Entomology Science Conference Brings Research and Extension Together for Discussion
A full crowd listening during the morning session of the Entomology Science Conference at the College Station Conference Center.
Dr. Spence Behmer presenting research project results during the morning session.
Mike Quinn demonstrating BugGuide.net to conference participants.
Entomologists and research personnel from across Texas reviewed results from 2010 research and Extension projects during the Texas A&M Department of Entomology’s annual Entomology Science Conference this November.
The event was held November 2-4 at the College Station Conference Center as a way to bring together on- and off-campus AgriLife entomologists, entomologists from the Texas Department of Agriculture and the USDA, to discuss current research issues and problems during the year.
Associate Department Head for Extension Programs Dr. Chris Sansone welcomed members and visitors and provided an update of the year’s Extension activities.
Sansone encouraged the group to keep working hard towards their goals and to focus on the positive aspects of their jobs and move towards the future of research and extension. Professor and Extension Specialist/IPM Coordinator Dr. Charles Allen also encouraged everyone to not forget the main mission of Research and Extension: serving the public. He also said that this was a challenging time with the economy and budget cuts, but to not be afraid to look at new ways of working with stakeholders.
“It’s a challenging time and we need to meet the challenges that lie ahead of us,” he said.
“We have tremendous strengths and the challenge is to use our strengths to get through these challenges.”
Allen noted the many opportunities out there, such as grants and collaborations with corporations and other Texas AgriLife agencies and departments and said to move to the future.
Texas A&M Entomology Professor and Department Head Dr. David Ragsdale then updated everyone on the administrative activities within the Department during the year.
The morning sessions focused on the diverse projects from both Research and Extension entomologists all over the state. Dr. Spence Behmer discussed his research on insect sterol biology and the possibility of studying the effects of sterols of important Texas hemipterans.
Behmer is developing a collaborative project to collect herbivorous hemipterans, such as cotton fleahoppers, and samples of plants they feed upon. He wants to compare the sterol profiles of the insects and their plant hosts. The information will provide insight into the range of Hemipterans likely to be controlled by the use of modified sterols in plants.
The rest of the morning’s sessions included two talks on zebra chip research, including a talk by Dr. Cecilia Tamborindeguy about the effects of Candidatus Liberibacter psyllaurous on psyllid populations and an update from Noel Troxclair on the research of Zebra Chip and potato psyllids. In addition, Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist Dr. Sonja Swiger updated the group on darkling beetles in East Texas poultry, ear tag efficacy study, house fly densities in North Texas and housefly and stable fly densities at Texas Panhandle dairies.
Before lunch, technology was the topic as Mike Quinn shared his expertise in using such searchable insect image databases, such as Bug Guide and Picasa, to identify insects. Dr. Marvin Harris spoke about how the web site Pecan IPM Pipe has helped growers make real time decisions to protect against the damaging pecan nut casebearer moths.
Dr. M.O. Way gave an overview of the Texas Rice Education Contest and Dr. John Adamczyk, Jr. presented research on the pest population dynamics in soybean plants in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Way said the contest is held every year to educate youth in Southeast Texas on rice production. Adamczyk covered several pests including thrips, stink bugs and immature whiteflies and how they have affected crops in the Valley. Forrest Mitchell also reported on the efforts of controlling leafhoppers with imidacloprid and Jim Reinert reviewed the biotype development of southern chinch bugs in San Augustine grass and other turf grasses in the state.
Other topics rounding out the Tuesday session included bed bug updates, overviews of cotton research of the High Plains and the Amarillo entomology program, insecticide spray coverage and regulations in phytosanitation and quarantines in Texas.
The second day focused on the applied research on entomology with corn, cotton and sorghum production in Texas. Cotton topics included aphid control, results from spider mite threshold evaluations and efficacy trials on various miticides. The highlight of the morning was when Dr. Michael Pendleton presented research on using scanning electron microscopes and energy dispersive spectroscopy to relate location of starch in sorghum grains with resistance to maize weevils.
Moderated by Pat Porter, the corn session included three talks by Roy Parker on rate evaluation on insecticides for chinch bug control, corn earworms and foliar insecticides and fungicides and updates on evaluating VT3Pro and Viptera transgenic corn for control of fall armyworms and corn earworm.
Thursday’s sessions started with Dr. Ed Bynum discussing his findings on greenbug control trials in wheat, where he tested the effects of several insecticides on greenbug populations on wheat. Dr. Roger Gold’s Urban Entomology group gave their annual Urban Entomology update on Formosan Termites, Rasberry crazy ants, Brachymyrmex ants, as well as other important pests that affect urban areas.
The Urban/Ornamental session continued with Mike Merchant updating everyone on scale on the locations of new infestations of scale on crape myrtles in the North Texas area and emerald ash borer surveys in east Texas. So far, Merchant said nothing has been detected in emerald ash borer traps set out at various parks in East Texas this year.
The urban session ended with Scott Ludwig updating efforts on insecticide efficacy screenings in ornamentals, Carlos Bográn updating research on using electron beam irradiation for phytosanitary treatment, and Bill Ree on monitoring Imidacloprid resistance and efficacy screening on pecans.
Pat Porter and Monti Vandiver demonstrated a new online photo exchange system that will allow a centralized photo repository for Extension entomologists to save photos for future reference or download.