Abstract
The health of the forestlands of the world is impacted by a number of insect pests and some of them cause significant damage with serious economic and environmental implications. Whether it is damage of the North American cypress aphid in South America and Africa, or the destruction of maple trees in North America by the Asian long horned beetle, invasive forest pests are a major problem in many parts of the world. Several studies explored microbial control opportunities of invasive forest pests with entomopathogenic bacteria, fungi, and viruses, and some are successfully utilized as a part of integrated forest pest management programs around the world. This manuscript discusses some invasive pests and the status of their microbial control around the world with entomopathogenic fungi.
Highlights
Globalization of trade and travel directly or indirectly contributed to the spread of several insects to new areas where they have become serious pests
While earlier reviews explained the importance of entomopathogens in controlling forest pests [9], the current review focused on various entomopathogenic fungi against invasive forest pests around the world
Lymantria dispar probably has more microbial control options than the other invasive pests reviewed in this article
Summary
Globalization of trade and travel directly or indirectly contributed to the spread of several insects to new areas where they have become serious pests. Invasive pests of forests cause economic damage, and have an impact on the ecosystem, regionally or nationally. Use of chemical pesticides has been the primary pest control strategy for the past several decades. There are several invasive Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera in forest ecosystems that have been a target of various management practices including microbial control with native, or introduced, entomopathogens. A majority of important species belongs to the phylum Ascomycota (order: Hypocreales) and Entomophthoromycota (orders: Entomophthorales and Neozygitales). These fungi are considered excellent candidates for microbial control of Insects 2019, 10, 341; doi:10.3390/insects10100341 www.mdpi.com/journal/insects. While earlier reviews explained the importance of entomopathogens in controlling forest pests [9], the current review focused on various entomopathogenic fungi against invasive forest pests around the world
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