Wood ants as biological control of the forest pest beetles Ips spp.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is one of the major threats to biodiversity, but its impact varies among the species. Bark beetles (Ips spp.), as well as other wood-boring pests of European forests, show escalating numbers in response to the changes driven by climate change and seriously affect the survival of the forests through the massive killing of trees. Many methods were developed to control these wood-boring beetles, however, their implementation can be detrimental for other forest specialists. Ants are widely used for biological pest-control, so in our study, we aimed to test the effect of Formica polyctena on the control of the wood-boring beetles. The results show that the proportion of infested trees is significantly reduced by the increase of the number of F. polyctena nests, with a strong effe

SUBMITTER: Trigos-Peral G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8429415 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature