Lesson 1 – Optimizing Beneficial Insects and Their Habitat

Presenters: Nathan Haan, University of Kentucky and Houston Wilson, UCCE and UC Organic Ag Institute

Start Time is 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Once you RSVP, a Zoom link will arrive in the confirmation email.

Upon successfully completing this lesson, participants will be able to:

• 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.

Continued Education Credits: This lesson has been approved for 1 CE credit from California Department of Pesticide Regulation and American Society of Agronomy.

Speaker Bios

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.