their colony so the house could well be next,’’ Mr Annells said.

Annual property inspections were important even after preventive treatments, and Mr Annells advised owners to look for an experienced pest controller with insurance and beware the lowest quotes.  “It’s ‘buyer beware’,’’ he said.

Thus a unique method needs to be devised to keep them away from our precious homes and gardens. C Tech Corporation, an Indian company has come up with a novel solution to counteract problems caused by such creatures. Termirepel ™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous termite/insect repellent which has been designed for various polymeric applications as well as natural materials like woods. It gives the best combination of chemistry and green practice to give an environmentally safe product which acts as a repellent effectively and at the same time guarantees safety to the environment, plants, animals and fragile ecosystem.

Termirepel ™ does not kill but only keeps the insects away by making use of the sensory mechanisms. Aggressive species are further deterred from attacking by advanced mechanisms like aversion, feeding deterrents, mating disruption, reproduction cycle inhibition, growth impairment and chemo sterilization thus modifying their response towards the Termirepel ™containing products resulting in them staying away from the application. Thus, Termirepel ™ actually helps in modifying insect behavior.

The war between humans and insects, especially termites and ants is well known for ages. The moment people realize the presence of termites in their house, they rush to make a call to the exterminator. They do not care that the extreme measures like using hazardous chemicals to kill the entire colony of termites are taken. Termites are a nuisance and they pose a great threat to their capability to reduce our house to dust. Termites attack wood and even have the ability to destroy polymer. Though termites do not actually eat plastic but release formic acid, which is one of the biggest enemies of the polymer. They are infamous for their various activities which results in heavy monetary losses and loss of valuable artifacts.

The other insects like ants, bugs also fall in the same category of the termites where damages are concerned. People do not bother when extreme measures of use of hazardous chemicals are adopted to kill the species as long as their home and belonging are protected from the viciousness of such insects. The termite problem is a big nuisance and has to be dealt with!!! – this is a fact. But is KILLING them the right solution?

Every being on this planet earth is a part of the ecosystem and serves some purpose so as to balance the entire ecosystem. It is the work of termites, carpenter ants, wood borers and other insects that help in the degradation of the wood. Termites eat wood, and they help to break down decaying tree trunks in the forest. Not only tree trunks, but branches, leaves, and plant matter which are too tough for other life forms to digest. Termites are the only ones that can break down wood on a mass scale. Without them, the fallen trunks of trees would soon pile up and kill the forest. There are some new reports which have come to light that termites and ants are also helpful in increasing the fertility of the land. The burden carried alone by earthworms, now have new aides with them –TERMITES and ANTS.

Termites and ants burrow in the soil, making numerous tunnels which permit air and water to penetrate the soil. This helps with aerating the soil and fixing nitrogen in the soil, which helps soil bacteria convert the nitrogen in the air into a form more easily absorbed by plant roots. So termites and ants help a lot with the growth of plants and trees in the forest.

Aggressive termites are found in Australia and are considered as one of the biggest threat to cables, plastic pipes, and wooden structures. In spite of the nuisance caused by these aggressive termites, the studies have shown that the termites and ants are beneficial for the agricultural land.

Termites and ants boost crop yields

BY: DAISY DUMAS | APRIL-6-2011

Rather than damaging crop yields, these insects have been found to enrich soil by more than one-third.

ANTS AND TERMITES HAVE long had a bad rap for stealing picnic food and chomping through house frames, but it turns out that their services are invaluable to Australian farmers.

New research from CSIRO and the University of Sydney has shown that, by performing an earthworm-like role in soil enrichment, the insects can boost crop yields in the dry areas of Australia’s wheat belt by more than one-third.

“The sheer size of the effect is what is most surprising to me,” says lead author Dr Theo Evans, from CSIRO Ecosystem Science in Canberra. “I didn’t think it’d have such a huge impact – a 36 per cent yield increase compared to my expected five per cent.”

The results suggest that ants and termites not only increase grain yields but can cut fertiliser bills and decrease the need for pesticides. “It’s likely to mean decreased pesticide use, especially pesticide that is applied to the ground,” Theo told Australian Geographic.

