Could a natural horror benefit sugar beet growers?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
November 14, 2001
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The sugar beet (Beta vulgaris Linnaeus) industry in North America started in the 1880s, twenty years after the French industry got on its feet. But a couple of strange things happened to the sugar beets in North America. In the late 1940s, American farmers began reporting a new pest. When the beets were dug, the roots had been eaten by maggots and
rot had set in.
Sugar beets were not native to North America, so where did the sugar beet maggot come from? The insect had been discovered and named Tetanops myopaeformis [tet' a nops mi op' a for mis] by von Roder in 1881. The maggot was a native to this continent. Within sixty years, the insect adapted to a new food source. It developed a specific fondness for sugar beets and has been a pest to sugar beet growers ever since.
It has not been possible to control the adult stage, a fly, so growers have resorted to using pesticides applied to the soil. But pesticides also damage the sugar beet plants, kill any beneficial insects in the soil, and eventually end up in the groundwater.
In 1994, Chris Wozniak discovered an unknown fungus in North Dakota in a sugar beet field. The fungus, Syngliocladium tetanopsis [sin glee' o clad' e um tet' an op' sis], is innocuous towards beets and insects like lady beetles and lacewings. The fungus remains dormant as a spore until only a sugar beet maggot crawls by.
The spores attach to the maggot and bore into the body. Once inside the maggot's body the spores germinate, digest the internal organs, and reproduce. The fungus eventually grows out of the maggot and either covers its body with amber-colored slime or appears like white horns protruding from the maggot.
The USDA Agricultural Research Service has great photographs of the fungus spores and the maggot after the fungus has attacked it. The page was designed for young viewers and you will need to scroll down the article to view the photos.
Click here to view photographs
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
Something about that cane sugar Plants that Changed History - February 17, 2004
Could a natural horror benefit sugar beet growers? Renfield's Garden - November 14, 2001
What twelve plants supply most of the food our world consumes? Plants that Changed Hist - 8/21/01
How did the Spanish break Arab control of the sweet spice? Plants that Changed History - 11/06/01
How did sugar beets help a woman win two Nobel Prizes? Plants that Changed History - 11/29/02
What medicinal root is a common vegetable today? Herbal Folklore - November 12, 2001
Lord Nelson, Napoleon, and the Silesian Beet Plants that Changed History - November 13, 2001
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