On this page the following entries were made in the “Entomology” category. Check out other categories in our Archives.
Bug Blog Archives for “Entomology”
The Entomology and IPM Success Relationship
Biological pest control, when one first sees it, must seem terribly complex. What with all those fresh terms filling our minds and having to grasp novel ideas like quelling our expectations of instakill-satisfaction, and focusing our biological pest controls strategies such as better identifying our pests and acting proactively. These complexities, however, are common to pest control as a whole for the most part so the biological part of the equation doesn’t really add a new layer. Still, using living organisms to control other living organisms worries many. They think to themselves that they must be an entomologist or bug scientist to really succeed at biocontrol. It’s just not so.
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Identifying Greenhouse and Garden Pests
It’s awfully important to know what critters you have in your greenhouse or garden. Critically important, in fact, if you want to use something other than a nasty, broad-spectrum pesticide to control them. But this is easier said than done. Fortunately getting super-specific isn’t always necessary — many good bugs handle a range of pests making general identification acceptable most of the time — and where it is, resources are in place and available to help you. Here’s a quick run-down of these resources.
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Can Pests Become Resistant to Natural Enemies?
Arthropod Pest and Natural Enemy Interactions: Can Pests Become Resistant to Natural Enemies?
Biological control is a well-known pest management strategy available to greenhouse managers to “manage” or “regulate” arthropod (insect and mite) pests. As opposed to discussing the basic concepts of biological control and why it is important to implement some type of biological control, this article will focus on the arthropod pest-natural enemy interactions and characteristics of arthropod pests.
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Where Have the Lost Beetles Gone?
If you would like to get involved, more information about the project, plus tips on scouting, photographing beetles, and quite a bit more, is available […]
In a September 18th, 2008 Agricultural Research Service (ARS) news posting titled “ARS Scientists and Cooperators Surveying for Rare Ladybugs” we have learned that a few once-common ladybug species are no longer being found in the numbers reported just twenty years ago. Here’s a section quoted directly from the article:
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Covering Some Entomology Basics
As some of you may or may not know, I am a contributing photographer at iStockphoto.com, a stock photography site. There approved contributing photographers upload inspected photos for sale to publishers, webmasters, or whoever needs them. To locate the photos they need, these buyers search the 3 million plus image library for a “Best Match” or other criterion based on keywords and phrases. These keywords, for the sake of clearer disambiguation, are mapped to preselected words or phrases. In other words, if I add the keyword “safe,” the system will ask if I mean safe as in safety, or safe as in a hardened box. The system works, though I was recently reminded that it isn’t perfect.
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The Grand Tick Hunt
Last week Massachusetts entomologist and respected tick guru David Simser, PhD, came to visit. He was on a mission: To collect deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis) in predetermined New Hampshire locations and count his catches. Two of these collections/counts were taken right here in Nottingham, NH.
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