An unwelcome guest has recently been plaguing the plant life in Pennsylvania. These are nothing but Spotted Laternflies, which are beautiful, colourful insects and might seem like any other nuisance bug; but which are can prove to be extremely dangerous. The invasive pest poses a threat to fruit orchards and grape vines, along with forests and the timber industry. It attacks trees by feeding on sap and harms them further by excreting large amounts of a fluid that coats leaves and stems and encourages the growth of mold, according to researchers.

The Spotted Lanternfly is about one inch long and a half-inch wide, and is native to China, India, Japan and Vietnam. The insect uses its “piercing and sucking mouthparts” to drain stems of sap while at the same time excreting a lot of liquid. Due to the sugar content of the liquid, plant parts covered with spotted lanternfly excretion harbor mold growth, which could hinder plant growth. This can reduce photosynthesis, weaken the plant, and eventually contribute to the plant’s death. In addition, feeding can cause the plant to ooze or weep. It’s described as a weak flyer but a “strong and quick jumper,” and it’s done some serious damage in Korea, where it was introduced in 2006; it has since attacked some 25 plant species that can also be found in Pennsylvania. Spotted lanternfly feeds on a variety of host plants including fruit trees, ornamental trees, woody trees, and vines.

This pest poses a significant threat to the state’s more than $20.5 million grape, nearly $134 million apple and more than $24 million stone fruit industries. Pine and hardwood logging in Pennsylvania also accounts for $12 billion in sales. The damage caused by this pest is so much so that around 5 Pennsylvania townships and 2 boroughs are on high alert after the state Department of Agriculture confirmed the presence of an invasive insect that threatens its grape vines, fruit trees and logging industry. To date, delimiting surveys conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) indicate that the infested area may be approximately 30 square kilometers (11.6 square miles) in six townships and two municipalities in eastern Berks County.

The below article would aptly describe the threat posed by these pesky insects.

 

 

Invasive insect found in Berks County feeds on fruit, ornamental, woody trees

By Vincent Cotrone

November 16, 2014

The first American chestnut disappeared from our forests and landscapes in the early 1900s when an exotic fungal disease, cryphonectria parasitica, aka chestnut blight, was accidentally introduced.

Next it was American elms that we lost to an imported disease in the 1960s. More recently, we have seen imported insects such as Emerald Ash Borer killing millions of native ash trees across the Eastern United States, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, a tiny aphid like insect, causing major declines in native hemlock, and Asian Longhorned Beetles threatening maples in New York and New England.

“When will it end?” you might ask yourself. Apparently not anytime soon, because a new invasive insect (a planthopper) named the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) has just been discovered in Berks County. This pest is native to China, India and Vietnam. It attacks and feeds on many host plants including fruit trees (apples, pears, plums), ornamental trees, woody trees and vines. Apples, birch, cherry, dogwood, grapes, lilac, maple, poplar, stone fruits and tree-of-heaven are among more than 70 species of hosts attacked by this pest.

Adults and nymphs feed on phloem tissues of foliage and young stems with their piercing and sucking mouthparts and excrete large quantities of liquid. Due to the sugar content of the liquid, plant parts covered with spotted lanternfly excretion harbor mold growth, which could hinder plant growth or even cause death.

Think this is just another nuisance bug? Think again. This pest poses a significant threat to the state’s more than $20.5 million grape, nearly $134 million apple and more than $24 million stone fruit industries. Pine and hardwood logging in Pennsylvania also accounts for $12 billion in sales.

As the state Department of Agriculture tries to control the spread of this new pest by placing quarantines on the movement of plants, wood and stone materials out of Berks County, it will also be conducting surveys across the commonwealth to determine if the infestation is wide spread. This is where the home gardener and commercial landscaper or arborist comes in.

A research paper about the bug’s spread in Korea explains why it can be tough to control: “Furthermore, no natural enemy of L. delicatula seems to exist in Korea. Thus, farmers use pesticides to control them in vineyards (Park et al. 2009). However, the use of pesticides kills natural enemies of other grape pests and L. delicatula can repopulate pesticide-sprayed areas from nearby forested areas, which contain suitable host species.” Evidently, we need a solution which would prevent the spread of these insects, but at the same time not harm the beneficial pests in any way.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and infallible 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 an eco-friendly product that 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 Spotted Lanternfly and any other insect that could harm our beloved trees. Thus, using Termirepel™ would effectively ensure that our cherished trees remain protected from this destructive pest!

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 sometime 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 in 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 fertilizations. 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!

Thousands of death, families broken, and the chair at the dinner table empty. All the precious lives, mindlessly ended due to the danger named dengue.

Dengue fever, also known as break bone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. In a small proportion of cases the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.

Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes, principally A. aegypti. The virus has four different types; infection with one type usually gives lifelong immunity to that type, but only short-term immunity to the others. Subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications. As there is no commercially available vaccine, prevention is sought by reducing the habitat and the number of mosquitoes and limiting exposure to bites.

Dengue was mainly introduced to Indians in the aftermath of the great floods experienced in Mumbai on 26^th July, 2006. It was a nightmare followed by even a greater nightmare. Every second person in the hospital bed was dying of this disease.

Now after 7 years, it still manages to claim lives. Below mentioned article was written in The Times of India on 1^st September, 2013. The track record of this disease is such that people totally lose hope.

Five BNSD Shiksha Niketan hostel inmates test positive for dengue

TNN Sep 1, 2013, 02.24AM IST

KANPUR: Five inmates of BNSD Shiksha Niketan hostel have tested positive for dengue. With this the number of dengue patients in the city in August has touched 37, including three deaths. Head of Microbiology department at GSVM Medical College Dr Atul Garg said that 11 new cases, including five BNSD students, have been reported in the ongoing week (August 26 and 31).

The disease also claimed a life at Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) Hospital. Their platelet count was quite low and they were running high fever for the last few days. LLR’s Bal Rog Hospital head Dr RP Singh said that a kid from Maudaha region died of dengue on Thursday. He was brought to LLR on August 26. Two other deaths due to dengue were reported in the first fortnight of August. Commenting on the five hostel inmates, BNSD Shiksha Niketan’s media incharge Deepak Singh blamed unhygienic condition of Brijendra Swaroop ground adjacent to the hostel premises for the mosquito menace. He added that school management had repeatedly asked the municipal corporation to remove garbage from the ground but in vain.

“Civic body’s apathy has left students sick,” he added. However, he refused to comment after being told that dengue mosquitoes breed in clean water found in homes. Meanwhile, students alleged that hostel authorities were yet to empty the coolers.

Other news articles regarding the menace of dengue are in the following given links:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/142-test-positive-for-dengue-in-August/articleshow/22240268.cms

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-31/rajkot/41641149_1_dengue-fever-cases-rajkot-municipal-corporation-jagnath

If the misconception is that the dengue cases are only restricted to India, then it is wrong. The following links give a report of dengue in America, Puerto Rico etc.

http://news.yahoo.com/dengue-epidemic-looms-central-american-region-191518090.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/puerto-rico-dengue-epidemic_n_1952262.html

As we all know that the only way to fight a problem is to go to its root cause and uproot it. Well, the root cause of dengue as mentioned above is the mosquitoes. We can safely say that mosquitoes are omnipresent in most parts of India and around the world. There is no assurance that the mosquitoes will be totally extinct from world. So the only option is to find a solution which will repel mosquitoes and keep them away from us. At the same time the solution used should not harm the ecology.

Malaria is another disease caused by mosquitoes that can turn fatal. It is not as fatal as dengue, but leads to a lot of trauma among the victim.

The question here is why to go through so much trauma? The humans, being the evolved species have come up with solutions to every little problem. Then why not for this?

We, at C Tech Corporation have thought about this problem in detail and have come up with a viable solution. The solution is named as Termirepel™.  We are the sole manufacturers of the product Termirepel™.

