Tag: beetle
Posted on June 21, 2010 with No Comments
Today, BostonHerald.com posted an article that explains how 
many trees in the Boston area are in danger from Asian longhorn beetles. The beetles were first seen in Worchester, MA when an invasion caused the city millions of dollars to repair and over 20,000 trees to be cut down. The beetles now have been killing hundreds of trees around the Boston area after a recent invasion. The adults will lay their eggs inside of the tree, usually elm or maple trees, then the eggs will hatch and the babies will eat the wood to get out of the tree. Asian longhorn beetles are shiny and black, with white dots on them. They can grow up to an inch long. The beetles could potentially cause $41 billion dollars of damage nationwide. The beetles are not harmful to humans, but the lumber and maple syrup industries could be hit badly. This case is very similar to the Emerald Ash Borer found in New York, destroying trees here. JPMcHale is one of the leading pest control companies in Westchester, New York.
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Posted on April 5, 2010 with No Comments
It took months of test, a grueling process that settled the question once and for all. The strongest insect in the world is Onthophagus taurus, a species of horned dung beetle. The beetle can 1,141 times its own body weight. This is the same as if a 150 pound person were to life 6 double-decker buses. These beetles don’t carry balls of dung, instead they bury cow dung. There are two types, a horned version and non horned version. The horned version fight with each to determine if they should mate or not, while the non horned waits for its opportunity and sneaks in to mate.
The scientists tied a piece of cotton to the beetles in order to determine the strength. Once the beetle got into the tunnel, they would pull on the string. They also varied how well they fed the beetle. When they fed the horned beetles well, they got much stronger than the poorly fed horned beetle. When they fed the non horned beetle well, they grew much larger testes, didn’t get much stronger, than the poorly fed non horned beetles. They said this happened due to genes.
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Posted on March 8, 2010 with 7 Comments
The Asian long-horned beetle, a species of beetles that originates from Asia, has made an appearance in Worcester, Massachusetts. The beetle was first sighted in the Massachusetts area back in 2008. However, despite this sighting, it is very rare for the beetle to be present in Massachusetts. It has been linked mostly to New York and the Chicago area. It is believed that the beetle made its way to America on a cargo shipment from China years ago. It was first spotted in New York in 1996. This isn’t the first time the beetle has been in Massachusetts before, it killed 18,000 trees in Worcester.
The beetle’s favorite type of tree is maple, however, it will go after hardwood trees including the birch and elm trees. The beetle is a huge threat to the nursery and development of these types of trees. Also, it can be a threat to ruin state forests, state parks and state trees. These beetles are usually seen from the late spring to the fall depending on what the weather is like. The problem with these beetles is that there is no chemical way to control these pests. They have very few natural predators in America, being indigenous to Asia. Officials are adamant that if you see this pest, to report it at once. Once they locate them, they will have to cut down all infected trees, chip them and burn them. This is a preventative way to stop the beetle. They are trying to prevent what happened in Worcester from happening in Bedford.
Posted on February 10, 2010 with No Comments
A woman going from Mexico into Texas was stopped at the border. When it came time to declare what she had, she declared a piece of jewelry, a beetle that was covered in gold and blue jewelry, with a safety-pin in it and a gold chain. It was being worn as a brooch on her sweater. One thing though, the beetle was living. The woman didn’t have the right paperwork filled out, so the beetle was confiscated, and taken for further inspection. In Mexico, wearing beetles as jewelry has long been popular. Now it has developed into wearing live beetles, a new fad that has seemingly caught on. Actually, it has been said that Jackie Kennedy got one of these with emeralds on it.
The problem that has arisen is that the women didn’t properly declare the insect. When coming into a country, one must declare pests in any form (living, pets, and so on) on a PPQ form 526. This form is for the importation or exportation of pests. Due to her not doing that, the insect was taken. Another problem that has arisen is animal rights activists have flocked to this story. They are outraged that a woman would do this to a live beetle. They went to the newspapers in Texas to complain about this treatment of the beetle. Regardless of what is said, this practice of wearing beetles as jewerly is rampant in Mexico, and it makes one wonder if that fad will catch on in the U.S.
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The Guardian wrote about this first.
Posted on December 5, 2009 with 1 Comment
Alberta, one of the ten provinces in Canada, is receiving $10 million from the federal government in order to help contain the outbreak of mountain pine beetles. The beetle’s carry a fungus that causes the pine trees to turn red and eventually kills them. The province has already committed $25 million on the problem in the past year and $200 million since 2006.
According to Conservative MP Rob Merrifield, the outbreak “came in on a thermal or in the jet streams in July, which infested our forests in a way in these last 90 days that was unexpected. It has thrown urgency into … the issue of the pine beetle in Alberta, and because of that, we have to accelerate what we do to be able to deal with it.” Merrifield also explained that the outbreak is threatening Alberta’s $9 billion forest industry and the 38,000 jobs in it.
The mountain pine beetles have already harmed thousands of acres of forest in British Columbia. According to Ted Morton, minister of sustainable resource development for Alberta, “British Columbia has lost half of its marketable pine.”
many trees in the Boston area are in danger from Asian longhorn beetles. The beetles were first seen in Worchester, MA when an invasion caused the city millions of dollars to repair and over 20,000 trees to be cut down. The beetles now have been killing hundreds of trees around the Boston area after a recent invasion. The adults will lay their eggs inside of the tree, usually elm or maple trees, then the eggs will hatch and the babies will eat the wood to get out of the tree. Asian longhorn beetles are shiny and black, with white dots on them. They can grow up to an inch long. The beetles could potentially cause $41 billion dollars of damage nationwide. The beetles are not harmful to humans, but the lumber and maple syrup industries could be hit badly. This case is very similar to the Emerald Ash Borer found in New York, destroying trees here. JPMcHale is one of the leading pest control companies in Westchester, New York.
