- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Most entomologists I know maintain a keen sense of humor.
They have to, or the insects (or the people concerned about them) will drive them buggy!
At the Northern California Entomology Society meeting in
He talked about the release of several parasitoids, including Trichogramma sp., an egg parasitoid; Meteorus trachynotus, a larval parasitoid; and Enytus eureka, a larval parasitoid.
These are the critters that can kill the light brown apple moth. The pest, known as LBAM or the "eat-everything moth," loves the Califonria climate.
Roltsch talked about biocontrol test sites in the
Roltsch, a CDFA senior environmental research scientist who received his doctorate in entomology from
And now LBAM.
LBAM lays about 60 eggs at a time, sometimes up to 100. It’s a native of
Its hosts include crops (grape vines, pome, stone fruit and citrus), shrubs (coral pea, tea tree, broom and Asteracae, the sunflower family) and weeds (capeweed, plantain and dock).
Roltsch talked about how much LBAM loves the Australian tea tree (Leptospermum laevigatium); manzanita, bottle brush, and other plants.
But wait, he didn't say anything about my favorite plant, the New Zealand tea tree, Leptospermum scoparium keatleyi. A sea captain named Edward John "Ted" Keatley (probably one of my relatives) discovered the cultivar in the early 1900s in
I'm sure LBAM loves that plant, too, just as it loves everything else. It's not a picky eater.
During the question and answer period, a Contra Costa County resident asked Roltsch: “How did LBAM know to settle in three counties that do not allow aerial spraying:
That question drew one of the biggest laughs of the day.
Ol' LBAM is a clever cuss. It not only eats everything but it's trained in survival skills.
I do know this: Capt. Keatley had nothing to do with transporting LBAM here.
Honest.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Not again!
The light brown apple moth, also known as "the eat-everything moth" because its larvae dine on about 250 host plants, is back in the news again.
We received a press release yesterday (Nov. 5) from Stephen Pierce, public information officer for the City of
This is the third appearance of the light brown apple moth
As of Nov. 5, the number of individual moths found in
Unfortunately, the new find is near agriculture production areas, mostly grapes and olives.
Said
Ironically, the Northern California Entomology Society will meet today (Nov. 6) and invasive pests are on the menu...er...agenda. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Contra Costa County
The society, comprised of university faculty, researchers, pest abatement professionals, students and other interested persons, meets three times a year: the first Thursday in February at the Hungry Hunter, Fairfield; the first Thursday in May at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis; and the first Thursday in November at the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District office, Concord. Membership dues are $10 year. UC Davis Exension apiculturist (bee specialist) Eric Mussen is the society's secretary-treasurer (ecmussen@ucdavis.edu).
LBAM is nobody's favorite insect and everybody's favorite target. If you spot it, call the CDFA toll-free pest hotline at (800) 491-1899. You can also find more information on its Web site.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
UC Davis medical entomologist Thomas Scott is mentioned in "The War on Dengue Fever," a news article published Nov. 3, 2008 in the New York Times.
Scott is a leading expert on dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease transmitted by Aeges egypti.
Reporter Thomas Fuller began his story:
BANGKOK — There was little that doctors could do for a 3-year-old boy brought to Bangkok’s main children’s hospital two weeks ago with dengue fever. Like thousands before him, he had reached the most dangerous phase of the disease, dengue shock syndrome, and he died of internal bleeding and organ failure three days after being admitted.
The U.S. Army maintains a medical research laboratory in Bangkok, where military scientists study tropical diseases. One of their goals: to develop a vaccine for dengue.
Here's where Scott comes in:
"The mosquito can breed in something as small as a soda bottle, but its ideal breeding conditions are large containers common in many parts of Southeast Asia to store drinking water," Fuller wrote. "(Unlike other mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti prefers clean water, according to Thomas W. Scott, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who is a leading expert on the species.)"
We wrote about researcher Scott's work in July: On the Trail of Dengue: A Disease with No Vaccine, No Cure.
Scott's goal is to save lives through research, surveillance and implementation of disease prevention strategies. He maintains field stations in Peru, Mexico and Thailand.
He's studying "the patterns of human infection with dengue virus, doing detailed studies of mosquito populations and disease in humans in order to predict which prevention strategies work the best."
Basically, Scott assesses risks, develops computer models and implements disease prevention strategies.
Briefly:
The culprit: Aedes egypti, or the yellow-fever mosquito, that transmits dengue virus to people.
The disease: Dengue, caused by any one of four serotypes or closely related viruses known as DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, or DEN-4. Nicknamed “break bone fever,” classic dengue is characterized by high fever, headaches, muscle and joint pain, nausea, vomiting and a rash.
The prevalence: Some 50 to 100 million annual cases of debilitating dengue fever. The most severe form of the disease, dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), strikes half a million a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An estimated 5 percent with DHF die.
The CDC says dengue outbreaks occur in most tropical urban areas of the world where the Aedes egypti lives.
In the United States, dengue is rare. Occasionally travelers to infected areas return with the disease.
Now the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, is attempting to develop a vaccine for dengue. As New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller wrote, quoting Col. James Boles, the laboratory commander: "There's no dengue in Kansas. No malaria, either. That's why we are here."
And that's why medical entomologists like Thomas Scott are here, too.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What a series!
You won't want to miss the Consilience of Art and Science speaker series that gets under way Nov. 12 and continues through April 9 at the University of California, Davis.
The lectures are free and open to the public.
UC Davis entomologist Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology, helped initiate this series.
Ullman and artist Donna Billick, co-directors of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, are devoted to the fusion of art and science. They anticipate that the centennial colloquium will stimulate interaction and discussion as the distinguished scholars focus on the “interlocking principles that bind art and science.”
The first speaker is Corey Keller, associate curator of photography for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She'll deliver her presentation on "Sight Unseen: Picturing the Invisible, 1840 to 1900" from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the Activities and Recreation Center, Ballrooms A and B.
Keller will discuss what the early photomicrographs, astrophotographs, motion studies, and x-rays meant to science and how these pictures of the invisible touched people.
Keller will show some of the first astrophotographs, “which resulted from emulsion coated plates that could collect and accumulate light through the telescope over many hours, thus revealing stars and galaxies that were not visible when looking through the telescope with the human eye--which can’t accumulate light to create images,” Ullman said.
“They were quite popular and published in popular science magazines of the time, like La Nature,” Ullman said.
Van Gogh was reportedly so awed by the astrophotographs that they influenced his famous painting, Starry Night.
Later, the series will delve into art and insects. Catherine Chalmers, a professional artist and author of Food Chain who explores the connections between humans and insects, will speak Jan. 7.
For more information, see Consilience of Art and Science.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ah, rain!
Ah, liquid precipitation!
Just when we were feeling drought-stressed, the weather forecast turned to rain.
I don't know if "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain," but the rain in Northern California fell squarely on our bee friendly garden last weekend.
The honey bees weren't there, but the hover flies, aka syrphids and flower flies (family Syrphidae), were.
Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. --Stanley Horowitz