The wriggling larva would one day metamorphose into the red coffee-borer moth, an invasive species that damages many plants. It hasn’t yet infested the United States — but here it was, on a cloudy morning in early 2023, burrowing into the trunk of an American oak tree. Fortunately, that particular oak tree was growing in China, in what scientists call a “sentinel garden.” These gardens, scattered around the world, are plots of foreign trees that researchers closely monitor to figure out what local bugs and diseases can damage them. The…
How ‘Sentinel Gardens’ Help Spot Dangerous Bugs Abroad