Our company believes in the principles of sustainability and eco balance. We do not want to imbalance the cycle of life; therefore Termirepel™ can be easily described as termite aversive, used also against all types of insects and which works on the mechanism of repellence. It means that it does not kill the target insects or termites but only repels them, thus balancing the ecology and helping in maintaining the goal of sustainability. There are more than 500 species against which this product works.

This product can be easily used against mosquitoes. It can be used in terms of lacquer as well as liquid form. It can be coated on the end applications and thus mosquitoes can be kept away from homes, buildings and other public places.

Nothing in life is as smooth as the air plane runway. There are bound to be hurdles and bumps in our way. But how we tackle them defines our success. Using Termirepel™ to tackle the problem of mosquitoes will go a long way in giving us the success in eliminating diseases like dengue and malaria and will help us to live fearlessly.

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 sap suckers 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 poses 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 an 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 on 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.

 

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!

 

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 the 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.

Termite infestations are rampant all over the world. February, March and April are the months when subterranean termites swarm as was experienced   by the clueless homeowners of Orange County as they came home to thousands of termites as was reported by the local pest control agency in Orange county on 2^nd Feb,2013. The incident left the home owners scared and shook up as some of them even mistook the termites to be flying ants. This incident was caused by a particular sect of termites which include the young king and queen termites as they set out for mating. These types of termites are distinctly different from the normal whitish “worker” termites. When the conditions are right, the young kings and queens burst out of their nest and begin their short flight. They often follow the prevailing breeze because they are poor fliers. Some break off their wings while still in flight and spiral down to the earth. Others may land and then remove their wings. These kings and queens are not attracted to one another until their wings have been clipped off. They have a very high mortality rate of 97% and only about 3% survive.

Countries like China have been at the receiving end of termite related damage for quite some time now. As the damage done by termites often goes unnoticed over long periods of time the detection of an infection is often in the later stage. Termites have damaged nearly 4,500 houses in the Guizhou province of China. The China News Service reported that since July 2012 termites have been rampant in the Xingyi city damaging thousands of homes forcing the evacuation of 1,700 people. The termites have caused an estimated direct economic loss of about 34 million Yuan ($5.45 million) at the time of going to press in Feb, 2013. The losses must have escalated now. Termites damage homes by eating away at the wood structure thus threatening the structural integrity of the whole set up. Termite infested homes are a life risk. Termite infestations are more severe than any of us give them credit for, as was experienced by a lawyer when he was asked to pay $68 K in damages to another lawyer for concealing termite infestation in his house as was reported on the official website of Campbell Law PC in April, 2013.

These measly creatures are sure causing us a lot of money!!Jamal Shahid of a newspaper in Islamabad, Pakistan reported on 28^th Jan, 2013 that Gallery 3 of the National Art Gallery was closed due to termite infestation. The termite infestation was a severe one and being detected at a very later stage forced the immediate closure of the gallery. The art that the gallery houses is worth millions and therefore no risk could be taken exposing it to termite damage. The infestation came to light when the authorities found conical mounds of sawdust under wooden skirting along the walls. The main reason for the termite attack was postulated to be the use of substandard wood used for skirting the frames and gallery railings which is more susceptible to a termite attack. This unforeseen closure of the gallery would definitely amount to huge financial losses as well as the constant threat of precious art getting destroyed. Thus an effective solution needs to be formulated to keep these creatures from causing us any further grief. Avoidance is a better solution than treatment in his case, as it is very difficult to save a piece of wood once it has been attacked by termites. The right and smart thing to do would be to keep them away from our precious wood. This is effectively achieved by Termirepel^™ a non-toxic, aversive termite repellant which keeps the termites away while at the same time not killing them.

It is said that the word rice is derived from the old French word ‘ris’ which in turn has its origin Italian, Latin and Greek. Whatever be the origin of the word, it is one of the major staple for a large part of the world’s human population, especially in Asia. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after surgarcane and maize, according to data of FAOSTAT 2012.

Being the major staple food of most of the people, the impact is harder on the population due to the shortage of the rice. One of the dangers that befall the rice food leading to its shortage is attack by pests. Brown planthoper is a major rice pest which causes extensive damage and losses. Being distributed across Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, North and South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam; the brown planthopper causes upto 60% yield loss. Their host plant other than rice is Leersia hexandra. They damage rice directly through feeding and also by transmitting two viruses, rice ragged stunt virus and rise grassy stunt virus.

Adults and nymph suck the phloem sap leading to hopper burn & resulting in drying of leaves. High infestation causes lodging of the crop and heavy loss in yield. Infestation is severe in high yielding varieties. Under favorable conditions they multiply very fast. Both brown planthopper(BPH) and white backed planthopper(WBPH) are known for their resistance to commonly used insecticides including the neonicotinoids. Hence crop failures due to severe pest outbreaks are very common in many rice-growing tracts of India. Temperature, relative humidity and prevailing wind direction determine the severity of incidence and spread of BPH.

In appearance the adult brown planthopper is Yellowish brown to dark brown in colour measuring 4.5 to 5.0 mm long.

• High nitrogen levels and close plant spacing, continuous submerged, shady and humid conditions in the field tend to favor the BPH increase.
• Extensive rice areas with irrigation facilities, multiple rice cropping are important factors for insect abundance.
• Outbreaks of the insect pests are closely associated with insecticide misuse, especially during the early crop stages. These insecticide sprays usually directed at leaf feeding insects disrupt the natural biological control, which favor the BPH development as secondary pest.
• The insect prefers rainfed and irrigated wetland fields to upland rice and transplanted fields to direct sown fields.

Let’s take a look at the following article highlighting the damage done by brown planthopper;

Pest attack on aman fields worries farmers

Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat, Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Farmers in the district are worried as attack on paddy fields by brown plant hopper (BPH), locally known as current poka, poses threat to their hope for a good yield of aman this season.

Agriculture officials claim the situation is now under control while the farmers said the use of pesticides has failed to check the pest attack.

Farmers said BPH started attacking aman plants a week ago and many aman paddy fields in the district have already been attacked. They are trying to save their aman plants from being attacked by BPH, using natural methods and spraying pesticides in the fields.

Nurul Islam Bappi, a farmer of Durakuti village in Sadar upazila, said his aman plants on two bighas of land have been attacked by BPH (current poka) and it is also attacking the plants on another two bighas of land. “I have been spraying pesticides in the fields for the last three days, but to no effect,” he said.

Abdul Jalil of Jumma Para village in the upazila said BPH attacked aman plants on his three bighas of land five days ago and wreaked havoc on 50 percent plants. “As per advice of local agriculture officer, I sprayed pesticides that yielded no positive results,” he said.

Contacted, Deputy Director Safayet Hossain of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Lalmonirhat, said the situation is ‘not so alarming’. Agriculture officials are working at field level and giving advice to the farmers about use of pesticides and other methods to combat the PBH disease, he added.

Using conventional toxic pesticides will not be effective as the brown planthopper has become resilient to them. Pesticides are toxic, hazardous and pollute the environment. So a solution has to be adopted which have the traits exactly opposite to the deadly pesticides.

C-Tech Corporation provides a solution for the hopeful farmers to protect their crops effectively and efficiently. Termirepel™ a non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment friendly product repels all kinds of insects, termites, pests. They can be incorporated in agricultural films, mulches and irrigation pipes to protect the crops from the vicious pests. The product is available in the form masterbatch as well as liquid solution and is compatible with most the base polymers. The most important quality of the product is that it does not kill the target species but repels them.  Using Termirepel™ will ensure that the crops are protected which gives a ray of hope for the problem of malnourishment.

