Scientists from Kansas State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently launched a project to improve biosecurity against a pair of insects that have battered America’s food supply for decades.
Posted on October, 31, 2024 at 07:16 pm
Scientists from Kansas State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently launched a project to improve biosecurity against a pair of insects that have battered America’s food supply for decades.
Kansas State University professor of entomology Tom Phillips said the university will lead a $799,976 project funded by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to find ways to mitigate the spread of khapra beetle and the larger grain borer.
The two pests are known as stored-product insects, or those that infest grain after harvest, as well as value added foods from grain.
America’s battle against the khapra beetle dates to the early 1950s when the government spent $125 million to eradicate the pest in three southwestern states. The larger grain borer has been found crossing the southern border from its normal distribution in south and central America.
“There are very few invasive or quarantine stored-product insects,” said Rob Morrison, a research entomologist with the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service Center for Grain and Animal Health Research in Manhattan.
“However, khapra beetle and larger grain borer are two species that are considered quarantined, or species-of-concern. They are both highly destructive; larger grain borer feeds mostly on corn and cassava, while khapra beetle is much less discriminate.”
Source: AG Update