Now that spring is here, aquatic plants are beginning to flourish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ashley McGovern has an update on the battle against the Eurasian watermilfoil:
Transcript
Now that spring is here, aquatic plants are beginning to flourish. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ashley McGovern has an update on the battle against the
Eurasian watermilfoil:
The Eurasian watermilfoil originated in Europe and Asia and has been found in the US for more
than 80 years. Watermilfoil can be transferred from lake to lake by boaters. The plant can hinder
recreational activities, like swimming and fishing, and can harm native ecosystems.
Lake associations and ecologists are trying to find ways to stop the spread of this invasive plant.
Bernd Blossey is an ecologist with Cornell University. He says people use different tactics to try to
get rid of watermilfoil.
“Some people promote using aquatic herbicides but that’s never a long-term solution—the plant
simply comes back.”
Another technique used is called biological control. That’s introducing natural enemies, such as
insects, that feed on the plant.
“Biological control doesn’t try to eradicate a plant, it just tries to reduce it’s population level.”
Blossey says it’s important to increase awareness of invasive species like watermilfoil and to keep
in mind that using herbicides is just a temporary solution to a tough problem.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Ashley McGovern.
Every winter, millions of monarch butterflies migrate from backyards in North America to nestle in trees in Mexico. The weather conditions in the mountains there are perfect for the insect. But scientists say climate change could spell disaster for the species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Todd Melby has this report:
Transcript
Every winter, millions of monarch butterflies migrate from backyards in
North America to nestle in trees in Mexico. The weather conditions in the
mountains there are perfect for the insect. But scientists say climate change could
spell disaster for the species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Todd Melby has
this report:
The fir trees in central Mexico are ideal conditions for the monarch
butterflies of North America to spend the winter. The habitat there is cool
and dry.
“They are looking for a refrigerator.”
That’s Karen Oberhauser, a researcher at the University of Minnesota. She
Says the orange-and-black-speckled butterflies spend up to five months there
Before coming north again.
The new study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. It shows that the biggest threat to the monarch’s Mexican habitat
may be an increase in rainfall. She says that would cause the monarchs to freeze
to death.
“It’s worrisome to me that, in a sense, we humans are kind of conducting this huge experiment and
we don’t know the outcome.”
The long-term climate change could force monarchs to flutter off in search
Of new places to winter. She says if they fail, the results could mean the end
of a species.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Todd Melby.
An old insect pest is becoming a problem again because of new approaches to pest management. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
An old insect pest is becoming a problem again because of new approaches to pest
management.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
You’ve probably heard this little bedtime gem… “Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t
let the bedbugs bite.” But, most of us have never even seen a bedbug. That might be
changing.
The bedbug is making a comeback.
Because of consumer’s health concerns, pest control
companies no
longer use insecticides that wipe out everything. That means some bugs are spared.
Cindy
Mannes is with the National Pest Management Association.
“So as a result, there might be other pests that may have been controlled 20 years
ago with a more
broad spectrum-type product that would have eliminated lots of other insect species.”
Bedbugs don’t spread diseases, but the little insect does bite, feeding on the
blood of its host.
Mannes says it only comes out at night and can hide anywhere dark, under cushions,
behind
pictures on the wall or under your covers.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Much of the debate over preventing the West Nile virus has focused on when and how to use pesticides to get rid of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. But one community is trying another approach: increasing stocks of mosquito-eating fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lisa Phillips reports:
Transcript
Much of the debate over preventing the West Nile virus has focused on when and how to use
pesticides to get rid of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. But one community is trying
another approach – increasing stocks of mosquito-eating fish. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lisa Phillips reports:
When Greg Wier was a kid, he spent hours playing in the woods next to his family’s vegetable
farm in Guilderland, New York. He was too busy having fun to pay much attention to
mosquitoes.
“You got woods, you’re a kid. We had trails and forts and everything back here.”
