Do slices of avocado on your tiffin salad strait like the perfect addition to a well - attack farm meal ? Maybe , like the rest of the U.S. , you ’ve got guacamole ’s main ingredient on the brainpower ( The Wall Street Journalreported a 30 - percent increase in avocado intake in the first half of 2012 ) , but this creamy , immature yield , hailed for its mettle - health benefits , is under scourge from a spread fungal disease .
Laurel wilting disease , cause by the fungusRaffaelea lauricola , kills 90 to 95 percentage of the alligator pear and Arthur Stanley Jefferson Laurel Tree it infect , and the disease has spread to the Carolinas , Florida and Mississippi thanks to the redbay ambrosia mallet , an incursive pest from Asia . USDA scientist are concerned that the redbay ambrosia mallet and the disease will soon reach Mexico and California , which are major Persea Americana production areas , and are devising way to keep the beetle contained .
Paul Kendra and his colleagues at the USDA ’s Agricultural Research Service Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami , Fla. , are search for chemical substance attractants for beetle traps , treating trees in the ARS avocado aggregation with antifungal to slow the spread of the disease and merchant marine trees from the Miami avocado pear - germplasm collection to disease - free sites .
In field experiments , the researchers compare the number of redbay ambrosia beetles attracted to manuka - oil come-on , Sayornis phoebe - petroleum lures , and bolts of wood slice from lychee and from three races of avocado tree trees . The trial were conducted at a Florida conservation surface area where the mallet has invade trees since 2007 . Previous research has show that like other barque beetle , the redbay ambrosia beetle essentially sniffs out these volatile compounds .
In science lab tests , the investigator also conducted pick experiments by redact lychee and avocado wood at opposite ends of a plastic bin and placing the beetle in the middle to see which wood they opt . compound released by the two types of wood were analyzed using flatulence chromatography - the great unwashed spectrum analysis . Results published in theJournal of Chemical Ecologyshowed that the redbay ambrosia beetle had no strong preference among the three avocado races and that lychee was the most attractive Sir Henry Wood . Of the 29 compounds detected , three were found to attract the mallet and the lychee had large amount of all three .
Subsequent enquiry , with results published in theJournal of Economic Entomology , also showed that the Sayornis phoebe - crude lures were effective for 10 to 12 week , but the manuka - fossil oil lures lasted only about two to three week . make out how long the manuka - oil lures work should shew utilitarian to Florida agribusiness officials , who employ them in monitoring efforts . official and avocado cultivator will also gain from the researchers ’ discovery that the beetle prefer freshly cut Sir Henry Joseph Wood surfaces , a finding that helps growers realize trees are vulnerable to attack during pruning .
