December 11, 2023
November 30, 2023
Tooker joined the podcast to talk about conservation-based farming and integrated pest management
November 30, 2023
Some oak galls have fatty acid-rich caps that attract ants to disperse gall to their nests.
November 29, 2023
Research led by Antoine Guiguet found that a gall wasp species induces a gall with an acidic pH that is as low as the pH in lemons and pitcher plants.
November 29, 2023
Research led by recent PhD graduates Elizabeth Rowen and Kirsten Pearsons found that cover crops can be more effective at reducing pest density and crop damage than using insecticides.
March 16, 2020
By diversifying their crop rotations to create conditions that promote beneficial, predatory insects to combat pests, farmers can reduce their reliance on insecticides to control early-season crop pests, such as caterpillars, and still produce competitive yields of corn and soybeans.
August 30, 2019
Insecticides kill insects. It should be no surprise, then, that in Brazil, which has seen a 27% increase in pesticide sales since last year, roughly 500 million honey bees were found dead in piles across four states in early spring. The country’s pesticide use has grown by 770% between 1990 to 2016, as reported by Bloomberg.
July 3, 2019
Allowing cover crops to grow two weeks longer in the spring and planting corn and soybean crops into them before termination is a strategy that may help no-till farmers deal with wet springs, according to Penn State researchers.
June 27, 2018
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.
November 6, 2017
Hi! I’m Jen, and I am a senior majoring in plant science, horticulture option.
October 27, 2017
August 28, 2017
It cannot run away from the fly that does it so much damage, but tall goldenrod can protect itself by first "smelling" its attacker and then initiating its defenses, according to an international team of researchers.
August 9, 2017
John Tooker and Elizabeth Rowen from the Penn State Department of Entomology talk about insects: what they are, why we need them, and why reaching for your shoe when you see a bug might not be the right move. This is the first installment of a monthly entomology series that will air on the second Wednesday of each month.
July 21, 2017
This summer has been full of insects, corn, soy, and so much dirt! I am Dan Wisniewski a rising sophomore majoring in Plant Science with a minor in Environmental Resource Management at Penn State.
July 11, 2017
Neonicotinoids (neonics) are a class of insecticides based on natural plant compounds that disrupt the insect nervous system. They are used because they have relatively low toxicity on non-insects. They are applied as seed coatings, so when a seed germinates the water-soluble insecticides are taken up and mobilized throughout the plant, providing protection against insects that feed on it. The strategy decreases the need for aerial spraying of broad-spectrum insecticides.
June 27, 2017
Kyra joined us for the summer and she kinda likes it.
June 19, 2017
An entomologist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study and compare how various pest-management regimes affect the health of soils.
June 8, 2017
It was the closest thing you get to a blind date between a scientist and a journalist.
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