Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Riggins, John J.

Committee Member

Gordon, Jason S.

Committee Member

Brown, Richard L.

Date of Degree

8-11-2017

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Entomology

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology

Abstract

Recreational firewood collected from campers in Mississippi State Parks was investigated for factors associated with insect presence and their diversity. Insects were found in 20% of firewood and evidence of past feeding was found in 64.8%. Representatives of 35 families of insects were reared from collected firewood. These included representatives of Buprestidae, Cerambycidae, Curculionidae, Formicidae, and Rhinotermitidae. The effects of firewood age, moisture content, and source were also examined as effects on insect presence in firewood. At the same time, a survey of campers’ beliefs and attitudes about non-native woodborers was conducted. Exposure to public awareness campaigns had the strongest association on reported sources of firewood and support for regulations on firewood movement. However, no association was found between attitudes and beliefs and camper firewood habits. No association was found between camper responses to survey questions and biological factors from firewood collected from them.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19983

Comments

firewood dissection||firewood habits||insect||vector||beliefs||attitudes||invasive species||woodborer||firewood

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