Wier, who now has kids of his own, still lives on the family farm. But a lot has changed. The
woods have been replaced by a subdivision. The mosquitoes he once thought fairly harmless are
now potential carriers of the sometimes-deadly West Nile virus. Wier, the town highway
foreman, is the man in charge of Guilderland’s latest effort to combat the disease. He’s taking a
different approach: stocking ponds with fish that eat mosquito larvae. The effort started in the
subdivision’s drainage pond. On this hot afternoon, Wier watches a few sunfish and tadpoles dart
around the pond’s edge:
“I grew up here. I know this area quite well, and to see something like this happening naturally
instead of chemically is good for me.”
For the past four years, Wier has stocked the pond with several native fish species, including
pumpkin seed sunfish and golden shiner, a type of minnow. Both have a healthy appetite for
mosquito larvae. The town also puts bacterial larvicides, known as “dunks,” in smaller pools of
water, but there has been no pesticide spraying since the 1980’s. Ward Stone heads the Wildlife
Pathology Unit of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. He is a big
fan of the Guilderland approach, especially as evidence of West Nile mounts:
“We’re in high danger right now. We’ve had mosquitoes, we’ve had a wet summer. Predictions
are that the United States will have the most severe year for West Nile virus. We need to have a
vaccine and control. This is a little bit of that overall war that the town of Guilderland is waging
and doing it very soundly and ecologically.”
Using fish to fight mosquitoes is not a new idea. But using native fish is different from what’s
been done in the past. Michael Kaufman is an entomologist at Michigan State University. He
says gambusia, a non-native species known as “mosquito fish,” has been used in the American
West and parts of Asia.
“Lots of people, myself included, think it is an unwise idea to use them indiscriminately. There is
an issue with mosquito fish eating the eggs of native species or amphibians. They’ll eat frogs or
salamander eggs. That’s obviously a sensitive issue there, too.”
Guilderland has taken no official steps to research how well the program is working, though there
have been fewer complaints about mosquitoes in the neighborhood near the drainage pond. The
question is whether other communities should follow the town’s lead. Entomologist Michael
Kaufman says there are benefits to doing so – but there are also limits.
“Anything a community can do to reduce mosquitoes coming off any breeding site is a good
thing. The problem is, many mosquitoes don’t breed in ponds that are permanent. There are a
large number of mosquitoes that breed in smaller bodies of water, temporary ponds, very polluted
areas. Things like sewage lagoons.”
In other words, places mosquito-eating native fish are unlikely to thrive. Guilderland Highway
Foreman Greg Wier is well aware that his strategy is no magic bullet against West Nile virus. He
just sees it as one part of an effort everyone has to make.
“By a town taking care of a pond like this, we’re taking care of our own backyard. If everyone else
takes care of their own backyard, cleans the gutters, birdbaths, or empties a tire, that alone will
help control the mosquito population. If every house in the area does it that will be more of an
answer to West Nile virus, I believe.”
Because the fish program is so cheap to implement, Wier has already expanded it to a pond in a
new town park. If all goes well, in a few years there could be another benefit to Guilderland’s
mosquito prevention scheme: a place for anglers to go fishing – perhaps without having to cover
themselves with quite so much bug repellant.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lisa Phillips.
With the rapid spread of West Nile, more communities are faced with the question of whether to use pesticides to control mosquitoes, which carry the virus. One town is trying a new approach: fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lisa Phillips reports:
Transcript
With the rapid spread of West Nile, more communities are faced with the question of whether to
use pesticides to control mosquitoes, which carry the virus. One town is trying a new approach –
fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lisa Phillips reports:
Non-native “mosquito fish,” also known as gambusia, have been used for years as a weapon
against the insect in parts of Asia and the American West. One town in upstate New York,
Guilderland, is trying something a little different: stocking a town pond with native species such
as sunfish and golden shiner.
Ward Stone is New York State’s Wildlife Pathologist. He says more communities should
consider doing the same.
“West Nile’s going to be around, and by lowering the mosquito population it makes it a little bit
safer. And they’re not applying any pesticides to it. We should encourage that.”
