Philosophy
Insects are an important component of our world, filling
valuable ecological roles, and interacting with humans in
diverse ways. Some of these interactions pose health, ecological
or economic threats to us and our manipulation of terrestrial
and aquatic systems. The Department of Entomology addresses
society's need for information and education about insects,
their biology, impacts and management through its extension
outreach programs. Integrated pest management (IPM) provides
the foundation for these programs in which research-based
knowledge is used to emphasize a preventative approach to
pest management where pesticides, biological control and
other control methods are carefully selected for maximum
health, economic, and environmental benefits.
Objectives
- Provide the public with timely research-based information
and educational opportunities about insects, their biology,
ecology and management.
- Train extension staff, pest management professionals,
volunteers and other end-users in integrated insect management
methods and work through them to deliver current research
information.
- Promote the safe, effective, appropriate and legal uses
of pest management tactics while emphasizing both positive
and negative aspects of these tactics, so the public,
pest management professionals, and policy-makers can make
informed decisions on insect management.
Factors Shaping Entomology's Extension Program
A variety of internal and external factors have shaped
the current direction and activities of Extension Entomology.
Faculty with extension responsibility all have appointments
that are include research and some have three-way appointments
that add classroom teaching as well. Such split positions
have the distinct advantage of providing a continuum from
research to education, facilitating both the identification
of research needs and the rapid dissemination of research
results to clientele and students.
The demographic shift from a predominantly rural
to a predominantly urban population is increasing demands
for information on landscape and structural pests while
we continue to educate students on food and fiber production
systems. This shift poses a challenge in terms of staffing
and program delivery that is being addressed by partial
or full positions related to landscape IPM, structural pest
management, and urban outreach.
Both agricultural and urban clientele require "real-time"
information on insect pests and their management. Shifting
life styles, increasing diversity of clientele, emphasis
on professional certification, convenient access to information,
and the increasing use of the internet all necessitate a
targeted delivery system. Our current extension efforts
show creativity in addressing these changing needs by providing
real-time needs via the internet, on-line newsletters, and
digital imagery. Recent web-based examples of real-time
delivery of IPM information include: BugWeb
(Ostlie); MN
Vegetable IPM Newsletter (Hutchison); Aphid
Alert Newsletter (Radcliffe, Ragsdale); Yard
and Garden Line (Hahn); and Center
for Urban Ecology and Sustainability (Krischik).
Environmental, personal, and food safety issues regarding
pesticides and their alternatives and genetically modified
organisms (GMO's) continue to evolve. Interest in pesticide
and GMO risk/benefit evaluations remains high. Data are
limited, and sociological and political aspects predominate.
Check out the Minnesota
Pesticide Impact Assessment Program in Minnesota.
Efficient and effective use of limited resources is leading
to increasing regional cooperation to produce publications
and programs. The Department has actively pursued
appropriate regional opportunities including projects on
corn, soybean, potato, processing vegetable crops,
urban and landscape IPM, and apiculture.
Extension increasingly relies on outside grants and funding
to conduct applied research and outreach programs.
In addition, a steady decline in state and federal support
has resulted in the need for user-fees to support extension
efforts.
OUTREACH PROGRAMS
| Field Crops
| Vegetables | Apiculture
|
| Urban | Federally-Mandated
Programs | Delivery |
Field Crops
Minnesota agriculture is relatively diverse with production
in corn, soybean, spring wheat, barley, alfalfa, sugarbeets,
and sunflower ranking in the top 4 nationally. The primary
target for extension efforts regarding field crop insect
management are agricultural professionals. Farmers are reached
through these agricultural professionals and, to a lesser
degree, by direct contact through winter meetings. The specialization
of agents, shift towards cluster-level meetings, and administration
encouragement of county educator teaching has substantially
reduced demand for extension specialists to speak at winter
meetings. Declining county meetings have freed up time for
development of educational materials and increased emphasis
by extension entomologists on training agricultural professionals.
A few insects warrant routine treatment: Colorado potato
beetle and potato leafhopper on potato, corn rootworm on
continuous corn, European corn borer on sweet corn, and
sugarbeet root maggot and seed-feeding insects on sunflower.
For these insects, educational activities encourage scouting
and judicious insecticide use based on economic thresholds
and discourage an "insurance" approach. Where
possible, insecticide treatment schedules, reduced rates
of application and biologically based insecticides are recommended
for Colorado potato beetle, potato leafhopper, corn rootworm,
and European corn borer. Resistance management remains a
particular concern with Colorado potato beetle, corn rootworm,
and European corn borer. An IPM approach with these insects
reduces insecticide use. For example, on-farm, applied research
with corn rootworm indicates up to a 56% reduction may be
possible. Reduced rates for potato leafhopper control
using º the amount of product prevents secondary pests
like green peach aphid from reaching damaging levels.
