Posts Tagged: lygus

Emily Bick's AAUW Grant: Targeting the Lygus Bug

Watch out, lygus bugs! Agricultural entomologist Emily Bick is targeting you. Lygus hesperus, a serious pest of strawberries--as well as cotton,...

Agricultural entomologist Emily Bick doing field work in Denmark before the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic precautions..

Agricultural entomologist Emily Bick doing field work in Denmark before the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic precautions.

Emily Bick (right) in an engagement photo with her fiance, Nora Forbes. Bick is an agricultural entomologist and a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Lene Sigsgaard at the University of Copenhagan and Forbes is a statistician at the Danish Medtronic office.

Emily Bick (right) in an engagement photo with her fiance, Nora Forbes. Bick is an agricultural entomologist and a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Lene Sigsgaard at the University of Copenhagan and Forbes is a statistician at the Danish Medtronic office.

A Big Cheer for a Crab Spider

What happened in our pollinator garden on June 3 probably would have promoted a standing ovation from agriculturists who grow cotton, strawberries,...

A crab spider nails an agricultural pest, a lygus bug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A crab spider nails an agricultural pest, a lygus bug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It takes a village

UC Cooperative Extension researchers are discovering that, for the best control of a pest like lygus bugs, growers should not view their individual farms as isolated islands, reported Cary Blake in Western Farm Press.

“It takes a village to manage lygus,” says Pete Goodell, UC IPM Cooperative Extension advisor with the UC Statewide IPM Program. “Effective lygus management involves landowners, producers, pest control advisers, those with an expertise in biological and physiological issues, and others. Working together across the local landscape is an effective way to effectively manage lygus to reduce its impact in cotton.”

Goodell shared this village mantra during his keynote address at the 3^rd International Lygus Symposium held in Scottsdale, Ariz., in late November. More than 80 people attended representing 12 states and five countries.

The article said Goodell and University of Arizona IPM specialist Peter Ellsworth have created a video game that allows producers to collaborate on lygus control. The software predicts lygus outbreaks based on crop placement within a region. Ellsworth and Goodell are seeking funds to get the program into growers' hands.

Targeting Lygus Bugs

If you've ever grown strawberries, you're probably familiar with what the lygus bug does. This major agricultural pest is one of the causes of those...

Lygus bug (Lygus hesperus) is a major agricultural pest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Lygus bug (Lygus hesperus) is a major agricultural pest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Looking for Lygus

Frances Sivakoff knows a lygus bug when she sees one. Sivakoff (right), a doctoral candidate in the UC Davis Department of Entomology, won a 2010...

Lygus Bug

LYGUS BUG, a serious pest of such crops as cotton, alfalfa and strawberries, is also commonly found in the garden. This one is on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Pest Perch

LYGUS BUG, shown here perched on a Mexican hat flower in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Research Facility, UC Davis, is a serious pest of many crops. It pierces plant tissues, sucking the sap. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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