Beetle - Beetles in Relation To People - Beetles As Pests

Beetles As Pests

About 3⁄4 of beetle species are phytophagous in both the larval and adult stages, living in or on plants, wood, fungi, and a variety of stored products, including cereals, tobacco, and dried fruits. Because many of these plants are important for agriculture, forestry, and the household, the beetle can be considered a pest. Some of these species cause significant damage, such as the Boll weevil, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. The Boll Weevil crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas to enter the United States from Mexico around 1892 and had reached southeastern Alabama by 1915. By the mid 1920s it had entered all cotton growing regions in the U.S., traveling 40 to 160 miles (60–260 km) per year. It remains the most destructive cotton pest in North America. Mississippi State University has estimated that since the boll weevil entered the United States it has cost U.S. cotton producers about $13 billion, and in recent times about $300 million per year. Many other species also have done extensive damage to plant populations, such as the bark beetle and elm Leaf beetle. The bark beetle and elm leaf beetle, among other species, have been known to nest in elm trees. Bark beetles in particular carry Dutch elm disease as they move from infected breeding sites to feed on healthy elm trees. The spread of Dutch elm disease by the beetle has led to the devastation of elm trees in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, notably in Europe and North America.

Situations in which a species has developed immunity to pesticides are worse, as in the case of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, which is a notorious pest of potato plants. Crops are destroyed and the beetle can only be treated by employing expensive pesticides, many of which it has begun to develop resistance to. As well as potatoes, suitable hosts can be a number of plants from the potato family (Solanaceae), such as nightshade, tomato, eggplant and capsicum. The Colorado potato beetle has developed resistance to all major insecticide classes, although not every population is resistant to every chemical.

Pests don't only affect agriculture, but can also even affect houses, such as the Death watch beetle. The death watch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum, (family Anobiidae) is of considerable importance as a pest of older wooden buildings in Great Britain. It attacks hardwoods such as oak and chestnut, always where some fungal decay has taken or is taking place. It is thought that the actual introduction of the pest into buildings takes place at the time of construction.

Other pest include the Coconut hispine beetle, Brontispa longissima, feeds on young leaves and damages seedlings and mature coconut palms. On September 27, 2007, Philippines' Metro Manila and 26 provinces were quarantined due to having been infested with this pest (to save the $800-million Philippine coconut industry). The mountain pine beetle normally attacks mature or weakened lodgepole pine. It can be the most destructive insect pest of mature pine forests. The current infestation in British Columbia is the largest Canada has ever seen.

Read more about this topic:  Beetle, Beetles in Relation To People

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