Rob Williams

Entomologists find new stink bug to help soybean farmers control damage

September 9, 2015 by Rob Williams

Cover for 9-10-15 story — Redbanded stink bug. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Mo Way, Texas A&M AgriLife Research-Beaumont)

By Kathleen Phillips, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

BEAUMONT — Entomologists in Texas got a whiff of a new stink bug doing economic damage to soybeans in Texas and are developing ways to help farmers combat it, according to a report in the journal Environmental Entomology.

Various types of stink bugs have long been a problem on soybean crops, but when sweeps of fields in southeast Texas netted 65 percent redbanded stink bugs, entomologists realized this particular bug had become the predominant pest problem, according to Dr. Mo Way, an entomologist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Beaumont.

Suhas Vyavhare spraying soybeans in a redbanded stink bug experiment---photo by mo way — Suhas Vyavhare spraying soybeans in a redbanded stink bug experiment. Photo by Dr. Mo Way.

The problem was no one in the U.S. knew much about the redbanded stink bug and how it had been able to overcome the previously predominant southern green stink bug, green stink bug and brown stink bug, Way said. An insect’s life cycle and biology have to be understood before scientists can figure out ways to control it.

Texas farmers plant a little less than 200,000 acres of soybeans a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

“The redbanded stink bug has been a serious pest of soybeans in South America since the 1960s,” said Dr. Suhas Vyavhare, a postdoc at the Beaumont center who began his work on the insect as a graduate student there. “It was never a problem in the United States until around 2000. Prior to that, it was known to be in the soybean fields, but that’s when it was first reported in Louisiana as being an economic pest.”

Not only did the research team find insect numbers at economically damaging levels in Texas but also determined that the redbanded stink bug was becoming resistant to the organophosphate chemical that previously had provided effective control, said Vyavhare, who collaborated with Way and AgriLife Research entomologist Dr. Raul Medina in College Station.

“We started by looking at population dynamics, or how abundant redbanded stink bug is in Texas,” Vyavhare said. “We did sweep net surveys across various commercial soybean fields in southeast Texas. We also looked at insect-plant interaction in order to determine what soybean growth stages are most susceptible to redbanded stink bug damage so we could target pest management practices.”

He said the researchers also had an inkling the redbanded stink bug was responsible for what is known as delayed maturity syndrome in which the soybean plant does not grow at its normal rate. They tested this theory by subjecting a controlled growth of soybeans to different densities of redbanded stink bugs and found that the insect is directly connected to the disorder.

“There are more than 50 species of stink bugs found in soybeans. Some of them are beneficial and some are pests,” Vyavhare said. “The redbanded stink bug as compared to the other pest stink bugs is smaller, and it has the ability to fly faster. So it is very agile, and that contributes to its movement into different areas, and it could be one of the reasons why it is not that susceptible to insecticides because when a farmer sprays the field, they could be escaping before the chemical reaches them.”

Finding that the insect is becoming resistant to the common insecticide used as well as the fact that more frequent doses were required to control them was a significant point in the research, Vyavhare said.

“Now we are recommending that farmers use different products rather than the same one over and over,” he said. “So that could reduce the amount of insecticide that is applied. Even if we can reduce the need for one insecticide application, that could save millions of dollars in Texas and the other infected states each year.”

The team is also hoping to continue research with other control possibilities such as using a trap crop planted near soybeans to attract the insects away or developing redbanded stink bug-resistant soybean varieties.

Way said the team also is revising a soybean pest management guide last published in 1999 so farmers will know steps that can be taken to reduce crop damage from the redbanded stink bug.

Chong Chin Heo Receives Top TAMU Awards For Research Excellence

September 3, 2015 by Rob Williams

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Chong Chin Heo’s research has been recognized at the higher level as he recently received the Vice President for Research’s Excellence Award and the Sigma Xi Interdisciplinary Award for his outstanding research efforts.

Heo is a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Jeffery Tomberlin’s FLIES lab and received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences and Masters in Parasitology from the National University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Heo’s interest in research started when he learned about the devastating impacts of parasites and insects to human and animal health globally. Heo is wanting to focus mainly on the application of insects in helping criminal investigations.

