Texas A&M Entomology Research Network

Extension News

New AgriLife Extension Service graphic guides target school pests

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by Gabe Saldana, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

The front covers of new AgriLife Extension Service publications (Texas A&M AgriLife illustration)
The front covers of new AgriLife Extension Service publications (Texas A&M AgriLife illustration)

DALLAS —Three new infographics and two detailed publications from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service help demystify the best practices for controlling pests in schools, universities and other areas where humans occupy close quarters.

“The average person, while not a pest control expert, is definitely affected when an infestation occurs,” said Janet Hurley, AgriLife Extension specialist in school integrated pest management, Dallas. “That means the average person is integral to controlling pests, especially where large groups of people converge.”

Hurley, co-author of the new educational materials, called the infographics and publications “a few quick resources that anyone can use to learn simple practices for deterring pests and infestation.”

Each of the new offerings includes science-backed tips for integrated pest management, or IPM — the strategy of managing pests with multiple control tactics, emphasizing lower costs and lower environmental impact.

One infographic in the poster series, “How Students and Teachers Can Stop School Pests,” is a double-sided checklist on measures for pre-empting pest infestation in schools. Another, “How Kitchen Staff can Stop School Pests,” features graphic illustrations on staying ahead of pest problems with regular maintenance and cleanliness habits. The third, “Don’t let the Bedbugs Bite,” is an illustration on four steps for monitoring and controlling bedbugs.

Meanwhile, the seven-page publication “Green Category Pesticides for Use in Texas Schools” is a detailed document on the most current “green category” pest control products for schools and other environments where control measures must account for human safety, Hurley said.

“The publication is a great resource for anyone who works with a pollinator protection or LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, program,” she said. “It can really help determine what low-impact products to use in specific settings.”

Finally, “An Introduction to IPM in Schools: A Manual for Facilities Maintenance Professionals” is an in-depth manual on the steps to successful IPM. It covers how to implement an IPM program in a school or business. The manual is available at the Texas A&M AgriLife Bookstore webpage http://www.agrilifebookstore.org/Intro-to-IPM-in-Schools-p/b-6015.htm for purchase.

Go to http://bit.ly/2hiPgvb for electronic files of the poster series and the seven-page “Green Category Pesticides for Use in Texas Schools.”

Go to https://www.agrilifebookstore.org/category-s/1999.htm to purchase hard copies of the infographic poster series.

Website offers critical mosquito, disease information after Hurricane Harvey

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Screenshot of the Mosquito Safari homepage at mosquitosafari.tamu.edu

by Gabriel Saldana, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

DALLAS — Visitors to the Mosquito Safari website at http://mosquitosafari.tamu.edu will find comprehensive information on common mosquitoes, the diseases they carry and instructions for controlling the pest, said Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service entomologists.

They said the information is critical in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, whose initial rains forced mosquitoes from their habitats into human areas, and whose residual standing waters have created new environments for mosquito breeding.

“The best thing people can do to fight this pest is to arm themselves with knowledge,” said AgriLife Extension entomologist Dr. Mike Merchant, Dallas. “Mosquito Safari gives people the best available scientific information for dealing with these pests, which is especially important following the state’s recent weather events.”

The newly redesigned website identifies the seven types of mosquitoes considered by entomologists to pose the biggest public health concerns. It reviews the diseases they carry by offering in-depth descriptions, video and infographics on effects and symptoms. An interactive “backyard safari” also allows users to explore the places mosquitoes inhabit around the home.

In the face of recent and expected mosquito population surges, Mosquito Safari’s most important offering is mosquito control methods, Merchant said. The site lays out an integrated approach to mosquito control, which includes a range of tools and practices that can be used in tandem to reduce mosquito numbers and to help avoid human contact.

“There are many ways of controlling mosquitoes that involve practices beyond just chemical spray solutions,” Merchant said. “It all depends on the environment where the infestation has occurred. Mosquito Safari is designed to provide control measures for a range of scenarios, using science-backed methods and information.”

Those who wish to learn more about the pests and about what makes the website’s prescribed control methods effective can also use Mosquito Safari to delve deeper into the mosquito’s life cycle. Videos on each stage of the life cycle walk viewers through the mosquito’s development, covering the egg, larva, pupa and adult stages.

“Especially in light of the shocking mosquito numbers we’re seeing now in Harvey-impacted areas, we’re urging people to take advantage of this free, valuable tool,” Merchant said.

