The region of Tuscany is set to launch an appeal for help on Internet video site YouTube to stop a deadly ''vampire'' insect devastating its pine trees, it said Tuesday.
Erasmo D'Angelis, the president of Tuscany's land and environment commission, said he is desperate for help from the international scientific community to find a way to fight the Matsucoccus feytaudi bug, which kills trees by sucking their sap.
Originally from Morocco, the parasite arrived in Italy in the 1970s but has only made its way to Tuscany in the last two years, attacking pine trees in Florence, Pistoia, Prato and Grosseto as well as on hillsides near Siena and Lucca.
D'Angelis said that the ''real tragedy'' was that the bug had now migrated to the Tuscan coast and was in danger of destroying 200 hectares of pines between Calambrone, Tirrenia, San Rossore and the Maremma area including those in three of the region's natural parks.
''Seeing the infested pine trees leaves you speechless: it looks like they've been killed by napalm or acid rain,'' D'Angelis said.
''This is a very serious problem that also damages the landscape - we're going to have to fell around 10,000 maritime pines,'' he added.
The insect, which spreads because of trade in infested wood, has so far survived all efforts to eliminate it.
''We need to face this emergency by asking the world of international scientific research to step up to the challenge of biotechnological warfare,'' D'Angelis said.
''We also need resources for the rapid reconstruction of the landscape, perhaps concentrating on research into pine trees that are resistant to attack by this insect''. The region's YouTube appeal is set to appear on Wednesday, when D'Angelis will also be holding crisis talks with chiefs from the affected Tuscan parks.