The opposite situation occurs with the European corn borer
on field corn, potato leafhopper on alfalfa, and aphids
on small grains. Economic damage by these pests can be hidden,
unlike the highly visual damage caused by Colorado potato
beetle defoliation that elicits more intensive management
and insecticide use. Consequently, these three pests pose
a particular challenge for educational efforts because farmers
and even agricultural professionals seriously underrate
their economic impact. IPM adoption in these cases
is likely to increase pesticide use. For example, insecticide
use to protect alfalfa from yield and quality impacts by
potato leafhopper could jump from less than 5% currently
to over 70% of acreage treated statewide.
The majority of insects, however, have infrequent pest
outbreaks driven by migration, weather, or disease. Informational
needs for these pests follow a boom or bust cycle. In this
situation, farmers may be fairly inexperienced while agricultural
professionals are usually more familiar with the scouting
techniques, management tactics and decisions. Extension
entomologists provide advance warning of anticipated pest
outbreaks, information on outbreak status and management
solutions through the
Minnesota Crop News, news media, electronic mail to
county offices, and in-season meetings or field days.
Examples of pest outbreaks in the last 12 years include
grasshoppers (1989-1990), alfalfa/clover leaf weevils (1989),
European corn borer (1990, 1991, 1995, 1996), thistle caterpillar
(1991), potato leafhopper (1991-1992, 1999), aphids on small
grains (1991-1992), aphids on potato (1197-2000), sugarbeet
root maggot (1991-1992), and alfalfa blotch leafminer (1997-1998).
These outbreaks require intense effort when they occur.
High demand for presentations at off-season (winter) meetings
usually follows these outbreaks. Low interest is the rule
during off-peak years. Extension entomologists emphasize
a proactive educational approach that anticipates these
pest outbreaks, rather than a reactive or post facto approach
when interest is high.
Vegetables
The vegetable industry is quite diverse in Minnesota. At
least four major clientele groups can be identified: processors
(sweet corn, peas, snap beans, potatoes), fresh-market (all
crops), seed producers for potatoes and a growing number
of organic-certified fresh-market growers (albeit still
on small percentage of acres). For each sector of the industry,
we must tailor IPM
information differently. The processing industry for
sweet corn and peas, and the potato growers have been very
involved in working with Drs.
Bill Hutchison, Ted
Radcliffe and Dave
Ragsdale, in establishing applied research priorities
and providing funds. Growers also provide space in production
fields for small-plot insecticide/B.t. research and
demonstrations for field days. The industry is interested
in alternatives to conventional insecticide use but balances
performance against the need to maintain quality and yields
of high-value crops. In general the vegetable industry continues
to be responsive cooperators in tackling IPM issues. To
better serve the vegetable industry, the VegEdge
homepage was developed in 1996 to provide more rapid delivery
of pest outbreaks and IPM information. The Aphid-Alert
newsletter has been published as a weekly newsletter
mailed to all Minnesota and North Dakota seed potato growers
during the summer. It is also available in an e-mail
version with several hundred subscribers and as a posting
on the Internet.
Apiculture
The honey, queen, and package honey bee industries in the
United States are in a period of crisis due to problems
created by recently introduced parasitic mites, Africanized
honey bees, and competition from foreign honey producers.
The research and extension efforts of Dr.
Marla Spivak involve breeding honey bees for resistance
against diseases and the most devastating mite pest, Varroa
destructor. In addition, alternative control measures
of mites are being identified and tested while breeding
for a gentle (non-Africanized) northern adapted line of
honey bee that produces large quantities of honey, and overwinters
well. Continued outreach will be required as beekeepers
seek to protect, maintain, and increase honey bee populations
in the northern United States.
Apicultural extension programs have been eliminated in
many Midwest universities due to severe budget constraints
in the last decade. Multi-state research and extension positions
will have to become more common in the future to promote
specialized and technical areas, such as apiculture. Dr.
M. Spivak has developed a regional extension program
in Apiculture that includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa,
South Dakota, and North Dakota. The beekeepers in these
states provide annual support to this regional program.
