Tag: insects

Professional Credentials and Gardening Expertise: Entomologists

This is an installment of our series on professional credentials and gardening expertise. To read the introduction to this series, see Professional Credentials and Gardening Expertise.

Entomologists, Professional Credentials, and Designating Body

Entomology is the study of insects, and is a field within zoology, the study of animals. In the US, the primary professional and scientific society of entomologists is the Ecological Society of America (ESA), which formed in 1889 (ESA, 2019a). The ESA developed the Board Certified Entomologist (BCE) professional certification for professional entomologists with a bachelor’s degree or higher in entomology or a closely related discipline (ESA Certification Corporation, 2019a).… Continue reading this article “Professional Credentials and Gardening Expertise: Entomologists”

Scientific Beekeeping

When I first moved to the country in the late nineties, one of the first things I wanted to do (after establishing several vegetable gardens to indulge my tomato obsession) was to become a beekeeper.

So I took a six week course sponsored by West Virginia University, read the full documentation available from the University of Maryland and Penn State as well as back issues of beekeeping magazines, and checked with some hobby beekeepers in the area.… Continue reading this article “Scientific Beekeeping”

Ask an Entomologist

No, I’m not one.  But the folks who run the Ask an Entomologist site are.  You can ask them anything about bugs, and some of their best posts result from questions that come from kids.

Don’t think of it as a place for identification, although they’ll do their best to answer, or direct you to a good place where that can happen; think of it as a way to prompt them to explain some aspect about the science of Entomology that may not be well understood by the general public.… Continue reading this article “Ask an Entomologist”

Digging these wasps!

After writing about the unusually bad scourge of Japanese Beetles earlier in the month, I thought I’d continue on down the “garden bugs” path. The Japanese Beetles have died down, but now we have oodles of these pretty black and yellow-spotted waspy things around. They’re everywhere, and in large numbers. I planted some buckwheat over our potato garden bed, and it is covered up with them. The point of the buckwheat was as a primo late-season nectar source for our honeybee hives as they prepare for winter.… Continue reading this article “Digging these wasps!”

Beetlemania

File this under “if it’s not one thing, it’s another.”
Which may be, upon further reflection, the most profoundly absurd statement ever when it comes to gardening. It’s nature! Of course there’s always something!
Here in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, we’ve had insect pests come and go, with each summer featuring something different.

Two years ago? Chewing up everything in the vegetable garden plus lots of perennials… Blister beetles!

Last year we had record rainfall, which brought out the gnats in gnumbers we’d never seen before.… Continue reading this article “Beetlemania”

Does fertilization increase insect herbivores?

Always fun when you find a research paper that confirms what you’ve suspected all along.  I ran across a paper last week in the Annals of Applied Biology entitled  ‘Fertilisers and insect herbivores: a meta-analysis’ (Butler et al. 2012. Ann Appl Biol 161:  223–233).  I’m interested in the topic because in recent years a dogma has emerged that if you fertilize a landscape tree it will be immediately devoured by insects.   In this study the authors conducted a meta-analysis (basically a compilation of studies on a given topic and then combining and analyzing the aggregated results) and looked at dozens of studies of the response of insect herbivores to fertilization to answer the question, does fertilization increase insect damage?  … Continue reading this article “Does fertilization increase insect herbivores?”

Aphids Marching

Was out enjoying the last of the SW Virginia fall color from our deck, the day before we got our dose of Sandy…the wind was picking up and the barometer and temperature were dropping

Twenty-four hours later, we had an inch of snow and 40 mph winds. No more fall color.
Looked down at the railing and the ENTIRE length of it – 45′ – had aphids streaming back and forth. … Continue reading this article “Aphids Marching”

So that’s why they’re called blister beetles…

I’ve had several discussions with gardening folks in the region on one of our more annoying pests, the blister beetles.  Big appetite, eats lots of things we value, and darned hard to get rid of.  Someone invariable says “yep, they bite, too” and “be careful – you’ll get blistered.” However, I’ve yet to hear any first-hand experience with the personal-injury aspect of blister beetles.

I’ve suffered from the heartbreak of blister beetles for two summers in a row. … Continue reading this article “So that’s why they’re called blister beetles…”

A little about bugs

I’m not much of an entomologist.  (Okay, I’ve never had a single bug-related class.)  But I do appreciate insects in all of their bewildering shapes and behaviors.  And after this weekend I’ve become a little more entomologically educated.

I spent the weekend in Prescott, Arizona at the annual MG conference.  Besides meeting lots of great Master Gardeners (and Extension educators) in that state, I also met Dr. Whitney Cranshaw from Colorado State University.  He gave a keynote talk called “Gardening for Insects – or not!” … Continue reading this article “A little about bugs”

Getting Stung Can Be Fun!

Today I was reading a review of Amy Stewart’s new book Wicked Bugs and noticed the glee with which the reviewer noted that stings of various insects have been rated on a four point scale.  Having read Amy’s book I can wholeheartedly recommend it, but in terms of the stings I thought, what the heck?  Let’s see if I can impart some glee to our readers by taking a look at the pain that stings cause (I think it’s kind of like highbrow slap-stick). … Continue reading this article “Getting Stung Can Be Fun!”