With his research, Heo is studying the ability of ecosystem recovery, called resilience following disturbance. Heo is using carrion, or decaying animal flesh, as his model system to determine the resiliency in nutrient cycling where blow fly colonization is delayed for an extended period of time, similar to events in nature, such as weather or concealment.

Heo is specifically studying the impact that events in nature on associated microbial metabolism, insect composition and succession, soil nutrient shifts and soil mite population dynamics. His ultimate goal is to understand how ecosystems respond to disturbances and how fast they recover as the ability to recover is the most fundamental process in food production and resource sustainability. Heo’s findings can be used to develop novel techniques or indicators for forensic investigations, such as determining the time and location of death.

Heo also received first place in the Oral Presentation section of the Plant Sciences, Animal Sciences, Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Entomology, Agriculture and Ecological Restoration category during the Student Research Week competition in March. Heo tied with Carl Hjelmen for first place in the same category.

“I felt very happy for receiving this award and I think it is an encouragement for me to excel in academic and research in my future career,” Heo said. “My advisor, Dr. Jeff Tomberlin and lab members are the key supporters and I would like to thank all of them for creating a conducive research environment for everyone’s success.”

Tomberlin was very proud of Heo for his hard work and dedication to the lab and his research.

“I am very proud of Chin and his accomplishments,” Tomberlin said. “He has done a tremendous job bridging multiple disciplines to explain the nature of decomposition and nutrient recycling. Chin has a very bright future in academia!”

Grad Students Receive Awards During Forum

August 28, 2015 by Rob Williams

Chong Chin Heo, right, received first place. Photos by Rob Williams

The Department of Entomology recently recognized four students as they received recognition for their outstanding research presentations during the Eighteenth Annual Graduate Student Forum on August 27.

The forum allows graduate students to present their research in front of their peers. Presenters had a total of 15 minutes to present their research and field questions from the audience.

Of the 15 presenters, Chong Chin Heo received first place for his talk titled “Ecosystem resilience of carrion experiencing delayed Diptera colonization” and Paula Castillo for her talk titled “RNAi as a new alternative for fire ant gene target validation toward population control.”

Paula Castillo, right, receiving the second place award from Department Head Dr. David Ragsdale

Heo is a Ph.D. student mentored by Dr. Jeffery Tomberlin and Castillo is a Ph.D. student mentored by Dr. Patricia Pietrantonio.

Xanthe Shirley and Wei “Ivy” Chen tied for third place during the competition. Shirley’s presentation was titled “Phylogenetic relationships among species in Aphelinus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)” and Chen’s was “New Aspects of Sterols in Plant-Insect Interactions”.

Shirley is a Master of Science student mentored by Dr. Jim Woolley and Chen is a Ph.D. student that is co-advised by Drs. Spence Behmer and Keyan Zhu-Salzman.

Wei “Ivy” Chen, left, and Xanthe Shirley, right, with Dr. David Ragsdale, center. Photo by Rob Williams.

All winners received a certificate and a cash prize during a special awards ceremony following the main session.

IPM Professionals Receive Experience at New Training House

August 24, 2015 by Rob Williams

By: Paul Schattenberg, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

inaugural pest proofing-inside page wordpress — Fourteen pest control professionals and paraprofessionals recently participated in the first IPM Experience House Class presented by the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo)

DALLAS – The Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas recently held an inaugural hands-on integrated pest management, or IPM, training class for more than a dozen professionals and paraprofessionals in the business of pest control.

The class was the first to be offered using the IPM Experience House, a facility designed to train pest-control professionals how to control pests more safely and effectively.

“This was the first time for the center to host a program based on hands-on demonstrations of pest exclusion practices for homes,” said Dr. Mike Merchant, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service urban entomologist in Dallas and a program presenter. “It was our first class to be offered through the IPM Experience House and we hope it will be the first of many such courses to be offered here.”

The class was part of a rodent exclusion hands-on training for pest control apprentices, technicians and commercial applicators offered by the center. It offered six continuing education credits for commercial applicators, while apprentices and technicians received a course certificate for six hours of attendance.

Members of the pest management community had the chance to do hands on training in several areas at the house. — Members of the pest management community learned hands-on different pest control techniques during a recent training.