 

 

 

Semiochemicals are small organic compounds that transmit chemical messages. They are used by insects for intra- and interspecies communication. Insects detect semiochemical directly from the air with olfactory receptors. In most insects, the receptors are located in sensilla hairs on the antennae. The term “semiochemical” has been in use since 1971. It is derived from the Greek word “semeon,” which means “sign” or “signal.” Semiochemicals were already being studied in the 1880s. Although their chemistry was not yet understood at that time, people already knew about using female insects to lure males into traps. Semiochemical research in its present form has been conducted since the 1950s, when the first pheromones were isolated and identified. From the 1950s up until today, more than 3,000 semiochemicals connected to the chemical communication of insects have been identified.

The chemical analysis of semiochemicals should consider both effect and structure. In terms of effect, semiochemicals can be classified as pheromones or allelochemicals based on how they are used and who benefits. In terms of structure, semiochemicals can be divided into twenty-four classes according to functional groups. Familiarization with the practical applications of semiochemicals is also important to the study of their chemistry.

 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SEMIOCHEMICALS

The semiochemical database Pherobase contains approximately 3,000 semiochemicals so far. Most of the molecules are small and simple, but some have structures that can be quite complicated. Semiochemicals have molecular weights ranging from 17 to 880 g/mol, but they are usually volatile. The heaviest molecules have the longest carbon chains, but there are fewer than ten semiochemicals in the database with a mass above 550 g/mol. The length of the carbon chains in semiochemicals varies from zero to forty-five carbons. The number of double bonds in semiochemical structures varies from zero to thirteen. Along with double bonds, cis-trans isomerism is a typical feature of semiochemical compounds, although positional and optical isomerism also occur. Based on effect, semiochemicals are divided into two main categories: pheromones and allelochemicals. An examination of semiochemicals must take their functions into account, since the same molecule could act as a pheromone for one insect species and as a kairomone or allomone for another. In nature, a species-specific chemical message could be generated based on an exact molar ratio, a particular form of isomerism, or isomeric mixtures, for example.

PHEROMONES

Pheromones are compounds used by insects for intraspecies communication. The term “pheromone” is derived from the Greek words “pherein” (to carry) and “horman” (toexcite/stimulate). The term was introduced in 1959 by Karlsson and Butenandt and by Karlsson and Lüscher simultaneously. The difference between pheromones and hormones is that hormones are produced in an insect’s endocrine glands. They have an effect on the insect that produces them, whereas pheromones affect other individuals instead. Based on their effect, pheromones can be divided into at least the following categories:

• Aggregation pheromones: compounds that increase the concentration of insects at the pheromone source.
• Alarm pheromones: compounds that stimulate insects’ escape or defense behavior.
• Sex pheromones: compounds that help individuals of the opposite sex to find each other.
• Trail pheromones: among social insects, compounds used by workers to mark the way to a food source, for example.
• Marking pheromones: compounds used by insects to mark the boundaries of a territory. Dragonflies (Miettinen, A., 2006).

The effect of a semiochemical is influenced by its molecular weight. Most of the alarm pheromones, for example, have a molecular weight below 200 g/mol. Once the danger has passed, they evaporate. Trail pheromones, on the other hand, have higher molecular weights. They are not supposed to evaporate immediately.

ALLELOCHEMICALS

The allelochemicals are classified as allomones, kairomones or synomones. Allomones are a class of compounds that benefit the producer, but not the receiver. Allomones are often found in nature as part of a chemical defense, such as toxic insect secretions. Predators also use allomones to lure prey. Kairomones are a class of compounds that are advantageous for the receiver. The term “kairomone” is derived from the Greek word “kairos,” which means “opportunistic” (Nordlund et al. 1981, 18). Kairomones benefit many predators and bugs, for example, by guiding them to prey or potential host insects. Synomones (from the Greek “syn” for “with” or “together”) are compounds that are beneficial to both the receiver and the sender.

SEMIOCHEMICALS AS A POTENTIAL FOR INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

Semiochemicals (Gk. semeon, a signal) are chemicals that mediate interactions between organisms. Semiochemicals are subdivided into allelochemicals and pheromones depending on whether the interactions are interspecific or intraspecific, respectively. Within both allelochemicals and pheromones it is sometimes useful to refer to chemicals as arrestants, attractants, repellents, deterrents, stimulants or other descriptive terms. These terms can indicate what behavior is involved in the response such as a feeding stimulant or flight arrestant. Pheromones (Gk. phereum, to carry; horman, to excite or stimulate) are released by one member of a species to cause a specific interaction with another member of the same species. Pheromones may be further classified on the basis of the interaction mediated, such as alarm, aggregation or sex pheromone. It is the sex pheromones of insects that are of particular interest to agricultural integrated pest management (IPM) practitioners.

The concept of IPM is based on the recognition that no single approach to pest control offers a universal solution, and that the best crop protection can be provided by a fusion of various tactics and practices based on sound ecological principles. Pheromones are a commonly used component of many insect IPM programs (Dent, 1993 and Anonymous, 1995.) The existence of pheromones has been known for centuries, apparently originating in observations of mass bee stinging in response to a chemical released by the sting of a single bee. The two primary uses of insect pheromones are for detection and monitoring of populations and for mating disruption. These uses take advantage of sex pheromones on which a vast majority of insect pests rely to mediate reproduction.

Male annihilation is trapping carried to a seemingly logical conclusion. Place enough traps, catch enough males, and leave the females of the species without mates. This approach has been used against pink bollworms in an isolated area of Arizona with low numbers of overwintering moths. Any untrapped males simply mate more frequently. Mating disruption does not depend on traps for control, although traps are frequently used to monitor the extent of mating disruption in the population. Failure to trap males is taken as an indication that males are unable to find females which may or may not be true. Thus, trap data must always be related to actual levels of crop infestation.

Present commercial formulations of pheromones for both trap baits and mating disruption mimic the natural chemical blends of females as clearly as possible. Most insect sex pheromones are multicomponent with precise ratios of components which may be expensive to manufacture. Thus, insect sex pheromones and products containing pheromones, are commercially available primarily for insects of economic importance.

One of our most important competitors for food, fiber, and other natural resources, since time immemorial, has been insects. These pests have a direct impact on agricultural food production as they cause damage by chewing the leaves of crop plants, sucking out plant juices, boring within the roots, stems or leaves, and spreading plant pathogens. Every year millions of dollars are lost because of insect damage in agriculture. One such pesky creature, contributing to this damage is the lygus bug. Lygus bug also called tarnished plant bug, is a destructive oval-shaped insect that causes serious damage in fruit orchards, herbaceous plants, vegetable crops, commercial flower plants, and nursery stock.

Lygus bug has a wide host range of more than 350 plants! In general, lygus bug prefers grains, vegetables, and weeds near crops. When lygus bugs are present in high numbers, seed set and maturation may be reduced by nearly 100%. These pests inject toxic saliva into the plant and cause seed structures to die and drop off the plant. Even moderate feeding can cause premature bud shed, deformed seeds and reduced seed viability. Injured seeds will turn brown or black and will not germinate. In western Canada, lygus bugs reduced yields by approximately 7%; while in southern Manitoba, yields were reduced by almost 20%!

Lygus bugs, while infesting fruits like peaches, pears and strawberries, may cause dimpling, also known as catfacing. Lygus bugs also cause fire blight disease, which they spread throughout the area as they feed. This disease causes the flowers to turn brown and wilt and twigs to shrivel and blacken, often curling at the ends. In more advanced cases of fire blight infection, cankers begin to form on branches. These discoloured oozing patches contain masses of fire blight bacteria and heavy infections can be fatal. It was reported that in one field near Glendale, United States, about 90% of the cotton crops, valued at $16,000,000, was destroyed through the attack of this insect. 

This article published in The Western Producer will highlight the severity of the damage caused by the lygus bug.

Alberta at high risk for lygus bugs

Posted on Aug. 1st, 2014

By Barbara Duckworth

 BROOKS, Alta. — It is time to start sweeping canola fields for lygus bugs.

