What do you want to know about the invasive spotted lanternfly?
This is the 6th of eleven short news articles written by students, during the professional development class. This year we had the students interview their advisor(s), in an effort to help them better understand the larger context of their projects.
An army of microscopic critters is interrupting life for many of Pennsylvania’s black bears.
Winery owner Darvin Levengood is no fan of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect that can wreak havoc on grapes.
On Thanksgiving 2015, Margo Woodacre had to send her family home on empty stomachs. A month later, Barbara and David Runkle were unable to put up their Christmas tree. In the years since, neighbors have worn out vacuum belts, spent untold amounts of money on black lights, and become amateur experts on homeopathic pesticides.
Planting season for corn and soybeans across the U.S. corn belt is drawing to a close. As they plant, farmers are participating in what is likely to be one of the largest deployments of insecticides in United States history.
A bizarre pest from Asia is spreading fast and putting billions of dollars’ worth of resources at risk.
The internet is a technology of low-cost communication and connection. Everything from email to e-commerce to social networks has hinged on the internet’s transformative role in changing the economics of communication. All those connections suddenly became both possible and cheap.
A research team in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant — an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A new step forward in managing a pernicious pest of golf course putting greens comes with an assist from an unlikely source: marine biology.
You may have heard about them. They invade our natural habitats and managed landscapes, our farms and forests, our yards and gardens — and sometimes our homes. They raise our anxiety as they cause ecological and economic damage, threaten our health, and force costly responses from government agencies, industry sectors, and research institutions.
When the temperature drops and the days get shorter, honey bees don’t hibernate—they huddle. Meanwhile, worker bees produced in the fall are plump and have longer lifespans than their spring counterparts. These winterized workers form a “thermoregulatory cluster” around their queen. Powered by honey stores, they shiver their muscles to produce heat, keeping temperatures at the center of the cluster around a comfortable 21 degrees Celsius (C). Still, winter is a stressful time for honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. In the United States around 30 percent of colonies don’t survive until spring.
I was thrilled to receive my first request to peer review a paper while working on my Ph.D. Then I realized I didn’t know how to peer review. It had never been covered in my classes, so I started asking around and sending emails, reaching out to my friends in other programs, but with little luck. As important as peer review is, it seems that few STEM programs actively teach students about how to navigate the peer review process and make the decisions involved, such as whether to accept or reject a paper for publication.
This is the 1st of eight short news articles written by students, during the professional development class, about each other's research.
Let's catch up this week on some gardening news and interesting tidbits ... Bird and pollinator gardens coming to Penn State
“Invasive pretty” may be one way to describe the Spotted Lanternfly, although Penn State entomologist Heather Leach warns that the beautiful bug is also a destructive pest.
A new type of light-emitting diode lightbulb could one day light homes and reduce power bills, according to Penn State researchers who suggest that LEDs made with firefly-mimicking structures could improve efficiency.
Philadelphians Against Bed Bugs (PhABB) – a partnership among Penn State Integrated Pest Management Program, local agencies, non-profits, health care professionals, senior and low-income housing advocates, lawyers, and everyday citizens -- is one step closer to securing a bed bug ordinance for the city of Philadelphia and awaits the vote of the City Council.
9- month, Tenure Track, 75% Research, 25% Teaching
9-month, Tenure Track, 60% Research, 30% Extension, 10% Teaching
On Thursday nights, the yarn comes out. Every week, my fellow entomology graduate students and I get together to make insect-inspired crafts. One crochets butterflies, another makes earrings out of wings from discarded research specimens, and a third decoupages notebooks with figures and illustrations from journal articles thrown out after a lab cleanup. It may sound light or frivolous, but it's far from it. A regular social night like this—whether built around crafts or some other shared interest—can make a significant difference in our work and our lives.
On December 21, the Department of Agriculture award $1.286 million in grants to 15 Pennsylvania universities and research organizations to advance Pennsylvania’s agriculture and food industry.
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) is proud to announce that Chris Law, Bruce Stevens and Dr. Larry Hribar were honored at the 90th Annual Meeting of the Florida Mosquito Control Association in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Today, extension agents are more plugged in and wired than ever, producing YouTube videos, writing blogs, and even tweeting to reach their communities. Pennsylvanian extension agents are riding this new technological wave while at the same time keeping a foot in the past to best serve one of their largest constituent communities: Amish and Mennonite communities, also known as Plain Communities
The Asian longhorned tick most likely began invading the United States years ago. Now found in nine states, the tick may soon occupy a large swath of eastern North America as well as coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest, according to research published Thursday in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
It's colorful to look at unless it's hatching in your house! The spotted lantern fly has become a big problem for crops in some mid-Atlantic states, and now is making headlines for clinging to Christmas trees in those infested areas.
Dicamba herbicide drift onto plants growing adjacent to farm fields causes significant delays in flowering, as well as reduced flowering, of those plants, and results in decreased visitation by honey bees, according to researchers at Penn State and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.
Penn State’s University Museum Consortium is hosting a public reception to celebrate "Eclectic Collections," a collaborative exhibit between University museums and galleries.
Andrew and Donna Cole say they have yet to see spotted lanternfly on their New Jersey farm.
It’s no wonder that many of us two-leggers get the heebie-jeebies at the sight of spiders. With their far-too-many legs, shiny or furry bodies — often painted with cryptic symbols — and mechanical, creeping movements, they seem alien next to soft, clumsy human bodies.
