New moves in the fight against insects

If one finds a new harmful insect, people often deal with it by finding a species that likes to eat them. But the two US scientists have just discovered a way of poisoning poison by putting another harmful insect into the environment to compete with each other.

Adelgid bug.Photo: sciencedaily.com.

Dr. Evan Preisser of the University of Rhode Island and Dr. Joseph Elkinton of the University of Massachusetts experimented with two species of venomous sucking insects of Asian origin: Adelgid beetles (with fur) and body scales long. They have harmed poisonous forests in North America over the past century.

Two scientists put one or both types of natural enemies on poisonous poison. They found that Adelgid bugs were more devastating than long-bodied scales. Adelgid bugs reduce the growth rate of tree branches by a third over a period of two and a half years (compared to trees without beetles attack). Meanwhile, the scales only reduce 5% growth of the branch during the same period. In plants with both types of bugs, the growth rate of the branch is only 10%.

The team believes that the competition of scab bugs caused the Adelgid beetle's ability to absorb plastic sharply. Although both beetles suck the poison sap, the Adelgid bug injects some poison into the plant. The presence of scabies reduced the number of Adelgid bugs, thereby reducing the amount of poison in the plant.