Stone says the fish program is limited because mosquitoes often breed in pools of water too small
for fish. But complaints about mosquitoes have decreased in the neighborhood near the pond,
and the town has decided to expand the program.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lisa Phillips.
There’s a new high-jump record holder in the insect world. Researchers have discovered that a very common bug has an uncommon trait. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
There’s a new high-jump record holder in the insect world. Researchers have discovered that a very common bug has an uncommon trait. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
For a long time now, everybody
(even insect scientists) thought fleas
were the world champion jumpers,
but the flea has lost its top spot.
The Froghopper, sometimes called
the spittle bug, is the new high-jump
champ. British researchers revealed
in the journal Nature that Froghoppers,
which can be found in your backyard garden,
catapult themselves even higher.
Chris Dietrich is with the Illinois Natural
History Survey. He studies Froghoppers,
but leaves measuring their jumps to
the Brits:
“It really is not just as simple as lining them
up next to each other and seeing how
far they can jump one time. You have to
repeat the experiment many times
under different conditions. So, it could
be a very complicated matter to try to
do this.”
Dietrich says there’s not been a lot
of research on how high bugs jump,
so he wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the
Froghopper doesn’t lose its
high-jump crown to some other bug
that just hasn’t been measured yet.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
A study last year found that men living in rural areas have lower sperm counts than their urban counterparts. Now, researchers say they’ve found a possible reason for the difference. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman has more:
Transcript
A study last year found that men living in rural areas have lower
sperm counts than their urban counterparts. Now, researchers say
they’ve
found a possible reason for the difference. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports.
Researchers compared urine samples of men with high and low sperm
counts.
They found that men with low sperm counts were far more likely to have
high
levels of three common pesticides in their urine. Many farmers use the
pesticides to kill weeds and insects on corn, soybeans, and other crops.
Doctor Shanna Swan is a researcher at the University of Missouri. She
says
the study showed that men from all walks of life in the rural areas are
affected, not just those who work directly with the chemicals…
“This is not a study of farmers, it’s not a study of men who work in
industry producing these chemicals. This is the general population.”
Swan says it’s unclear how the pesticides reach the men. She says it’s
likely that men are ingesting the chemicals through their drinking
water.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.
It’s no wonder the International Migratory Bird Day is held in the month of May. This is the time when trees leaf out and provide a welcome habitat to birds returning from their southern dwelling spots. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jim Blum ventures beyond the backyard to see who’s back:
Transcript
It’s no wonder the International Migratory Bird Day is held in the month of May. This is the time
when trees in the Great Lakes states leaf out and provide a welcome habitat to birds returning
from their southern dwelling spots. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jim Blum decided to
venture beyond the backyard to see who’s back:
Blum: Take a stroll into a forest and you may notice that trees have greened out this month.
There are thick canopies overhead that weren’t there just a week or two ago. Naturalist Dan Best
says, that times out very nicely for returning migratory birds.
Best: That’s right. A few warm days and the leaves just explode out of the buds. And we have
full leaf-out already. May is just an amazing month. You still have the wildflowers, lots of
wildflowers. And well, Jim, what do you hear?
Blum: Well, certainly a parade of birds that I didn’t hear a month ago. The nuthatches and the
chickadees are still here, but who’s joined them?
Best: Lots and lots of birds. New arrivals here. We have thrushes and warblers and vireos and
tanagers, flycatchers – a tremendous variety of birds that have come to us from their wintering
areas in Latin America. That is South America, Central America, the Caribbean nations. These
birds have made their way, many of them traveling at night, using amazing means of navigation.
They’re using celestial navigation, that is, using the stars. They’re using perhaps the earth’s
magnetism, sensitivity to polarized light, a variety of different means to make their way
thousands of miles over land and ocean to return here to our forests to nest.
Blum: Why May, why now, why so many?
Best: Well, let’s take a walk over to some of these leaves, and no matter what kind of tree you’re
looking at here, what do you notice on these leaves?
