STORY LEAD:
Bats Enlisted to Gobble Up Earworm Pests
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
May 5, 1999
Linda McGraw, (309) 681-6530, lmcgraw@asrr.arsusda.gov
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In early June, billions of corn earworm moths emerge from the Lower Rio
Grande Valley along the border of Texas and Mexico. Some moths feed on
cotton after leaving southern corn, while others travel north to ravage
midwestern corn crops. Each year, these pests cost farmers about $2 billion
in losses and control costs.
To control the moths, Agricultural Research Service scientists in College
Station, Texas, are capitalizing on the voracious appetite of Mexican
free-tailed bats. Corn earworm moths are one of the bats' favorite foods. A
million bats can gobble up nearly 10 tons of insects in just one night. So
the 20 million bats living in Bracken Cave near San Antonio, Texas, could
put a real dent in moth populations.
ARS meteorologist John K. Westbrook, who has studied moth migration for 17
years, knows that bats and moths typically fly at about the same altitude.
His collaborative work with bat specialist Gary F. McCracken of the
University of Tennessee and Merlin Tuttle of Bat Conservation International
is secondary to his main interest: moth migration.
To confirm the bats' appetite for moths, Westbrook attached radiomicrophones
to helium-filled balloons called tetroons. While the tetroons drifted at an
altitude of about 2,500 feet, the researchers could hear and record the
high-frequency sounds of bats searching for and feeding on moths.
The National Weather Service's Doppler radar system (NEXRAD) helps the
researchers detect masses of moths more than 60 miles away from a radar
site, one of which is located in Brownsville, Texas. Like firefighters
putting out the "hot spots" first, the NEXRAD radar research may be used to
develop time-critical maps to help control moth infestations over a large
area.
ARS' Areawide Pest Management Research in College Station has one of the
most active radar-entomology research programs in the world. An article
about the research appears on the May issue of Agricultural Research
magazine and can be found on the world wide web at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/may99/pest0599.htm
ARS is the USDA's chief research agency.
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Scientific contact: John K. Westbrook, ARS Areawide Pest Management Research
Unit, College Station, Texas, phone (409) 260-9351, fax (409) 260-9386,
j-westbrook@tamu.edu.
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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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