Scientists say they’ve found a fungus that kills the Emerald Ash Borer. The tiny green beetles have devastated ash tree populations in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Canada. Now, the Emerald Ash Borer is moving farther west. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
Scientists say they’ve found a fungus that kills the Emerald Ash Borer. The tiny green
beetles have devastated ash tree populations in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Canada. Now the Emerald Ash Borer is moving farther west. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has more:
Researchers with the U.S. Forest
Service and Michigan State University
say a product called “BotaniGard”
kills the Emerald
Ash Borer in lab tests. But they say
it isn’t clear yet whether the product
is effective against widespread
infestation.
BotaniGard is produced
by Emerald BioAgriculture
Corporation. Company President
John McIntyre says
it’s safe for people and animals.
“That’s one of the nice things about
biological pesticides. They oftentimes
are, and in the case of
BotaniGard, certainly is something
that is not harmful to the environment
or to the user.”
BotaniGard is not a new product.
Farmers have been using it since the
late 1990’s. The company plans
to donate some of the product to local
governments dealing with
Emerald Ash
Borer infestation.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.