January 2009 Archives

The same generic lure can attract three species of mealybugs, which would cut costs for growers by allowing them to deploy a single pheromone trap rather than three.
 
The only scouting tool nurseries currently use for mealybugs is labor-intensive visual inspection of crops. Mealybugs are cryptic pests that conceal themselves in cracks and crevices of plant material. Without careful and regular sampling, mealybugs can reach economically damaging levels before growers realize plant-material infestation has occurred.
 
During the past two years, University of California, Riverside, researchers, including graduate student Rebeccah Waterworth, who is studying with UC Riverside entomologist Jocelyn Millar, has worked in several nurseries in Riverside and San Diego counties, deploying pheromone-baited traps to detect and follow citrus, longtailed and obscure mealybug populations.
 
"Fortunately our experiments determined that there is no major interference among these pheromones so a combination lure containing the pheromones of all three mealybug species can be used," Waterworth said.
 
The synthetic pheromone lures are deployed in sticky traps, where male mealybugs are then captured and counted. Some of the practical questions involved in developing pheromones for trapping mealybugs include the dose and longevity of the pheromone lures and how to monitor the seasonality of field populations of the three species.
 
Waterworth's results show longtailed mealybugs have clearly seasonal trends in their activity with populations increasing October through early spring and falling to low levels during the hotter summer months.
 
"The major peak in activity during the cooler winter months was counterintuitive, because most other insect pests show declines in their activity through fall and winter," Millar said. "The seasonality of this species is also apparent in other crops at this production location."
 
In addition, researchers are assessing the reproductive biology of the three mealybug species to determine whether pheromone-based control measures, such as mating disruption, are likely to be successful. They examined whether females can reproduce asexually as well as sexually, the number of times both males and females can mate, and details of their reproductive behaviors that might have implications for the use of pheromones for monitoring or controlling these insects.
 
"With citrus mealybug, we found that males and females can mate multiple times, as long as matings occur rapidly," Millar said. "However, one day after mating the first time, females become unreceptive to further mating attempts, suggesting that materials transferred to the female during mating have triggered changes in the female's physiology. Similar studies are in progress with the other two mealybug species."
 
The UC Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants Program funded this study.

Sounds surround us.  If it's not the rural sounds of birds and locusts, its the urban sounds of traffic, airplanes and people chatting it up.

This onslaught of sound is why people are looking for quiet spots in which sound is sculpted and shaped for relaxation.  Some people are more sensitive to "noise" than others -- some aren't bothered by traffic sounds or airplanes and other are super sensitive to these sounds.  I'm one of those!

Windchimes are a delight to me, especially natural materials such as shells or wood and metal.  The tuned musical chimes are borderline because they are too loud, too pronounced.

Fountains offer soothing sounds of moving water and splashes on hard surfaces.  Again, this roaring sound is tranquil to some, and irritating to others.  Drips and drabs are heavenly for some, rushing waves for others.

Designing a sound garden must take into consideration these personal hearing profiles.

Japanese gardens are noted for their sound elements -- a gentle dripping, a paddle wheel, water falling on stones, and the natural sounds of mating frogs in a secluded grotto or pond.

The natural sounds of nature -- birds chirping and singing and calling,  singing insects, rushing water, rustling leaves, and all the human sounds that you hear at dinner time form a musical mosaic that can bring delight and relaxation if you take the time to enjoy the sounds in your very own neighborhood.  Sound sculpting...one tone at a time! 

"Locovores" eat foods from their local foodshed or a self-determined radius from their home (commonly either 100 or 250 miles, depending on location). By eating locally, most locavores hope to create a greater connection between themselves and their food sources, resist industrialized and processed foods, and support their local economy.

In trying to live a more sustainable, logical lifestyle, many locavores give themselves exceptions to a strict local diet. Commonly excluded items include coffee, chocolate, salt, and/or spices. To keep a local focus, they often try to find local coffee roasters, chocolate producers, and spice importers.