Blum: Well, it seems as if several of them have little chew marks or holes.
Best: That’s right, holes. And no sooner does a leaf out, then the salad bar is served for
hundreds of different kinds of caterpillars, whether they be butterflies or especially moths. Their
hatching of these eggs of these caterpillars is synchronized with this leaf-out.
Blum: So, apparently there are many visitors to this buffet, but who, what, and where?
Best: Well, ok. Let’s listen here. (bird chirps) Hear that over there? That’s a hooded warbler.
(bird chirps again) Yeah, there it goes. Now that one will tend to stay low. Oh, the male might
go up a little higher to sing to announce its territory, but generally it’s gonna forge in this shrub
layer in the lower part of the forest.
Blum: (another bird chirps) Now what was that?
Best: Well, I can hear a nice warble up there. That’s the rose-breasted grosbeak. They all
spend most of their time in the understory – that’s about halfway up in this mature forest we’re in.
And then listening a little higher above us, I can hear that nice hoarse, robin-like song of the
scarlet tanager. And I’m even picking up the cerulian warbler, and a little bit of the hoarser vireo
sound, as well as the yellow-throated vireo, and those birds like to stay high up in the canopy.
Blum: So in order for this forest restaurant, if you will, to accommodate so many different
customers, it needs different stories.
Best: That’s right. These birds are here because of the big insect menu that the forest has to
offer. And they’re not fighting for the same seat at the same table because they’re distributed in
these different levels of the forest.
Blum: So if you’re talking about a canopy, an understory, and a shrub layer, you’re indicating a
mature forest.
Best: That’s right. That’s a characteristic of a mature and old growth forest is it has these defined
layers. This kind of habitat, these large tracts of mature forests are getting harder to come by, as
the large trees are logged out, or even worse, these remaining forest tracts are continually
fragmented into smaller parcels, which are less suitable for this big diversity of forest-nesting
birds.
Blum: Now, Dan, I’ve seen the bird books. These birds are extremely colorful. Any tips on the
best chance of actually seeing them?
Best: Well, bring your binoculars into the forest with you. And don’t charge up to every song
that you hear. Just slow down, take it nice and easy. Look where you hear a song. Watch for that
little movement of leaves. Spot that movement. Raise your binoculars and you’ll eventually see
them. You’ll get to see these different kinds of birds.
Blum: That’s naturalist Dan Best. Some of us live in one story houses and some in high-rise
buildings. It’s a good idea when bird-watching to remember that birds also have their own
preferred level. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jim Blum.
An insect called the Emerald Ash Borer has already destroyed thousands of ash trees in Ontario and Michigan…and in February, it was discovered invading the northwest corner of Ohio. Agriculture officials there are trying to contain the bug before it spreads to still more states. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Cohen reports:
Transcript
An insect called the Emerald Ash Borer has already destroyed thousands of ash trees in Ontario
and Michigan…and in February, it was discovered invading the northwest corner of Ohio.
Agriculture officials there are trying to contain the bug before it spreads to still more states.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Cohen reports:
At stake across the Great Lakes region: millions of dollars of wood that’s used for furniture,
cabinets, flooring, and baseball bats. That’s why Ohio agriculture officials have quarantined an
area around Toledo, banning residents from transporting ash wood out of the area. They’ve also
sprayed pesticide on nearby un-infected trees and taken even more drastic action among the 4,000
trees the beetles had already struck.
David Shlike works for the Ohio Agriculture Department.
“At ground zero, out a quarter of a mile, we cut everything, took it down. And had to chip it. We
hauled these chips to Michigan, and they were incinerated. It’s just a devastating pest and that
pest is going to be hatching out here anytime now between the 1st of May and the 15th of May,
and we were trying to take away its food source.”
It will be a few more months before it’s clear whether or not Ohio’s action has stopped the bugs’
advance.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill Cohen in Columbus.
