Our consultants, Phero Tech Inc. have been providing high quality products, services and technical support designed to meet the needs of today's integrated resource managers since 1980. They manufacture and distribute a wide variety of products for environmentally sound management of insects and mammals. They strive to create new products and services and improve those that already exist. Consistent quality is assured with our scientifically tested lures, baits and traps.

To learn more about Phero Tech - visit their web site >>

Ottawa buys into fight against pine beetle

The federal government will spend $100 million to fight the mountain pine beetle epidemic in British Columbia, which the provincial government says threatens the future of the forestry industry in both B.C. and Alberta.

"It's threatening to cross provincial boundaries," federal Industry Minister David Emerson said late last week, calling the budget bill tabled in the House of Commons "as a downpayment, if you like, to get started on federal participation in helping the province solve this problem.

John H. Borden, Professor
INSECT CHEMICAL ECOLOGY, FOREST PEST MANAGEMENT
B.Sc. Washington State University
M.Sc., Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley,
B.C.E., R.P. Bio., R.P.F., F.R.S.C.

Dr. John H. Borden was awarded the 2000 Western Forest Insect Work Conference (WFIWC) Founders' Award - More >>

Swiss cheese smell stops pine beetle attacks

A smelly pouch of eau de Swiss cheese could save small stands of timber from the Mountain Pine Beetle, according to scientists. Researchers from Phero Tech of Delta, B.C., have been developing a scent called Verbenone to drive pine beetles away.

Mountain Pine Beetle destroyed equivalent of 2 million houses in B.C. interior, according to provincial officials

"There's a chemical signal they can detect which says: 'This is the wrong host, keep going,'" said John Borden, the company's research director.

Borden is a professor emeritus from Simon Fraser University. He says the scent mimics one beetles produce themselves after they've over-infested a tree.

"They use it so they're not living in an overpopulated slum," he said.

The pouch is attached to pine trees with an industrial-strength stapler.

Besides Swiss cheese, the chemicals in Verbanone also mimic the scent of aspen and birch. The mountain pine beetle shuns those trees. The ingenious pouch doesn't kill the beetles; it diverts them.

Other useful resources

Bugbusters Pest Management - Professional foresters specializing in Forest Health Vegetation Management and Silviculture based in Prince George, British Columbia