Terahertz imaging technique reveals subsurface insect damage in woodInsect infestation is becoming a
Terahertz imaging technique reveals subsurface insect damage in wood
Insect infestation is becoming an increasingly costly problem to the forestry industry, especially in areas experiencing increased droughts and hot spells related to climate change. A new terahertz imaging technique could help slow the spread of these infestations by detecting insect damage inside wood before it becomes visible on the outside.
“Our approach could be used to detect early-stage insect infestation on the trunks of trees, in imported wood or on wood products in an early infestation stage,” said research team member Kirsti Krügener, from HAWK University of Applied Science and Arts in Germany. “This could help keep out damaging insects from other countries and stop infestation before it spreads throughout a forest.”
In the Optical Society journal Applied Optics, the researchers report how they used terahertz time-of-flight tomography to noninvasively identify wood samples with otherwise invisible damage from the typographer beetle, which infects spruce and other coniferous trees in Europe. They were also able to reconstruct the internal structure of wood samples.
“Detecting the boreholes of wood-destroying insects is typically done by manually inspecting the wood, and the infected area of the forest to be removed is then estimated,” said Krügener. “To our knowledge, this is the first time a technical method has been used to detect insect boreholes.”
