The global costs associated with invasive insects add up to more than US $70 billion every single year-and that price tag is expected to increase as climate change,global trade,and an overall uptick in human movement help expand the ranges of exotic pests.That expensive problem inspired a collaboration between researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture's(USDA)Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services(APHIS)and Agricultural Research Service(ARS)as well as the Center for Integrated Pest Management at North Carolina State University.In a study published in October 2021 in the Journal of Economic Entomology(https://doi.org/10.1093/iee/toab184),the team used simulated outbreak data to look at the design of trapping surveys for determining how far an outbreak has reached.They found that factors like grid shape and size,insect dispersal ability,trap density,and trap attractiveness all make a difference when it comes to optimizing surveys.”In the US,after an exotic pest is detected there's usually an early need to determine the boundaries of the population,”says Barney Caton,pest exclusion analysis coordinator with USDA-APHIS and the first author of the paper.”So,the delimiting survey is one tool aimed at doing that.”
展开▼