Ants and termites have a positive affect on crop yield

Enriching soil is traditionally an earthworm role, but, say the CSIRO scientists, in arid zones it’s ants and termites that perform the important biological functions that worms do in the cooler and wetter zones.

These insects are able to re-colonise untilled wheat fields that have ‘crop stubble’, which they use for nourishment as they establish their underground nests. The activity helps more rainwater soak into the ground where plants need it most. The insects also increase the amount of nitrogen – a nutrient needed for plant growth – by a quarter.

The study, published last week in the journal Nature Communications, is the first of its kind to look at ants and termites in agricultural systems and is also the first to show that such insects have a positive effect on crop yield. It is possible that any ‘dryland’ farmland – non-irrigated agriculture – may benefit, Theo says. This includes wheat, oats, barley, rye, canola and perhaps, cotton.

“Poorer parts of the world which don’t irrigate may be positively affected,” he says. Theo sees potential benefits to swathes of marginal land in southern Africa, Brazil, Mexico and the Mediterranean, particularly “if the effect is true across broader soil types and across species.”

He hopes the research will take the ‘triple-bottom-line’ approach – people, planet and profit. “It might pay the farmer economically, but it could be that by harnessing ecosystem services, we could be better off in every way,”

Insects boost farm efficiency 

Farmer, Rohan Ford, whose property was used as field study site for the project, is buoyed by the results. “It’s great news. I think it’s a mindset – it’s about understanding what chemicals you can and can’t use, and how we can best use our machinery. The interesting thing, now the information is out there, to see whether we can get more funding to keep doing research into different soil types.”

Next, the team is keen to look into the extent to which termites act as nitrogen fixers – agents that convert nitrogen in the air into a form that plants can use in the soil. “They definitely enrich the soil, but we’d like to know which species provide the most benefit,” says co-author Dr Nathan Lo from the University of Sydney.

But Theo would also like to see the results imparting positivity towards the insects’ negative image. “You say the word ‘earthworm’ and people…know they do good. But 150 years ago, people wanted to kill them. Darwin rehabilitated their image in one of his final studies,” Theo says. “Maybe we can do a bit of a Charles Darwin for ants and termites.”

In African countries, farmers practice this style of farming since very old times. They practice includes burying a piece of wood in the soil or digging up a hole and fill it with manure to attract termites and ants. The yield in agriculture field was found to be increased by whopping 36% approximately because of the activity of termites on the field. This increase in yield is need of the hour as the number of mouths to be fed increases every second globally.

The most important and amazing fact is that the termites and ants have the ability to increase the fertility of the arid lands. This is definitely a unique property of termites as the species like an earthworm and other worms which are considered as best in increasing the fertility of the soil lack the ability to fertile an arid land. Certain termite species in tropical countries grow fungus within their nests which may go on to develop into large mushrooms that are edible and prized by the native people living there. These mushrooms are totally cultured and cultivated by termites! In Africa, these termite farmed mushrooms are a prized delicacy and include some of the largest mushrooms in the world.

Termites are the source of food for species like birds, frogs, frogs, and anteaters. It is believed that a sizable proportion of methane in the earth’s atmosphere is generated from the activities of termite colonies. It’s clear that not only are termites a major pest of wood but looking at the big picture, they are needed for the overall health of this planet of ours.

Even other insects like some bugs, bees are beneficial. Ten years ago there were approximately 750,000 named insect species. Today, that number is over 1,000,000. And according to a recent article in Scientific American, entomologists estimate that there are likely over eight million different species of insects on Earth. Though many among these 8 million species of insects play a major a role in disrupting human life; they are a part of the ecosystem and hence may be beneficial in some or other.

In his book The Diversity of Life, renowned entomologist Edward O. Wilson discusses the importance of insects and land-dwelling arthropods in the ecosystem, saying that “if [they] all were to disappear, humanity probably could not last more than a few months.” Most other life forms, like amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals would also become extinct because of the domino effect that would occur in the food chain.

Every living thing on this planet has some kind of place in the scheme of things, and insects even the destructive ones are no exception.

The bottom line is species of termites, ants, bugs, etc. are part of our ecosystem and hence have a useful role to play. So is it right to kill them using hazardous chemicals?

