Lesson 1 – Optimizing Beneficial Insects and Their Habitat
Presentation Recording
Presenters
Nate Haan is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky. He researches ecology, conservation, and management with emphasis on ecosystem services and beneficial insects. Nate completed his MS at the University of Michigan, PhD at the University of Washington, and was previously a postdoc at Michigan State University.
Houston Wilson is an Assoc. Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside. His research focuses on integrated pest management practices for orchards and vineyards. He is also the Founding Director of the newly created UC Organic Agriculture Institute, where he works to facilitate the development of research and extension programs for organic agriculture. While his home campus is UC Riverside, Houston’s lab is actually based off-campus near Fresno at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center.
Learning Objectives
- Describe how predators' and parasitoids' characteristics and requirements influence their pest control services and how these are embodied in the 'SNAP' acronym.
- Explain why the amount and spatial arrangement of semi-natural habitat matters and what we know about how to optimize it.
- Describe the influence of landscape diversity on biological control of leafhoppers in vineyards.
- Explain how stacking ecosystem services can potentially increase the value of on-farm habitat diversification.
Articles
- Designing Agricultural Landscapes for Arthropod-Based Ecosystem Services in North America by Haan et al. 2021
- Predicting Landscape Configuration Effects on Agricultural Pest Suppression by Haan et al. 2020
- Landscape Diversity Influences Leafhopper Biocontrol by Wilson et al. 2020
- Habitat Diversification for Pest Management in Vineyards by Wilson et al. 2019