Urban
Yard
and Garden Clinic (formerly Dial U Insect and Plant Information)
This service is one of many programs within the
Yard and Garden Line. The Yard and Garden Clinic is
available to the general public throughout the state. It
provides diagnosis of insect and plant problems (including
plant disease) as well as information concerning home gardening,
landscaping, and pest management in the urban environment.
The public is charged $5.00 for each call or sample.
The Yard and Garden Clinic also provides diagnosis and information
to county extension staff and master gardeners free of charge.
Pest control operators, arborists, nurserymen, and turf
managers may also use this service. The Yard and Garden
Clinic is staffed by Masters or Ph.D.-level extension specialists
in the disciplines of entomology, plant pathology, and horticulture.
The Yard
and Garden Clinic seasonally employs technicians
trained in entomology, horticulture, and plant pathology.
Besides speaking with callers and examining samples, staff
prepare short publications (Yard
and Garden Briefs) available by mail or on the internet.
The phone number for the Yard and Garden Line is 612-624-4771
for the local Twin Cities area, and toll free for callers
outside the Twin Cities area at 1-888-624-4771.
Master Gardener
Programs. New master gardeners are initially
trained through core course programs. Once they graduate
their education is continued through update sessions and
diagnostic clinics, usually arranged on a county cluster
basis. Master gardeners also have access to current information
by direct contact with specialists, through the Yard
and Garden Line News, through Info-U (a computerized
information), and the Yard and Garden Line. Additionally,
there are entomology programs for advanced master gardeners
at the State Master Gardeners Conference and through other
arranged programs. The Yard and Garden Line staff are heavily
involved in the Master Gardener Program through training
and information development.
Structural, Stored Commodity and Food Handling and Processing.
Major conferences include the Minnesota Structural Pest
Control Management Conference, Minnesota Food Processing
Pest Management Conference, and the Minnesota Stored
Grain Pest Management Conference. Dr. Colleen
Cannon is providing leadership for these programs and is
currently developing a program in applied research and extension
that will address pest management issues of importance to
Minnesotas pest control and food production industries.
Issues under development include biorational control of
carpenter ants and Indian meal moths, IPM in the organic
food industry, and insect bait technology. Jeff
Hahn, Yard and Garden Line Supervisor, provides identification
and informational help. The most important structural
insects are ants, especially carpenter ants, pantry pests,
especially Indianmeal moths, sawtoothed grain beetles, flour
beetles, accidental invaders, including millipedes, sowbugs,
elm leaf beetles, strawberry root weevils, and boxelder
bugs, cockroaches, especially german cockroaches and brown-banded
cockroaches, and fleas.
Landscape, Turf & Nursery. Major conferences
include the Shade Tree Short Course, Minnesota Nursery and
Landscape Conference, and the Minnesota Arborist Association
Annual Meeting. Important landscape insect pests include
leafminers, especially birch leafminer, secondary borers,
especially bronze birch borer, insect and mite galls, ash
and honeylocust plant bugs, cankerworms, forest tent caterpillars,
and other caterpillars, European pine sawflies, yellowheaded
spruce sawflies, and other sawflies, elm leaf beetles and
other beetles, aphids, lace bugs, and white grubs. Of particular
importance for future programming will be issues concerning
the Japanese beetle, and gypsy moth, pests recently introduced
accidentally into Minnesota. Information is delivered to
the public via the Yard and Garden Line and to the industry
via Dr. Vera
Krischik. Dr. Krischik has primary responsibility
for landscape, nursery and turf extension programming.
Floriculture. Major conferences include the Bedding
Plant Conferences, and the Commercial Flower Growers Shortcourse.
Important insect pests include sweet potato and greenhouse
whitefly, western flower thrips, bulb and spider mites,
and aphids. Integrating biological control into commercial
greenhouse pest management programs is a major issue. The
program includes applied research and outreach efforts under
the direction of, Dr.
Ascerno and the efforts of Michael McDonough, Research
Fellow. There is a strong interdiscplinary focus that includes
the Department of Horticultural Sciences and the Department
of Plant Pathology.
Federally-Mandated Programs
The Entomology Department participates in 3 federally mandated
programs: integrated pest management (IPM), pesticide survey
and impact (PSI), and pesticide applicator training
(PAT).
Integrated Pest Management Program. The IPM Program
was initiated in 1978 with a pilot scouting program that
ultimately involved 213 farmers and 22,000 acres of 8 major
crops. To avoid competition with the fledgling crop consulting
industry, the scouting program was terminated in 1982. In
the following years, the program has evolved to serve the
educational needs of farmers and agricultural professionals.