Agreed; that the above statements are true. But the fact remains that these termites, ants and other insects cause a lot of damages and heavy monetary losses. The study of termites and ants being beneficial species for agriculture is done in Australia; which is, in fact, one of the countries where aggressive termites exist destroying everything in their path. One cannot turn a blind eye to these problems and let these creatures to vilify our belongings. We should adopt a solution which will protect our belongings like wooden structures, cables, pipes, crops, etc. from these creatures but not kill the species. Use of dangerous, hazardous and harmful pesticides does not fit the bill (they even harm the species which are known to be beneficial!!!).

C Tech Corporation truly believes that none of living creatures on the earth should be harmed or killed but it also acknowledges the far-reaching termite and other pest problem. Termirepel™, a product of C Tech Corporation is non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment-friendly termite repellent. Along with termites it also repels near about 500 other insects. The most important feature of our product is it does not kill the target or non-target species as it works on the mechanism of repellency. Termirepel™ can be incorporated in polymeric applications like wire, cables, plastic pipes, agricultural film etc. It is also available in lacquer form for coating application (can be mixed with finishes, polish, paints, etc.).

So if we want termites and ants to make our agricultural lands fertile and at the same time protect our crops and irrigation pipes from the same insects; use of Termirepel™ is the best option. It is highly efficient, effective and it is a green and sustainable solution.

 

 

 

 

 

What do termites destruct the most? Your home, your beloved books, your shelter, your beautiful garden, but most of all they destruct your sense of peace and sense of safety. There is some amount of mental torture as these species multiply tenfold even before you get the hang of understanding how to eliminate them. It’s like you are running against time and there is some sort of one-up game being played between you and the termites. Even if they are as small as few millimeters in size, the joke is on you.

There are different levels of how dangerous the termites are. Some are docile and human-friendly, and some are most destructive and clearly number one human enemy. The species Mastotermes darwiniensis come in the second category.

 

 

 

 

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Mastotermes darwiniensis, common names giant northern termite and Darwin termite, is a termite species found only in northern Australia. It is a very peculiar insect, the most primitive termite alive.  As such, it shows uncanny similarities to certain cockroaches, the termites’ closest relatives. These similarities include the anal lobe of the wing and the laying of eggs in bunches, rather than singly. It is the only living member of its genus Mastotermes and its family Mastotermitidae.

These species are subterranean species with 12.25 0.75mm in length with four castes namely king, queen, soldier and worker/reproductive.

The odd thing about Mastotermes is that while it is morphologically primitive, and has not changed its physical appearance much in many millions of years, its behavior and social structure are highly complex, and as derived as the termites that have evolved most recently of all. Mastotermes builds huge underground nest structures that contain extensive gallery construction and tunnel excavation; it forages far afield from the nest and has been known to damage structures over a hundred yards away from its colony. Full-grown colonies contain over a million individuals, with rigid caste structures and obligatory sterility for the worker forms. This is a lot like the most-derived, most-recently evolved termites, like the great mound-builders of Africa. In contrast, the most termite-like cockroach and the next-most-primitive termites after Mastotermes all live and eat inside one piece of rotting wood, have very flexible development, do not have obligatory sterility in the worker forms, build no galleries and no tunnels, and are have many fewer group members.
Mastotermes darwiniensis build their nest (secretively) totally below the soil surface; or in the trunks and root crowns of trees and stumps. Once a nest is mature (over 100,000 or much higher) they can “split off “to form other nests over a wide-ranging area. These sub nests are formed constantly and can sustain life for a long period of time without contact to the original nest.

Mastotermes darwiniensis is one of the world’s most destructive termite species, often causing severe damage to houses, buildings, bridges, posts, poles, and many other plant and animal products. It is also an agricultural pest, responsible for ringbarking and killing living trees, shrubs, fruit, vegetable crops, sugarcane and rubber trees.

Mastotermes darwiniensis is also reported to attack rubber tyres on tractors and cause damage to leather, hide, plastic or lead-sheathed cables, bitumen, bagged salt, flour, glass and various metals. This is the most ancient of all the termites in the world – they occur only in Australia – a termite to be feared.