Invasive Bagrada bug may cause ‘stink’ in South Central Texas

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by Paul Schattenberg, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

Bagrada bug on white paper
The Bagrada bug, an invasive stink bug which feeds primarily on plants in the cole family, such as broccoli and cabbage, has been found in South Central Texas. (Photo by Dr. Salvador Vitanza)

SAN MARCOS — The Bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris, an invasive stink bug that has been slowly spreading through the southwestern U.S. for the past decade, has recently been reported in Hays County, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service entomologist.

“This bug can cause serious crop damage as well as cause damage to plants in commercial nurseries and home gardens and landscapes,” said Molly Keck, AgriLife Extension entomologist and integrated pest management specialist, Bexar County.

Keck said adult Bagrada bugs have the same coloring as harlequin bugs, but are about one-third to one-half their size with smaller orange markings and no white markings.

She said the Bagrada bug is primarily a pest of cole crops in the mustard family, or Brassicas, including brassicaceous weeds such as wild mustard.

“Bagrada bug prefers plants such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, radishes and brussels sprouts,” she said. “However, it is also known to feed on cotton, Sudan grass and Bermuda grass.

Keck said the bug has needle-like mouthparts used to penetrate and feed on plants and young seeds. They can cause a range of damage from leaf spotting, wilting or stunting, which can result in the plant not producing a flower, heads not forming, or even death of the plant.”

She said a high concentration of Bagrada bugs can significantly damage young broccoli and cabbage plants left unprotected in as few as two to three days.

“This pest is certainly capable of producing the kind of numbers needed to cause this type of damage,” she noted.

The recent identification of the pest in Hays County, however, is not the first instance of the bug being found in South Central Texas, said Wizzie Brown, AgriLife Extension entomologist for Travis County.

“The Bagrada bug has also been identified in the Austin area,” she said. “We’ve had reports of the bug from residents who have home gardens or who tend community gardens. The bugs appear to have shown up sometime late last year and then sprang up again on some cole crops this spring. Some people reporting them thought they were baby stink bugs.”

Bagrada bugs gather on plants and lay their eggs one at a time or in small clusters on the underside of leaves and stems or in soil beneath the plant. The eggs start out white and turn an orange-red as they get older. Young Bagrada bugs change color from bright orange-red to near black with red markings as they get older. Newly molted nymphs are also red but quickly darken to a near-black color with the white and orange markings.

Keck said early detection is important as bug populations can build quickly, but can be difficult because they are small compared to other vegetable pests and may be easily overlooked until populations become large.

“It’s usually difficult to observe Bagrada bugs until there’s been some damage, so look carefully for damage like light green lesions, which are easier to spot than the insects during the early period of infestation,” she said. “If you’re a home gardener, be sure to inspect plants and shipping containers for the bug or signs of possible bug infestation before you plant.”

More frequent monitoring for the bug may be necessary when temperatures rise above 75 degrees, as the bugs are typically more active and visible during the warmer parts of the day.     In gardens where the pest is present in large numbers, Keck said it may be advisable to remove host plants and replace them with plants not in the mustard family.

Keck said while some control methods may include picking the bugs off by hand or using a hand-held vacuum cleaner to remove them from the plants, it is often easier to tap the plant and let the bugs fall onto a cloth in order to collect them. Also, pyramid traps baited with crushed sweet alyssum inside polypropylene bags can be used to catch and destroy these bugs, especially when in large numbers.

In larger production systems, cultural control methods such as weed control and planting transplants as opposed to seeds may reduce populations and damage by Bagrada bugs.

“Stink bugs are difficult to manage with insecticides and repeat applications are often necessary,” Keck said. “Adult bugs usually fly away before they contact the insecticide and return later. Home vegetable growers will probably have better control by using plant covers or screening to exclude the bugs — or by removing host plants from the garden.”

Keck said if insecticides are used in a home garden or landscape, be sure to check the pesticide label to make certain the product is registered for use in that specific application. She noted there has been some success using pyrethrum to suppress adults while azadirachtin and insecticidal soaps have been shown to help reduce nymph populations.

She said experience with the bug on commercial cole crops in conventional field vegetable production in Arizona and California has shown success using carbamate, neonicotinoid, organophosphate or pyrethroid insecticides for control.

However, she noted, most Organic Materials Review Institute-approved pesticides are unable to control Bagrada bug.

For agricultural purposes, pesticides with quick-acting contact activity such as pyrethroids may provide good short-term protection against Bagrada bugs feeding on emerging leaves and transplants, Keck said. Once transplants become established, foliar sprays of pyrethroids and neonicotinoids should help prevent further feeding damage.

