# behav: pheromones to bamboozle bark beetles

<< While the trees are suffering due to the heat and the drought, the pests are proliferating rampantly in the warm weather: A pair of European spruce bark beetles, for example, can produce up to 30,000 offspring. >>

<< The method involves treating raw wood, i.e. harvested wood, with substances that were originally extracted from the bark beetles' pheromones. These messenger substances are not only used as a means of communication between the bark beetles themselves, they also attract predators, for example the ant beetle. >>

<< The foreign messenger substances are therefore selective: The enemies of the bark beetles are attracted by these substances, but other bark beetles are not. In the best-case scenario, the foreign substance acts as a deterrent. As larvae, the ant beetles eat the early stages of the bark beetle that burrow into the wood. These predatory beetles also patrol the bark, where they catch and eat approaching bark beetles. In this way, they can prevent or reduce the infestation. >>

<< The forest owners will no longer be buying insecticides in specialist shops, but natural substances that they can attach to stacks of raw wood, >> Michael Muller. 

Bamboozling the bark beetles. Dresden University of Technology. Aug 31, 2020.

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-bamboozling-bark-beetles.html

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