Anti-beetle wasps put into wild apple forest
Source: Xinhua |
May 28, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SCIENTISTS have released 800,000 wasps into Asia's largest wild fruit forest this year, hoping they will kill many of the beetles threatening it.
"It's the fourth time we have released parasitic wasps to destroy the insects eating the apple trees. The measure has so far proved very effective," said Wang Zhiyong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Forestry.
The wild fruit forest, covering 9,600 hectares, is located on Mount Tianshan along the Ili River valley in the country's far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Having a wide variety of apple trees, it is also one of the world's largest wild apple gene pools.
Fruit yields have been declining in the forest since the 1990s, when apple seedlings from east China's Shandong Province that carried Agrilus mali, a type of jewel beetle that feeds on the trunks of apple trees, were planted in the area.
Pruning and spraying pesticides failed to dent the population of Agrilus mali. More than 3,600 hectares of fruit trees have been damaged, and more will wither if the pest continues to reproduce, forestry officials say.
In June 2010, experts introduced parasitic wasps for the first time. So far, 2.2 million wasps have been released into the forest. The wasps lay eggs on the beetles after killing them, and their larva can later feed on the dead bodies, according to experts.
"It's the fourth time we have released parasitic wasps to destroy the insects eating the apple trees. The measure has so far proved very effective," said Wang Zhiyong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Forestry.
The wild fruit forest, covering 9,600 hectares, is located on Mount Tianshan along the Ili River valley in the country's far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Having a wide variety of apple trees, it is also one of the world's largest wild apple gene pools.
Fruit yields have been declining in the forest since the 1990s, when apple seedlings from east China's Shandong Province that carried Agrilus mali, a type of jewel beetle that feeds on the trunks of apple trees, were planted in the area.
Pruning and spraying pesticides failed to dent the population of Agrilus mali. More than 3,600 hectares of fruit trees have been damaged, and more will wither if the pest continues to reproduce, forestry officials say.
In June 2010, experts introduced parasitic wasps for the first time. So far, 2.2 million wasps have been released into the forest. The wasps lay eggs on the beetles after killing them, and their larva can later feed on the dead bodies, according to experts.
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