{"id":385303,"date":"2010-03-03T09:46:31","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T14:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2010-03-03T09:46:31","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T14:46:31","slug":"colo-scientists-use-crushed-shells-to-battle-beetles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/385303","title":{"rendered":"Colo. scientists use crushed shells to battle beetles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/news\/ci_14495213#ixzz0h3IloFkH\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/extras.mnginteractive.com\/live\/media\/site36\/2010\/0301\/20100301__20100302_B01_CD02BEETLEBLOCK~p1_200.JPG\" width=\"255\" align=\"left\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/climatewire\/2010\/03\/03\/8\/\" >ClimateWire<\/a>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Ecoregions_of_Colorado_%28EPA%29\">Colorado<\/a> scientists are using some new tools to fight bark beetles that are killing the state&#8217;s pine trees: liquefied crab and shrimp shells.<\/p>\n<p>According to Colorado State University scientists, a serum made from the shells, which are imported from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Iceland_Shelf_large_marine_ecosystem\">Iceland<\/a>, could prevent the beetles from killing the trees if it is sprayed from the air. However, the serum has not attracted support from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/contributor\/usfs\">U.S. Forest Service<\/a> for an aerial spray.<\/p>\n<p>The beetles have destroyed millions of acres of trees by laying eggs in the bark and spreading a blue fungus. Other solutions offered have included spraying <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Types_of_pesticides\">insecticide<\/a>, spraying pheromones or even using recorded beetle sounds to drive the insects crazy. However, researchers say this serum could be effective because it contains chitosan, a carbohydrate found in beetle shells. That can make a tree secrete more sap, protecting it from the beetles.<\/p>\n<p>A 2003 Forest Service experiment found that chitosan could boost tree defenses, but it still has not found widespread use. While Colorado is not taking official action on it, the Idaho Forest Service is planning to do tests this summer.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists are working on a patented chitosan mix at an AgriHouse factory. The &#8220;Organic Disease Control&#8221; mix is already available at nurseries at less than $1 per tree (Bruce Finley, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/news\/ci_14495213#ixzz0h3IloFkH\" ><em>Denver Post<\/em><\/a>, Mar. 2). <strong>&#8211; JP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3170&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3170\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ClimateWire: Colorado scientists are using some new tools to fight bark beetles that are killing the state&#8217;s pine trees: liquefied crab and shrimp shells. According to Colorado State University scientists, a serum made from the shells, which are imported from Iceland, could prevent the beetles from killing the trees if it is sprayed from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}