Sope, S. (2023, January 30). Researchers target sugar-feeding ants. Farm Progress. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.farmprogress.com/insects/researchers-target-sugar-feeding-ants- 

Sugar feeding ants have recently become a problem, as they protect pests that are harmful to trees and their fruit. The ant population interferes with the natural predation of pest insect species, and allows the pest population to go out of control. Insecticides are the typical standard decision for getting rid of the sugar feeding ants, but they also affect insect populations that are native and beneficial to the area. Chemical engineers from UC Riverside have developed an alternative method to keep the ant population in check: a biodegradable hydrogel baiting system. With this new form of controlling the sugar feeding ants, it will allow beneficial parasitoids and predators to control the population of harmful pests; pests in which the ants protect. One researcher named David Haviland decided to expand the research that was done on the new baiting system. He built on the original use of alginate gels, beads soaked with sugar water. While many natural solid baits have proved successful for ants that feed on primarily protein, control methods for the sugar feeding ants have proved elusive. By using hydrogel, they are turning liquid bait into a solid, making it more effective and commercially adoptable. This has been described as, “cutting-edge research,” as sugar ant populations have slowly  become a universal problem. Sugar-feeding ants interfere with biocontrol and promote disease, as there are more organisms between trees to infect others. If this research is able to be applied to other pest species and other plants, this could be a great benefit to many other areas outside of California. 

This research sounds very promising. David Haviland has been implementing his system with acrylamide gel, similar to the absorbent found in diapers, to soak the sugar water. Unfortunately, this is not organic, but it does make it more accessible commercially. The method just needs to go through pesticide regulations, which takes time. Manufacturers must change their labels to show hydrogel as an approved use for pest bait, and adding new product uses as well as changing labels must make economic sense for the manufacturer. The researchers must be able to show that hydrogel will work on a variety of ant/pest species, in hopes to motivate the manufacturer to update their labels. However, I do wonder why progress has halted just in waiting for the labels to change. You would think that something so beneficial and profound would be a priority to implement. I understand if it wouldn’t make financial sense to the manufacturer, but if this research is truly so crucial I would think that they would have received more funding or support to change product labels. But if implemented, it seems as if this new baiting system will prove significant to the future of pest control.

University of Reading. “Air pollution threatens natural pest control methods in sustainable farming: Controlling aphids with parasitic wasps is more difficult in polluted environments..” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 November 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221109085816.htm>.

A recent study led by a team of scientists from the University of Reading tested the effect of diesel exhaust and ozone to oilseed rape plants, and the reproductive success of parasitic wasps in relation. The study used special equipment to apply controlled amounts of diesel exhaust to the plants; they also added aphids, an insect that is quite harmful to crops. It is important to note that parasitic wasps reproduce by laying their eggs in a stung aphid, and effectively controlling the aphid population whilst maintaining their own.

The study found that even while using exhaust levels that were lower than the ones set by environmental regulators, the number of parasitic wasps decreased. The wasps had difficulty finding aphids to prey on when the oilseed rape plants were in conjunction with diesel exhaust and ozone; the population of the wasps consequently fell. This new finding is worrying to sustainable farmers, as many sustainable farming practices rely on natural pest control to keep harmful insects, such as aphids, away from their crops.  Recent transportation has been shifting away from diesel engines to electric motors as a means of transportation, meaning that air pollution levels will change. Conducting research on how different changing pollution levels will affect the populations of pest predators, and therefore we will be able to ensure future food security. This research is crucial to understanding the relationship between pollution, pests, and their predators.

Overall, I think this research is really interesting and it’s something I wouldn’t have considered to be an effect of pollution. The research from this study will be important in the future years as the amount of diesel exhaust in the air changes. Now that car owners are transitioning from diesel to electric, it will be interesting to watch how the population changes as diesel pollution drops. We may see the wasp population grow as prey becomes easier to hunt, following with the aphid population decreasing. In result, the wasp population will likely drop again soon after as the increased population uses up their food supply; aphids will populate once more. We can expect farmers to have a range of crop yields during the years when populations are fluctuating, as increased aphids will destroy more crops. But once both populations reach an equilibrium, farmers should have a more balanced yield and the sustainable and natural form of pest control will be much improved.

Ibarra, R. (2023, January 24). California to expand pest-detecting dog teams with $4 million in federal funding. CapRadio. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.capradio.org/articles/2023/01/24/california-to-expand-pest-detecting-dog-teams-with-4-million-in-federal-funding/ 

The California state government has donated four million dollars to expand its pest detection dog teams. The Department of Agriculture has recently announced their plans to give money to future pest prevention. The dog teams sniff out and alert packages that contain different agricultural products, allowing handlers to check the packages for invasive bugs or flies that may be traveling with the food.

Once a dog is selected to be a detection dog, they are placed with a handler and sent to a ten week training program. After they’ve completed the program, the dogs are sent to various mail companies, such as FedEx, UPS, and Ontrak. There, they sniff for plants, fruit, and soil, and alert their handler by scratching three times. Once a dog alerts, a trained botanist will inspect the package for invasive or harmful species. The funding for the dog teams comes from a push from the USDA for greater pest control infrastructure. These plans seek to protect American farmers and ecosystems from invasive species entering California.

