CSU researchers say shell serum could save trees from bark beetles

Colorado scientists are liquefying crab and shrimp shells shipped from Iceland to produce a serum which, when poured on pine trees, appears to prevent bark beetles from killing the trees. The Colorado State University scientists who helped develop the serum propose aerial spraying to treat forests across the Rocky Mountain West, where beetles have ravaged millions of acres. But so far, they have been unable to attract the support of the U.S. Forest Service for widespread application. "We don't find any downside to it," said CSU microbiologist Jim Linden, one of two scientists guiding commercial production at a factory near Loveland. Dousing healthy lodgepole pines with the gold-colored serum "certainly is part of the toolbox of ways to counteract the beetle," Linden said. "It is inexpensive and safe." NASA sponsored the initial research that led to developing the serum, which contains chitosan — a carbohydrate found in the shells of crabs, shrimp and the pine beetles themselves. Chitosan can stimulate trees' secretion of sap, which can block beetles from eating into the bark, where they lay eggs and spread a blue fungus that clogs and chokes trees. "What has the Forest Service done for us? They've just let the trees die," Stoner said. "I've offered it up to government agencies to address the pine beetle epidemic. I just want somebody to start using it. We've got a huge problem."...read more