There was an article posted on Australian Website, Goldcost.com.au by Henry Tuttiett on October 15^th, 2011, titled ”Terror termites found on gold coast”. The article was as follows:

AN established nest of the world’s most ferocious and aggressive termite has been discovered on the Gold Coast amid fears it could cause hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to property in the city.

The Mastotermes darwiniensis, commonly known as the great northern termite, was not thought to live south of the Tropic of Capricorn but a colony of the fast-spreading species was found in a western Gold Coast suburb two weeks ago.

The termite can cause severe damage to a home in only 12 weeks and is so aggressive it has been known to eat electrical wiring as well as the tyres of cane tractors, and even bitumen, in northern Australia.

Termite experts and entomology handbooks describe the species as “the world’s most destructive”.

Pest-Ex Pest Management owner Danny Kelly discovered the termite in a tree stump during a property inspection and said he realized the magnitude of his find almost immediately.

A Brisbane entomologist confirmed the species before the sample was taken to an industry conference in Townsville, where experts also verified it.

Mr. Kelly, who was himself attacked by the termites after his find, said if one colony was found on the Coast, there was a high likelihood there would be more.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation said a small colony of the “particularly destructive” species was found at Tallai in 2008.

Mr. Kelly said he had also spoken to the CSIRO about the discovery.

This is the amount of fear these species have incorporated in the mind of people living in Australia. The normal alternatives like insecticides are temporary and not very effective for such species. For particularly these species arsenic dust or chemical barriers are used.  They are toxic and leach out endangering the people coming in contact with them. It is a general convention that ‘Change is the only constant’. And the change required in today’s world need to be related to going green. Our product Termirepel ™ is the most viable alternative.

Termirepel ™ is an aversive for termites and insects. It works even against the most aggressive species.

It has unique qualities which range from being non-toxic and non-hazardous to being the magic word “ECO-FRIENDLY”. It does not leach out and is stable at high temperatures. It can be incorporated into polymeric applications as well as be used to give a coating on wood surfaces and timber derivatives. It is available in Liquid as well as lacquer form. Moreover, the most important characteristic of Termirepel ™ is that it does not kill the target species. It works on the principle of REPELLENCE only. This product is niche and one of its kinds.  This product will come as a sigh of relief for people long suffering from “Termite Abuse”, especially when the termites are as destructive as Mastotermes darwiniensis.

Found in a rainbow of North American plants from avocados to beans, onions, citrus trees and market flowers, thrips are tiny insects. These species that are plant feeders can scar leaf, flower or fruit surfaces with silvery speckling when they puncture and suck out the cell’s content. Conversely, heavy pest populations can severely distort flowers and damage fruit. Other thrip species function as beneficial insects by eating mites, fungal spores, and pollen.

When thrips have fed on a bud, it will often fail to open; or if it does open, the flower will be deformed. Flowers upon which the thrips feed may also become streaked and/or discolored. When thrips feed on plant leaves, the leaves will dry out and appear speckled with silvery flakes. The leaves will eventually wilt and fall off.

To lay its eggs, the female thrip will make a slit in a leaf then lay 25 to 50 eggs within it. The eggs can develop into adults within three weeks, or sooner for some species. Many species of thrips also reproduce asexually. They can produce many generations in a single season.

In addition to damaging and feeding on plants, thrips are known to bite humans. They can cause both skin and respiratory irritation to people, according to the University of Michigan, particularly to workers in fields where infestations exist.

Thrips are small insects, only about 1/20″, but they can cause a lot of damage. At maturity, they are yellowish or blackish with fringed wings.  Nymphs have a similar shape but lack the wings. They are usually yellowish to white. Thrips are poor flyers. As a result, damage often occurs in one part of the plant then slowly spreads throughout it.

Thrips feed in buds, folded leaves, and other unexposed areas of plants. This makes them difficult to treat with an insecticide. They feed by sucking juices from the plant causing stippling, or small scars, on leaves, flowers, and fruit. This results in stunting of the plant, leaf distortion and premature leaf drop. Flowers may be deformed and fail to open properly. Petals may show brown streaks and spots. Their excrement is black and shiny, which may be a clue to their presence.  In addition to this physical damage, thrips also transmit tomato spotted wilt virus and impatiens necrotic spot virus, for which there is no control.

