Some pictures from 27th UCR Urban Pest Management Conference (March 21, 2018). 

27th Annual UCR Urban Pest Management Conference was held at UCR Extension Center on March 21, 2018.

There were about 200 attendees from urban / structural pest management industry and other related parties, several industry sponsors, and 13 speakers from university labs, UC ANR, industry, government agencies. We think the conference was a big success. 

This one-day conference has been UCR urban entomology program's one of the most important outreach events for professionals in the pest control management industry and the public interested in these questions. For more information, visit the following website.

http://ucanr.edu/sites/ucrurbanpest/Conferences/ 

One of dissertation chapters of Kevin Welzel (former PhD student in Choe Laboratory) is now officially published.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-19435-6

Check out following news article to learn more about the research.

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For Global Invasion, Argentine Ants Use Chemical Weapons

Compounds produced by Argentine ants are used to recruit nestmates and incapacitate opponents

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — From their native home on the banks of South America's Paraná River, Argentine ants have conquered six continents and many oceanic islands. Their success is explained by several factors: they have more than one queen per colony, making them difficult to eradicate, and they adapt to changes in their environments by living transiently rather than building permanent nests.

Argentine ants are also highly aggressive, out-competing existing ant species for food and other resources. In a paper published today in Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of California, Riverside show how Argentine ants use chemical secretions as weapons in their interactions with harvester ants, which are native to California. The findings could help in the development of new pest control strategies.

To continue read the full article, click here.

Kevin Welzel in Choe laboratory has successfully defended his PhD today. 

It is now official - Dr. Welzel! 

Congratulations.

Our research on the development of biodegradable hydrogel for delivering liquid baits to control Argentine ant was recently published in Pest Management Science. 

Also, the journal chose the image from our research, showing Argentine ants feeding on the hydrogel bait, as the cover image for their October 2017 issue. 

For additional information on the work, follow the links below:

https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/47201 

http://ucanr.edu/sites/ucrurbanpest/files/266283.pdf 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ps.4616/full