Global Impact
The Bugwood Network provides access to more than 5,000 images and associated information provided by professionals from 69 countries.
Agrosecurity
Bugwood Network Goes Worldwide
In today's global economy, goods are rapidly shipped around the world. Pests are frequently inadvertently transported and introduced into new environments, often to the detriment of the recipient. Pests like the Asian longhorned beetle, the brown garden snail, tropical soda apple and the zebra mussel were accidentally introduced into and have become major pests in the U.S. The Bugwood Work Group has developed expertise in the application of information technologies to address issues in forestry, natural systems and agriculture. The Bugwood Work Group has been successful in integrating multidisciplinary approaches to address problems, consolidate and provide access to information to a wide range of users.
A UGA entomologist involved with the Bugwood Network has participated in meetings in several European countries to establish contacts to acquire photographs of and information about organisms that are not native to the U.S., but are potential U.S. and North American pests should they gain entry and become established. Bugwood Network personnel have worked with the European and Mediterranean Pest Plant Organization involved in 42 countries in Europe, the Mediterranean and western Asia. They consulted with staff scientists with the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau, International, based in Great Britain, and forest health specialists in several European and east European countries. Photographs and associated information acquired through these contacts are incorporated into and made available to user groups through Bugwood Network information systems.
The Bugwood Image systems contain more than 5,000 images that were taken in and provided by professionals in 69 countries available for educational uses. Bugwood Network personnel are able to contact the appropriate country-level scientific specialist as necessary to obtain information that will help identify and deal with species that are native in Europe but are still exotic to Georgia and North America.
Source: Keith Douce, Department of Entomology (2006)