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How Texas became leader in safe public school pest management

September 17, 2020 by Rob Williams

Human, environmental health remain focus as AgriLife Extension makes school pest control safer

by Gabe Saldana, Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing & Communications

Janet Hurley checking chairs at a school in Wylie — AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley and Wylie Independent School District IPM coordinator Tony Jacinto inspect a storage space of stacked chairs for pest issues at Wylie High School.

Anyone returning to a Texas public school this semester is safer from pests and pesticides, thanks to a host of integrated pest control practices required by the state and taught to licensed professionals by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Requirements for integrated pest management, or IPM, in Texas schools were passed by the Texas Legislature in 1991. IPM is the practice of controlling pests with alternatives to pesticide. It employs other methods that consider environmental safety and human health.

New laws, shift in focus

By the time school IPM became law, AgriLife Extension’s state pesticide safety coordinator Don Renchie, Ph.D., and urban entomologist Mike Merchant, Ph.D., had already been training pest control professionals in safe application for schools across the state. They were steeped in collaboration with the Texas Structural Pest Control Board — of which Merchant was a member — to develop comprehensive curricula for the training.

AgriLife Extension state pesticide safety coordinator Don Renchie, Ph.D., leads school IPM training in an industrial school kitchen.

“There had been major incidents of human contact with pesticides in Texas schools, due to application by unlicensed applicators, leading up to passage of the IPM laws in 1991,” Renchie said. “In Texas, we decided that our children were most important, and that’s why IPM is the law here.”

Only 23 states have school IPM laws or regulations, according to the National Pest Management Association.

As provisions of the Texas’ school IPM law took effect in 1995, Renchie and Merchant shifted focus to developing a training series for the IPM coordinator. This staff position is still required at every Texas school district today. They are responsible for ensuring safe school district spaces by adhering to all IPM mandates, existing and emerging.

IPM coordinators continue to be trained by AgriLife Extension, but the agency’s training reach, evaluation systems and advanced IPM techniques help make schools safer for Texas students, faculty and staff than ever before.

A boost for school IPM training in Texas

In 2001, a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allowed Renchie and Merchant to hire AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley, Dallas. The grant also created the Southwest Technical Resource Center for School IPM. Hurley joined AgriLife Extension as director of the center, whose education materials live on as part of AgriLife Extension’s comprehensive teachings. Her work to organize school IPM training across Texas dovetailed with a previous grant that Merchant and Renchie were awarded to create “The ABCs of IPM” video series. The series is still taught to IPM coordinators as part of state requirements.

AgriLife Extension entomologist Mike Merchant, Ph.D., leads school IPM training.

By that time, she said, roughly 80% of Texas schools had fallen out of compliance with state IPM standards. Additionally, a more streamlined system for professional training was needed across the state.

Seeking solutions

“When I got there, it was six hours of training, pat ‘em on the back and ‘see ya later, bye,’” Hurley said. “I said ‘No wonder the schools look like deer in headlights with IPM standards.’ And my bosses said ‘well that’s why we hired you. Now what are you gonna do about it?’”

She began to develop — with Merchant, Renchie and EPA grant colleagues in New Mexico and Oklahoma — one-day and two-day school IPM trainings, which emphasized hands-on work. It is the same model AgriLife Extension uses to deliver emerging school IPM information today at the IPM Experience House.

AgriLife Extension IPM Experience House, Dallas

While Hurley worked to broaden AgriLife Extension’s reach, Renchie and Merchant could still lead school IPM trainings and focus on expanding responsibilities of entomology and pesticide safety — the overarching areas of urban pest management statewide.

Hurley created a map of Texas’ roughly 1,030 school districts and began reaching out to them with what she calls “the gospel of IPM.” By 2008, she built enough enthusiasm among Texas schools to form the nation’s first statewide association of school IPM professionals — the Texas IPM Affiliates for Public Schools. Before the group disbanded, it welcomed more than 1,000 attendees to its annual meeting between 2009 and 2014.