This summer’s heat, with temperatures at or above 30 C, is encouraging faster reproduction of the damaging insects, said Scott Meers, an entomologist with Alberta Agriculture.

“This year will be a high risk for lygus. You should start sweeping,” he said.

Two or more bugs captured per sweep means it is time to spray, he told a Canola Galla education day held at Alberta Agriculture’s Crop Development Centre at Brooks.

“I expect we are going to get into the typical race between harvest and lygus damaging the crop,” he said.

Adults and larvae suck plant juices so that flowers abort and pods fall off. Feeding on the older pods causes the seeds to shrivel or the pods to be deformed.

Alberta Agriculture is monitoring 311 sites along Highway 2 down the centre of the province. The department has found lygus bugs as well as plenty of bertha army worms and a few diamondback moths. However, the monitoring has found no Swede midges.

In some years, spraying for cabbage seed pod weevils will also catch lygus bugs, but it is not uncommon to have to spray lygus twice.

“We don’t want to encourage prescription spraying, but if you spray for cabbage seed pod weevil, then the general trend is that if we get the timing right for cabbage seed pod weevil, then we seldom have trouble with lygus,” he said.

The most common tool used to manage lygus bugs are insecticides. However, besides being extremely toxic and harmful to the environment, most insecticides used for lygus control will destroy beneficial insects which help keep white flies and other pests in check. Moreover, studies show that the more exposed the bug is to the insecticide, the more resistant the bug will be. In spite of that, insecticide application was the only option available for the control of lygus bugs once populations reached economic threshold levels, until now.

Now, we no longer have to depend on these conventional, toxic insecticides to deal with these pests! C Tech Corporation offers a range of non-toxic, non-hazardous anti-insect aversive, which can be successfully used to keep pesky creatures at bay. Termirepel™ is a broad spectrum aversive which works against almost 500 species of damaging insects. The most appealing feature of this product is that it is an environment-friendly repellent which causes no harm to the target or the non-target species! It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form and as a liquid solution. Thus, by incorporating Termirepel™ in agricultural films and mulches, crops would be efficaciously protected against these menacing insects!

As you drive down the highways of humid areas such as southern United States, you may encounter a nuisance in the form of splattered insects on your windshield, hood, and radiator grill. These insects on your automobile are called lovebugs or honeymoon flies, a fitting name due to their unique mating flights. The lovebug is a species of fly that happens to flutter about as a male and female attached together. This species’ reputation as a public nuisance is not due to any bite or sting. These bugs, when on the move, collide with vehicles, blurring windshields and clogging radiators and leave behind a sticky white substance that can ruin the paint on the automobiles.

These insects tend to swarm around roadsides, and carelessly drift into the path of oncoming traffic. The result? Drivers with bug-coated windshields find it difficult to see which poses a serious threat of accidents. Because lovebugs can exist in enormous numbers near highways, they die in large numbers on automobile windshields, hoods, and radiator grills when the vehicles travel at high speeds. If left for more than an hour or two, the remains become extremely difficult to remove. The acidity of the dead adult body, especially the female’s egg masses, often results in pits and etches in automotive paint and chrome if not quickly removed. Moreover, another great concern for drivers is excessive clogging of vehicle radiator air passages with the bodies of the adults, as a result of which there is a reduction of the cooling effect on engines, and obstruction of windshields when the remains of the adults and egg masses are smeared on the glass.

Tests have shown that lovebugs are attracted to automobile exhaust that has been irradiated with UV light. It has been proposed that the chemicals in car exhaust, i.e. aldehydes and formaldehydes, are similar to the chemicals released by decaying organic matter. Besides that, the heat radiating off asphalt is also an attractant for these insects. Roads are warm and have accumulated an abundance of automobile exhaust, mimicking areas that are appropriate for lovebugs to lay their eggs. The females are full of about 350 fertilized eggs when they hit a windshield which leads to the white sticky mess that causes so much anguish. This white mess is actually the eggs and the fatty tissue around the eggs that hardens quickly in the hot sun.

The article given below about these pesky insects will further highlight the situation.

Love bugs leave their mark on cars

By Amanda Thomas 

Published: October 1, 2005

Love is in the air as swarms of love bugs leave their mark on windshields across South Alabama this season.

Thanks apparently to a wet summer punctuated by hurricane rains, hundreds of these copulating bugs — flies, actually — are congregating at intersections, traffic lights, filling stations and truck stops. Whole gas pumps are turned black with them.

“They’re the worst this year than they’ve ever been,” said John Hadley, 59, an employee at a BP station near Perdido.

Entomologists who track these insects say they do not bite, damage crops or pose an environmental hazard.

But they are a nuisance, turning out in large numbers in two mating flights a year, most of them taking place during April to May and August to September.

Love bugs, which are attracted to warm car hoods, hot engine and exhaust fumes, can reduce visibility through windshields or cause a car to overheat, according to the University of Florida Entomology Department Web site. If they remain in place on a car’s finish for one or two days, bacterial action causes them to become so acidic that they can etch car paint.

Alvin Diamond, an instructor of ecology at Troy University, said the love bugs die shortly after they mate and the female lays her eggs.

But until they’re gone, little love is being lost by those being bugged in South Alabama.

At the BP station near Perdido, Tyrone Thomas of Biloxi, Miss., cleaned them by the score from the windshield of his SUV. He said he had never seen as many as this season.

“It was really bad in Biloxi,” said Thomas. “They were so thick it was like driving though a rain storm.”

Hadley, the BP employees, was outside filling up buckets with water and windshield washer solution. He said they could hardly keep them full.

Lovebugs, while being a nuisance after their death, are actually beneficial when alive. The larvae of these insects eat leaves, grass roots, etc. and are good at breaking down organic matter. These insects consume the detritus that surrounds them, thereby rejuvenating the earth. Since these insects are vital for our ecosystem, it is of extreme importance to find a safe and non-toxic solution for the lovebug problem which would keep these insects at bay while not causing any harm to these beneficial insects.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these annoying pests. 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 most unique feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the target species as well as humans and the environment. Our product is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. To repel any insect, this product can be coated on the automobiles in lacquer form or diluted with a base solvent. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off lovebugs and any other insect that could prove to be a nuisance to drivers and motorists. Thus, using Termirepel™ would effectively ensure that our roads remain safe for anyone who wishes to use the roadways!

Bed bugs are basically parasitic insects of the cimicid family that feed exclusively on blood. The name “bed bug” is derived from the preferred habitat of Cimex lectularius: warm houses and especially nearby or inside of beds and bedding or other sleep areas. Bed bugs are mainly active at night, but are not exclusively nocturnal. They usually feed on their hosts without being noticed. Bed bugs are attracted to their hosts primarily by carbon dioxide, secondarily by warmth, and also by certain chemicals. Bedbugs prefer exposed skin, preferably the face, neck and arms of a sleeping individual. Although under certain cool conditions adult bed bugs can live for over a year without feeding, under typically warm conditions they will try to feed at five to ten day intervals and adults can survive for about five months without food.

It takes between five and ten minutes for a bed bug to become completely engorged with blood. In all, the insect may have spent less than 20 minutes in physical contact with its host, and it will not attempt to feed again until it has either completed a molt or, if an adult has thoroughly digested the meal.

Once feeding is complete, a bed bug will relocate to a place close to a known host, commonly in or near beds or couches in clusters of adults, juveniles, and eggs which entomologists call harborage areas or simply harborages to which the insect will return after future feedings by following chemical trails. Bed bugs use pheromones and kariomones to communicate regarding nesting locations, feeding and reproduction.

Let’s take a look at the following article which reports the wrong doings of bed bugs;

Woman suffers 300 bed bug bites at Auckland motel

Saturday 28 Dec 2013 9:12a.m.

A woman bitten by more than 300 bed bugs at an Auckland motel wants all of her medical expenses to be paid.

