Produced in laboratories to fight pests, hunter bugs have saved 10,000 hectares of Calabrian pine forest. The pests cause 30 percent of the Calabrian pines to die as they eat newly blossomed saplings.
Thanks to 300,000 hunter bugs which have been produced in labs for the last 12 years, the forests of Adana have a chance to revive themselves.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), İsmet Erol, head of the Provincial Forest Directorate in Adana, said the pests cause a dramatic decline in the number of pine trees. He stated that their aim is to control the population of the pests in order to protect the forest and continued: "We fight against pests but we are not trying to terminate them. If pests were terminated altogether, the insects which are good for the ecosystem of the forest die as well.
The lab-made bugs are just keeping the pest population under control. We release them to the areas where pests are mostly located." Erol underlined the ecological and economical important of the forests and said pests are one of the biggest problems that forests of the world face today.
