Friday, August 19, 2022
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Earth Science

Invasive insects cost the world billions per year

October 4, 2016
in Earth Science
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
IMAGE

Credit: Credit: Dimitri Geystor (France)

Ecologists have estimated that invasive (non-native) insects cost humanity tens of billions of dollars a year – and are likely to increase under climate change and growing international trade.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia and CNRS and Paris-Sud University in France have compiled the first comprehensive and robust database of the global economic costs of invasive insects — but say estimates are likely to be greatly under-estimated because of the lack of research into costs in many parts of the world.

Previous estimates have been "spatially incomplete and of questionable quality".

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report a minimum US$70billion a year cost globally to goods and services, and more than US$6.9 billion a year on health costs of invasive insects.

"Most of the damage to human industry occurs in agriculture and forestry — damage and loss of production but also costs of clean-up, eradication and prevention," says Professor Corey Bradshaw, Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change at the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute. "But billions of dollars are spent on the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases like dengue, West Nile virus and chikungunya disease spread by insects that have invaded other countries."

Among the costly insects are the Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus) transported worldwide from eastern Asia and capable of consuming as much as 400 g of wood a day, and the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), of Eurasian origin, which is one of the most destructive pests of hardwood trees.

The researchers report that these costs are probably just "the tip of the largely unseen and unmeasured iceberg" because many regions of the world, such as Africa and South America, have yet to measure and estimate many of these costs.

Correcting for minimal sampling bias could bring total annual global costs of invasive insects as high as US$270 billion.

"Ultimately, the average citizen pays for most of these costs, but we can generally reduce the costliest sorts of damage by investing in better detection and early eradication measures," says Professor Bradshaw.

The researchers say that costs are also likely to increase.

"There are two main phenomena leading to an increased frequency of introductions and potentially expanding distributions of the costliest insect invaders: international trade and global warming," says Dr Franck Courchamp, Senior CNRS Researcher at Systematic Ecology and Evolution Laboratory (CNRS/Paris-Sud University/AgroParisTech).

"In addition to improving guidelines for estimating the full costs of invasive insects, vigilant planning, public-awareness campaigns and community participation could potentially relieve society of billions of dollars of annual expense, and reduce a great deal of human suffering."

###

The research was supported by Foundation BNP Paribas, ANR InvaCost and the Australian Research Council.

Media Contact:

Professor Corey Bradshaw, University of Adelaide, Mobile: +61 (0) 400 697 665, [email protected]

Dr Franck Courchamp, CNRS, Mobile: +33 16915 5685, [email protected]

Robyn Mills, Media Officer, Phone: +61 8 8313 6341, Mobile: +61 (0)410 689 084, [email protected]

Media Contact

Corey Bradshaw
[email protected]
61-040-069-7665
@UniofAdelaide

http://www.adelaide.edu.au

Share25Tweet16Share4ShareSendShare
  • Gulf Coast flooding during Hurricane Isaac

    Burying short sections of power lines would drastically reduce hurricanes’ future impact on coastal residents

    77 shares
    Share 31 Tweet 19
  • Reinvigorating ‘lost cause’ exhausted T cells could improve cancer immunotherapy

    171 shares
    Share 68 Tweet 43
  • Climate change threatens food supply chains with cascading impacts on diet quality, income – new modelling shows

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Sharpest image ever of universe’s most massive known star

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • New insights on how some individuals with obesity can lose weight – and keep it off

    68 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding: rebleeding rates and rebleeding predictors found

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

Reinvigorating ‘lost cause’ exhausted T cells could improve cancer immunotherapy

Allison Institute announces formation of scientific advisory board

How quinine caused World War I (hyperbolic title alert) (video)

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 194 other subscribers

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In