Researchers Aim to Cut Through the Complexity of Managing Early-Season Crop Pests
Assessing the potential risk of minor, sporadic early-season pests is challenging. A new collection of profiles in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management aims to help growers and IPM professionals make more-informed decisions about whether methods such as preventative insecticide seed treatments are warranted.
A New Stink Bug Species Named After a Stink Bug Person
A newly described species of stink bug is named in honor of distinguished entomologist and stink-bug expert Jay McPherson, Ph.D., whose advice to an early-career entomologist led to the specimen being deemed its own species rather than a subspecies.
New and Easy Marking Method Tracks Bees Without Killing Them
A new study published in the Journal of Insect Science outlines a new technique that quickly, simply, and inexpensively marks bees to track their movement—and it's non-lethal, too. It could make for an valuable improvement for mark-and-recapture methods for these pollinators.
Got Spotted Lanternfly Eggs on Your Tree? Send ‘Em Through the Wood Chipper
The invasive spotted lanternfly often lays its eggs on tree limbs and trunks. A new study finds that putting infested wood through a wood chipper effectively destroys spotted lanternfly egg masses, and researchers recommend the practice for reducing the potential spread of the pest.
More Research Needed to Better Balance Honey Bees and Native Bees
A review of existing research on floral resource competition between managed honey bees and wild bees shows gaps in our knowledge about such interactions and calls for further research to better inform decisions on honey bee management and pollinator protection.
Insect-Based Chicken Feed Can Benefit Farmers and Environment
A new study on insect-based chicken feed, made from black soldier fly larvae, finds an improved cost-benefit ratio and return on investment compared to soybean- or fish-based chicken feed.
Do Managed Burns in Grasslands Benefit Butterflies?
Though under-used, prescribed fire can reinstate natural disturbance regimes in the North American Great Plains. The Range Science program at North Dakota State University is studying how this practice affects the local ecosystem, including its impact on pollinators such as butterflies.
Tastes Like Chicken: Hydrogel Shows Promise as Yellowjacket Bait
Existing baits for yellowjackets require fresh meat as an attractant, but a new study finds that hydrogel makes an adequate substitute, absorbing insecticide and giving a tactile resemblance to meat to effectively bait yellowjackets in the same manner.
What Gives This Butterfly Species the Only Blue Wings in its Subtribe?
Males of the butterfly species Mimeresia neavei feature blue, structurally colored wings, the only species in the Mimacraeina subtribe to do so. Researchers in Hungary credit M. neavei's blue wings to a form of coloration found in several butterfly groups but not experimentally examined within Lycaenidae.
Hessian Fly: New Guide Details Wheat Pest Management
The Hessian fly is a major pest of wheat around the world. A new guide in the open-access Journal of Integrated Pest Management outlines the fly's biology and life cycle and an array of tactics that can be combined to manage the pest.
Cold-Season Temperature and Rainfall Drive Climate Suitability for Ticks in California
A new CDC study finds cold-season temperature and rainfall are the two leading factors that determine climate suitability for ticks within California, deeming the state's far northern coast and the western Sierra Nevada foothills as the most likely habitat for the western blacklegged tick.
New CDC Tick Study Adds to Promise of Permethrin-Treated Clothing
Experiments conducted at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed clothing treated with permethrin had strong toxic effects on three primary germ-carrying tick species, interfering with the ticks' ability to move properly and likely interfering with their ability to bite.
Want a Wall-Walking Robot? Look to the Honey Bees
Research into the pattern of walking in honey bees as they scale a vertical surface shows they switch their style of gait when turning compared to when walking in a straight line. The insights into bees' biomechanics may have future applications in robotics.
Cannibalism in Mosquito Larvae Confounds Egg Counts
New research shows that late-stage Anopheles gambiae larvae will eat eggs and first-instar larvae of their own species, calling into question the common view that females of the mosquito species avoid laying eggs in water where other larvae are already present.
Researchers Propose Standardized Naming of Lab-Reared Insect Stocks
Entomologists at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Canada have crafted a standardized naming convention for their laboratory insect stocks, and they suggest other similar facilities could adopt the naming format, as well.
Testing Shows Dry, Red Sticky Traps Improve Spotted-Wing Drosophila Monitoring
A new study finds spotted-wing drosophila prefer red, glue-covered monitoring traps made of plastic rectangles or spheres compared to the most commonly used clear deli-cup traps. The findings will advance the pursuit of more efficient and effective monitoring techniques for the pest.