2008 Woodie Awards
Keeping Flies Out of the U.S.
Aaron Fetterman
Issue date: 10/24/05 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Robert Mangan, a Research Entymologyist, presented a seminar titled "New Pest Eradication Technology and Population Models: Actual Advances, or Entertainment for Scientists" on Monday. Dr. Mangan has degrees from the University of Arizona and Penn State. He currently works for the United States Department of Agriculture in Weslaco, Texas, studying fruit flies.
There are eighty-five types of exotic Mexican fruit flies that threaten the United States border. Part of Dr. Mangan's job is to help contain these flies and ensure that they do not contaminate American crops. There are three main stages to pest management: detection, population reduction or eradication, and maintenance.
For detecting flies, the McPhail "glass house" has been in common use for decades. It consists of a glass enclosure that attracts the bugs to it and then drowns them. The pheromone-based Jackson trap works in a similar way but is more open. In some produce, like coffee, the fly larvae are in the shell around the coffee bean; they simply count the larvae that get left behind when the beans are taken out.
To reduce the population, the best method is to use a combination of pesticides and sterile insect releases. Just releasing sterile insects will slow the population growth, but it will probably not totally eradicate the population. Pesticides will eradicate the population, but it will go faster if both methods are used at the same time. The labs in Weslaco, Texas, work in part to generate pesticides, which they test with cooperating farmers from the surrounding areas. Sterile insect releases work well only in large quantities, released in ratios of closer to 10:1. The efficiency of sterile insects was proved in the 1960's with the screwworm fly. There are large sterile mass-rearing facilities in Guatemala and Mexico that can produce millions of flies for hundreds of dollars.
Maintenance entails detection and quarantines to ensure that contaminations do not spread. Quarantines are the biggest reason to control pests. The pests will themselves destroy only about five percent of crops, but with a quarantine, none of the crops will be sold. While people do not like sterile insects since it means that there are even more bugs around, and they do not like insecticide sprays because sprays are not as environmentally friendly, the methods work and are effective, so they will continue to be used.=
There are eighty-five types of exotic Mexican fruit flies that threaten the United States border. Part of Dr. Mangan's job is to help contain these flies and ensure that they do not contaminate American crops. There are three main stages to pest management: detection, population reduction or eradication, and maintenance.
For detecting flies, the McPhail "glass house" has been in common use for decades. It consists of a glass enclosure that attracts the bugs to it and then drowns them. The pheromone-based Jackson trap works in a similar way but is more open. In some produce, like coffee, the fly larvae are in the shell around the coffee bean; they simply count the larvae that get left behind when the beans are taken out.
To reduce the population, the best method is to use a combination of pesticides and sterile insect releases. Just releasing sterile insects will slow the population growth, but it will probably not totally eradicate the population. Pesticides will eradicate the population, but it will go faster if both methods are used at the same time. The labs in Weslaco, Texas, work in part to generate pesticides, which they test with cooperating farmers from the surrounding areas. Sterile insect releases work well only in large quantities, released in ratios of closer to 10:1. The efficiency of sterile insects was proved in the 1960's with the screwworm fly. There are large sterile mass-rearing facilities in Guatemala and Mexico that can produce millions of flies for hundreds of dollars.
Maintenance entails detection and quarantines to ensure that contaminations do not spread. Quarantines are the biggest reason to control pests. The pests will themselves destroy only about five percent of crops, but with a quarantine, none of the crops will be sold. While people do not like sterile insects since it means that there are even more bugs around, and they do not like insecticide sprays because sprays are not as environmentally friendly, the methods work and are effective, so they will continue to be used.=