If enough thrips attack a plant, the leaves may take on a silver-streaked appearance. When there are large enough infestations of thrips, the plant can be severely damaged. Fruits will not be able to fully mature.

In many species, thrips feed within buds and furled leaves or in other enclosed parts of the plant. Their damage is often observed before the thrips are seen. Discolored or distorted plant tissue or black specks of feces around stippled leaf surfaces are clues that thrips are or were present. However, some abiotic disorders, pathogens, and certain other invertebrates can cause damage resembling that of thrips. For example, lace bugs, plant bugs, and mites also stipple foliage, and lace bugs and certain plant bugs produce dark, watery fecal specks. Look carefully for the insects themselves to be certain that pest thrips are present and the cause of damage before taking a control action.

Thrips are poor fliers but can readily spread long distances by floating with the wind or being transported on infested plants. New thrips introductions can pose serious threats and complicate identification. A recent introduction of Klambothrips myopori has caused serious leaf and shoot galling damage to Myoporum laetum(ngaio tree) and Myoporum ‘Pacificum’ (a groundcover) along the coast of California. This thrips was both a new introduction and an undescribed species, so that initially not even the experts knew what to call it or how it might be managed. This species is now well established and from its original detection site in San Diego has spread north along the coast to at least as far as Santa Barbara. It is expected to continue to spread to wherever Myoporum species have been planted.

Thrips prefer to feed in rapidly growing tissue. Feeding by thrips typically causes tiny scars on leaves and fruit, called stippling, and can stunt growth. Damaged leaves may become papery and distorted. Infested terminals may discolor, become rolled, and drop leaves prematurely. Petals may exhibit “color break,” which is pale or dark discoloring of petal tissue that was killed by thrips feeding before buds opened. Thrips cause silvery to brownish, scabby scarring on the avocado and citrus fruit surface, but this cosmetic damage does not harm the internal fruit quality. Feces may remain on leaves or fruit long after thrips have left. Where thrips lay eggs on grapes, dark scars surrounded by lighter “halos” may be found on the fruit. Thrips feeding on raspberries, apples, and nectarines can deform or scar developing fruit; sugar pea pods may be scarred or deformed. Citrus thrips feeding severely distorts blueberry shoot tips and foliage, reducing fruit yield.

Western flower thrips are primarily pests of herbaceous plants, but high populations occasionally damage continuously- or late-blossoming flowers on woody plants such as roses. Some plant-feeding thrips are also predaceous on other pests, such as spider mites. In young cotton seedlings in California, western flower thrips is considered beneficial because it feeds on spider mites.

Behavior, body appearance, and host plants help to distinguish among thrips species. For example, three dark spots on each forewing distinguish the adult predaceous six-spotted thrips from pest thrips. Adults of western flower thrips and onion thrips are noticeably larger than avocado and citrus thrips adults, so mature body size helps to distinguish them when they occur together on the same host plant. However, thrips can be positively identified to species only by an expert. Fortunately, most thrips are susceptible to some of the same controls, such as exclusion and pesticides.

It is more important to distinguish among thrips species in situations where integrated pest management methods are used. For example, predatory thrips or other natural enemies are highly specific to certain pests and are likely to help control only certain species of plant-feeding thrips. Certain thrips occur on many different plants but damage only a few of the plant species on which they are found, so identifying the thrips species may reveal that it is harmless in that situation and no control action is needed. For example, avocado fruit skin is scarred by avocado thrips and greenhouse thrips, but citrus thrips and western flower thrips are harmless in avocado. Citrus thrips occurs on many species of plants but damages only blueberries and citrus.

Although thrips damage to leaves is unsightly, thrips activity does not usually warrant the use of insecticide sprays. For instance, while thrips damage on citrus or avocado fruit may look unpleasant, it does not harm trees or affect the internal fruit quality. When damage is noticed on ripening fruit or distorted terminals, the thrips that caused the injury are often gone. It’s not until later when tissue grows and expands that injury caused earlier becomes apparent. While viruses vectored by thrips may cause plant loss, insecticide sprays are not recommended to prevent viruses because thrips are not killed fast enough to prevent the transfer of the virus to new plants. Prevention of thrips infestations is the only way to prevent infection by thrips-vectored viruses.

