- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Noted integrated pest management specialist (IPM) Frank Zalom, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, recently received the Perry Adkisson Distinguished Speaker Award from Texas A&M University, College Station, and presented a seminar on “Invasive Species, Integrated Pest Management, and One Perspective from the West Coast.”
Zalom said it was a great honor to receive the award. "Perry Lee Adkisson is among the icons of integrated pest management (IPM)," he said, "and one of the people that I have most looked up to since starting my career in entomology."
Adkisson, chancellor emeritus of the Texas A&M University System and a distinguished professor, now emeritus, at Texas A&M, was the first-ever recipient of all three of the world's major prizes in agriculture: the Alexander von Humboldt Award, the Wolf Prize, and the World Food Prize. He and colleague Ray Smith are credited with developing integrated pest management (IPM).
Both Zalom and Adkisson are past presidents of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and both are fellows.
Zalom, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, joined the UC Davis faculty in 1980 as the Extension IPM coordinator for the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) and then served as the UC IPM director for 16 years before returning to the Department of Entomology in 2002.
Known nationally and globally for his IPM leadership, Zalom co-chaired the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities' National IPM Committee (NIPMCC) from 1999-2015. He also has served as an IPM representative to the Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy (ESCOP) Science and Technology Committee since 2003, USDA Western Region IPM Competitive Grants program manager for 10 years, and on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Board of Directors for the IPM CRSP (Collaborative Research Support Programs) from 2001-2005.
Zalom organized and co-chaired--with presidents of four other entomological societies--the first ever International Entomology Leadership Summit, spanning two days within the 2016 International Congress of Entomology (ICE) meeting in September in Orlando, Fla.
Highly honored by his peers, Zalom is an elected fellow of four scientific organizations: ESA, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Royal Entomological Society (London) and the California Academy of Sciences. He is a past president of the Pacific Branch of ESA. He continues to serve as a member of the Entomological Foundation's Board of Directors and the ESA's Science Policy Committee.
Some of his most recent honors: the Entomological Foundation IPM Team Award, the Entomological Foundation Excellence in IPM Award, and the Outstanding Mentor Award from the UC Davis Consortium for Women and Research. He served as the department's vice chair from 2005-08.
Zalom has authored more than 335 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books, and has served as major professor for 12 Ph.D. students and seven master's students.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Dr. Ehler had a remarkable career at UC Davis,” said Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “In his research he built upon fundamental investigations in integrated pest management (IPM) to provide practical biological control for many different systems. Les was both a national leader in the discipline of biological control, and an outstanding citizen of the department and university.”
Dr. Ehler, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 1973 and retired in January 2008, was the first biological control specialist on campus and was known as the “quintessential biological control researcher.”
For four decades he championed the use of natural enemies to control agricultural pests and warned of the dangers of pesticides.
Dr. Ehler co-edited the 1990 book, Critical Issues in Biological Control and served four years as president and four years as past president of the International Organization for Biological Control. He also chaired the Entomological Society of America's Biological Control Section.
At UC Davis, Dr. Ehler battled pests such as obscure scale and aphids on oaks, stink bugs on tomato, aphids on sugar beet and white fir, and beet armyworm on alfalfa and sugar beet. His expertise ranges from the theory and practice of biological control to the ecology and management of insects and mites in natural, agricultural and urban environments.
“Les was a meticulous researcher and an excellent applied field ecologist,” said colleague and close friend Extension entomologist Larry Godfrey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Entomology. “When he took on a research project, you were confident the project would be conducted well and all aspects of the system considered. He made major contributions to our understanding of stink bug ecology and biological control of stink bugs. Les was also excellent at transferring his knowledge via classroom teaching.”
In the late 1990s, Dr. Ehler discovered that pill bugs, also known as roly-poly bugs, prey on the eggs of stink bugs. Up to then, most entomologists classified pill bugs as strictly vegetarians. Stink bugs, major agricultural pests, suck the juices from legume and brassica seeds and fruit of other crops.