Debbie Roome was staying at Auckland Airport Kiwi Motel in Mangere earlier this month when she suffered a severe allergic reaction to the bites, which covered her body in painful, itchy welts.

The Christchurch local was visiting Auckland for a night for a friend’s graduation. After falling asleep she woke to find her bed infested.

“I woke up at 3:30am and shone my cell phone on the bed and saw these bed bugs scuttling off in every direction. I didn’t want to wake my friend up, so I sat on the edge of the bed for the next two hours and told them when I checked out that the room was infested and I’d like a refund,” Ms Roome says.

It wasn’t until she reached the airport to take her flight that she approached staff at the Air New Zealand Koru Lounge for help.

“It turned out to be over 300 bites. By the time I was supposed to fly home I had swollen up in these big welts all over my body and my face. My lips were turning blue. Air New Zealand wouldn’t let me fly home because of the swelling and the possibility of going into shock and not being able to breathe,” she says.

She then received medical treatment and returned to Christchurch two days later. But just before Christmas the bites flared up again, forcing her back to the doctor to receive a course of antibiotics and skin cream.

Mark McDonald is the “bug king” and has made a living out of eradicating the parasites, and says Ms Roome’s case is one of the worst he’s seen.

“That’s at the upper end of the scale, 300 bites could equal up to 300 bed bugs that were on her,” he says. 

Ms Roome has received a refund for her hotel room, but only half of her expenses have been reimbursed and she wants to be compensated further.

Auckland Airport Kiwi Motel would not talk to 3 News today. 

The best product to combat the bed bug problem is Termirepel™, a product of C Tech Corporation.
Termirepel™ works by the mechanism of repellence by virtue of which it does not allow the insect/pest to come near the application and thus it negates the possibility of an infestation. Moreover it is available in the form of polymer compatible masterbatches as well as in lacquer form to be applied on wood and other furniture. Thus it is easy to apply and safe to use.

 

The names “wood wasp” is a wood-boring insect in the order Hymenoptera, family Siricidae. Of greatest concern are the large, non-stinging wasps that normally are attracted to and complete their life cycles in newly dead or dying conifer trees. Timber salvaged from these trees can be processed into infested lumber. This can lead to adult wasps emerging in recently completed buildings or structures.

The dozen species of wood wasps in California, Oregon, and Washington look similar. They are large insects, generally 1 inch or longer, and wasplike in appearance but have an elongated, cylindrical body without a noticeable constriction or “waist.” They often are black or metallic dark blue or combinations of black, red, and yellow. They make a noisy buzz when flying. A female wood wasp drills her ovipositor nearly 3/4 inch into the wood of a weakened or dying tree and lays 1 to 7 eggs. At the same time, she squirts in a fungus from her abdominal gland. She continues this process, laying up to 200 eggs.

The eggs hatch in around 4 weeks and the larva spends its time eating the wood-destroying fungi that its mother thoughtfully injected along with the egg. At the base of the ovipositor there is a pair of glands that contain the fruiting bodies of the fungus, and some of these are injected with each egg.

Wood wasp damage in buildings is more cosmetic than structurally weakening. The total number of insects emerging in any one house is limited, usually fewer than a dozen. Emerging wood wasps can chew throughjust about any substance, and you can see their large exit holes in wallboard or plaster walls, hardwood floors, linoleum, carpeting, nonceramic floor tiles, and other interior surfaces.

Wood wasps don’t reinfest structures. Even if male and female wood wasps had the opportunity to mate in the building, the females would not be stimulated to lay eggs in dry, finished lumber.

Though they are not as aggressive as carpenter ants or drywood termites, their presence is not welcomed equally. Let’s take a look at the following news article on wood wasp;

 

 

 

That’s what you call a sting operation: Police seal off house on holiday Island after seven meter wasps nest found
By STEVE NOLAN, 12 April 2013
A seven metre long wasps nest has reportedly been discovered in an abandoned house by police officers in Spain.

Officers were called to the empty property in San Sebastian de La Gomera on the island of Tenerife after a series of calls from concerned neighbors. Police sealed off the home when the found the 22ft nest, which is said to have almost filled a room, and millions of wasps in the house, according to UPI.com.

Experts believe that the nest was built by an African species of wasp which had migrated to Tenerife.

The Canary Islands are located around 100km from the African coast.

Police are said to be trying to find out who the property belongs to.

The nest may well be the biggest ever found.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest one found to date was discovered in Waimaukau in New Zealand in April 1963 and was an impressive 3.7metres, or 12ft 2ins long, more than 5ft in diameter and 18ft in circumference.

Thought to have been created by German wasps, that nest was so heavy that it fell from the tree it was hanging in and broke in two. 

The size, type and colour of a wasps nest depends on the species of wasp that builds it.

They tend to be predominantly made from paper pulp – the wasp gathers wood fibres from weathered wood and softens it by chewing and mixing with saliva.

The previous biggest nest in the last 50 years was discovered in the attic of a pub in Southampton, Hampshire, in 2010.

Measuring 6ft by 5ft the nest was home to an estimated 500,000 wasps.

Another giant nest was found at the Avery Garden Centre in Taunton, Somerset last summer.

The average common wasp nest contains around 4,000 to 5,000 wasps – but colonies have been known to reach populations of 20,000.
Though the wood wasps are mild in comparison to termites and carpenter ants, no one wants to wants to discover a big foul wood wasp nest in our house.

To curb this problem of the wood wasp, a unique solution in contrast to the typical hazardous, non-effective has to be adopted. And there is a solution, infact a Green solution provided by C Tech Corporation: TERMIREPEL™. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment friendly product, with a high efficacy to repel insects like wood borers from the wood. Termirepel™ is a multitasking product; along with wood wasp it protects the wood from vicious termites, notorious carpenter ants and other insects. Termirepel™ in solution form can be injected at high pressure in the lumber so as to prevent the infestation. It is also available in lacquer form which can be applied on the furniture, patios, floor as coating so as to prevent further infestation.

A plague of locusts has been feared throughout history. Even after all these years, locusts continue to wreak havoc. In many ways, locusts are like harmless little grasshoppers. They eat plants and they hop long distances on springy back legs. Their lifestyle may be solitary, similar to that of grasshoppers. However, locust behavior can be something else entirely. They have another behavioral phase called the gregarious phase. Just one locust can’t cause trouble. The problem is, sometimes, locusts gather in big groups or swarms. When environmental conditions favour the growth of many green plants and promote breeding, locusts can congregate into thick, mobile, ravenous swarms. In an astoundingly short period of time, they can completely destroy a crop; nuisance for commercial agriculture, but life-threatening for subsistence farmers. Dr. Steve Rogers of Cambridge University says, “The gregarious phase is a strategy born of desperation and driven by hunger – swarming is a response to find pastures new.”

An approaching swarm of locusts looks like a big black cloud. As the swarm descends, the insects eat everything in sight – garden crops, grass, flowers, and even clothes hanging on a clothes line. In poor desert countries, families can starve after locusts eat all their food. A swarm of locusts can stretch over 460 square miles in size and include billions of hungry insects! Locust swarms may devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage; ultimately causing famine and starvation. Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat around 423 million pounds of plants each day. When these insects alight on the ground, they immediately begin to devour the grass and grain, eating every green thing they can find. Adult locusts will potentially eat any vegetation that is green, or even partially green. The bigger the swarm, greater will be the damage caused. Although the young hoppers cannot fly, they march in bands, eating the crops in their path. Swarming locusts can fly almost 80 kilometers a day, and they may travel several 1000 kilometers before they settle to breed.

