- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His name is synonymous with integrated pest management (IPM) and his achievements during his 45-year career are nothing short of spectacular.
So it's no surprise that UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Frank Zalom, internationally recognized for his IPM expertise and leadership, is the recipient of a Lifetime IPM Achievement Award from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR).
Zalom, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty, and formerly, the 16-year director of the UC Statewide IPM Program, will be honored at CDPR's IPM Achievement Awards virtual ceremony at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 29. Four other individuals or organizations also will receive the 2023 awards. (Register here to access the Zoom ceremony.)
CDPR praised Zalom for “advancing IPM practices in California specialty crops as a preeminent researcher, practitioner and champion of sustainable pest management.”
The Lifetime IPM Achievement Award recognizes individuals with 20 or more years of research, professional practice, or outreach in IPM-related sectors.
“Dr. Zalom's work has contributed greatly to advancing safe, effective, and sustainable IPM practices in specialty crops such as almonds, strawberries, tomatoes, and olives,” a CDPR spokesman said. “Through hundreds of presentations and publications, Dr. Zalom has contributed to broad adoption of IPM practices for numerous agricultural pests, resulting in less insecticide use and reduced run-off impacts and high-risk pesticide exposures.”
Zalom officially retired in 2018 but continues his IPM research and outreach efforts as a recall professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology. He also serves as advisor to the California Department of Food and Agriculture's (CDFA) Office of Pesticide Consultation and Analysis, and a science advisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Zalom is known for his “tireless advocacy for IPM as THE way to address pest concerns in a sustainable, economical and environmentally acceptable manner.” His peers describe his approach to IPM as “progressive, not dogmatic, integrating the economical and judicious use of crop protection products while promoting effective, biologically based pest management alternatives.”
“The overarching objective of my research program can best be described as the pursuit of knowledge that advances the science and use of integrated pest management,” Zalom said. Although he initially worked on rice, cotton and alfalfa, he turned his primary focus to California specialty crops including tree crops (almonds, olives, prunes, peaches), small fruits (grapes, strawberries, caneberries), and fruiting vegetables (example, tomatoes).
Zalom developed IPM strategies and tactics within the context of these systems that included monitoring procedures, thresholds, pest development and population models, biological controls, and use of less toxic pesticides, many of which are incorporated into UC IPM Guidelines for these crops (see https://ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/) and have become standard practice. He pursues his goals through a combination of fundamental studies linked to pest biology, physiology, and community ecology.
Overall, Zalom engages in what he calls "problem-focused, hypothesis-driven research that focuses on understanding the biology of the pest species that eventually results in economically viable IPM management approaches that reduce the amount of undesirable insecticides being used in crop production."
Zalom says he considers himself "a problem-solver who consults with fellow scientists, researchers, horticulturists, students, visiting scholars, extension educators, growers, pest control advisers, environmental groups, and public agencies--listening to their requests and concerns, before proposing and implementing the best IPM solutions to pest problems."
See more about our UC Davis doctoral alumnus extraordinaire and his IPM achievements.
Update:
- Full Ceremony: https://youtu.be/XEMKD04bDT4
- Video honoring Frank Zalom: https://youtu.be/oXc8OcQivLI
- Remarks from Assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry: https://youtu.be/o4xnXyPn7e8
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Living with pests, or “unwanted guests” as some put it, can take a physical, mental and economic toll. For people living in multi-family unit housing, like an apartment complex where everyone lives under one roof, a single infestation of insects or rodents can expose all residents.
Using integrated pest management, or IPM, residents and property managers can detect infestations early and control severe ones and protect people. IPM programs can also save money. IPM saved a 75-unit complex in Contra Costa County $11,121 annually. Similarly, in Santa Clara County, a 59-unit complex saved $1,321 on pest control annually after implementing a proactive IPM program.
This summer, regional directors, property managers, residential service coordinators, maintenance managers and groundskeepers of Mercy Housing – a nonprofit organization that provides affordable, low-income housing – gathered in Long Beach to learn about in-home IPM. The session was led by Siavash Taravati, University of California Cooperative Extension area IPM advisor for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, and
Josh Shoemaker, an entomologist and private consultant.
