STORY LEAD:
ScaleNet: For All You Want to Know About Scale Insects
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Hank Becker, (301) 504-1624, hbecker@asrr.arsusda.gov
April 23, 1999
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Doug Miller is one of the world's leading experts on scale insects. If you
doubt this, check out ScaleNet.
ScaleNet, designed to bring information about scale insects to homeowners,
farmers and scientists, is on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/scalenet/scalenet.htm
Scale insects damage millions of dollars worth of food, ornamental, fiber
and greenhouse crops each year. Until ScaleNet, information about the pests
was buried in thousands of scientific journals and books--making it
difficult for the average person to locate.
Miller, with the Agricultural Research Service, developed ScaleNet with
colleagues in Israel and Canada. When completed, it will allow the lay
person to locate every single scale insect that Miller and other experts
over the centuries have found and named--plus more important information.
Through keyword searches and other queries, ScaleNet site provides
comprehensive information including the insects' biology, classification,
naming history, distribution, plant hosts, economic importance, controls and
scientific literature about them.
Miller describes ScaleNet as a treasure house of information generated by
researchers worldwide on all scientific and common names of scale. These
names are hot-linked with key words. Reference information includes journal
titles, dates, annotations and authors.
Homeowners can use ScaleNet to hunt for names of the scale insects on their
hibiscus. Farmers can use it to find out what scale insect is frolicking in
the alfalfa.
Federal regulatory officials at U.S. ports of entry can log onto the site as
well. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service officials will use
it to get instant information on which scales occur on what U.S. crops and
where they are known to occur. This information is vital to keeping unwanted
foreign pests from sneaking into the U.S., where they have no natural
enemies.
ARS is the principal research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Scientific contact: Douglass R. Miller, ARS Systematic Entomology
Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., phone (301) 504-5895, fax (301) 786-9422,
dmiller@sel.barc.usda.gov.
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* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax 504-1648.
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