Locust swarms occur in many parts of the world, but today they are most destructive in the sustenance farming regions of Africa. The destruction of crops has a devastating effect on people. Although locust swarms do not affect humans directly, they could cause death due to famine and starvation. Cases of crop destruction due to locusts are ubiquitous. In 2004, West and North Africa experienced their largest infestation of locusts in more than 15 years. Desert locusts swept across Sahel from Mauritania to Egypt, and then continued as far as Israel in the east and as far as Portugal in the north. Half the crops of Mauritania were lost as a result of this infestation. In 2004, Australian plague locusts were responsible for national agricultural losses estimated to be worth more than $11 million. In November 2008, a locust swarm 3.7 miles long devastated agricultural production in Australia. A swarm of an estimated 30 million locusts had descended on Egypt. The insects descended on agricultural farms in Giza and in Cairo, causing damage of catastrophic proportions.

The following article will explain just how destructive locusts can be:

 

 

Madagascar hit by ‘severe’ plague of locusts

Published on 27 March 2013

A severe plague of locusts has infested about half of Madagascar, threatening crops and raising concerns about food shortages, a UN agency says.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said billions of the plant-devouring insects could cause hunger for 60% of the population.

About $22m (£14.5m) was urgently needed to fight the plague in a country where many people are poor, the FAO added.

It was the worst plague to hit the island since the 1950s, the FAO said.

FAO locust control expert Annie Monard told BBC Focus on Africa the plague posed a major threat to the Indian Ocean Island.

“The last one was in the 1950s and it had duration of 17 years so if nothing is done it can last for five to 10 years, depending on the conditions,” she said.

“Currently, about half the country is infested by hoppers and flying swarms – each swarm made up of billions of plant-devouring insects,” the FAO said in a statement.

“FAO estimates that about two-thirds of the island country will be affected by the locust plague by September 2013 if no action is taken.”

It said it needed donors to give more than $22m in emergency funding by June so that a full-scale spraying campaign could be launched to fight the plague.

The plague threatened pasture for livestock and rice crops – the main staple in Madagascar, the FAO said.

“Nearly 60% of the island’s more than 22m people could be threatened by a significant worsening of hunger in a country that already had extremely high rates of food insecurity and malnutrition,” it added.

An estimated 80% of people in Madagascar, which has a population of more than 22 million, live on less than a dollar a day.

The Locust Control Centre in Madagascar had treated 30,000 hectares of farmland since last October, but a cyclone in February made the situation worse, the FAO said.

The cyclone not only damaged crops but created “optimal conditions for one more generation of locusts to breed”, it added.

There are very few solutions available to combat a modern-day plague of locusts; many farmer burn branches to create smoke in the hopes of driving the insects out, but this technique is not always effective. Insecticides are sometimes used to control locusts, 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 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 masterbatch and lacquer form. It can also be used as a liquid solution. It can be incorporated in agricultural films and mulches for the protection of crops against a wide range of insect species. Thus Termirepel™ could be effectively used to prevent the massive destruction of crops caused by locust swarms – a threat affecting the livelihoods of one-tenth of the world’s population.

PVC has been used extensively in a wide range of construction products for over half a century. PVC’s strong, lightweight, durable and versatile characteristics make it ideal for an ample range of applications. PVC has a versatility that helps it meet the various needs of modern architecture. PVC was first used as cable insulation as a replacement for rubber during the Second World War, but has now become the superior material through its flexibility, ease of handling in installation and inherent flame retardation. PVC cables do not harden and crack over time and find use in many applications from telecommunications to electric blankets. In Europe, about 25% of all flexible PVC is used in the production of wire and cables for the electrical industries.

As resistant as PVC is to abrasion and corrosion, there is one thing that PVC has absolutely no resistance against-pests! Insects such as ants and termites have been long-standing enemies of PVC who damage and eventually destroy the articles. A number of insects including termites, like beetles, ants, wasps etc secrete formic acid that has the ability to dissolve the insulation of wires thereby destroying them. About 3% of the body weight of termites is made up of formic acid. Termites cause over $2 billion every year in property damage. And that’s not all wood! Termites do not eat plastic; however, the aggressive Formosan termite is known to attack plastic in search of food. Termites often chew through softer plastics. They play havoc with buried cables and sometimes bore a hole through water pipes causing service interruptions and major damage. Tunneling can lead to damage to electrical cords and cause blackouts.

Besides termites, the other species that cause major damage to PVC articles are ants. Ants going about their daily routine grow increasingly frustrated with the presence of underground optical cables and other telecommunications equipment including lawn pedestals and terminating boxes and thereby become a growing problem for telecom companies that can blame local outages on their activities. There have been a lot of incidences where outages have been directly attributed to insect activity. Material brought into the colony can overheat equipment when it blocks air vents, increased moisture from the insects can corrode or compromise sensitive electronics, and insect attempts to push PVC wiring out of the way can ruin optical cables.

Below is an article that sheds some light on the damage caused by these critters on PVC wires and cables.

 

‘Crazy’ Ants, New Invasive Species, Destroys Electric Wiring, Unfazed By Conventional Pesticides

Posted: 06/10/2013 

If you thought fire ants were bad, just wait until you get a load of “crazy” ants.

 Yes, crazy ants, a species of South American ant whose colony movements are so erratic that researchers could only evoke insanity when describing them.

 Also known as raspberry or tawny crazy ants, the insects have spread to Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi since first being spotted in Houston, Texas, in 2002. They “have a taste for everything from livestock to electrical equipment,” according to ABC News. They have been known to infest homes, transformers and even electronic devices such as laptops and smartphones.

 Unlike its cousin the fire ant (also called the red ant), which it has displaced in several locations, the crazy ant is highly invasive. Moving into competitive territory, crazy ants aggressively compete for other species’ resources and establish dominance. Poison bait that works on fire ants is ineffective on crazy ants because the insects won’t take it.

 “When you talk to folks who live in the invaded areas, they tell you they want their fire ants back,” Ed LeBrun, an invasive species researcher at the University of Texas, said in a UT Austin College of Natural Sciences video. “Fire ants are in many ways very polite. They live in your yard. They form mounds and stay there, and they only interact with you if you step on their mound.”

 LeBrun, co-author of a recent study on how crazy ants have displaced fire ants in Texas’ ecosystems, explained that the insects’ opportunistic nesting habits are a key factor in their biological dominance. That dominance could mean drastic changes to an ecosystem that’s adjusted to the presence of fire ants — also an invasive species — over the past 40 years.

While they are omnivorous, the ants do not actually “feast on” electrical equipment, as has been suggested. The ants damage electronics by “forming bridges between the electrical contacts” and shorting them out, LeBrun pointed out.

 Though the crazy ant threat to electronics has not been lost on the tech media, the insects are probably more a threat to your air conditioner than they are to your iPhone. As CNET notes, “You might want to think twice about leaving your laptop outside in crazy ant territory, but the ants are more likely to get into fixed equipment, house wiring and even recreational vehicles.”

Although these pests have been a source of great concern and annoyance, killing them using poisons or traps somehow seems ethically wrong, not to mention unsafe and toxic. Thus we need to find a way to protect our wires and pipes from the action of these critters, without causing any harm to them or the environment. PVC has been under attack by the action of insects for decades; however we are no closer to finding a solution for this problem than we were hundreds of years ago-until recently. C Tech Corporation provides an exceptional solution for this dilemma!

C Tech Corporation offers a solution called Termirepel™ which is a non-toxic, non-hazardous additive that helps us keep insects at bay without causing any harm to the insect or any other species that consumes or comes in contact with it. It is a broad spectrum additive that works against more than 500 species of insects! It is an eco-friendly product that can be safely incorporated in polymers or coated on surfaces to repel insects and other animals without killing them. Termirepel™ is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, or as a liquid solution.  This product can be safely incorporated into the PVC insulation of wires and cables to keep pesky critters from damaging them!

