Maine Monitor highlights UMaine browntail moth research

The Maine Monitor featured research conducted by the University of Maine in an article about scientists managing browntail moth populations. Angela Mech, assistant professor of forest entomology at the University of Maine, told the Maine Monitor that researchers are studying other ways to control the pest, including testing a variety of targeted biopesticides that could have fewer harmful impacts on other species. Her students also are helping her test which types of lightbulbs are least attractive to browntail moths. Last summer, Mech and her colleagues tested different types of traps using pheromones, chemicals that alter sexual and other behaviors, to monitor population density and predict outbreaks. Centralmaine.com and the Sun Journal shared the Maine Monitor report.