Mikenna Smith + Kelsey Mitchell: Yes, There are Ticks in Wyoming

Mikenna Smith + Kelsey Mitchell: Yes, There are Ticks in Wyoming

Meet Mikenna Smith and Kelsey Mitchell, an entomologist and biologist respectively at Teton County Weed and Pest District in Wyoming. Exposure to different work tasks of the District, like its mosquito identification program, gave Mikenna her love of bugs. She started a new tick monitoring program in response to the lack of information about what tick species and pathogens are in Wyoming. Kelsey has worked many jobs in the field of biology, and one of her main jobs at the District is pathogen detection in ticks and other vector species. They have recorded both ticks and tick pathogens in Wyoming and have had great opportunities for outreach to the public when they collect ticks on hiking trails. Get the Transcript [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uFbKdDbf7XiUhNtdA_whLqlbvYRT8rLr/view?usp=sharing] Visit our Website [https://westernipm.org/]

Jackie Serrano: Click Beetle Chemical Communications

Meet Jackie Serrano, a research entomologist with the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service located in Washington state. She found the perfect overlap of two of her interests, organic chemistry and entomology, in her field of insect chemical ecology. (Though, she was afraid of bugs before getting into entomology, and there’s still a few arthropods she is not fond of.) Jackie talks about how insect chemical ecologists discover and replicate the semiochemicals that insects use to communicate and how she has been doing this for click beetles. Getthe Transcript [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hugd2Ct7yGTXlmF1Q_PjzExLQfwoZCTQ/view?usp=sharing] Visit our Website [https://westernipm.org/]

Gino Graziano + Joey Slowik: Attracting Predators of Root Maggots

Meet Gino Graziano and Joey Slowik, who both work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. Gino entered the integrated pest management world through invasive plant management, which is still a specialty of his. Joey is “the spider guy” who started his entomology/arachnology career as an arachnid taxonomist. They’re working on a project to test if cover crop mixes can attract beneficial insects and if those insects will reduce root maggot populations. Root maggots in Alaska emerge and attack crop roots throughout the summer instead of all at once like they do in the “lower 48,” meaning Alaska needs its own best practices for this pest. Get the Transcript [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aLv3OZ_BRdW4lah7LPmgvFpwOFtKgSdr/view?usp=drive_link]Visit our Website [https://westernipm.org/]

Andrew Sutherland: The Tip of the Iceberg for Biting Mite Management

Meet Andrew Sutherland, the University of California Statewide IPM Program’s urban integrated pest management advisor for the San Francisco Bay Area. He took a winding path to urban IPM that started with horticulture and involved a misunderstanding that got him into entomology. He recently worked on developing monitoring traps for biting mites; very little research has been done on managing this pest. Andrew has enjoyed being involved with major shifts to better IPM practices in urban spaces, like the switch from sprays to baits for multiple pests. Get the Transcript [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-pSddUsHNUyX_mjtgex1grRQg5-WEP7u/view?usp=sharing] Visit our Website [https://westernipm.org/]   Related links: Attack of the Mystery Mites videos [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLjlfxpbNgla2MRyyT_fdOL2Q2dToeY0g&si=TDTk9WLFWzmdBOfU]

Lara Amiri-Kazaz: Scaring Away Aphids with Biocontrol

Meet Lara Amiri-Kazaz, a Ph.D. student in the field ofsustainable integrated pest management. Lara started her IPM journey hating bugs but is now loving her entomology research. A self-proclaimed “field rat,” Lara is testing if the presence of predatory insects in chile pepper fields can keep away aphids that transmit alfalfa mosaic virus. Aphids don’t stay in chile pepper fields and can give a plant the virus within minutes of feeding on it, making this a difficult pest problem to manage. Get the Transcript [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V2PHI9G3mokqJ8F_twjClDqCoIAVJynU/view?usp=sharing] Visit our Website [https://westernipm.org/]