Latest News

WPSU recently aired a story about the Penn State Queen Rearing Workshop, the PA Queen Breeding Program, and the associated Penn State research on queen rearing and honey bee stock improvement. The story can be streamed online here:

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Beginner and experienced beekeepers and those thinking about taking up backyard beekeeping can get the information they need to be successful from Beekeeping 101, a new online beekeeping course offered by Penn State Extension.

Pennsylvania farmers and homeowners should remain aware of possible armyworm infestations that could continue to appear within the next week in hay pastures, grain fields and lawns near agricultural fields.

ST. PAUL, Minn – The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is rolling out a new monitoring technique in the hunt for emerald ash borer (EAB). The new approach is designed to lure any male EAB beetles in the area into a sticky trap as they search for a mate.

Guests include John Tooker, Shelby Fleischer, and Steve Jacobs, all with the Penn State University, Department of Entomology.

The common bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia manipulates its host's reproduction to promote its own maternal transmission, and can interfere with pathogen development in many insects making it an attractive agent for the control of arthropod-borne disease. However, many important species, including Anopheles mosquitoes, are uninfected.

Michael Freiberg recently graduated with a BSc and MSc from the Department of Entomology. He visited the University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil, in May and June of 2011, with support from the College of Agricultural Sciences International Office.

A parasite that fights the zombie-ant fungus has yielded some of its secrets to an international research team led by Penn State's David Hughes. The research reveals, for the first time, how an entire ant colony is able to survive infestations by the zombie-ant fungus, which invades an ant's brain and causes it to march to its death at a mass grave near the ant colony, where the fungus spores erupt out of the ant's head. "In a case where biology is stranger than fiction, the parasite of the zombie-ant fungus is itself a fungus -- a hyperparasitic fungus that specializes in attacking the parasite that turns the ants into zombies," Hughes said. The research will be published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Thursday, March 15, Boys’ Latin students joined students from University City High School for the monthly Science Speaker Series.

Lecture by Christina Grozinger in the 2012 Penn State Frontiers in Science lecture series, is now available online

The Penn State Department of Entomology is seeking undergraduate student applicants for the Dutch Gold Honey Scholarship for honey bee research.

Entomology Minor Salvatore Anzaldo (Biology) has been awarded an internship in the 2012 Smithsonian Museum of Natural History Research Experiences in Washington DC.

Entomology Minor Mr. Spencer Malloy (Philosophy, AgroEcology) has received a 2012 Undergraduate Summer Discovery Grant from Penn State University.

Entomology Minor Ms. Angela Hoover (Biology) won the undergraduate student competition at the 2012 Gamma Sigma Delta Research Exposition.

We will be hosting our second annual Queen Rearing Workshop at Penn State from June 2-3, 2012.

The symposium will be held on May 21, 2012, and will feature presentations from Center members and regional collaborators from the NE IPM Center Pollinator Working Group. Topics will include basic and applied research, extension and outreach related to pollinators.

In 2010, honey distributor Dutch Gold Honey and William and Kitty Gamber, of Lancaster, Pa., each contributed $50,000 to endow a fund to support undergraduate research in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Following five years of research and development, a trapping system for the Asian longhorned beetle will be tested on a broad scale this summer following a workshop on how to deploy and monitor the trap.

A message from Gary Felton about the restructuring process of the College of Agricultural Sciences and future outlook for the Department of Entomology at Penn State.

In the summer 2010, three organizations committed to honey bee and pollinator health, the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association (PSBA), the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) and Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research (CPR), created a new research fund to support applied research projects which would directly benefit beekeepers. The PA Pollinator Research Program received $10,000 from each organization. Furthermore, the Montgomery County Beekeepers, recognizing the potential benefit of the program, contributed to the fund and urged other small associations to donate as well.