- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An invasive pest from Asia is killing thousands of trees in Southern California, which may lead to the death of thousands of humans, reported Adam Rogers on Wired.com.
Polyphagous shot hole borer females drill holes inside trees to lay their eggs. In the process, they deposit a fungus that grows and provides food for larvae. The fungus gums up the trees' channels for water and nutrient transport, eventually killing it. Called Fusarium dieback, the condition is on track to kill 26.8 million trees across Southern California in the next few years.
With data from a U.S. Forest Services study, which found that fewer trees is related to respiratory and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The trees at UC Irvine are continuing to decline, making the leafy campus a living laboratory for research on polyphagous shot hole borer, an invasive beetle that is ravaging the Southern California urban forest, reported Amina Khan in the Los Angeles Times. The borer kills by entering tree trunks and leaving behind fungus that will grow and serve as food for their young. The fungus spreads and kills the trees.
"The beauty of UCI is that it's a university, and they're used to researchers," said John Kabashima, an environmental horticulture advisor and entomologist...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Hundreds of landscape trees on the UC Irvine campus have been infested with polyphagous shot hole borer, a pest introduced into California from Asia. UCI has assembled a team that includes UC Agriculture and Natural Resources experts to develop a management plan for identifying, removing, treating and replacing the ravaged trees, according to a UCI press release.
Polyphagous shot hole borer has been present on the campus for two to three years. The extent of the infestation became apparent in the last few months when a significant number of trees began showing severe symptoms. UCI...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The polyphagous shot hole borer is taking up residence in California trees from San Diego to Santa Monica and as far east as Riverside County, drilling circular tunnels and spreading fungal spores that kill trees from the inside out, reported Amina Kahn in the Los Angeles Times Science Blog.
Akif Eskalen, UC Cooperative Extension plant pathology specialist at UC Riverside, wants to contain this invasive bug before it spreads throughout Southern California.
"If we can't control them," Eskalen said, "they are going to wipe out all our trees."
Box elders, sycamores, American...