Dayle Bennett works for the U.S. Forest Service.
A big problem is an explosion in the population of beetles and their destructive effects on trees.
The beetles crawl onto trees, tear up the bark and go to town.
But this is bad for the trees, especially when the beetles are in such large numbers.
The beetles communicate by marking trees with pheromones (smells basically) that tell other beetles to chow down or stay away.
So Mr.Bennett figured out that by using the “stay away” smell the beetles would literally stay away, leaving the trees alone.
Score one for science!
[Image via WENN.]