Category Archives: News
The pros (and cons) of “Green” golf courses
A mini-debate has been running recently among the small community of entomologists who work with insect pests of turf and ornamental landscapes. It has to do with the growing emergence of green golf courses and a recent story/video at time.com on the Chambers Bay links golf course on Puget Sound in Washington. The discussion was interesting and reveals some of the subtleties of varying opinions on the green movement. Chamber’s Bay is a sustainable, all-fescue, Scottish-links-style course that was built on a reclaimed gravel pit. The course uses… Read More →
Bed bugs in the news
In case you’ve not been paying attention, bed bugs are back. The tiny insect that your grandmother knew too well seemed to have disappeared for a couple of generations (in the U.S. at least) due to some highly effective pesticide use. But now bed bugs are back with a vengeance. The exact cause for this resurgence is not clear, but increased international travel and immigration are the two most likely explanations. A growing resistance to the most commonly used pesticides is also likely a reason for the unwelcome… Read More →
U. S. Department of Agriculture declares August invasive species month
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) this week proclaimed August as “Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month.” According to a press release, beginning this year, APHIS will engage the public each August to increase understanding about the risks that invasive plant pests, diseases and harmful weeds pose to America’s agricultural and natural resources. Texas has more than its share of exotic pests, and more are expected to arrive over the next few years (Reminds me of the bumper sticker, “Not a… Read More →
New disease of walnuts reaches Midwest
A little over one hundred years ago an estimated 4 billion chestnut trees blanketed the eastern hardwood forest of the U.S. Between 1900 and 1908 an accidentally introduced, and most devastating disease, called chestnut blight, was introduced. Forty years later, it was nearly impossible to find a single mature chestnut tree in the eastern U.S. The chestnut illustrates the rapid changes possible with invasive pests. It may, or may not, foreshadow what is about to happen with another important tree, black walnut, Juglans nigra. One of our most… Read More →
What good are mosquitoes?
An article in the July 21 online edition of Nature magazine posed researchers the question, “Would it be a good thing if all mosquitoes were eradicated from the earth?” I’ve often been posed a similar question in slightly different form, namely, “what good are mosquitoes?” Aside from the purely speculative question that Nature asked (we couldn’t get rid of all the mosquitoes in the world in a thousand years if we tried), perhaps a more realistic question would be, “If we could get rid of even one mosquito… Read More →
When is your evergreen a lost cause?
In one sense bagworms are not an especially devastating pest. They have only a single generation each year (therefore are relatively slow to establish) and they don’t spread very quickly, because the female bagworms are wingless. On the other hand, they are well protected from many pesticides by their tight, water-repellent bags. They are also one of our few chewing pests that will tackle evergreen trees and shrubs. If you’ve ever seen a deciduous tree (one that loses its leaves in the fall) defoliated by caterpillars you may… Read More →
In the news this month
Sometimes there are so many news items I just feel the need to post some of them in a batch. So here are some recent or upcoming events and stories. The Master Volunteer Specialist Training in Entomology training date in September is quickly approaching. Any Master volunteer in Texas interested in receiving specialist training in Entomology is encouraged to visit the website for details on registering for this course. Molly Keck, our AgriLife Entomology Program Specialist in San Antonio will be hosting this year, and has a great… Read More →
Don’t read this if you don’t like spiders
A few years ago, some of you may remember, a park ranger at Lake Tawakoni State Park (about 50 miles east of Dallas, TX) reported a giant spider web built by an incredible number of spiders. The discovery was reported around the month before Halloween, so of course the media made a big deal of it and pictures and stories went viral around the world. The site attracted thousands of pilgrims, some from as far away as Europe. For a full account of the excitement, click here. According… Read More →
It ain’t easy being green
A news item caught my eye today. In the story from Science Daily, University of Guelph researchers Rebecca Hallett and Christine Bahlai compared the effectiveness and environmental impact of organic pesticides to those of conventional and novel reduced-risk synthetic products on soybean crops. The result? The two organic pesticides had a greater overall impact on the environment, including unintended mortality of beneficial insects. The point of the research is not to try to say organic pesticides are always inferior, or to strike a blow for conventional pesticides, but… Read More →
Little waxy bugs, little worry
I’ve been receiving some frantic phone calls of late about a small insect that covers the stems of plants with some white waxy material. One person described it as “coming back with a vengance,” after battling it last year. The not-so-fearsome little insect is Metcalfa pruinosa. It’s often a good sign with an insect when it doesn’t have a common name, because we tend to give common names only to insects that are 1) very noticeable, 2) pretty, or 3) pests. This little guy is none of these… Read More →