These early efforts all contributed to making AgriLife Extension a driving force in the unique success of IPM in Texas schools and beyond.

School IPM impact

Since 2002, AgriLife Extension has offered 234 full days of school IPM training classes and reached 5,861 participants from 1,638 school districts. Hurley’s efforts alone include 265 personal site visits to Texas school districts. She assists with compliance issues and helps IPM programs prepare for inspections and awards.

AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley leads a school IPM training for school district IPM coordinators in North Texas.

As a result of these efforts, more than 20 Texas school districts are winners of the IPM Institute of North America’s national IPM Star award — more than any other state.

Among the state’s recognized districts is Wylie Independent School District, whose IPM coordinator is Tony Jacinto. The district failed to meet state IPM standards in 2016, before Jacinto heard about Hurley and AgriLife Extension from colleagues in another district.

“At that time, I had no experience with IPM and asked Janet to come teach me the ABC’s,” Jacinto said.

By 2019, Wylie ISD had become one of Texas’ national IPM Star districts, and Jacinto had scored 103 out of 100 during the award audit — above a perfect score.

Hurley is also a founding member of the IPM Star award, which exceeds even Texas’ standards for IPM.

What’s next

Today, Renchie continues to train pest control professionals for licensing, and Merchant retired in August following more than 30 years with AgriLife Extension.

“It’s widely recognized that IPM adoption benefits health and the environment,” Merchant said. “These accolades and increased compliance numbers show that Texas schools are safer as a result of AgriLife Extension’s reach and work.”

Meanwhile, in conducting 75 regional two-day trainings and 84 one-day trainings since 2002, Hurley remains the most active coordinator of school IPM training in Texas, and likely in the U.S., Merchant said.

“She has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Texas school districts and their IPM personnel,” he said.

AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley leads a school IPM training for school district IPM coordinators.

Through AgriLife Extension, Hurley also maintains a school IPM hotline and the Texas School IPM website, providing learning resources and training information. Her industry newsletter, School Pest News, is in its 137^th edition since 2002, and it circulates to a readership of about 1,600 per issue. She is active in the International IPM Symposium steering and awards committees and is on the National School IPM Steering Committee.

Over the next year, AgriLife Extension will expand IPM offerings with its public Residential IPM course series, which covers general integrated pest management for homes.

Hurley will propose a comprehensive research initiative to determine rat presence in Texas as well as the types of communicable diseases they carry, which remains largely speculative, she said.

“We’re just going to keep on building,” she said.

Mike Merchant Awarded with Honorary Membership at the Entomological Society of America

September 11, 2020 by Rob Williams

Congratulations to former Professor and Extension Specialist Dr. Mike Merchant as he was named an honorary member of the Entomological Society of America in 2020.

Merchant recently retired from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and was one of five entomologists in the nation that were named honorary members. The award acknowledges members who have served the ESA for at least 20 years outstanding work throughout their careers to advance the organization at an extraordinary level.

For 31 years, Merchant has been serving the state as Professor and Extension Entomologist working in the field of urban entomology. His responsibilities include providing county agents and the public with technical assistance on structural pest control, turfgrass and ornamental insects, and public health entomology.

Merchant’s research spanned across a wide variety of pest problems including fire ants, scale insects, spider and scorpion management, and the economics and implementation of IPM programs for schools.

Dr. Mike Merchant training — Dr. Mike Merchant teaching a session at the Texas A&M University Urban Pest Management Conference and Workshop. Photo by Rob Williams

He has trained dozens of pest management professionals and led establishment of the IPM Experience House training facility in Dallas. He is a co-author of the ESA publication titled IPM for the Urban Professional: A Study Guide for the Associate Certified Entomologist.

Along with colleagues Drs. John Jackman and Carlos Bogran, Merchant also developed the Master Volunteer Specialist in Entomology program. This training consists of a course which offers in-depth training in entomology to Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists and created an online outreach tool for professionals and general public called Insects in the City.

