A tick survey study in Tennessee by Dr. Trout Fryxell and graduate student David Theuret highlighted in Entomology Today. The study revealed that one in six cattle and at livestock monitoring locations in all regions of the Tennessee have ticks. For more details, please see summary article Tick Surveillance Project Offers Model for Monitoring Livestock. The original article can be found here.
Frank Hale and Alan Windham attended UT Turf and Ornamental Field Day on Thursday at the Plant Science farm on Alcoa. They averaged 50 persons for each of four presentations, which covered new and noteworthy insect pests and diseases such as emerald ash borer, boxwood blight, rose rosette and others. Over 500 turf and grounds maintenance professionals attended the field day.
Dr. Ernest Bernard is the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award at Michigan State University, where he received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in the Department of Entomology. Congratulations to Dr. Bernard on receiving this award! Read the full story here.
Frank Hale and Alan Windham updated horticultural pesticide dealers from the Eastern U.S.A. on current topics in ornamental entomology and plant pathology, June 5th and 6th at the Indigo Hotel in Nashville. Companies represented in the training included: BASF, Southern AG, Helena, BWI, BFG, Winfield
During the past 22 years, pest control efficacy and the potential for higher net returns have driven a global increase in the adoption of transgenic crops which produce insecticidal proteins (Cry and Vip toxins) from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt crops). In the US alone, Bt corn and cotton adoption represent >80% of the national acreage devoted to the two commodities, which has unfortunately led to increasing selection pressure for evolution of Bt toxin resistant insect pests. One such devastating pest is the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) which has become a growing threat to the use of transgenic corn technology in the Western Hemisphere and more recently the African continent. The fall armyworm is the insect pest with the highest
Several indigenous crop species have the potential to become foods of the future and need to be integrated into existing agricultural research. Dr. Denita Hadziabdic Guerry was selected for a Fulbright award to the African Regional Research Program to study an indigenous crop, frafra potato (Solenostemon rotendifolius), as an alternative food source. She will spend four months in Ghana working closely with her collaborator at the University of Ghana (UG), Dr. Naalamle Amissah, to evaluate genetic diversity of frafra potato populations in Ghana and surrounding sub-Saharan African countries where this species is cultivated. This is quite an innovative project that involves studying traditional subjects while providing hands-on experiential learning experiences for faculty, staff, and students at the University of Ghana. Congratulations, Dr. Guerry!
Logan Houston, an undergraduate researchers in the Trigiano lab, was awarded a Gold Medal at last night’s EUReCA awards ceremony. Logan’s award was one of four in the STEM section of the competition. Logan’s research, “Geographical location drives the population structure of native Asian Cornus florida” was supported by the Trigiano lab and guided primarily by Dr. Marcin Nowicki. Angel Chaffin, one of our EPP minors, was awarded an Honorable Mention for her work on, “Potential pathogens of industrial hemp (Cannibas sativa)”. Although her research was sponsored by Dr. Kimberly Gwinn, she was also assisted by Cody Seals, Mary Dee, Dr. Ernest Bernard, and Dr. Jerome Grant. Geordan Hall, who worked with Drs. Karen Vail and Becky Trout Fryxell, also
Dr. Bonnie Ownley was selected as the 2018 UT Notable Woman of the Year. The announcement can be found here.
EPP graduate student Amy Michael will present her exit seminar entitled “Interactive Ecology of the Kudzu Bug in Eastern Tennessee” on Friday, April 20th, at 10am in PBB 160.
EPP graduate students Clay Perkins and Scott Graham recently published a paper entitled “Grasshoppers in Soybean.” The full article can be found here.