“Of course, while these bugs may move to other areas on their own, it is important people don’t help them by inadvertently transporting infested plants or produce into new areas,” she said.

AgriLife Extension community fire ant control program a template for success

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by Paul Schattenberg, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

Wizzie Brown talking to resident
Elizabeth “Wizzie” Brown (right), entomologist and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service integrated pest management specialist in Travis County, demonstrates the proper use of a hand-held spreader for a Wood Glen resident during the recent fire ant education day. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo)

ROUND ROCK – For more than a decade, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service integrated pest management program specialist Wizzie Brown has been engaged in a community-wide battle against one of the state’s most persistent pests – the fire ant.

Since 2005, Brown and residents of the Wood Glen community in Round Rock, north of Austin, have collaborated in a neighborhood fire ant program to control the proliferation of fire ants, eliminate their unsightly mounds and keep them from biting area residents.

“Fire ants roam from yard to yard and have no regard for property lines,” Brown said. “They’re  easily dispersed during their periodic mating flights, and a high percentage of mounds in Texas have multiple queens, which can live for two to five years and produce up to 800 eggs per day.”

Multiple queens also means there is no territorial behavior, resulting in excessive numbers of fire ant mounds per area, with many actually spread over larger areas than can be seen.

“To my knowledge, the Wood Glen effort in Round Rock has been the longest-running community-wide fire ant program in the state and probably in the U.S.,” Brown said. “We recently carried out the fire ant baiting portion of the program and held our annual fire ant education day for the community.”

The Wood Glen neighborhood has 548 homes and covers over 250 acres. It includes a community park, green belt and walking trails.

Fire ant mound in grass
Fire ants and their unsightly mounds are reappearing in many Texas neighborhoods. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension photo)

“Originally the community came to me,” said Brown, who has been at the AgriLife Extension office in Travis County for the past 15 years. “I got a call from one of the residents who knew our agency was part of the Texas A&M University System and that we provided information and technical assistance on various quality-of-life topics. They wanted to know if we could help them with their fire ant problem, which was pretty extensive.”

Brown said she gave a fire ant control demonstration to the residents on the “two-step” treatment method, which is the agency’s preferred fire ant control method. The first step involves semi-annual broadcast applications of fire ant bait. The second step involves follow-up treatments of individual mounds or “nuisance” ant colonies, such as those in sensitive or high-traffic areas.

“The two-step method is less labor-intensive, less toxic and more environmentally friendly than most other means of do-it-yourself fire ant control,” Brown said.

Brown said similar community-wide fire ant control efforts have also taken place in Bexar and Harris counties in collaboration with the integrated pest management specialists in the AgriLife Extension offices in those two counties.

David Schell, a Wood Glen resident and homeowners association board member, said the treatments in the Round Rock neighborhood have yielded positive results.

“The fire ant program is highly effective at controlling fire ants in both the common areas and homeowners yards,” Schell said. “In the five years I have lived in Wood Glen, I have not seen any fire ant mounds in my yard.”

Brown estimated the overall efficacy of fire ant treatment in the community at more than 99 percent, with “almost zero” sightings of mounds or incidents of children or adults being bitten since treatment began. In addition, a survey Brown conducted on the Wood Glen effort in 2010 documented a 64 percent reduction in pesticide use and $20.73 savings per participating household.

“We only did the front yards with the residents’ permission so they could see what was going on,” Brown said. “They were so pleased with the results they persuaded their homeowners association to put the cost for fire ant control into the budget. Now their homeowner dues pay for two bait treatments per year – one spring and one fall – for the front yards. A few years back, we gave that responsibility over to a pest control company. And each year we also hold a fire ant information day in the community during which we provide information on baits and advice on their proper application for residents who want to treat their backyards.”

Brown said Wood Glen wasn’t the only community in which she and community residents have attempted a long-term fire ant program, but it’s the only one that has lasted.

“We have tried to keep a program going in three of four communities in the Austin area, but they eventually stopped, usually because the community lost the neighborhood ‘champion’ spearheading the effort and the community lost interest,” she said.

Brown said the Wood Glen program’s success has largely been due to active community involvement combined with an engaged homeowners association that has been respectful of residents’ wishes and forthcoming in communications about treatments.

Sam and Leslie Myers, who moved from the Wood Glen neighborhood about four years ago, were involved in fire ant program efforts in the community for about five years.

