Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog obam here. For the last decade,
Speaker 1: armies of bark beetles have been devastating forest lands in
Speaker 1: California and other places, and scientists are fighting back. To
Speaker 1: do so, they asked citizen scientists a k a. The
Speaker 1: general public to trap the tiny bugs, which are as
Speaker 1: small as a grain of rice, and mail them back
Speaker 1: to their labs for DNA studies. The only problem people
Speaker 1: don't generally keep laboratory grade preservatives at home, so how
Speaker 1: could the beatles DNA remain intact until it reached their labs.
Speaker 1: The answer researchers found resided in two common household products,
Speaker 1: hand sanitizer and automobile anti freeze. According to a survey
Speaker 1: published in the journal Invertebrate Systematics, in expensive eteline glycol
Speaker 1: based automobile anti freeze and the same alcohol based hand
Speaker 1: sanitizer that we're all toting around bottles of now can
Speaker 1: each preserve bark beetle DNA for a week, making them
Speaker 1: appropriate substitutes for lab grade preservatives. During the study, which
Speaker 1: was conducted by researchers at the University of Florida, thirty
Speaker 1: three Ambrosia beetles were left for two to seven days
Speaker 1: in either ethanol the control hand sanitizer gel or propylene
Speaker 1: or ethanol based automobile anti freeze. The scientists set the
Speaker 1: samples outside where they would receive direct outdoor exposure. Afterward,
Speaker 1: the researchers checked the beatles intact DNA and found that
Speaker 1: all methods worked equally well for preservation. We spoke with
Speaker 1: etomologists Sedonia Steininger, one of the studies authors, who hopes
Speaker 1: that these results will help increase the number of citizen
Speaker 1: science projects and participation. She said this is great for
Speaker 1: citizen science projects, but also for researchers who may be
Speaker 1: out in remote locations without access to their usual suite
Speaker 1: of preservatives. The results could mean professionals will be able
Speaker 1: to sample more freely while incurring lower costs. According to Steininger,
Speaker 1: the group was happily surprised that both of the substitute
Speaker 1: preservatives not only worked, but worked for full seven days.
Speaker 1: She said, to our knowledge, no one else has ever
Speaker 1: looked at the preservation efficacy of these household products for
Speaker 1: storing DNA. She thinks that not many insect studies are
Speaker 1: being done today that require the mailing in of actual specimens,
Speaker 1: as preservation is a real issue when it comes to
Speaker 1: conducting molecular analysis. Thus, the finding that hand sanitizer and
Speaker 1: anti freeze will preserve insect DNA may prompt more studies
Speaker 1: with actual specimens. The findings couldn't come sooner for those
Speaker 1: working on the bark beetle infestation. More than two thousand
Speaker 1: species of bark beetles are found around the world. While
Speaker 1: many species attack already stressed and weakened trees, helping to
Speaker 1: clean up dead wood, non native bark beetles also attack
Speaker 1: healthy trees, sometimes wiping out entire tree species, but even
Speaker 1: native bark beetle species can wreak havoc on forests. In
Speaker 1: the last decade, bark beetle outbreaks have been increasing due
Speaker 1: to the warmer weather associated with climate change. In some areas,
Speaker 1: this has devastated certain tree populations. In British Columbia, for example,
Speaker 1: eight percent of the pine trees have been killed from
Speaker 1: bark beetle infestation, and in the United States, millions of
Speaker 1: acres of forest land have been affected by the tiny insects,
Speaker 1: mostly in the Rocky Mountains and Western United States, including Colorado,
Speaker 1: Wyoming and drought stricken California. The Backyard Bark Beetle Venture
Speaker 1: was a citizen science project run by the researchers at
Speaker 1: the University of Florida. The project used volunteers who trapped
Speaker 1: bark beetles in their yards, then sent them to the
Speaker 1: researchers who studied the beatles distribution and diversity. Researchers instructed
Speaker 1: volunteers on how to create a low cost bark beetle
Speaker 1: trap using a plastic bottle into a tan sanitizer or
Speaker 1: anti freeze is inserted. But although the Backyard Bark Beetle
Speaker 1: Project has come to an end, there are hundreds of
Speaker 1: citizen science projects occurring around the world today in fields
Speaker 1: as diverse as ecology, astronomy, computer science, psychology, and engineering. Typically,
Speaker 1: volunteer years are involved in data collection, reporting, and analysis.
Speaker 1: If you are interested in helping out on a citizen
Speaker 1: science project, check out National Geographics field Scope at field
Speaker 1: scope dot org. Today's episode was written by Melanie rod
Speaker 1: Zekee McManus and produced by Tyler Klang. From one That's
Speaker 1: and lots of other curious topics, visit how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio For
Speaker 1: more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.