This can readily be achieved by using C Tech Corporation patented product Termirepel™.

Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous broad-spectrum insect aversive masterbatch which works not only against termites but a host of other insects including beetles, ticks, thirps etc. It has been incorporated in different kinds of films, cables and wires etc all over the world and is found to be effective against even the most aggressive insects. It is effective against a multitude of other insects including agricultural pests. It can be used for a number of applications including agricultural films, tarps, pipes, plastics, ducts, tubing and hosing, wires and cables, railways, aviation, mulches and the automobile sector.

For prevention of damage caused by Thirps, films incorporated with Termirepel™ can be used to cover the area or mulches can also be used to save the plants. Such films can also be wrapped around big fruits to prevent damage. All this can be done by just repelling the insect and not killing them. Thus, following the course of ecological balance and sustainability.

Pecan trees are one of the most beloved trees of all time. And like all other trees, the yield of the tree, as well as their quality are governed by a number of environmental factors. Environmental conditions, management inputs, and pest pressure all have direct impacts on pecan yield or nut quality. One pest that is a major threat to the pecan tree is the pecan nut casebearer. The pecan nut casebearer is one of the most devastating nut-feeding insects that occur in pecans. They may damage the nuts and reduce the yield of the tree considerably.

The pecan nut casebearer is found throughout pecan growing regions from Florida to southern New Mexico. In Oklahoma, adult casebearer moths deposit eggs during late May or early June. Eggs are deposited on the tips of nuts shortly after tree pollination. After hatching, the larvae burrow into nuts. Each larva may damage an entire cluster. Pecan trees typically lose 75 percent of the pecans between nut set and shell hardening even when protected from insect damage.  As casebearer larvae feed on the inside of pecans, they push all their frass outside into a nice neat pile. The pecan nut casebearer has established itself in over 70 percent of the pecan-producing areas in the western region of New Mexico. Within the next four years, it is estimated that these bugs will establish in the majority of the remaining pecan acres.

Larval feeding prior to hard shell typically results in significant damage to the nut, formation of an abscission layer, and loss of the nut. During the period of the pecan’s shell hardening a percentage of nuts are susceptible to yield loss caused by late second- and early third-generation larvae. Crop loss during the late second generation can be particularly damaging to final yield. This period of time is after August drop, so affected nuts represent direct yield loss. Damaged nuts before August drop represent potential yield loss. Although these insects cannot penetrate the shell, larvae feed and tunnel freely within the husk, along the shell, and at the point of attachment between the husk and the peduncle. Damage due to PNC feeding during this period does not normally result in a loss of a nut but can possibly reduce nut quality.

The below article would better explain the damage by these insects.

Sneaky bugs bother pecans

April 5, 2015

By Jeff Floyd

West Texas Pecan trees declare the arrival of spring by breaking bud around this time each year.  Unfortunately, the tender little buds don’t go unseen by the pecan nut’s most destructive insect pest, the pecan nut casebearer.

The sneaky casebearers survive the winter as tiny larvae in protective cocoons.  They construct their cocoons of silk near the base of dormant buds some place on the pecan tree.  As temperatures warm in early spring, the larvae dig into the tender developing twigs and begin feeding.  

 Eventually, the larvae pupate into somewhat plain-looking moths which embark on a search for suitable mates.  Male casebearers locate mates by using receptors on the end of their antennae to detect a unique scent.  These scents, known as pheromones, are produced only by the female casebearer.

Although the pest may have up to four generations per year, it is the first two generations that cause the most damage to pecan nuts.  Third and fourth generations often emerge too late in the season to cause much harm.  The most effective method of controlling casebearers is a contact insecticide applied before they crawl into the protective husk of the pecan nut.

What we need is a solution that helps protect our plants and trees from damage, while at the same time does not harm the environment in any way. So, how do we fight this pest?  Keep reading!

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these tiny insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously fending them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated on the tree trunks in lacquer form or added in mulches or films. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the pecan nut casebearer and any other insect that could harm our trees.