In the early 1980s, Dr. Ehler led the Davis team that documented the environmental impact of malathion-bait sprays used to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly. The organophosphate was credited with killing the medfly, but also beneficial insects such as honey bees, and natural enemies of various insect pests.
In one study, Dr. Ehler assessed the non-target effects of malathion in the Bay Area. His studies in Woodside, a San Mateo County community on the San Francisco Peninsula, revealed that populations of a native gall midge exploded 90 times the normal level. Ehler compared the gall midge population in Woodside -- where planes sprayed up to 24 malathion applications -- to the untouched Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve near Stanford University. The gall midge is a gnatlike insect pest that lays its eggs in plants; the burrowing larvae form galls.
Dr. Ehler also helped organic farmers solve problems. He designed a stink bug management program for Yolo County organic farmer Robert Ramming of Pacific Star Gardens after learning of the stink bug invasion in his tomato fields.
“The stink bugs were overwintering in his backyard and in the spring, emerging to dine on mustard and then tomatoes,” Dr. Ehler noted in the feature story. “Stink bugs don't seem to prefer tomatoes — they like mustard and wild radish — but when these hosts were plowed under and no longer available, the bugs went for the tomatoes.” Solution: Don't cut the mustard. Plow it under only when the stink bugs aren't a threat to the tomatoes — that is, before they develop wings and disperse.
Quotes from the January 2008 feature story:
- Yolo County organic farmer Robert Ramming of Pacific Star Gardens: “Les determined what stink bugs prefer, their habitat and where they were overwintering. “We planted a five-foot strip of ‘trap' or ‘bribe' crops (mustard and wild radish) around the tomato fields and got rid of 90 percent of the stink bugs.”
- Rachael Long, a UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Yolo, Solano, Sacramento counties: “I greatly admire Les for his contributions to IPM that have helped us better understand the biology of some of our major agricultural pests and how to manage them. Les is one of those extraordinary field researchers with a broad knowledge of entomology that make him a great resource for information. In collaborating with Les on various projects I have a much better understanding on how landscapes impact IPM in cropping systems which I believe will help conservation efforts and improve pest control in our agricultural systems.”
- Chemical ecologist Walter Leal, then professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology: “Les began teaching biocontrol classes for our department in 1974, drawing hundreds of students. He was trained in the 1960s by the founders of integrated pest management (IPM) and he advocated biological control methods as an important IPM pest control strategy. His work led to a better understanding of how predators and parasites can control pests without pesticides.”
- Entomologist Michael Parrella, then associate dean of agricultural sciences in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences: “Les was the first faculty member hired in the Department of Entomology to teach and advance the science and practice of biological control. Trained in classical biological control at UC Berkeley, he was the heart and soul of biological control at UC Davis, and worked in many biological systems from tomatoes to urban landscapes. For many years, Les maintained his own USDA-certified quarantine laboratory which allowed him to work with biological control agents from all over the world. He was a meticulous researcher who maintained a ‘hands-on' approach with all the projects done in his laboratory and he trained many students who are now leaders in the field of biological control around the world.”
Emeritus professor Harry Kaya of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology said of his close friend and colleague:
"Les and I overlapped as graduate students at UC Berkeley and I have known him for over 45 years. We were reunited as faculty members at UC Davis when I joined the department in 1976. Les was the quintessential entomologist specializing in classical biological control. His research was always thorough and complete and others have commented on his many contributions to the discipline. We co-taught a class on biological control for many years; he covered the theory and application of parasitoids and predators and I did the lectures on pathogens. Les made sure that the students understood the basis for the theoretical aspects of biological control and their application in the field. In the laboratory portion of the class, he took the students into the field to show them biological control agents in action and developed a useful pictorial handout for identifying the common parasitoids and predators found in California. Even in retirement, he assisted farmers in dealing with the stink bug problems in tomatoes."
"Les was the most organized person that I know. Everything in his research lab and office and home had a place and was neatly and logically organized," Kaya noted. "A few years before he retired, he had a plan on what he wanted to do and purchased a fishing boat. The first time we went out, it was clearly a case of the blind leading the blind. We lost more fishing gear without getting a single bite. Les did not see this as a setback, but as a learning experience. He went fishing with professional guides, learned from them, and became an excellent fisherman. He not only took me but many others fishing for striped bass in the Delta, salmon and striped bass in the Sacramento River, and trout, bass, and kokanee at Lake Berryessa."
