SBIR-STTR Award

This Phase I project seeks to develop Ambro Repel, an effective semiochemical tool that will allow users, such as foresters, landscapers and farmers, to protect susceptible trees from three invasive ambrosia beetle pests, redbay ambrosia beetle (RAB), Xyleborus glabratus, black stem borer (Xylosandrus germanus), and an unidentified species, polyphagous shothole borer, previously misidentified as the tea shothole borer (Euwallacea fornicatus), but recently revealed as a new species in the Euwallacea genus. Our preliminary work toward the development of Ambro Repel indicates that adult RAB and BSB are strongly repelled by a number of non-host plant volatiles and an anti-aggregation pheromone produced by other Scolytinae beetles. This repellent blend will form the basis of the Ambro Repel formulation, a product that will allow users to repel adult beetles from areas that need protection, including high (economic or ecological) value individual trees, or stands. The area-wide use of this novel technology to manage invasive ambrosia beetle populations with Ambro Repel will allow users to control established populations, and to slow the spread of new populations, as well as the fungal pathogens they transmit, to unaffected areas in the U.S.

This Phase II project will provide an effective repellent to control multiple invasive ambrosiabeetle pests of forestry and agriculture. Ambrosia beetles are closely related to bark beetles andshare many of the same behaviors digging galleries into the wood of trees in which to lay eggsand rear their young. Unlike bark beetles ambrosia beetles do not feed directly on the tree's tissuesbut instead use them as substrates to cultivate ambrosia fungi which they rely on for sustenance.Redbay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus) is a key pest of redbay trees (Persea borbonia) andother lauraceous plants and transmits the deadly fungal pathogen laurel wilt Raffaelea lauricola.This disease has devastated the forest ecosystems of the southeastern US killing over half a billiontrees since RAB was first detected in Georgia in 2002 and is a serious threat to the Florida avocadoindustry. Black stem borer (Xylosandrus germanus) has become a major pest of ornamental treenurseries and landscapes across the US transmitting its associated fungus Ambrosiella hartigiiand the pathogenic Fusarium spp. which can damage timber and cause stem cankers dieback andin some cases tree death. The polyphagous shot hole borer has recently emerged as a serious threatto multiple tree species in California through transmission of Fusarium dieback which interfereswith the conduction of food and water through the tree placing it under stress and eventuallyleading to dieback. Current control techniques for ambrosia beetles are limited consisting ofkeeping trees as healthy as possible to minimize their susceptibility to attacking beetles and fungalinfection. Conventional pesticide treatments have generally not been effective against these pests.ISCA proposes to develop a new control product to meet this challenge: Ambro Repel a potentrepellent that will prevent attack on vulnerable forest and crop trees by ambrosia beetles. Thisproduct will combine naturally occurring repellent compounds such as the anti-aggregationpheromone verbenone and the plant-produced volatile methyl salicylate (MeSa) with ISCA's®