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Agricultural pest insects

Two people gather locusts from trees

This start-up turns locust swarms in Kenya into animal feed

Environment

The Bug Picture has worked for the last six weeks in Kenya to pilot a program that pays farmers to collect locusts from their fields in exchange for cash.

A vial full of Tamarixia radiata wasps, the size of a grain of sea salt. They are stored inside incubators before they are released to feast on their natural prey, the Asian citrus psyllid.

How do you control an Asian bug that’s killing American citrus? Import its tiny natural predator

Environment

Invasive citrus disease found in California for the first time

Environment

Scientists turning to Pakistani insect predator to try and save California citrus industry

Environment

The Living on Earth Almanac

MALATHION SPRAY

Due to the latest Mediterranean fruit fly outbreak in Tampa, Florida , the U.S. and Florida Departments of Agriculture are spraying the region with the pesticide malathion from airplanes. Local residents concerns for short and long term health effects are being ignored and the spraying continues. Steve Curwood spoke with Dr. Mohammed Akhter, a physician […]

The World

Superspud!

Aroostook County, Maine is responsible for producing billions of pounds of potatoes each year. Potato Beetles have been known to decimate potato plants, but a new hybrid superspud has been genetically engineered to create its own pesticide to try and outsmart the adaptable beetle pests once and for all. Dan Grossman has this spud report.

Eau de Deception

Each year, forests in the northeastern United States are plagued with leaf-eating gypsy moths. There have been many efforts to control moth populations with pesticides. But as entomologist Robert Walz tells LOE host Steve Curwood, Indiana has its own way of battling the pests: pheromones.

Almanac: Rocky Mountain Locusts

This week, facts about Rocky Mountain Locusts. One hundred twenty-six summers ago, a plague of locusts chewed its way across the American West.