“There were a lot of stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood and they were tired of their kids getting bit by fire ants both in their yards and the community park area,” said Leslie Myers. “We were the second residents in the neighborhood to take the lead for the program after Wizzie got it started.”

The Myers’ role consisted of coordinating with residents on broadcast baiting timing as well as helping with education day efforts, including providing residents with bait and selling them hand-held spreaders if needed.

“Typically from 100-200 residents came to the community’s fire ant education day,” Sam Myers said.

The Myers also kept the community apprised of their fire ant control efforts through the community newsletter and by giving updates on the program during the annual homeowner association meeting.

“Once the pest control people took over broadcast baiting of the front lawns, they were great to work with and always checked to make sure who had opted out for the treatment,” Leslie Myers said. “And the education day out in the community, where we set up a table and people had to wait in line to get their fire ant bait and spreader, gave residents the opportunity to talk and get to know one another.”

The Myers, who are also Texas Master Gardeners, explained their knowledge of gardening and landscaping was a good tie-in with fire ant control in that it made them aware of beneficial and non-beneficial insects and the need for fewer chemicals in managing their landscape.

In 2011, Brown and her family moved into the Wood Glen neighborhood, where she remains actively involved in the program, providing information and technical assistance, particularly during the neighborhood fire ant education day.

“This is a great family neighborhood and I’m glad I can live here in addition to providing expertise for fire ant control and other aspects of integrated pest management,” she said. “But you don’t need an entomologist living in the neighborhood to have a successful pest management program. All you need is a community champion and people willing to support it.”

Entomology Department Helps Youths Practice for 4-H, FFA Judging Contests with Annual Clinic

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Shelby Kilpatrick, left, and Marshall Sullivan, right, teaching participants about the basics of entomology, as well as pinning and insect collection techniques. Photo by Rob Williams

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—More than 170 members of the Future Farmers of America and 4-H youth programs statewide and their agricultural science teachers, adult leaders and county agents spent a rainy Saturday morning learning about entomology, entomology contests, and testing their insect identification skills in the Heep Center during the Entomology Judging Clinic on Saturday, March 4.

The annual half-day clinic is designed to help 4-H and FFA students with skills to collect, prepare, and identify insects, to learn about their biology and relationships to different environments, all in preparation for  for  upcoming contests.

The clinic opened with a welcome session by Professor and Associate Department Head for Academic Programs, Dr. Pete Teel. During the session, Teel introduced participants to the clinic and its design and encouraged students to take what they had learned and apply it to the upcoming contests.

Participants were then sent into three concurrent sessions on topics such as insect identification basics, different collection and mounting techniques, and a leaders-only session on building reliable and lasting resources for success as an entomology team.

The newest addition to this year’s clinic included having two practice rooms open with integrated FFA/4-H mock contests where students could test what they had learned throughout the morning and a larger, more interactive pinning and mounting workshop.

Dr. Pete Teel in front of a class
Dr. Pete Teel speaking to participants about the clinic.

Participants also got the chance to view numerous insects in the orders of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, and Hymenoptera in the upstairs teaching labs, as well as a room dedicated to learning how to identify specimens from additional assorted insect orders.

At noon, the group reconvened in Room 101 to discuss the contest and its rules and for a question and answer session. During the session, student panelists answered questions from the audience such topics as the various careers in entomology, a day in the life of a college student at A&M, and entomology in general.

Volunteer Shelby Kilpatrick, a senior Entomology major and former 4-H member,  has been involved with volunteering for the clinic for four years as a student and said the clinic is a great way for youth to learn about entomology.

“I really enjoyed the 4-H entomology clinic. It really is a great way for us to share our knowledge and to promote the department and encourage the study of entomology,”” she said. “We try to make it a great learning experience for the kids.”

Student pinning an insect
Students also got the chance to try their hands pinning and mounting insects during a hands-on session.

Leader Madison Landreth from Midway ISD was very pleased with this year’s clinic and said it was a great learning experience for her and her students.

“I think this is a great workshop and like the hands on aspect of this clinic,” she said. “I loved that the kids get good practice and the volunteers were very helpful.”

“It was very exciting to see lots of the younger students being excited about entomology and the ag field in general,” volunteer Stephanie Rudolph said.

“Participants from the clinic are known to score very well in subsequent contests, and this avenue of interest in entomology is increasing the number of freshman Entomology majors,” Teel said.  “Our student volunteers for this program provide a personal level of engagement with the clinic participants that is most welcoming and helpful.  They are a very positive connection to building future entomologists.”