Taravati and Shoemaker collaborated with StopPests in Housing, a national program out of Cornell University's Northeastern IPM Center, which seeks to improve pest control in affordable housing and teach management practices for cockroaches, bed bugs and rodents within and around the home.
During their presentation, Taravati introduced participants to the IPM principles and emphasized the importance of monitoring pests.
“IPM is all about making informed decisions which requires knowing the latest status of an infestation,” explained Taravati. “That's where monitoring comes into play. It can help us to identify the exact species we are dealing with as well as telling us if an infestation is growing or shrinking.”
“Monitoring is foundational,” agreed Shoemaker. “If a program does not include monitoring, it's not an IPM program.”
According to Shoemaker, the benefit of partnering with UC IPM is their sharp focus on general IPM, which includes monitoring. “It's real IPM, that prioritizes the well-being of the public,” said Shoemaker, who's eager to continue working with Cooperative Extension and Taravati to ensure that children are growing up in safe environments.
Pest control treatments commonly take place following a serious infestation or several complaints, but IPM promotes constant monitoring to prevent heavy infestations from ever happening. It's a proactive approach rather than a reactive or emergency-response. For many attendees, the training revealed a need to engage with pest management operators more closely.
Training prompts changes that improve safety for residents
Pest management operators commonly use pesticide sprays to control pests. Besides inconveniencing residents, forcing them to do extensive preparations and evacuate their unit until it's safe to return, sprays increase exposure risk to pesticides since the aerosols can linger and land on surfaces.
Instead, Taravati and Shoemaker recommend using gel baits, which are much safer to apply and can target a specific area of a home, including crevices, instead of along all the walls.
“Now that I'm more informed, I'll be speaking to my contractor to discuss how we can switch their approach from a bug spray to a gel,” said Leonardo Pinuelas, a maintenance manager for Mercy Housing.
Pinuelas is not the only one wanting to modify their program, however. According to feedback from staff members at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles who experienced the same training earlier this year, they prompted their team to amend their pest extermination to include dusting, or applying insecticidal dusts, against roaches, and to review and update their existing IPM plan and practices where appropriate.
Cindy Wise, area director of operations for Mercy Housing, said that in her 35 years, this was one of the few trainings that engaged her staff so actively. “I couldn't help but text my regional vice president to say that our managers were actively participating and asking questions. That doesn't happen often, not even in our own meetings,” said Wise.
Many of the attendees, with their new understanding of how cockroaches move through a structure, shared that they are eager to return to work to meet with residents and support them.
“If you've got roaches in one unit, you've got them in the entire building,” Wise said.
Shoemaker recalls the words of Judy Black, senior technical entomologist for Orkin, and Dini Miller, entomologist at Virginia Tech, who urge the importance of inspections and documentation as IPM best practices.
Although reporting pests in the home can make one feel embarrassed, Wise said she is more interested in making residents feel empowered to not only report signs of infestation to the staff, but to their neighbors.
Training residents is certainly beneficial, but as experts such as Black and Miller have pointed out, housing managers must do their part, instead of scapegoating tenants for their cleaning habits.
StopPests provides free IPM training and technical assistance to Housing and Urban Development assisted properties. If you are interested in the training provided by Taravati and Shoemaker, in collaboration with StopPests, visit StopPests.org for more information.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Katherine "Katie" Hostetler was named the Outstanding Senior in Entomology; Morgan Myhre, Citation for Outstanding Performance in Entomology: and Kenny Ruiz, Outstanding Senior Award and Departmental Citation in Animal Biology.
Katie Hostetler, Outstanding Senior in Entomology
A member of the Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB), Katie, working in a Center for Watershed Sciences lab, selected as her research project: amphipod shredding behavior impacting algal growth in aquatic systems.
Professor Sharon Lawler, an aquatic entomologist who retired in January from the Department of Entomology and Nematology, nominated her for the award. Lawler worked with her through RSPIB, which aims to provide undergraduates with closely mentored research in biology. "She participated in graduate student Kyle Phillip's project on how wetland plant decomposition supports aquatic food webs in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Suisun Marsh)," Lawler related. "Katie rapidly became an essential member of the research team, which included John Durand as a principal investigator and Kyle's co-advisor."
