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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles

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  • From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles
  • Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 08:15:05 -0500

The beetles were introduced well before the soybean aphid showed up. My
understanding is that they were introduced in Florida by the USDA as a
biocontrol agent for citrus pests in the late 80's. The soybean aphid
arrived in the US by undetermined means in the late 90's.

Bill Shoemaker
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
Univ of Illinois - St Charles Hort Research Center


-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Monday, October 13, 2003 6:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles


>On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 09:23:38 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>I understand that these beetles have been introduced as a predator for the
soybean aphid. Does the problem start from having too many soybeans grown
as a monoculture?
>
>I think more likely the problem is caused by the
>introduction of a foreign species. This almost *always*
>causes problems: rabbits became terrible pests in
>Australia, for instance.
>
>Another example would be starlings in the USA (introduced
>long ago by some idiot who wished to import all the birds
>mentioned by Shakespeare).
>
>When a foreign species is introduced, their predators
>generally don't exist in the new area and things get out of
>kilter, unbalanced.
>
>Monoculture of soybeans (if it exists) probably wouldn't
>help, though.
>
>Pat
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