The Student Farm at Penn State is hosting a free insect identification and biological soil health workshop from 9 to 11 a.m. on Aug. 5. The workshop will led by Mary Barbercheck, professor of entomology at Penn State.
A chemical that is thought to be safe and is, therefore, widely used on crops — such as almonds, wine grapes and tree fruits — to boost the performance of pesticides, makes honey bee larvae significantly more susceptible to a deadly virus, according to researchers at Penn State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Use of a class of insecticides, called neonicotinoids, increased dramatically in the mid-2000s and was driven almost entirely by the use of corn and soybean seeds treated with the pesticides, according to researchers at Penn State.
Feeding honey bees a natural diet of pollen makes them significantly more resistant to pesticides than feeding them an artificial diet, according to a team of researchers, who also found that pesticide exposure causes changes in expression of genes that are sensitive to diet and nutrition.
The Pennsylvania IPM Program recently received a multi-year grant to continue its mission to reduce pesticide use in agricultural and urban settings. The grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes for Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA), will help PA IPM further its extension and outreach efforts to promoted integrated pest management practices that are economical and protect human health and the environment. The program will work with in both rural and urban areas to provide technologies, resources and educational opportunities across the state.
In Pennsylvania, 400,000 tons of tree fruit such as apples, peaches, cherries and pears are produced each year, with more than 50,000 orchards and vineyards spanning the state. Internal fruit worms such as Oriental fruit moth and codling moth pose a serious economic threat to this valuable industry. According to Jeff Mizer, Penn State extension education in Snyder county, fruit-damaging worms not only reduce marketability of the fruits they infest, but can cause the rejection of entire truckloads of apples at processing plants, which has occurred in Pennsylvania and other states. "In Snyder County, 11 orchards are working together under a Penn State apple worm monitoring project. The project was previously funded by Penn State and the PA Horticulture Association of Pennsylvania, but starting in 2006 the project was funded by the growers themselves," said Miser.
How does an insect fight off germs? Easy. It builds a wall around them.
"Insects don't have antibodies, like mammals do," explains Jessica Stehr, a graduate student in genetics and entomology. "Their immune systems are non-specific, and they have no memory."
That doesn't mean their defenses aren't effective.
"It's a little ripe today," Ralph Mumma remarks. He nods out the window of the Pesticide Research Lab. "As you came into the building, you might have smelled that manure pile behind the hill. I could smell it. The University stores its manure in a little shed just over the hill. So now we are working on manure odors."
