UC Davis doctoral candidate Madison "Madi" Hendrick, scheduled to receive her doctorate in entomology in June, will present her exit seminar on "Integrated Pest Management in California Field Crops: Challenges in Alfalfa and Rice" on Friday, June 5.
Her seminar is set for 10 a.m. in 366 Briggs Hall, UC Davis. It also will be on Zoom.
Hendrick studies insecticide resistance in alfalfa weevil and tadpole shrimp
"California produces a wide variety of crops, with field crops contributing substantially to the statewide agricultural economy," Hendrick writes in her abstract. "Many field crops face arthropod pests, and protecting these crops is a constant challenge for growers and pest control advisers. Certain crops, such as alfalfa and rice, are limited in their control options and rely heavily on insecticides for pest management. Though generally effective, an overreliance on these chemicals can lead to insecticide resistance and environmental issues. In my dissertation, I explored challenges and worked to find solutions for field crop integrated pest management."
"In Chapter 1, I examined the scope of pyrethroid resistance in California populations of alfalfa weevil (Hypera postica), and used historical pesticide use data to explore management questions," Hendrick related. "In Chapter 2, I pivoted to rice and aimed to examine the damage potential of tadpole shrimp (Triops longicaudatus) under different environmental conditions. Finally, in Chapter 3, I evaluated mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) as a potential biological control agent for this pest with the goal of adding another control method to growers’ toolkit. Through my work, I contributed to improvements in how IPM is approached in field crops. These systems can be challenging given the large production scale and small margins, but there are still opportunities to make IPM programs more effective and sustainable."
Member of Grettenberger Lab
Hendrick is a member of the UC Davis agricultural entomology lab of Ian Grettenberger, associate professor of Cooperative Extension. The title of her dissertation: "Integrated Pest Management in Alfalfa and Rice Systems."
Hendrick holds a bachelor's degree in international studies, magna cum laude, from North Carolina State University (NCSU), 2015. At NCSU, she worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Hannah Burrack lab from 2016 to 2019. Burrack, a UC Davis doctoral alumnus, is now professor and chair of the Michigan State University Department of Entomology.
Hendrick served as a member of the UC Davis Team that won the Entomological Society of America (ESA) Entomology Games national championship in 2022 in Vancouver, B.C. The Entomology Games is a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. UC Davis edged out Alabama's Auburn University 75 to 70 to win the title. Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, captained the team. Other members: Jill Oberski of the Ward lab, and Erin “Taylor” Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo lab. (See list of some of the questions asked) (See final round on YouTube)
Co-Authored Grant
At UC Davis, Hendrick co-authored a Department of Pesticide Regulation-funded grant of $277,835 in 2022. Also that year, she co-authored a 2022 paper in the Journal of Economic Entomology on "Alfalfa Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Resistance to Lambda-cyhalothrin in the Western United States."
The recipient of numerous awards, Hendrick won a Robert and Peggy van den Bosch Memorial Scholarship in both 2023 and 2024. She served as a teaching assistant for associate professor Geoffrey Attardo's medical entomology lecture and lab class, associate professor Brian Johnson's apiculture and insect behavior classes, and for medical entomologist-researcher Olivia Winokur's online introduction biology course, among others.
An active member of ESA, Hendrick delivered a presentation on “All Surf and No Turf: Evaluating Mosquitofish as a Potential Biological Control Agent for Tadpole Shrimp” at the 2022 ESA meeting, and presented "An Update to Resistance Monitoring in California Populations of Alfalfa Weevil (Hypera postica).” at the 2021 ESA meeting. She has also presented at the Pacific Branch of ESA meetings and at numerous Rice Field Day meetings.
Seminar on Zoom
Want to watch the seminar on Zoom? Contact Hendrick at mlhendrick@ucdavis.edu for the Zoom link and password.
Resource:
Deep Look video of tadpole shrimp, with contributions by Ian Grettenberger, associate professor of Cooperative Extension/UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Cover image: Close-up of a tadpole shrimp. (Photo by Ian Grettenberger)