A strong linkage with the crop consulting industry has been
developed.
The IPM program, coordinated by Dr.
Ken Ostlie, provides inservice training for county extension
educators specializing in pest management and environmental
issues or in environmental horticulture (pre 1993) and in
crop systems or horticulture (post 1993). The restructuring
process has been an obstacle to IPM program development
with some fragmentation of planning and reporting activities.
With reorganization proceeding, we can now establish a stronger
state/cluster/county planning and reporting process, and
address training needs of the crop systems and horticulture
specializations.
Pesticide Survey and Impact (PSI). The Minnesota
Pesticide Impact Assessment Program began in 1976 as
part of the National Pesticide Impact Assessment Program
(NAPIAP). Although NAPIAP was discontinued in 2000, a new
Minnesota effort (PSI) has been established using funding
from the new Regional Pest Management Centers. PSI
is presently administered by Dr.
Bill Hutchison. The program's primary goal is to generate
information on pesticide use in Minnesota agricultural and
urban environments. In particular, the program generates
information on the role, importance, and benefits of pesticides
and their alternatives in Minnesota. This information is
used in the re-registration process and provides insights
into the economic impacts resulting from loss of individual
pesticides or clusters of pesticides.
MN PSI has 5 main objectives:
- Conduct
pesticide use surveys.
- Support research that evaluates the impacts of pesticides
and their alternatives.
- Provide education and information on pesticide toxicology
and safety.
- Serve as a reference center on pesticide registration,
re-registration, and usage.
- Determine how pesticide and environmental regulations
affect growers.
Pesticide
Applicator Training. Extension entomologists primarily
participate in commercial pesticide applicator training,
not private applicator training. Extension's role has shifted
over the last few years from one of leading and coordinating
this training towards one of greater industry leadership.
For example, beginning in 1992, extension split IPM educational
aspects from agricultural PAT into a completely new series
of agricultural professional workshops. The intent was to
devote commercial PAT training to regulatory topics. Extension
entomologists provide expertise and training materials for
a wide range of workshops offered for applicator certification.
For more information visit the PAT web site: http://www.extension.umn.edu/pesticides/
Delivery
Extension Entomology uses a variety of tools to deliver
information and provide learning opportunities.
Short courses, conferences, workshops, tours and
field days. Face-to-face meetings remain a major
route for educating professional clientele. The opportunity
to hear and interact with extension specialists, and experience
hands-on learning situations, is a major drawing card for
these events. Most are planned interactively with professional
associations and serve a vital, continuing education role.
This dimension of extension programming is growing as professional
certifications, e.g., certified crop advisor, and regulatory
educational requirements increase.
Publications. Publications also continue
to be an important tool for communicating entomological
information in both visual and textual modes. The Department
currently lists about 50 publications on a wide variety
of topics that are available through the Extension
Distribution Center, the University
of Minnesota Extension Service website, and the Department
of Entomology homepage. Publications are reviewed periodically
for volume of distribution and those with insufficient sales
are eliminated. In many cases, single copies of extension
publications are available free of charge. In other
cases, there is a charge for the publication based on the
cost of production. More and more of Entomology's publications
are being posted on the world wide web. A list of
currently available publications and the means of accessing
them can be found at the Extension
Distribution Center Catalog page. Entomology also maintains
a number of "in-house" publications, for example,
Yard
and Garden Briefs and Vegetable
Pest Fact Sheets. These in-house publications
can be accessed through the entomology homepage. Newsletters
provide an avenue for timely distribution of information
to targeted clientele: a route of particular value when
dealing with pest outbreaks. Entomology contributes to the
following newsletters: Yard
and Garden News (yard, garden, and home entomology,
horticulture and plant disease information, only available
electronically); (list all with links). The Aphid
Alert newsletter is published weekly in the summer
and distributed to all seed potato growers in the Red River
Valley of the North, sent as an e-mail to over 200 subscribers
and posted on the Internet at http://ipmworld.umn.edu/alert.htm.
Computer software and Alternative delivery systems.
Entomology provides the following software: (list
software, its use and how to obtain with links if available).
Since 1996, several faculty have developed web sites for
rapid delivery of IPM information, and others are
in the process of developing web sites for interactive instruction
(e.g. Apiculture). New modes of delivery have been
explored increasingly by extension faculty. Dr.
K. Ostlie developed a segment on crop consulting for
a satellite teleconference on integrated crop management.
Jeff Hahn was involved
in a satellite teleconference program on household insects
and two ITV (interactive television) programs with Master
Gardeners. |