The Atlantic Monthly carries an article this month by Jim Giles regarding the pine beetle infestation in western forests. The infestation covers an area the size of the state of Maine. Particularly hard hit are Colorado and British Columbia. The cause of the infestation appears to be drought coupled with mild winters.
Richard Hofstetter, beetle expert at Northern Arizona University, in collaboration with student Reagan McGuire, thinks trying to drive the beetles crazy might work. First, he bombarded the beetles with the sounds of Rush Limbaugh. When that (surprisingly) didn't work, he tried the recorded aggression calls made by male insects. In one experiment, this caused the male to eat the female. In another, the insects left entirely.
These were lab experiments. Next spring, Hofstetter will try his approach in an actual forest. Even if it worked, it would not be practical to outfit every tree in Colorado with a boom box. What might work is creating an "acoustic firebreak" to protect still-healthy forests. Good luck, Professor Hofstetter.
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