I think the use of detection dogs as a method of pest control is an important way to protect California’s ecosystems and crops. By using dogs to prevent the introduction of new pests, we can focus on the pest problems currently in California rather than fighting new pests. Dog detection teams are also sustainable, and some dogs are rescued from shelters to be put in the program. While I think this program is a positive good, I do wonder about the productivity of sniffing every package. Will the dogs be able to sniff through every single package that comes into California? Does it make sense to check every food package coming through the state border? So while there are some questions to consider, I think using detection dogs is a good, environmentally friendly way of pest prevention.

Greenwood, V. (2023, January 18). The toxin that helps oyster mushrooms devour worm flesh. The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/science/oyster-mushrooms-carnivorous-toxins.html?searchResultPosition=1 

Many species of organisms develop ways to survive, but the innocent-looking oyster mushroom has coined an adaptation that is quite sinister. The oyster mushroom is a carnivore.

Carnivorous plants are not unheard of, the most well known being the Venus flytrap. But unlike the Venus flytrap, the oyster mushroom uses a toxin to kill its prey. 

The mushroom’s diet of damp logs lacks nitrogen, so the mushroom finds its source in microscopic nematodes, a kind of worm. When the worm touches the mushroom, they become paralyzed and their cells begin to fall apart. Once the toxin reaches the worm’s muscle cells and neurons, it disrupts the natural flow of ions through the membrane causing the worm to succumb. Nematode worms have a reputation for destroying the roots of crops, and scientists soon began to research the toxin as a method of pest control. Researchers finally found the toxin that caused the gruesome worm deaths, a molecule called 3-octanone. Unfortunately, the substance is volatile, meaning it easily evaporates and blows away in the air as soon as it is released. This would make it ineffective as a method of natural pest control because it would blow away. Furthermore, the oyster mushroom only makes the toxin when it lacks nitrogen, so it would not be creating the toxin alongside nitrogen-rich fertilizer. But scientists believe that understanding the oyster mushroom and what triggers their use for toxin could create new pathways in pest control.

I think this concept shows a lot of promise. While the toxin cannot currently be used as an alternative to pesticides, I think more research can prove crucial to phasing out chemical pesticides. If the mushrooms could be engineered to arm themselves with the toxin even in a nutrient-rich environment such as a field, the oyster mushroom could gain another use other than human consumption. Overall, I think this is a great concept and if researchers are able to apply our knowledge of the toxin it will pave the way for sustainable pest management in agriculture.

Currie, R. (2023, January 23). Rentokil turns to AI rat recognition to analyze populations. The Register® – Biting the hand that feeds IT. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/23/rentokil_rat_recognition_ai/ 

AI technology is constantly evolving, and it’s continuously posing new ways to solve problems using AI. Recently, the pest control company Rentokil has been developing their own way to get rid of pests. Last year, engineering academics built a laser machine to hunt and kill cockroaches, and Rentokil has taken this idea and expanded it. Their focus: rat populations. While the company isn’t releasing laser machines into crawl spaces, they are using the same machine vision to analyze rat populations. Using facial recognition, the machines will be able to identify one rat from another, and will be able to track where they are sleeping, eating, which building they come from, and which rat is causing damage. With this information, the company will be able to conclude the best way to dispatch them. There are an increasing number of ways to apply AI technology, and it seems pest control may be another that’s making its way to the future.

While this idea sounds intriguing, there is quite a bit of doubt and theoretical issues that surround this new method of pest control. Firstly, the cameras would likely have to operate on WiFi, as a camera with a connecting cable would prove to be easily destroyed by the rats. Others argue that if Rentokil is able to place a camera in a space where rats live, why not just place a trap instead? There are many valid arguments that question whether using AI technology is worth it, or even necessary. A commenter on the website article argued that there is an alternative method tested in New York; which proposes feeding rats contraceptives and effectively stopping the increase of their population. Another commenter states that their method of pest control is working just as well- in the form of their cuddly cat. So this begs the question, is the use of facial recognition and AI even worth it to control pest populations?

Stokstad, E. (2022, September 1). Researchers just made it easier-and cheaper-to confuse crop pests. Science. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-just-made-it-easier-and-cheaper-confuse-crop-pests 

Many farmers turn to pesticides to protect their crops whereas some prefer a gentler approach, spraying their fields with behavior affecting chemicals called pheromones. The pheromones mimic a smell given off by female insects to attract mates. When farmers flood their fields with the chemicals, it overwhelms the biological signals in the insects and prevents reproduction. The downside- artificial pheromones are incredibly expensive and labor intensive. The price of the chemicals is almost $400 per hectare, and requires workers to set and maintain the traps. Christer Löfstedt, a chemical ecologist at Lund University, and his colleagues have been experimenting with an alternative and cheaper method of using pheromones. They created a genetically modified plant with the chemical building blocks needed to create pheromones. They decided to use a flowering plant called Camelina, and outfitted the plant with a gene that causes the seeds to give off hexadecenoic acid, which can mimic the mating pheromone. There they are able to purify the seeds into oil, and create a liquid similar to the expensive artificial pheromones. The traps proved to work just as well, and cost only a quarter of the previous pheromones to produce, which makes this a cost effective solution, putting it on par with current pesticides.

