Tag: "pest" at biology news

Scientists seek useful traits in wild cottons

...." Sheehan raises Lygus bugs, a secondary pest of cotton, and confines their feeding to certain parts of cotton plants using bug cages. The amount of damage they inflict on cotton fruit and their ability to lay eggs for another generation are good indicators of Lygus resistance, said Sheehan, who...

Whiteflies and plant viruses can help each other to speed up biological invasion

...ldwide flower trade. The question remains how this pest can increase so rapidly and displace native biotypes of whitefly after it has been transported to new localities. The research compared development, survival, fecundity and population increase of the invasive B whitefly and an indigenous whitefly...

Scientists find genes involved in the battle between Hessian flies and wheat

... used at the time. Over the past two years, the pest also has caused extensive yield losses in southeastern Missouri and a resurgence occurred in Oklahoma in 2006. Most recently, a Hessian fly infestation was identified near Lafayette, Ind., where the insect hadn't been reported for more than a decade....

Immunization rates hit record high in poor countries

...breaks to start cycling. The idea is to reduce the pest population to a level that is manageable, allowing...us he and Grassano are growing looks much like the pest they hope it will fight. Hiding on the underside of hemlock branches, the pest produces a white wool...

Fungal factories may save hemlock forests

...breaks to start cycling. The idea is to reduce the pest population to a level that is manageable, allowing...us he and Grassano are growing looks much like the pest they hope it will fight. Hiding on the underside of hemlock branches, the pest produces a white wool...

Virus may control Australia's

...," Dr Crane says. The project is part of a larger pest fish control program under the Invasive Animals CR...mission. Other technologies being developed in the pest fish program include 'daughterless' technology, carp-specific biocides, pheromone and sensory attrac...

Renewed dolphin slaughter prompts new campaign

...of fish and that the drives are in fact a means of pest control. Also, the "Act for Dolphins" consortium maintains that, in spite of the fact that the hunting of dolphins and use of their meat has waned in popularity, the government is actually encouraging the public to consume more dolphin meat; in addit...

Save the whales? Sure, but how many?

...ived nitrogen to watersheds, or predators reducing pest species, or birds dispersing seeds. 'Sustainable human use' represents the next tier, where there are enough animals that they can be used by humans, consumptively (as in hunting or fishing) or non-consumptively (as in tourism.) Most models for su...

Biotech cotton provides same yield with fewer pesticides

...ring insecticide that kills pink bollworm, a major pest of cotton. Bt cotton has been planted in Arizona since 1996. Now more than half of the state's 256,000 acres of cotton fields are planted with the biotech plants. Some have suggested that, in addition to killing the target pests, insecticide-contai...

Parasitic plants sniff out hosts

...dder grows throughout the world and is a difficult pest to eliminate because chemicals that kill the parasite also often kill the host plant. "There is currently no reliable way to get rid of these pests," says Justin B. Runyon, graduate student in entomology. "It is estimated that in California each ye...

Fire ants: Their true story told by the scientist who loves them

...olenopsis invicta and everywhere else as a painful pest in the grass, so to speak. Then there's Walter R. Tschinkel. An ardent fire ant fan and one of its foremost researchers for more than 30 years, Florida State University's Distinguished Research Professor of Biological Sciences is the author of an e...

Bt cotton in China fails to reap profit after seven years

...rofessor David R. Just. They stress that secondary pest problems could become a major threat in countries ...n a bollworm population nearby to help prevent the pest from developing resistance to the Bt cotton. The pesticides used in these refuge fields help control...

Pest control research leads to pain control discovery

...d by researchers originally looking for biological pest controls, may lead to pain relief for sufferers of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, say researchers at the University of California, Davis. The finding, hailed by a noted inflammatory disease expert "as the most important discovery in infla...

Mosquito spray increases toxicity of pyrethroids in creek, study finds

...ng from cans of household bug killer to commercial pest control sprays. Prior studies by Weston and coll...ey may be coming from applications by professional pest controllers. We just know they are somehow finding their way to urban creeks," Weston said. Weston...

Value of services performed by insects tops $57 billion in US

...eation industry, provide more than $4.5 billion in pest control, pollinate $3 billion in crops and clean u...e of four particular services -wildlife nutrition, pest control, pollination and dung burial - selected because robust data were available for an analysis. ...

One big biology question solved

...improved infertility treatment, cancer therapy and pest management. The team, led by Dr Josephine Bowles...ple wanting a baby, or suppress it, in the case of pest management. Professor Koopman also suggested that an inappropriate retinoid signal might give the ...

UCR researchers design chip that can improve citrus varieties

... as easy peeling, seedlessness, flavor components, pest and disease control, nutritional characteristics, and reproductive development. "The citrus array helps us quickly examine a certain trait in citrus," said Mikeal Roose , a professor of genetics in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at UCR...

Sustainable farm practices improve Third World food production

...tices, such as conservation tillage and integrated pest control, also reduced pesticide use and increased carbon sequestration. In addition, sustainable farming practices require less water, an important factor given that predictions suggest by 2025 most developing countries will face physical or economic...

New study examines how sense of smell affects mating and aggression in mice

...ch findings might also be relevant for controlling pest populations, which utilize olfactory cues in a manner similar to mice, according to Shah. ...

K-State researchers study insects' immune system

...ological pesticides, Kanost said. Such a method of pest control only kills specific insects and is safe for humans. A recent development for Kanost's group is the transition from studying caterpillars to studying mosquitoes, which have a more direct impact on humans. Understanding how proteins in mosquit...

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