"Katie learned numerous techniques in aquatic ecology," said Lawler. "She ultimately designed and led her own laboratory experiment on how amphipods contribute to nutrient recycling in wetlands through shredding and consuming different kinds of detritus. She is working on a draft manuscript for a peer-reviewed journal stemming from her work. "
Durand, a UC Davis estuarine and wetland ecologist, and a faculty member of the Center for Watershed Sciences, related that "Katie has been an outstanding scholar in my research group. She quickly mastered the basic skills needed to support our research, and then collaborated closely with Kyle in his research, eventually designing and executing her own study, which is publishable research. She has maintained an active presence in the lab, and has been consistently available to support other researchers in the lab with zooplankton and invertebrate analysis, and water quality analysis. She is currently working with me and others to develop a flow-through automated zooplankton analysis system using digital photography, a flow cytometer, and machine learning. All in all, Katie is exactly the kind of student we want to honor and encourage as an outstanding senior."
Katie, born in La Jolla and raised in Encinitas, Calif., is a 2019 graduate of San Dieguito High School Academy. She remembers nurturing an early interest in entomology. "I enjoyed gardening with my mom and picking up snails, isopods, and other creatures while playing in the dirt. I also volunteered at the local botanical garden in high school, which confirmed my interest as I got to hang out with insects while gardening!"
She plans to remain in Davis "and continue working at the Center for Watershed Sciences in invertebrate research!"
Co-nominators were Ian Grettenberger, UC Cooperative Extension entomology specialist and assistant professor Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate professor Christian Nansen, who specializes in applied insect ecology, integrated pest management and remote sensing.
"Morgan is an exemplary student research assistant and has been integral to us accomplishing our research goals," Grettenberger said, adding "She has often gone above and beyond the expectations of the position, even going out of her way to keep data and equipment organized. She is the type of research assistant that thinks ahead to do tasks even better than whatever instructions she was given. She thinks critically and operates very independently. She is also an excellent student and her work in our lab and 'job' as a student is all on top of being a parent as well."
Morgan was a student in Nansen's ENT110 course last fall. "She has been an active member of my informal scientific writing club," Nansen said. Under his mentorship, she is working on writing a journal review article. "She has a lot on her plate and seems to handle everything in very fine style."
Morgan, born and raised in San Diego, said her educational journey followed a nontraditional path. WIth very limited high school experience due to a severe illness, she began attending Palomar Community College at 16 years old. While in community college, she worked at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and had her two children, Galileo and Esmerelda.
Morgan traces her love of insects to her early childhood. In elementary school, she frequently brought ladybugs into the classroom in her pockets and established a worm club with her friends. Knowing she wanted to become a science teacher, she decided to major in the science subject that most interested her—entomology. While at UC Davis, she discovered a love for agriculture and integrated pest management.
Morgan currently works as a math and science tutor at Pioneer High School and as an undergraduate research assistant in the Grettenberger lab at UC Davis. She plans to obtain her science teaching credentials and master's degree in education and to "continue exploring my love for entomology by introducing my future students to the subject."
Forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, who advises the Animal Biology program, described Kenny as "the soul of intelligent self-sufficiency."
"He does not present unsolved problems to others, he invariably presents solutions," Kimsey said. "When he listens he actually hears you, not what he wants to hear. Sufficient unto himself he is also the best possible team member, and is among the hardest working persons I have ever met- he will get the job done! I wish him all possible success in graduate school!"
Kenny, a first-generation transfer student, grew up in Salinas and upon graduating from high school, joined the Marines, serving four years. He received an associate of arts degree in biology from Gavilan College, Gilroy, Santa Clara County, in 2020.
What sparked his interest in his field? "It was while I was doing Muay Thai in Thailand that I found a brochure for an elephant sanctuary that advertised no riding and 'cruelty free.' I didn't know about elephant riding and how cruel and abusive it is to the elephants."
Kenny plans to pursue a career in animal behavior research and conservation. He is applying to the animal behavior master's program at the University of Sussex in England.
