The southern pine beetle is the most impactful pest of southern pines in the eastern U.S. A new article in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management reviews SPB suppression methods, which generally involve removing the infested (and some uninfested) trees to halt the spread of the outbreak.
More than a decade after its arrival in the continental U.S., spotted-wing drosophila has spread to many parts of the country. But a decade of research has built a broad knowledge base for a variety of management strategies. A new review in the Journal of Economic Entomology provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of SWD management and promising future directions.
As fall armyworm continues to threaten food security in Africa, the use of Bt maize offers significant potential to manage the pest. But it will be critical to manage resistance via multi-toxin crop varieties and appropriate use of refuge planting—all in forms accessible to the smallholder farmers that grow nearly all of Africa's maize.
Separate studies on bumble bees and mason bees exposed to imidacloprid add to the body of evidence that wild bees may be particularly vulnerable to neonicotinoid insecticides.
An entomologist envisions a future in which non-fungible tokens (NFTs) could drive collecting of 3D virtual models of insect holotype specimens, thereby subsidizing increased digitization of entomological collections and discovery of new species.