▶ Topic : [Reading] The emerald ash borer is a beetle native to Asia that has recently spread to North America. Its larvae burrow into the wood of ash trees, eventually destroying them. Fortunately, there are several ways to solve this problem.
One of the easiest methods is to simply remove the affected trees. An infested ash tree is easy to identify. It has distinctive holes in its surface, and its bark is split. When such a tree is found, it can be destroyed. This can prevent the spread of these beetles to nearby healthy trees.
A chemical treatment is another option to deal with the emerald ash borers. Insecticides are applied to the soil at the base of a tree. The chemicals are absorbed by the roots and then carried up into the tree. This stops the adult borers from laying their effs and kills off larvae that are already present.
A third solution is biological pest control. It was discovered that parasitic wasps in Asia kill borer larvae by laying their eggs in them. As a result, these wasps have been brought to North America, and there is evidence that they are eliminating emerald borers. Therefore, releasing more of these wasps into the wild should significantly reduce the number of borers.
[Listening] By now, you should be familiar with the emerald ash borer. Um, this beetle has ruined a large number of ash trees in North America. The reading I assigned presents a few solutions to this problem, but, um... none of them are viable.
The first thing you need to understand is that removing infested trees just isn't effective. You see, it usually takes about one or two years for an affected tree to show symptoms...and by that point, the borers have already spread to adjacent trees. Even if ans infestation could be detected early enough, this method would only work in urban areas. Uh, there are just too many trees in a forest to inspect them all individually.
I should also point out that using chemicals to treat trees is highly problematic. This is because the application of insecticides to the soil often results in, um, groundwater contamination. Another problem is that this method does not work if a tree already has a large number of larvae...They disrupt the tree's circulatory system, preventing the insecticides from flowing up from the roots.
What about biological pest control? Uh, this option has a number of issues. First, of all, the survival rates of the parasitic wasps in North America vary greatly depending on region. Unlike the emerald ash borer, the wasps are unable to survive in areas with very cold winters. And releasing a non-native parasite could have unintended consequences...Um, the wasps may kill other types of insects, for example. |