While I think that creating cost effective pheromones to control pest populations is a hopeful idea, I think that there are few issues with technical implementation. Firstly, according to the article the pheromones have proved to work best in large fields. Since farmers in most developing regions work small plots of land, there would need the unification of surrounding farmers which could possibly prove difficult to obtain cooperation. The introduction of these new pheromones could also have lasting effects on the surrounding ecosystem. There is no way of knowing if the chemicals would affect pollinators of other keystone species necessary to upholding a stable environment. Overall I think the idea of such alternatives to pest control is promising, this one seems to have logistical issues as well as the possibility of unintended consequences.

Yirka, B. (2022, August 19). Replacing pesticides with ants to protect crops. Phys.org. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://phys.org/news/2022-08-pesticides-ants-crops.html 

In the United States and around the world, farmers have turned to chemical pesticides to increase their yield of crops. Although chemical pesticides are a worldwide practice, studies have shown that the pesticides can kill pollinators, cause pollution, and raise concerns of what the chemicals in the pesticides do to one who eats the food. Recently, scientists have been gathering data on natural pesticides in an attempt to find an effective but environmentally friendly method of pest control. One group, publishing a paper titled, “Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,” have analyzed studies to learn more about alternatives to chemical pesticides. Their solution: ants. The researchers found that in most studies the ants provided significant protection from hungry pests. The ants feed on the bugs without harming the plant, and in some cases have proved more effective than commercial pesticides. The researchers concluded that ants provide an inexpensive and sustainable way to control pests.

Overall, ants are an effective solution to pest control problems, and they are a significant improvement to the toxic chemicals currently being used. I think this article emphasizes the use of natural biotic relationships to solve problems in agriculture. The mutualistic relationship between the ants and the crops are to each other’s benefit, as well as the farmer. The ants can feed on the bugs, the plants are protected, and the farmer can grow crops without having to spray harmful chemicals on their land. I think this is such a beneficial addition to farming, and I’m interested to see whether this is implemented in the future.

North Carolina State University. (2022, September 5). Soil temperature can predict pest spread in crops. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 8, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220905160943.htm

Previously, it was thought that pests, such as the corn earworm, could not survive through winters past 40 degrees latitude due to the freezing temperatures. But new research indicates that the 40 degree division is no longer completely accurate. By comparing maps and historical trends, researchers are able to make zones on where the corn earworm can and can’t survive the winter. They found that the southern zone where the earworm is able to survive has grown in size. With warmer temperatures becoming more common, northern areas with previously no issue of the pest will have warm enough soil for the bugs to overwinter. 

I think this new research is incredibly important in predicting the northward migration of agriculture-harming pests. Soil temperature can now inform farmers on the spread of the corn earworm. But now that we know species who typically reside in warmer climates can now survive in more northern locations, I think this article raises the question of the impact this will have on northern ecosystems in the future. Sure, this new research is crucial for stopping corn earworm, but I think it highlights the possible migration of species that were previously limited to more southern latitudes. Species entering ecosystems where they were not formerly a part of can cause drastic disruptions to those food chains. And while this is critical research for pest control, I think this article also gives important insight into what the future may hold with increasing temperatures. 

Heinz, M. (2022, August 17). Mustangs vs. Muleys: Wild horses out-competing mule deer for food, water . Cowboy State Daily. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/08/17/mustangs-vs-muleys-wild-horses-out-competing-mule-deer-for-food-water/ 

In the vast grasslands of the central United States, two species roam the prairie and compete for food and water. Mule Deer and Mustangs, well known to many, cohabitate this land and share its resources. But lately, the wild mustangs have started to outcompete the mule deer, leaving them struggling to find their share of food. The horses are all around grazers, while Mule deer only graze on specific plants, such as sage bush and buck bush. So when grassland forage becomes scarce, the deer simply struggle to compete. The Bureau of Land Management has been rounding up the mustangs in an attempt to rebalance the ecosystem, but many question the treatment of the captured horses.

This article highlights how biotic relationships affect differing species within an ecosystem. The biological advantage of a larger possible diet makes it easy for mustangs to overpopulate, threatening damage to the habitat and the population of other species. However, the article also raises the question of the ethics involved in culling the horses’ population. Currently, the Bureau of Land Management will drive the horses using low flying helicopters to capture sites. The helicopters will chase panicked horses who can injure themselves, and foals can be separated from their mothers. Family herds are separated, and the wild horses are moved to large holding facilities around the country. While the BLM encourages the training and adoption of the mustangs, for example the mustang makeover challenge, there are still over 59,000 wild horses and burros in off site holding facilities. The facilities are yet another expense to the local taxpayer. I have to agree with the contrasting argument mentioned in the later part of the article, and that there are more humane and effective ways to control the population, such as darting mares with contraceptives. The article highlights the effect of the wild horses on grassland environments, but it can be argued that there are better ways to keep the mustang’s numbers in check.