To help improve pest management training, Merchant oversaw the renovation project in 2016 that eventually became the Texas IPM House, which is a hands-on training facility for pest management professionals to learn about IPM and pests that invade homes or used structures as a source of food and shelter.

Merchant also created an interactive website called “Mosquito Safari” to help teach homeowners and businesses about proper mosquito control. During the emergence of the Zika virus, Merchant worked with Dr. Sonja Swiger to develop a statewide outreach program to educate about controlling mosquitoes and prevention of Zika in Texas. In 2016, they enlisted the help of several Extension agents, specialists, and program specialists to create and distribute materials.

Their efforts in mosquito control educational programming resulted in 339 education events, directly training nearly 140,000 people plus over 2 million media contacts engaged with the programs. In addition, 76,400 people received newsletters with Zika information and more than 11,000 printed copies were distributed throughout the state.

Merchant became an ESA member in 1982 and has attended more than 30 annual conferences and continuously active in ESA volunteer roles including student judging, helping organize the first Insect Expo, chairing and serving on multiple committees, and organizing symposia.

Merchant also served as Section F officer and then as first president of the newly formed Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology (MUVE) section. Before serving as an officer and MUVE president, he led the startup of the Associated Certified Entomologist program, which as since increased membership in the ESA and strengthened the certification program.

“Mike has impacted many professionals in entomology. However, his dedication and support of the Certification Programs for the Entomological Society of America stands out. As Certification Director, Mike recognized that professional credentialing for Pest Management Professionals could serve an important need for the industry,” said Bob Davis, Technical Services Director at BASF. “He helped drive the creation and implementation of the Associate Certified Entomologist (ACE) program.”

Davis also said that with Merchant’s help, the ACE program has grown tremendously.

Consequently, ACE membership from 2004 to present grew from zero to over 1000, and is still on an upward trend,” Davis said. “The Pest Management Industry and ESA owe much to Mike for his work with the Certification Program.”

Associate Department Head for Extension Programs and Statewide IPM Coordinator Dr. David Kerns was very proud of Merchant and his accomplishments.

“Dr. Mike Merchant epitomized the perfect blend of applied research and extension outreach. He developed one of the nation’s top research driven extension programs,” he said. “Mike’s innovations, discoveries, and implementations provided better IPM based solutions to urban pest issues, and he developed premier, cutting-edge programs for delivering his information to the public. Dr. Merchant demonstrated unparalleled success with every project he pursued.”

“Mike is patient and kind and one of the best mentors I have ever had,” Extension Program Specialist Janet Hurley said. “There are times Mike and I agree to disagree, but that is rare. He is a friend, a mentor and a coworker and someone I am so blessed to call a friend. I truly want everyone to know that Mike has done a lot over his career with AgriLife Extension.”

Former student Janis Reed said that Merchant’s materials and blogs have been very helpful in her career. “Throughout my tenure in industry, I have used Dr. Mechant’s blogs and printed materials to support conversations with homeowners,” Reed said. “I could always count on Mike to be succinct, factual and use language any reader could understand. Having the large breadth of topics he’s covered over the years to use helped me to communicate with folks by using a reliable source of information.”

Reed was proud of Merchant and his accomplishments.

“I always enjoyed listening to Dr. Merchant give CEUs and other educational meetings,” she said. “He was always down to earth, approachable, knowledgeable and helpful. The industry will miss having him to call on!”

Cassie Krejci is a former student and works as an animal health specialist at MGK. She commended Merchant on his dedication to Extension and urban entomology.

“Dr. Mike Merchant has put a face to extension entomology in Texas, helping to bridge the gap between science and applied entomology for Pest Management Professionals across our State. As an allied researcher, I have always appreciated the attention Dr. Merchant gives to advances in applied entomology and the work he does to take new developments to the PMP. This award is well-deserved, as Dr. Merchant has made important contributions to our industry and continues to so.”

Kimberly Engler worked with Merchant as an IPM Program Specialist in Dallas for 8 years and currently works as the Educational Coordinator at ABC Home and Commercial Services. In those 8 years, she said that Merchant has been very helpful.

