Getting weevils to carry fungi to kill trees: A novel approach to biological control of tree of heaven

Dave Wood became famous in the field of chemical ecology of bark beetles. But over time he branched out into very different research areas. I (SMS) bring this up not because I was famous early in my career, but because my area of research changed as well over time, from working with beetles attacking conifers to focusing on biological control of non-native forest insects and weeds. This presentation will cover our effort to manage the tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima with an imported weevil from China and a recently discovered fungus, pathogenic to the tree. We believe the weevil's life cycle is well suited for vectoring the fungus to trees and may aid in helping spread it. We are in the process of testing this hypothesis with quarantine studies involving the weevil, Euchryptorrhynhcus brandti (Harold) and the fungus, Verticillium albo-atrum.