Other entomology and animal biology majors who received awards at the Class of 2023 commencements:
Departmental citations: Tranh Than and Stephen Jee
Animal Biology:
Departmental Citations: Yuanyang Liu, Maria Peshkoff, Genevieve Marie Shane, and Ashley Uyehara
Outstanding Performance Citations: Myles Bailey, William Claflin, Sterling Ickes, Sarah Kim, Emma Elizabeth Lauth, Xintong Li, Sarah Kaori Nelson, Karen Vazquez, Sonyia Ying-Rou Williams, Alex Biyang Zhao, Lindsey Anne Campbell
The commencements are online.
- Author: Jules Bernstein, UC Riverside
Scientists search for pheromone to disrupt insect mating
UC Riverside scientists are on the hunt for a chemical that disrupts “evil” weevils' mating and could prevent them from destroying California's supply of avocados.
Avocado weevils, small beetles with long snouts, drill through fruit to lay eggs. The weevil grubs or larvae bore into avocado seeds to feed, rendering everyone's favorite toast topping inedible.
“They're extremely hard to control because they spend most of their time deep inside the fruit, where they're very well protected from insecticides and natural enemies,” said UCR researcher Mark Hoddle, a UC Cooperative Extension entomology specialist.
Not only are the insects reclusive, they are also understudied, making information about them hard to come by. “All books on avocado pest management will tell you these weevils are bad. They're well recognized, serious pests of avocados, but we know practically nothing about them,” Hoddle said.
One strategy for controlling pests is to introduce other insects that feed on them. However, that is unlikely to work in this case. “Natural enemies of these weevils seem to be extremely rare in areas where this pest is native,” Hoddle said.
To combat avocado weevils in Mexico, an area where they are native, and to prevent them from being accidentally introduced into California, Hoddle is working with Jocelyn Millar, a UCR insect pheromone expert. They are leading an effort to find the weevil's pheromone, with the goal of using it to monitor these pests and prevent them from mating in avocado orchards.
Pheromones are chemicals produced and released into the environment by an insect that can be “smelled” by others of its species, and affect their behavior.
“We could flood avocado orchards with so much pheromone that males and females can't find each other, and therefore can't reproduce,” Hoddle said. “This would reduce damage to fruit and enable growers to use less insecticides.”
Alternative control strategies could include mass trapping, using the pheromone as a lure, or an “attract-and-kill” approach, where the pheromone attracts the weevils to small sources of insecticide.
The work to identify, synthesize and test this pheromone in the field is supported by grants from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, as well as the California Avocado Commission.
An initial phase of the project sent Hoddle to a base of operations three hours south of Mexico City, an area with large weevil populations. Using a special permit issued by the USDA, Hoddle brought weevils back to UCR's Insectary and Quarantine facility.
Hoddle and Sean Halloran, a UCR entomology researcher, captured the chemicals that avocado weevils release into the air. Possible pheromone compound formulas were identified from these crude extracts and are now being synthesized in Millar's laboratory.
“Weevil pheromones have complicated structures. When they're made in a lab, they can have left- or right-handed forms,” said Hoddle. Initially, Millar's group made a mixture of both forms to see if the blend would work as an attractant, as it is far cheaper to make the blend than the individual left- or right-handed forms.
Field work in Mexico with the pheromone cocktail by Hoddle, his wife Christina Hoddle, an associate specialist in entomology, and Mexican collaborators did not get a big response from the weevils, suggesting that one of the forms in the blend could be antagonizing the response to the other.
As the next step, the researchers plan to synthesize the individual forms of the chemicals and test the insects' response to each in Mexican avocado orchards.
Because the levels of avocado imports from Mexico are increasing, the risk of an accidental weevil invasion is rising as well. Hoddle is hopeful that the pheromone will be successfully identified and used to lower the risk this pest presents to California's avocado growers.
“We've been fortunate enough to be awarded these grants, so our work can be implemented in Mexico and benefit California at the same time,” Hoddle said. “The tools we develop now can be used to make sure crops from any exporting country are much safer to import into California.”
/h3>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“Honorary Membership acknowledges those who have served ESA for at least 20 years through significant involvement in the affairs of the society that has reached an extraordinary level,” ESA officials said in announcing the three recipients on Aug. 24. “Candidates for this honor are selected by the ESA Governing Board and then voted on by the ESA membership.”