Genetically modified crops are planted throughout the Midwest, but some scientists are concerned genes from these crops could escape and work their way into weedy plants. With these genes, weeds could become more vigorous and harder to kill. New research shows this can happen between closely related crops and weeds. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cristina Rumbaitis-del Rio prepared this report:
Transcript
Genetically modified crops are planted throughout the Midwest, but some scientists are
concerned genes from these crops could escape and work their way into weedy plants. With
these genes, weeds could become more vigorous and harder to kill. New research shows this can
happen between closely related crops and weeds. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cristina
Rumbaitis-del Rio prepared this report:
Genetically modified crops have been around for quite a while. In the U.S. last year more than 88
million acres were planted with genetically modified soybean, corn, cotton and other crops. Some
of these plants are engineered to be more resistant to herbicides, making it easier for farmers to
get rid of weeds without damaging their crop. Others are engineered to resist plant-eating insects.
But some scientists worry about the ecological effects of these crops. Allison Snow is a professor
of ecology at Ohio State University. She studies genetically modified sunflowers. Snow says she
got involved in this research when genetically modified crops were first being introduced because
she was afraid no one else was looking at the environmental effects of these crops.
“It was kind out of a fear factor for me of wanting to make sure that someone was watching to see
what the environmental effects might be.”
The sunflowers Snow studies have a gene added to them, which produces an organic insecticide
that kills insects feeding on the plants.
According to Snow, the problem with these pesticide-producing sunflowers is the insect-killing
gene can be transferred from crop sunflowers to their weedy cousins, which are often growing on
the edges of fields. Bees, flies and other insects can transfer the gene to the weeds by cross-
pollinating the plants, which are close relatives. Snow’s research shows once the gene gets into
the weed population, the weeds become insect-resistant as well.
“The new gene worked really, really well in the weeds. It protected them from the insects. And
because they were protected, they had more energy to devote to making seeds.”
Snow says the most startling result was the number of seeds these weeds were making.
“In one of our study sites, they made 55% percent more seeds per plant – just because of one
gene. Which is kind of unheard of. We’ve never seen a result like that – where one gene would
cause the whole population to suddenly start making 55% more seeds.”
The gene might make weeding a more difficult task, but Snow says she wouldn’t quite call them
“super weeds,” a term some environmentalists have used.
“We might see that the weedy sunflowers become worse weeds, I wouldn’t call them super
weeds, because to me that would imply that they have many different features instead of just one
that causes them to make more seeds. But I could imagine in the future there might be enough
traits out there that could turn a regular weed into something much more difficult to control – like
really would be a super weed.”
Snow says she will have to do more research to see if the extra seeds made by the weeds will turn
into more weeds and hardier weeds in farmer’s fields.
But, she might not be able to finish her research on sunflowers because the companies that make
the crop have decided not to renew her funding and won’t give her access to the sunflowers or the
genes.
“It was all about stewardship and responsibility.”
Doyle Karr is a spokesperson for pioneer hi bred, one of the companies which makes the
sunflowers. He says the company realized a few years ago there wasn’t enough demand for the
product to justify commercially producing it. As a result, he says, the company couldn’t continue
funding sunflower research, and doesn’t want to be held responsible for keeping the gene safe
while the research is being conducted.
It’s an issue of a biotech trait that we are not pursuing and not bringing to the market, and if we’re
not bringing it to the market, we can’t justify taking the responsibility of having that trait out
being worked with, with a third party.”
While some academic researchers argue the universities take on legal liability when they work
with genetically modified plants, Karr says the university’s liability is often limited by state law.
He says the company is ultimately held responsible if only by the court of public opinion.
“Should something happen with this gene that was not expected or a mistake happened – that
would ultimately come back to those who initially made the gene available.”
While this issue remains unresolved, Snow is continuing her research. Genetically modified
sunflowers are not the only crop to study. Snow is now working in Vietnam where weedy species
of rice grow naturally, and where genetically modified rice might be introduced in coming years.
She’s concerned the traits of the genetically altered rice might be transferred to the wild species
of rice, just as happened with the sunflowers.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Cristina Rumbaitis-del Rio.