So the Forestry commission in Scotland is looking for alterative to pesticides to control the pine weevils that are eat newly planted conifers.
currently Monsanto’s gazelle is used. it is a neonicotinoid that is a key factor in Colony collapse disorder for bees.
I work for the forestry workers co-op. we are campaigning against The use of pesticides in forestry. The weevil Challenge will fund experiments and innovation. We have a team of people that can do work here on the ground. We are looking for testable solutions. research bids can get up to £30,000.
Sounds great! I would suggest looking for something else that might attack larval stages of the weevils, and then the weevils can’t kill the baby pine trees… Please suggest it to someone who does that sort of work, of course - maybe you? - it is so far away from anything I have ever done! (I think Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring discusses such complex webs of species interactions that control many pests, without our realising it - but she actually also wasn’t entirely against some very limited local application of pesticides in dire cases.)