"I have lost a good friend and colleague. I will miss the many entomological and other stories and his sense of humor we shared on our fishing trips."
Born Jan. 6, 1946 in Lubbock County, Texas and reared on a family farm near the small town of Idalou, Les Ehler received his bachelor's degree in entomology from Texas Tech University, and his doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley. He joined UC Davis in 1973 as an assistant professor, advancing in 1985 to professor of entomology and entomologist in the UC Davis Experiment Station. Dr. Ehler was an avid fisherman and enjoyed fishing, particularly for sturgeon and salmon.
He is survived by his son Brian of Susanville, Calif., and daughter Mary Ehler Yung and husband, Eric, of Sacramento, and granddaughters Emma Yung and Georgiana Grace Yung. He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Joseph, and sister Loretta. He is survived by brothers Eugene (Mary) of Denton, TX, Howard (Rita) of Midland, TX and sisters Jan Chapman (Carl) of Houston, TX and Amy Willingham of Irving, TX. He is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Lewis is recognized as a global leader in using nematodes as biological agents, said nematologist Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Lewis will receive the award at PBESA's 100th annual meeting, “Science for the Next Century,” set April 3-6 in Honolulu. PBESA is comprised of 11 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming), parts of Canada and Mexico, and seven U.S. territories.
Lewis is now an applicant for the national IPM award, to be presented by ESA at its September meeting in Orlando, Fla.
IPM specialist Frank Zalom, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology and a past president of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America, praised “Ed's outstanding contributions to our state, national and global agricultural research.”
“Ed's work involves five of our state's 10 most valued commodities: almonds, a $5.9 billion crop, strawberries, $2.5 billion; walnuts, $1.8 billion; tomatoes, $1.6 billion and pistachios, $1.6 billion (2014 statistics),” said Zalom, a past recipient of the Pacific Branch and national IPM awards. “Also in 2014, California's agricultural exports amounted to $21.59 billion in value. Thus, in many respects, California feeds the world, and Ed's research is integral to controlling insects and nematodes.”
“Dr. Lewis has one of the most diversified research programs that I have known,” Nadler said. “He collaborates regularly with many different constituencies ranging from small startup companies to various commodity boards in order to take information from basic laboratory research and apply it to field situations. What ties together many of these projects is biological control of pest organisms with a focus on sustainability and integrated pest management.”
“Dr. Lewis' lab has been instrumental in using entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) to implement biological control of a large variety of insect pests,” Nadler pointed out. “His research with these nematodes has focused on investigating the ecological factors that relate to host-finding, persistence in soil, and their efficacy in field situations.”
In addition to understanding factors that influence nematode success, the Lewis laboratory “has worked to understand how other approaches, such as novel fertilizers, can work in combination to increase plant productivity,” Nadler said.
“Few scientists working with EPNs have designed and implemented such detailed and relevant studies to characterize what happens to nematodes under field conditions,” Nadler noted. “Importantly, use of EPNs to control naval orangeworm is effective and can reduce the need for pesticide applications.”
Research entomologist David Shapiro-Ilan of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service said that Lewis' research has “contributed immensely to the disciplines of entomology and IPM.”
“Dr. Lewis has clearly emerged as a world leader in research and application of entomopathogenic nematodes or EPNs,” said Shapiro-Ilan.
A native of New York, Lewis received his doctorate in entomology in 1991 from Auburn (Ala.) University and then accepted postdoctoral positions at Rutgers University and the University of Maryland. He then moved to Virginia Tech to join the entomology faculty there.