The dark but delicate beauty of hemlocks has inspired various poems and songs for centuries. Feathery, lacy and graceful, these trees are gorgeous additions to the landscape. No wonder that the hauntingly beautiful hemlock is referred to as the queen of conifers! Sadly, the giant hemlocks are under attack by an invasive insect barely visible to the eye but potent enough to completely wipe out these evergreens. For nearly 60 years or so, the woolly adelgid, which originated in Japan, has been killing our beloved hemlocks. It is called a woolly adelgid, because it is covered with a “woolly”, or fluffy white waxy covering for most of its life. This adelgid primarily sucks the sap out of the tree and deprives the tree of nutrients and sugar for energy. This defoliation could result in the death of a hemlock in around 3-6 years!

The Hemlock woolly adelgid first arrived in the U.S. Pacific Northwest via nursery plants from Japan in 1924. Since then the insect has spread to more than 15 US states! These crawlers feed on the new growth of hemlocks by piercing the twigs that hold the branches, sucking the sap, and injecting toxic saliva. The needles turn from a deep green to a grayish green and eventually die, depriving the tree of nutrition from photosynthesis. Infection is signaled by either a white, cotton-like material that appears along a tree’s twigs or by the ‘baldness’ of a tree’s upper branches. The hemlock woolly adelgid has enjoyed remarkable success in destroying trees because of its impressive reproductive potential: consider that one female in the winter generation produces an average of 200 eggs which in turn mature and each female of this generation produces on average another 200 eggs each. That’s 40,000 eggs in one year, starting from one individual female!

Because large woodland tracts of hemlocks are being decimated, the environment is being impacted negatively in several ways. Resultant erosion and heating up of streams destroys fish, other wildlife and watersheds. In Michigan, hemlocks had decreased by almost 70% in the short 20 year span between 1935 and 1955. Hemlock forests, which covered about 41% of the land area of the Bruce Peninsula, are almost non-existent today. Currently, more than 5000 acres of hemlocks across 119,000 acres in the southern tip of York County are considered infested with scattered, low level adelgid populations. These insects have killed almost 90% of hemlock trees in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. To mitigate the impact of the adelgid, the United States Forest Service has funded around $4.5 million per year in recent years!

The severity of this issue can be better understood by reading the following article;

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in Skaneateles Lake Watershed

Posted on: June 23, 2014  

Published by: Kristina Ferrare  

 The invasive insect, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae) also known as HWA has recently been confirmed on hemlock trees in the Bahar Nature Reserve along the western shore of Skaneateles Lake in the Town of Niles, and recently confirmed by the NYS DEC along the eastern shore in the Town of Spafford. HWA was first confirmed in Cayuga County in 2012, and has significantly expanded its range into the Owasco Lake Watershed and into Fillmore Glen State Park.

 HWA is a tiny aphid-like insect that feeds on twigs at the base of hemlock needles. The damage prevents the transport of nutrients to the needles and buds, effectively starving the tree. Tree death commonly occurs six or more years after infestation in the Finger Lakes region, but may cause death within 4 years in warmer states.  HWA gets its name from the white waxy hairs that protects the insect while it feeds in the winter, appearing like masses of white wool along the stems of hemlock branches.

Hemlock trees are known as keystone species – other species of plants and wildlife depend on hemlock trees as a food source, shelter, and insulation during summer and winter months. Without hemlock, the remaining ecological community also becomes threatened.  Hemlock is found in the deep coves and steep slopes characteristic of the southern end of Skaneateles Lake and much of the Finger Lakes region.

HWA has been in eastern US for well over 60 years, but didn’t get a foothold in NY until it was found in the lower Hudson Valley in the mid 1980’s. It has rapidly spread in recent years, likely aided by mild temperatures.  Recent cold weather has helped to slow the spread of HWA, but because it reproduces quickly, will have only a short term impact. Highly effective pesticide treatments are available, and research into biological controls in the Finger Lakes region is continuing.

Skaneateles Lake is the drinking water for the City of Syracuse and the widespread loss of hemlock has ecological consequences that can trigger loss of water quality in the lake. Treating hemlock trees for HWA should be done with caution in order to prevent unnecessary pesticide contamination into the Lake. 

Evidently, unless proper measures are taken, hemlock, which is one of the most common trees in the US, may soon drop off the list, going the way of the now-vanished chestnut and elm due to the hemlock woolly adelgid. Infested hemlock trees can be protected individually with chemicals and insecticides. However, the costs associated with application, environmental safety concerns about applying toxic insecticides, and the tremendous reproductive potential of the adelgid makes this approach less feasible on a broad scale in natural areas. Also, it is obvious that simply removing and destroying infested stock, which proved so successful when dealing with individual infested trees, is not a feasible long term solution for addressing a large population of trees.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and infallible 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 an eco-friendly product that 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 hemlock woolly adelgid and any other insect that could harm the hemlock trees. Thus, using Termirepel™ would effectively ensure that our cherished hemlocks remain protected from this destructive pest!

In Sanskrit, coconut trees are referred to as “Kalpa Vriksha” which means, “The tree that gives all that is necessary for life.” This is no exaggeration, because they have been an important source of food, clothing and shelter since time immemorial. However, our beloved coconut tree is fighting for its own life, and along with it, the lives of thousands of people whose livelihood depends on it. Cocolisap (Aspidiotus destructor rigidus) is a small plant parasite that may cause the demise of our trees, if not given proper cure and care. Based on a report by The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, around 2.1 million coconut trees are now in various stages of infestation by this pest!

Cocolisap feeds on the leaves of young palms and on the surface of fruits that result in the yellowing and wilting of leaves, till the entire coconut tree dies. It prevents photosynthesis, causing premature nut fall and low productivity. The cocolisap attacks the coconut tree by eating the leaves, fruits, and flowers until only the trunk is left. The insect feeds on the sap of the tree and injects toxic enzymes, resulting in discolored leaves and deformed plant tissues that retard the growth of the coconut tree. By this time, the tree is beyond resuscitation, and would be worth only the salvaged coco-lumber. Wind or the transport of infested coconuts can spread cocolisap. Although coconut is the preferred host, cocolisap also attacks fruit trees such as mangosteen, lanzones, etc.

Since 2010, when the first signs of infestation by coconut scale insects or cocolisap appeared, nothing much had been achieved to control the spread of the destructive pest. Recently, the government acknowledged the severity of the problem when it declared a state of calamity in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) zone and Basilan. Approximately one million trees are said to be at risk valued at $ 760 million! The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) reports that annual production of coconut dropped by 3.3 % – from 15.86 million MT in 2012 to 15.34 million MT last year. The local coconut industry has already lost at least $ 4.6 million because of the massive infestation and the losses are mounting as each day passes. By mid-2014, the cocolisap situation reached outbreak proportions affecting more than 60% of the total coconut production in affected areas!

This issue can be better understood by reading the following article,

Cocolisap damage in Basilan reaches P18M

 June 16, 2014

By Noel Tarrazona

 ZAMBOANGA CITY: Close to 1,000 coconut farmer owners and workers in Isabela City in Basilan have suffered income losses after 107,356 coconut trees and coconut seedlings were reportedly damaged caused by cocolisap, a swarm of coconut scale insects that often attack coconut trees during dry spell period.

 Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Provincial Development Manager Efren Carba told The Manila Times that the damage cost of different plantations have already reached an estimate of P 18 million and if left unattended this will certainly have an adverse economic effect not only to the coconut farm stakeholders but also those workers in the oil milling industry.

 Carba said his office also received reports that other trees like lansones, banana and papaya were also affected by the swarm of scale pests in Isabela.

 PCA earlier requested its research office from Davao to address the growing damage in Basilan and a team introduced bio control measures like the introduction of parasite beetles which can terminate the pests by eating them. The bio control seems to be of little effect since more coconut trees were reportedly damaged.

 Carba further recommended the continuous pruning and burning of infested parts of coconut trees to minimize the extent of damage.