“I was privileged to work across the hall from Mike at the Dallas Center for almost 8 years. He helped me personally in so many ways from handling the media, to assisting with in person presentations and outreach programs, to helping in formatting and editing publications, and designing protocols to test pesticides and devices in the urban sector,” she said. “His attention to detail and striving to provide science based research to the general public helped shape my career providing the fundamentals for being a good scientist.”

Engler was very proud of Merchant and said his award was well-deserved.

“Dr. Michael Merchant receiving ESA’s Honorary Member is well deserved since he is a distinguished leader in both the study of Entomology and with Texas Extension programming,” Engler said. “He graciously and generously devoted his time and energy in educating Texas residents about all urban pests and IPM methods of control through his blog posts, in person presentations, online forums, newsletters and emails. Mike is a lifetime learner who constantly strives to solve urban pest problems posed by the general public and pest management professionals.”

Honey bee nutrition might be key to healthy populations

September 10, 2020 by Rob Williams

AgriLife Research, USDA project looks to honey bee diets to reduce population losses

by Gabe Saldana, Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing and Communications

A newly funded Texas A&M AgriLife Research project seeks to slow population losses among more than 2.6 million managed honey bee colonies in the U.S.

Honey bees provide pollination services that uphold $16 billion in U.S. agricultural crops. However, managed colonies have seen annual declines. Those include a 40% decline as recently as 2018-2019, said Juliana Rangel, Ph.D, AgriLife Research honey bee scientist in the Department of Entomology, Bryan-College Station.

The declines are attributed to several general issues, including poor nutrition and susceptibility to pathogens and diseases, said Pierre Lau, AgriLife Research graduate assistant, and a Texas A&M University doctoral candidate in Rangel’s laboratory.

Pierre Lau Working in the lab — Pierre Lau, AgriLife Research graduate assistant, and a Texas A&M University doctoral candidate, in the honey bee laboratory

Lau is also the project leader. To prevent future managed colony losses, his team will look for ways to strengthen bee colony immunity to disease pathogens by feeding them more nutritious diets.

The project is supported by a U.S. Department of Agriculture pre-doctoral fellowship titled “Optimizing Macronutrient Contents in the Honeybee Diet as a Mechanism for Pathogen Defense.”

The research team includes Lau, Texas A&M graduate student Alexandria Payne, undergraduate students Cora Garcia and Jordan Gomez, along with Rangel. Spencer Behmer, Ph.D., AgriLife Research professor in the Texas A&M department of entomology, is also part of the team, as is his postdoctoral research associate Pierre Lesne, Ph.D.

Focusing on macronutrients

Researchers will place heavy focus on macronutrients, which are those nutrients in the highest demand by a healthy body for proper metabolism and physiology, Lau said.

His team’s work will be to first understand the varying amounts of proteins and lipids, or macronutrient ratios, present in bees’ diets. They will work to optimize an ideal diet with varying ratios of macronutrients, then they will observe physiological benefits to bees that receive increasingly nutritious dietary mixes.

Cups with different macronutrient mixes are presented to bees in these small cups.

Commercial honey bee colonies succumb especially to Nosema ceranae and deformed wing virus. Nosema ceranae, a fungal pathogen, causes a fatal intestinal disease, while deformed wing virus causes death due to developmental complications in heavily infected adults, particularly due to crumpled wings.

Besides pathogens and diseases, Lau said, honey bee declines within agroecosystems — which describe most agricultural crop scenarios — can also come from parasitization, poor queen health, pesticide exposure and landscape fragmentation.

As such, in addition to immunity, the researchers will investigate how nutritional changes affect expression of genes that mediate proper honey bee development and growth.

Honey bee nutrition likely lacking

“We know that pollen is the most important source of nourishment for bees, but as a field of research, we have a poor understanding of all the macronutrients that make up pollen,” Lau said.