There is a growing interest in regional native foods and ethnic foods such as the Southwest's historic Mexican influence with herbs and peppers.  But there are additional native foods such as dried beans, squash, corn and nuts.

Locovores find tremendous challenge and adventure in discovering what grows in their own neighborhood and nearby communities.  They learn more about their ecosystems and how their use of water, their waste management choices and their choice of housing size, materials and styles all affect the natural food production capability in their region.  Everything is connected ... weather patterns, soil nutrients, drainage, insect infestations...and even those humble gardeners, migrating birds!

Locovores have much to learn from their wild neighbors -- both plants and animals.   What a great challenge to give your family -- trying to eat foods from driving distance from where you live!


"Leslie Allen has always been enthusiastic in her support of northern Nevada's local food lifestyle. As commercial horticulture program coordinator for University of Nevada Cooperative Extension (UNCE), it's part of her job ... yet her passion for this increasingly important field goes far beyond the norm. So much so, in fact, that Allen's love of what she does has found a new description."  She's a "Locavore" ... and proud of it.

A local eating study, known as "Locavore Nation," in which participants attempted to eat 80%  of their food from local, organic and sustainable sources. "Locavore Nation" was sponsored by America Public Media's radio show, "The Splendid Table."

After voluntarily subjecting themselves to eating 80% locally produced foods for a year, the 15 participants in the Splendid Table's "Locavore Nation" have been released from captivity and are free to go back to eating Corn Nuts and powdered mini donuts.

You can retrace their steps on the "Splendid Table" site, where the entire year's worth of blogs are still archived.

Learn more about Locovores at www.Locavore.ws

"According to the results of a 2007 National Gardening Association survey in which nearly 25 million households participated, there was an increase of 22% in money spent on vegetable gardening compared to the previous year. Total money spent was about $1.4 billion. It makes sense that as grocery prices increase and interest in locally produced food is on the rise, people would look to home-grown vegetables as a practical and cost-effective solution."  P. Allen Smith.

When budgets are tight and people need to squeeze value from every dollar, they look for suppliers who are on their side. Providing extra information that demonstrates that your products are worth their cost is a good way to reassure customers that are cautious.

When customers see that you understand what they are going through and can provide them with real money-saving ideas, they are more likely to turn to you for their carefully considered purchases.

Between the organic and locovore movements, people are getting serious about knowing where their food comes from.  Nurseries should be prepared during Memorial Day weekend with plenty of vegetable plants, seeds, compost, manure and organic pest controls," says Teri Smith, Smith's Acres.

Each year, over 80 million tons of plastic is generated in the U.S. Plastic makes up about 10% of the waste stream and is climbing. With about 70 million U.S. households engaged in some kind of gardening activity, the amount of plastics from that alone is considerable.

In the horticultural industry alone, about 350 million pounds of plastic is produced each year.

Where do all those plastic pots go?

The Missouri Botanical Garden operates one of the most extensive residential garden recycling programs in the country.  They collected 150,000 pounds of horticulture waste in 2008 -- all those plastic pots with nowhere to go!

To date the Botanical Garden has collected 35 tons of plastic garden pots, polystyrene cell packs and trays -- and that kept them out of landfills. They annual campaign is now a six month collection period from May through October.  Retail garden centers throughout the metro St. Louis area participate as satellite collection sites. Plastic is ground into small chips that are easily transported for recycling.

More than 75 volunteeers donated more than 1,000 hours to collect the recycled plastic. Proceeds from the plastic timbers are used to add to the Botanical Garden's collections.

Additional program support comes from  Missouri  Dept. of Natural Resources, Environmental Improvement and Energy Resource Authority as well as the private Monrovia Growers company.

Program organizers hope to offer the program as a model for other communities. 

INFORMATION:
Missouri
www.mobot.org/hort/activ/plasticpots.shtml
314-577-9561