“Training at the IPM Experience House was among the hands-on educational opportunities offered during the program,” Merchant said. “The house is a former dormitory building near the center that is in the process of being converted into a classroom. It is being designed to provide a realistic, controlled environment in which to practice the skills and craft of integrated pest management.”

Merchant said special training at the house during the recent program was provided by Tim Madere with the City of New Orleans Mosquito, Rodent and Termite Control Board. Madere is involved in the New Orleans Rat Project, a National Science Foundation-funded multi-disciplinary effort to investigate the ongoing human-rodent interaction after Hurricane Katrina.

After an explanation of learning objectives and review of integrated pest management principles for exclusion at the center, class attendees went to a residential location for instruction on how to seal up a home, including siding, gutters, soffits and flashing. After that, they were taken to the IPM Experience House for additional training.

“IPM Experience House is a facility being designed to provide hands-on training experiences for professionals involved in both structural and landscape pest control,” explained Janet Hurley, AgriLife Extension program specialist for school integrated pest management in Dallas and another of the program presenters. “It is supported by the Texas pest control industry, with staffing and curriculum development being developed by integrated pest management specialists based at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas.”

Hurley said pest management professionals provide critical services to our communities by controlling pests like termites, fire ants, cockroaches, bed bugs, rodents and other important pests.

“Integrated pest management is a way of conducting pest control that seeks the best, science-based solutions, while protecting the environment and human health,” she said.

Merchant added that despite the importance of hands-on learning for adults, most continuing education classes typically involve passive learning, such as listening to lectures and viewing slides.

“But the IPM Experience House adds another dimension to learning and provides an opportunity for hands-on experience that’s usually missing from most IPM training,” he said.

Merchant said a pest control professional and technician from Alvin said they came to Dallas because the program was “a unique opportunity to experience both classroom and hands-on field training in one class.”

“Hands-on training easily becomes a two-way process,” Merchant said. “Not only do students learn from instructors, but we as researchers and teachers learn a lot from our students also. The ultimate goal of IPM Experience House is to raise the level of training of the men and women who come into our homes every day to control rats and wildlife, cockroaches, bedbugs and all sorts of other pests.

“The business of pest control is complex, and each of our experiences are unique, so we all have something to teach. That’s what the IPM Experience House is supposed to be all about — and what we want it to be in the future.”

For more information on the IPM Experience House, go to http://ipmhouse.tamu.edu

To see when the next class will be held, visit http://ipmhouse.tamu.edu/classes

Texas A&M Insect Collection Associate Curator Ed Riley To Retire

August 20, 2015 by Rob Williams

TAMU Insect Systematics group, 1988. From left to right: Joe Schaffner, Horace Burke, Ed Riley, Jim Woolley, and Bob Wharton — Texas A&M University Insect Systematics group, 1988. From left to right: Joe Schaffner, Horace Burke, Ed Riley, Jim Woolley, and Bob Wharton.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas— Associate Curator of the Texas A&M Insect Collection Ed Riley will soon have more time to enjoy insect collecting as he retires on August 31.

Riley will retire at the end of August after working 27+ years as the assistant and associate curator of the Texas A&M Insect Collection within the Department of Entomology.

Ed Riley, TAMU Insect Collection, 2006. Submitted Photo. — Ed Riley, TAMU Insect Collection, 2006.

Riley has been responsible for maintenance and curation of the Texas A&M Insect Collection. During his tenure, the insect collection has nearly tripled in size from one to three million curated specimens. He has been active in promoting the collection to the general public and regional avocational entomologists, and has participated in various research projects. He has been involved in the development and upkeep of the collection’s expansive database since its inception in the late 1990s.

Riley has worked on various research projects while at A&M including surveys of the beetles of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and other select Texas biotic communities, and the taxonomy and systematics of various beetle groups, especially leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae). In addition to local and national travel, Riley also has traveled to several points in Latin America for workshops and collecting expeditions.

Prior to his arrival at TAMU, Riley was a research associate with the Department of Entomology at Louisiana State University for seven years and a research specialist in the University of Missouri Enns Entomology Museum for three years.

Riley received his Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Missouri in 1978 and his Master of Science in Entomology from Louisiana State University in 1988.