“I am honored and humbled to receive this award,” said Leal, a distinguished biochemistry professor with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a former chair of the Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology). “It is truly a highlight of my career.”
Other 2022 Honorary Member recipients are research entomologist Alvin Simmons of the USDA Agricultural Research Service whom Leal fondly calls “my twin brother”; and research entomologist and UC Davis-educated Melody Keena of the U.S. Forest Service.
Leal and Simmons co-chaired the 2016 International Congress of Entomology conference, “Entomology Without Borders,” held in Orlando, Florida, that drew nearly 7000 attendees from 101 countries. It was the largest gathering of entomologists in the history of insect science.
Keena received three UC Davis degrees in entomology: her bachelor's degree in 1983; her master's in 1985, and her doctorate in 1988. (See her website.)
Leal, Simmons and Keena will be recognized during the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Societies of America, Canada, and British Columbia, Nov. 13-16, in Vancouver.
As a leading global scientist and inventor in the field of insect olfaction and communication, Leal was named a 2019 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) for his impact in the fields of molecular, cellular biology, and entomology. (Due to the COVID pandemic, the organization cancelled the 2020 Phoenix ceremony and Leal received the medal in June 2022.)
“When Walter Leal reached UC Davis, he came with the reputation of being a ‘one man army in research,'” said UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock who received the NAI Fellow award in 2014. Hammock holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. “This reputation was well deserved. I know of no one at UC Davis who matches Walter in taking his remarkable fundamental advances in science and translating them to increase the safety and magnitude of world food production.”
Leal, an expert in insect communication, investigates how insects detect odors, connect and communicate within their species; and detect host and non-host plant matter. His research, spanning three decades, targets insects that carry mosquito-borne diseases as well as agricultural pests that damage and destroy crops. He and his lab drew international attention with their discovery of the mode of action of DEET, the gold standard of insect repellents.
Leal was recently elected chair of the International Congress of Entomology Council, which selects a country to host the congress every four years and which supports the continuity of the international congresses of entomology. Leal succeeds prominent entomologist May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, editor-in-chief of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and a 2014 recipient of the National Medal of Science.
“I have big shoes to fill,” he said.
Federal Grants. For the last 22 years, Leal's research program has drawn support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, commodity groups, research agreements, and gifts from various donors.
He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in a variety of entomology and multidisciplinary journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), Nature, iScience, Journal of Medical Entomology, Insect Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology. His research, with an h-index of 61, has been cited more than 13,500 times.
A native of Brazil, educated in Brazil and Japan, and fluent in Portuguese, Japanese and English, Leal received his master's degree and doctorate in Japan: his master's degree at Mie University in 1987, and his doctorate in applied biochemistry at Tsukuba University in 1990. Leal then conducted research for 10 years at Japan's National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science and the Japan Science and Technology Agency before joining the faculty of the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2000. He chaired the department from July 2006 to February 2008.
Leal has served ESA for more than two decades, organizing symposia at the annual meetings, and serving as secretary, president, and past president of the ESA Integrative Physiological and Molecular Insect Systems section, now the Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology section. “He organized more than a dozen program and section symposia and included outstanding scholars and newly minted ESA members as speakers or co-organizers,” ESA noted. “These symposia included sponsored luncheons, social hours, and discussion sessions to promote interaction among attendees and speakers and build and cement collaborations.”
Highly Honored by Peers. Highly honored by his peers, Leal is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (2015) and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), ESA (2009), and California Academy of Sciences (2015). He received both the Medal of Achievement (1995) and the Medal of Science (2008) from the Entomological Society of Brazil and the 1998 Gakkaisho from the Japanese Society of Applied Entomology and Zoology. In 2019, ESA selected him to deliver the Founders' Memorial Lecture on "Tom Eisner: An Incorrigible Entomophile and Innovator Par Excellence."
The International Society of Chemical Ecology honored him with its Silverstein-Simeone Award (2007) and the Silver Medal (2012). In 2012, Leal was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Science (inducted in 2013). For his creativity in entomology, Leal received ESA's Nan Yao Su Award (2011) and was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2019). The UC Davis Academic Senate awarded him both the Distinguished Teaching Award (2020) and the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award (2022).