At the same time, Lau and collaborators, in an unpublished study, were able to determine the nutritional content of certain pollens. In the same study, they noted that honey bees preferred pollen with a lower ratio of protein to lipids, or P:L ratio, than what would be currently available in the beekeeping industry. Moreover, Lau said, existing research shows that organisms naturally seek out pathogen-fighting nutrients in their surroundings.

“Does this mean that honey bees can alter their macronutrient intake to self-medicate and increase their tolerance to a pathogen, given the availability?” Lau said. “It could also be that the role of lipids is more significant than we understand.”

Additionally, Rangel said, honey bees need certain plants in the vicinity to help them with physiological processes. Those include metabolizing certain macro and micronutrients. What if those plants are not available in a crop system?

“We know that honey bees need variety in their diet,” Rangel said. “But, to what extent are certain nutrients required, or even sought after, by the bees for proper nourishment?”

“Can we introduce supplemental macronutrients that allow honey bees to self-medicate in the presence of pathogen infections?” Lau added. “This will be our focus for the next two years.”

Read more about the Texas A&M Honey Bee Research Program online, and follow Rangel’s lab on Facebook.

Former Ph.D. Student Named Comstock Award Winner

September 3, 2020 by Rob Williams

The Department of Entomology would like to congratulate former Ph.D. student Dr. Xiaotian Tang as he was named the John Comstock Award winner for the Southwestern Branch.

Tang received his Ph.D. in entomology recently in May under the direction of Dr. Cecilia Tamborindeguy. His research focused on the vector biology and vector-pathogen interactions between the bacterial pathogen, Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (Lso), and its vector, the potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli).

Tang’s main research areas are to identify key genes involved in the interactions between the vector and the pathogen during acquisition; to characterize the immune response of the vectors to the pathogen; and to manipulate the immune response of the vectors to disrupt the transmission of the pathogen.

Tang has published 27 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and has four more manuscripts that are currently under review. He has mentored four undergraduate students in research, all of whom are authors of published or under-review papers. He has participated in 14 scientific meetings and presented 11 oral talks and posters at regional, national, and international conferences.

Tang also has been awarded seven highly prestigious scholarships, including three times the National Scholarship, the highest academic honor for students in China. He has also received the Herbert Dean Endowed Scholarship from the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M and twice won the ESA President’s Prize—for a student 10-minute talk in Vancouver in 2018 and for the poster competitions at St. Louis in 2019.

Currently, Tang is a postdoctoral associate at Yale University School of Medicine, where he focuses on arthropod-borne infectious diseases.

“Xiaotian was an excellent Ph.D. student,” Tamborindeguy said. “He is very hard working and prolific. He was also an excellent speaker, winning several first place awards at ESA competitions.”

Tamborindeguy also noted that Tang is the second Ph.D. student in her lab that has received the Comstock award. The other student was Freddy Ibanez, which received the Comstock in 2018.

“We are very proud of him,” Tamborindeguy said.

Tang will be recognized during the ESA’s virtual annual meeting that will be taking place from November 11-25.

Texas A&M research to examine mysteries of armyworms

August 20, 2020 by Rob Williams

Texas A&M graduate student awarded grant to research fall armyworms

by Adam Russell, Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing and Communications

A Texas A&M University graduate student received a research grant to better identify, understand and ultimately mitigate fall armyworm populations in Texas and the central U.S.

Ashley Tessnow, a doctoral candidate in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Entomology, said armyworms have long been a pest that agriculture producers throughout the central U.S have tried to manage. But despite the long-standing battle against fall armyworms, there is still a lot experts do not understand about the pest.

“There have been increased occurrences of major armyworm outbreaks over the past few years,” she said. “And armyworms have also made it into news because they were introduced to Africa, Asia and Australia. With this increased attention, we have come to realize how little we actually know about them.”

