A lone female fungus-farming beetle inadvertently imported to Georgia may have been the source of a disease that has killed some 300 million redbay trees and threatens Florida’s avocado groves, researchers from Mississippi and Florida say in an article published in Online Athens. The ambrosia beetle has reproduced across many parts of the US, destroying a variety of trees and shrubs, including those used for agriculture. The article says that it also affects sassafras trees, the source of file used in gumbo.