Lewis joined the UC Davis faculty in 2004. He serves as the editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Biological Control. He is also known for teaching two highly popular classes at UC Davis: “Behavioral Ecology of Insects” and “Biological Control of Agricultural Pests.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Integrated pest management specialist Frank Zalom, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and plant pathologist Mysore "Sudhi" Sudarshana with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, based at UC Davis, organized the webinar. The event is supported by the Regional IPM centers as part of the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
Registration is underway at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/536624718414291457
GRB and the virus associated with it have been confirmed in many major grape production regions of the United States and Canada, said Zalom, the lead author of the newly published Regional Pest Alert on the North Central IPM Center website. Several research teams across North America, Zalom said, “have been intensely characterizing the disease and effects on grapevines, as well as characterizing the virus, its spread and potential management” since the discovery of the virus in 2011.
Zalom cited considerable progress, “but much remains unknown. Speakers representing many of the labs will present their work and what it means for the grape industry.”
“Red leaf symptoms that differed from other known red leaf diseases affecting grape foliage were first noticed in vineyards planted with red wine grape cultivars in Napa County, California, in 2008,” he wrote in the Regional Pest Alert. “A virus now known as Grapevine Red Blotch-associated virus (GRBaV) was subsequently identified in grapevines exhibiting red blotch symptoms in 2011. It is now confirmed that red blotch disease is present in many major grape production regions of the United States and Canada.”
The agenda:
- 10 a.m.: Welcome and Introduction
Frank Zalom, UC Davis - 10:05: History of red blotch, symptoms and significance
Mysore "Sudhi" Sudarshana, USDA's Agricultural Research Service, USDA-ARS, Davis, Calif. - 10:20: Etiology of red blotch
Marc Fuchs, Cornell University, Geneva, N.Y. - 10:35: Detection and genetic diversity of the virus
Keith Perry, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. - 10:50: Effect of red blotch on grapevine performance
Rhonda Smith, UC Cooperative Extension, Sonoma County - 11:05 Red blotch situation in Oregon
Vaughn Walton, Oregon State University and Bob Martin, USDA-ARS, Corvallis, Ore. - 11:20: Red blotch and the virus in Canada
S. Poojari, T. Lowery, A-M. Schmidt, M. Rott, W. Mcfadden-Smith, L. Stobbs, and J.R. Urbez-Torres, Agri-Canada - 11:35: Red blotch and the virus in Europe
Jean-Sebastian Reynard, Agroscope, Switzerland - 11:50: Virus spread, disease gradient, and insects
Brian Bahder, Frank Zalom lab, UC Davis - 12:05: Foundation Plant Services (FPS) and National Clean Plant Network (NCPN) protecting the supply chain of grapevines from red blotch
Deborah Golino, FPS, UC Davis - 12:20: Questions and answers
Moderated by Frank Zalom
Related Links:
- Regional Pest Alert on Grapevine Red Blotch-associated virus (PDF on North Central IPM Website)
- Link to Webinar registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/536624718414291457
- Biosketches on speakers: http://www.ipmcenters.org/index.cfm/center-products/ipm-eacademy/upcoming-events/red-blotch-speakers/
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“The agricultural sector in California is so exciting, because of its diversity and economic importance,” said Nansen, whose agricultural entomology expertise encompasses seven countries including his native Denmark. “Secondly, there is a strong spirit of innovation in this region, and I hope to contribute to the development of highly advanced crop monitoring systems and decision support tools, so that farming practices can become less reliant on pesticides.”
“I also believe that the strong academic programs at UC Davis with ecology and evolution are of incredible value, and that we can integrate the basic theory from these disciplines into the fundamental of crop management to obtain more sustainable farming systems,” Nansen said. “As an example of a line of research I am interested in – application of fertilizers obviously affect crop growth, but they also affect the attractiveness of crops to many insect pests, and they influence the ability of plants to resist attacks by several important insect pests.”
“So, how can we optimize use of crop fertilizers to stimulate yields but also minimize risks of pest infestations? The answer to such a question is underpinned by in-depth understanding about host selection ecology and about fitness and evolutionary processes involved in host adaptation. In other words, it is critically important to demonstrate how we can use studies of agricultural systems to learn about the ecology of species and their food webs and evolutionary processes.”