 In Zamboanga City, particularly in Barangay Sinunuc, a group of farmers reported yellowish coconut trees that were showing symptoms of the presence of scale insect pests. Carba immediately sent a team of specialists to the area but reported a false alarm. The yellowish symptoms of coconut were caused by worm-insects which are more manageable and less destructive.

 Carba further appealed to the Quarantine Office of the Department of Agriculture in Zamboanga to quarantine all coco products coming from Basilan and these include coco seedling and coconut shells.

 “We should be watchful and vigilant so these pests will not infest our coconut trees here in Zamboanga,” Carba added.

 The PCA reported that 18 villages have already confirmed the presence of these scale pests in Isabela City in Basilan. Isabela has 45 barangays and 33 of these barangays are with huge coconut plantations.

The Philippines has about 3.5 million coconut farmers and 26% of the total agricultural land is devoted to coconut farming alone! This highlights the severity of the situation and the need to find a solution for the problem before this pest threatens to wipe out our coconut trees. Until now, quick and toxic methods had been used to combat cocolisap infestation. However, the conventional method that includes spraying and injecting the coconut trunk with neonicotinoids, have proven to be lethal to the environment and the people. Thus, we are in dire need of a solution that helps protect the coconut trees from damage, while at the same time does not harm the environment in any way.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these destructive pests. 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 trunks of the coconut and palm trees in lacquer form. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the cocolisap and any other insect that could harm our coconuts. Thus, using Termirepel™ would effectively ensure that our future generations do not have to live without our cherished coconut trees!

Since time immemorial, the entire insect world has seemed intent on either stealing our blood or stinging us or ruining our crops and plants. Either way, they can make life miserable. People spend a lot of time in their yards, planting, pruning, and caring for their landscapes, with the aim of protecting their plants and trees from insects and making sure that they grow beautifully. However, many trees and shrubs have problems with pests such as aphids or other sucking insects. These insects excrete honeydew, a sweet, partially digested plant sap that is a main food of many ants. Plants with these sucking pests not only attract ants, but help feed and grow entire ant colonies. One such type of aphid is the blue ash aphid.

Blue ash aphids are small, blue-colored insects that come from blue ash trees. They arrive after the first frost of the new winter season melts away every year. These insects are known by several names, conifer root aphid, blue ash aphid, Oregon ash aphid or smoky-winged ash aphid. Aphids feed by piercing host tissue and sucking plant sap through tube-like mouthparts. While removing plant sap, aphids may also inject toxins, plant growth regulators or pathogens along with saliva to aid feeding. Aphids excrete large amounts of honeydew which is essentially unprocessed plant sap. Many insects use honeydew and therefore are attracted to these colonies. The congregations give tree trunks a fuzzy blue appearance that extends up to three feet away from the base. Damage to the roots of fir trees can cause yellowing and stunting of small immature firs.

The blue ash aphids have a similar life cycle as normal, but instead of attacking the above ground parts of the plant they attack the roots of the plant. Like ordinary aphids they suck the sap from the plant thereby weakening it and possibly transmitting viruses and other diseases. When the infestation is heavy the plant or tree will wilt especially on dry days. The leaves may turn yellow and fall prematurely and the plant will be stunted. These pests often go largely unnoticed because they are underground. The damage they do show up mostly when the conditions are dry.

The below article would help understand the situation better.

Blue ash aphids invade Spokane

 Posted: Oct 20, 2009

Kevin Randal

SPOKANE, Wash. – Millions of little blue bugs can be seen just about anywhere in the northwest.

You’ve probably seen them, there in your face, they invade your yard and many are asking what can be done to stop them.

Experts say the bugs are Blue Ash Aphids that come from Blue Ash Trees in the area. They come after the first frost of the season every year and stay for a couple weeks at least.

Phone calls have been flooding pest control companies and garden shops wanting to know how to get rid of them. Experts tell KHQ local news there’s nothing anyone can do but wait for them to leave.

Trees and plants should not be affected by them because most plant life has gone dormant anyway.

Experts also say they’re not a threat to public health.

The blue ash aphids are more of a nuisance than a threat. They are harmless to humans except for the sneezes they cause as we breathe them in. These pesky little gnat-like insects make breathing a challenge. Since they arrive in large swarms, complete eradication is not worth the time or effort and may be impossible. Thus we need a foolproof solution to deal with these pests.

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 blue ash aphids and any other insect that could harm our trees.

At a time when increasing agricultural produce and improving agricultural yield is given paramount importance, our fruits and vegetables have been under siege by one more pest. This is the adult Bagrada bug, which goes after winter crops such as cabbage, kale, broccoli, arugula, cauliflower and radish. It sucks the sap out of tender leaves, leaving puncture marks and a stippled or wilted leaf. The Bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris, also called the painted bug, is a stink bug that attacks various vegetable crops and weedy mustards and is particularly devastating to young seedlings and leafy greens. Native to northern Africa, the Bagrada turned up in the United States in Los Angeles in the June of 2008.

The Bagrada sucks the juices from the bite and leaves a toxic sort of saliva at the scene of the crime that can cause the plant to die even after the bug has left. Further, even if the Bagrada’s sap-sucking ways aren’t fatal, they can cause extensive wilting and yellowing, and stunt the growth of their hosts. These vile pests feed by inserting piercing mouth parts into plant tissues, which creates starburst-shaped lesions on leaves and stems. Continued feeding causes leaf scorch, stunting, blind terminals and forked or multiple heads on broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Initial damage to leaves is observed along the margins as stippling, or small tan or white dots left where the leaves were pierced by insect mouthparts and the juices sucked out. If feeding pressure is severe enough, the stippled areas merge and the leaf eventually wilts and dies.

Adding to their nastiness is the fact that Bagradas are capable of flying up wind to find new plants to feast on, and that they lay most of their eggs in the soil, thus making traditional predators worthless as possible controls. The infestation may be widespread covering the stems and leaves of the tree, leaving fecal droppings on the backsides of leaves. Local growers estimated that in some fields Bagrada bugs caused as much as 35% yield loss in green cabbage and greater than 35% yield loss in red cabbage! In broccoli, damage estimates by growers have ranged from 15‐30% losses due to these insects.

 

The severity of this issue can be better understood by reading the below article.

Pesky Bagrada bugs expand northward in California

 09/16/2014 

Vicky Boyd

Bagrada bugs, which were first confirmed in California six years ago, have been steadily expanding their range to the east and north.

They now have been confirmed as far north as Yolo County and have taken up residence in counties stretching from Santa Clara and San Mateo west to Fresno and Inyo counties, according to a University of California news release.

The university has tracked the pest’s expansion using citizen scientists.

Bagrada bugs, which have also hit crops in Arizona’s Yuma Valley, prefer cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, kale, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and broccoli.

In home gardens, they also have been found on green beans, cantaloupe, corn, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and sunflowers.

In addition, the bugs have been found on ornamentals, including sweet alyssum, stock and candytuft.

Adult Bagrada bugs are about the size of a watermelon seeds with black backs and white and orange markings.

Immature nymphs are more round with red, black and white markings. They can be mistaken for ladybird beetles.

Both adults and nymphs have piercing and sucking mouth parts. As they feed, they remove plant sap and cause dead spots plant leaves and stems where they feed.

Under severe infestations, especially with young transplants, the pest can stunt, deform and even kill plants.

Originally it was hoped that Northern California’s colder winter temperatures would help prevent their northerly march.

But bugs simply take up refuge in the top layer of soil around the crops and appear to survive.

The Bagrada bug lays most of its eggs in the soil, so natural predators such as wasps aren’t effective controls. Picking the bugs off plants by hand is not feasible because the infestations are so thick and sudden, with multiple generations occupying one plant at a time. Thus we need a solution which would effectively keep the Bagrada population in check, keeping them away from our vegetables and crops, while at the same time not having any negative impact on the vegetables or 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 vegetables and fruits safe and guarded against the pesky Bagrada bugs!