Tessnow’s research, under the advisement of professor Greg Sword, Ph.D., Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Entomology, will focus on identifying genomic differences in fall armyworm populations in Texas and beyond, which she hopes will ultimately help producers combat the pest more effectively and efficiently. Her research was awarded a $51,574 grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Research to battle armyworms

Fall Armyworm on plant. Photo by Bart Drees. — Fall armyworms can be distinguished by the upside-down, cream-colored “Y” shape on its head capsule. In large numbers, these insects can be devastating to crops, hayfields and pastures. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension photo by Bart Drees)

Fall armyworms are green, brown or black in color and can be identified by the white inverted Y on their head. They can grow up to 1 inch in length when mature. The pest got its name because they appear to march across crop and hay fields like a military formation, consuming everything in their path.

The pest overwinters in South Texas and migrates north through the central U.S. and into Canada annually. Fall armyworms migrate as moths, but it’s the caterpillars that are destructive to a wide range of crops, including corn, sorghum and forage grasses.

Tessnow is particularly interested in studying two distinct strains of fall armyworms as they migrate northward throughout annual growing seasons. These strains of fall armyworms are identical but have genetic differences that make them inherently different pests. The research will look at the C-strain, originally named for its prevalence in corn fields, and the R-strain, named for its identification in rice fields, but also known for consuming small grasses like Bermuda grass.

These fall armyworm strains are each a unique agricultural pest that exhibit different crop preferences and respond differently to insecticides, she said. Although these two strains are distinct, they can occasionally hybridize creating a third “unknown” type of pest.

This project will develop new genomic tools to effectively control armyworm infestations based on the strains present, Tessnow said.

The goal of the research is to use next-generation sequencing methods to characterize the populations of these two strains in the central U.S., she said. This will provide insights about which fall armyworm pests are present across different regions of Texas and the U.S., and how frequently these strains hybridize in each region.

“We’ll be looking at genetic differences between these strains and any instances of hybridization as the moths migrate from south to north every year,” she said. “We have preliminary data that shows the same populations of armyworms can be found from Weslaco to Minnesota, but we want to study the genomic structure and how these strains differ.”

Tessnow said the research also aims to develop new diagnostic tools to differentiate between the strains. These tools could help identify novel approaches to effectively manage each strain separately or together in fields and/or hybrid strains that emerge during the annual migration.

“When collecting moths in corn and sorghum fields, which are expected to be primarily comprised of C-strain fall armyworms, we’ve found there is actually an even mix of both strains,” she said. “So, we want to understand the relationship between strains, what is causing them to be genetically distinct, and look for patterns of hybridization. We know hybridization occurs between strains at relatively low rates, but we don’t know how this may affect the fall armyworm’s susceptibility to insecticides, including Bt crops.”

Armyworm research objectives

There are two objectives for Tessnow’s research.

First, Tessnow hopes to identify small differences in the DNA of moths collected from five locations. She will also use these genetic differences to identify patterns of inter-strain hybridization from moths collected in the field.

Fall armyworm moth traps have been placed in corn or sorghum fields at five Texas locations including Weslaco, Corpus Christi, College Station and Lubbock, and Rosemount, Minnesota. At least 25 moth samples from each location will be collected at several times throughout the year.

DNA from 20 individuals per sampling point will be sent to the Texas A&M Genomics and Bioinformatics Service for DNA sequencing, she said. The DNA sequence data will be uploaded into the Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing Clusters, and bioinformatics analyses will be used to differentiate the C-strain, the R-strain and any inter-strain hybrids.

Tessnow will also identify any subpopulations that occur between different locations within the strains. The sequence data will be made public for use by other researchers upon the project’s completion.

The second objective is to develop a polymerase chain reaction-based genotyping assay that would allow producers or crop consultants to differentiate between the two fall armyworm strains quickly and reliably during routine scouting.

“We’re most interested in the prevalence of these two strains in the field and what crops they prefer,” she said. “But I am also curious how the misconception that all fall armyworms in a field are the same strain might be affecting mitigation programs for this pest. Knowing which armyworm strain we’re dealing with, and how common it is to have both strains present at specific locations, could impact the effectiveness of treating those crops for fall armyworms.”