At UC Davis, Nansen is focusing on four major themes: host plant stress detection, host selection by arthropods, pesticide performance, and use of reflectance-based imaging in a wide range of research applications.
As part of his undergraduate studies, Nansen took time off to travel to Brazil to write a book about sustainable agriculture in rainforest areas. “In this process, I learned about the potential of honey bees as both pollinators of crops but also as ‘promoters' more broadly of sustainable agricultural development,” Nansen said.
Nansen wrote his master's thesis on honey bees: “The Apis mellifera Forging Response to the Pollen Availability in Cistus salvifolius.” The plant isalso known as a sage-leaved rock rose or Gallipoli rose. He conducted field work in Portugal involving pollen identification, observations on daily flight and foraging activity, and modeling of pollen availability.
For his doctorate, his interest turned to the larger grain borer, a serious pest of stored maize and dried cassava roots. He wrote his dissertation on “The Spatial Distribution and Potential Hosts of the Larger Grain Borer, Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae), in a forest in Benin, West Africa.” His research involved stored product insect ecology, field trapping with pheromone traps, experimental work on pheromone production, vegetation analysis, satellite image interpretation, laboratory infestation of potential breeding substrates, and histological studies.
“Agricultural entomology has given me so many opportunities to travel and work internationally, and that has been extremely rewarding,” he said. “I am passionate about food production and how to produce food ‘smartly' – so that it is profitable and also environmentally sustainable. And insects are critically important in manipulated food webs, such as, a crop field, forest, orchard, or horticultural greenhouse. I enjoy studying their ecological roles in these systems and how we can use that information to develop smarter ways to produce food.”
Nansen recalled that his childhood exposures to international scientists played a major role in his choice of a career. His father, a professor in veterinary parasitology, entertained many colleagues in the family home. “And my mother cooked the food! This is probably the main reasons why I enjoy both cooking and why my career has been so international.”
“Even though Denmark is a very small country (5 million people),” Nansen said, “it has been at the forefront of agricultural research and production for many decades. And growing up, my father took me on field trips and exposed me to farming systems.” In fact, young Christian earned his weekly allowance in the chicken business: he sold eggs to neighbors.
Nansen said he is delighted to see a “steadily growing appreciation for the origin and quality of the food we eat. Today, in the 21st century, the technologies deployed in modern agriculture are so advanced and similar to the cutting-edge technologies in other fields, he said. “Those technologies require skill sets beyond what most people may be aware of. Use of drones, remote sensing, GIS models, mathematical models of weather, crop physiology and soil dynamics, models to optimize input requirements and minimize economic risks, phone apps to optimize applications of agro-chemicals – these are all skill sets and approaches we are using as part of studying food production systems and developing innovative and reliable tools to be used within the agricultural sector.”
Nansen previously held faculty positions at Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and most recently at the University of Western Australia. As a university employee, the most common way to “create impact” is by influencing the minds and interests of students, but also of particular stakeholders,” he said.
“While working in Texas, we developed a very effective sampling method for an important insect pest in potato fields, and a 4th generation potato grower (Bruce Barrett) actually changed his management strategy because of our sampling method: he purchased the equipment needed and hired people specifically to conduct insect sampling, as he saw how use of this method could save him thousands of dollars on insecticide sprays--because he would now have a much better idea about when and where to spray. Recently, in Australia we demonstrated to farmers that sub-optimal maintenance of their stored seed grain led to loss of crop vigor and therefore a loss in crop yields. That is, if the seed grain is poorly managed, then stored grain infestations will likely occur, and these beetles will damage the kernels so they don't germinate. We provided simple guidelines for how the grain storage practices could be improved, so quite a few farmers are now following our guidelines to optimize the vigor of their seed grain.”
“Sometimes, we can go further and actually develop tools or gadgets which end-users may find useful. As an example, we have developed a freely available phone app to optimize pesticide spray applications based on weather and spray settings (http://agspsrap31.agric.wa.gov.au/snapcard/). The main goal with this phone app is to guide farmers so that they obtain the best possible spray coverage--to reduce risk of pests developing resistance--and to encourage them NOT to spray pesticides under unfavorable conditions.”