Pest or not?--The Brown spruce longhorn beetle

摘要

In a guest editorial in the last issue of Atlantic Forestry I drew attention to the fact that, despite eight years of research and eradication efforts by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), there is still is no scientific evidence that shows that the Brown spruce longhorn beetle (BSLB) is a "pest," namely that it attacks healthy trees or is in any significant way different from the many species of native longhorn beetles found in Atlantic Canada. Studies undertaken by the CFIA have focused onBSLB detection, its fungal associates, potential control mechanisms, parasitic wasps, and host tree preferences. However, the vital question whether the BSLB in Nova Scotia behaves differently than many of the native longhorn beetles has not been answered. Not only has it not been answered, but the CFIA has not even initiated research that would attempt to answer it.