Category: extension

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Why conferences matter

After a drive from Guelph and then a long flight from Toronto into very foggy Vancouver and then not-quite-as-foggy Prince George, I arrived home last night from the Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Societies of Canada and Ontario (#ESCJAM2013). I have been away from my family and from UNBC for close to a week now, and though somewhat fatigued (and slightly jet lagged), meetings like these are valuable.

I have come to particularly enjoy ESC meetings over the past few years as I think that they really hit the sweet spot in terms of having just the right number of attendees and topics. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with huge meetings or small niche meetings. I enjoy those too. But if I were Goldilocks, this one would be “just right.”

So, why should a scientist bother to use up part of a research grant to pick up and travel to some far-flung location and spend several days eating and sleeping relatively poorly in a generic conference facility? Here are the reasons that I came up with, and perhaps you can think of more:

Learning and connecting – Nothing beats being fully immersed in a topic that you love, with a ton of likeminded people all around. Conferences provide this type of environment, ranging from excellent student talks (and wow! there were so many of these at the ESC JAM this year!!), to detailed symposium talks, to workshops, to simply chatting with colleagues at coffee breaks. After a conference I generally return reinvigorated and excited about what is going on in my own personal research and the research of the folks in my program. I’ve had a chance to hear cool things and to ask in-person questions and receive in-person answers. I’ve been reminded that there are a lot of other people out there working on interesting problems too – I’m not toiling alone. I’ve been able to troubleshoot some of my scientific and red tape issues with people who have had more experience than I in certain areas. I’ve found out about new theories, new technologies, and new frontiers of study. I’ve re-met old friends and colleagues, and I’ve made contacts with new people as well.

You can read all of the literature all of the time in complete solitude, and you will be very well educated on a topic. But nothing beats the human element in terms of deeply understanding the state-of-the-art in a particular field. In fact I’d go so far as to say that the best learning is done in community with other humans. And the best way to encounter other humans is… to actually spend time with them.

Being challenged – Not everyone does this –and I’m not suggesting that it is the only way of doing things – but I try to go to sessions that do not necessarily major on my own research topic. The reality is that I hear a lot about the type of things that I do on a regular basis from my closest colleagues who also do that type work. I read their papers, talk to them on the phone, collaborate on projects, etc. So I already have a pretty good idea of what is going on in their programs and what they are thinking about. What I don’t necessarily know is what is going on in other entomological fields because my interactions are not as frequent nor is my network so solid. Conferences allow me to sit in on sessions as a fly-on-the-wall (pun intended!) to see what others are up to. Sometimes this gives me new ideas for research or for potential collaborations. If nothing else, it reminds me of how cool entomology is. Like others during this conference, I tried to send out a tweet from each talk that I attended, so if you’re interested, you can get a quick idea of the diversity of topics that I was able to enjoy, here.

Tours – Most conferences that I’ve been to feature one or two of these. Admittedly I don’t always get to go due to conflicts with other events. But when I do, I generally really learn. This year a few of us were treated to a tour of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario facility at the University of Guelph. Besides the fact that what is going on there is highly impressive, it was great to be able to talk to some of the facility experts and to ask specific questions. At other conferences I’ve been able to head out on field trips to see some of the local insect pest problems. Nothing beats seeing, hearing, feeling, and smelling a topic first hand for later understanding. I find that after such field trips, reading the literature is a much more living experience than it can be when I just approach a paper “cold” with no actual life connection with the subject.

History – This year was the 150th anniversary of the Entomological Society of Ontario and (in conjunction with the ESO… I won’t explain it here) the Entomological Society of Canada. As Dr. Laura Timms pointed out in her excellent Heritage Lecture, we’re the oldest entomological society on the continent. With 150 years of history comes a lot of deep tradition as well. Laura’s talk was excellent and reminded all of us of the fact that the ups and downs that we see in our profession today are nothing particularly new. We have a solid foundation built by others before us on which to grow. It is up to us to carry on that legacy. This hit home during the banquet when Dr. Thelma Finlayson was honored for her contributions over her 98 years (!!!) to students, to entomology, and to our Society. The reality is that, barring incredible medical advances, most of us will not be very active in the profession – if we are around at all – at the 200th anniversary. Our history should remind us of our ongoing responsibility to those coming after us over the next 50 years and beyond.

Cookies at coffee breaks – need I say more?

For a great summary of the meeting, please head over to Sean McCann‘s photograph-filled post (featuring my Ph.D. supervisor in the first photograph).

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Aside: During the conference there was a bit of a Twitter squall that is summarized/linked with this tweet:

 

I won’t add much more to the conversation here, others have already responded nicely. Suffice it to say that, for me, Twitter is the next best thing to an ongoing conference. It allows realtime and authentic interaction with others on various topics that interest me.

Twitter is, by no means, as substitute for a good conference or a good blog post. But neither is a blog post or a conference a substitute for Twitter or any other medium. It is what you make of it.

And much was made of Twitter at this conference. For instance, a bit of intense web wizardry by David Shorthouse gave those in attendance using Twitter this fantastic tool that added value to the already useful stream of #ESCJAM2013 tweets.

During this discussion there have been quotes of Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” mantra.

To this I’ll add a quote from Neil Postman:

One way of looking at the history of the human group is that it has been a continuing struggle against the veneration of “crap.”

Any medium will end in a fecal morass if the only contributions to it are scat.

I have experienced just the opposite of that with Twitter on a variety of subjects because the people who I follow contribute useful content and ideas. Twitter at the 2013 ESC JAM was a prime example of that.

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Canada (finally) notices neonicotinoids

Many of you have probably heard that neonicotinoid pesticides seem to be responsible for negative effects on various pollinators, including bumblebees and honey bees.

With limited time today (and for this entire week), I won’t add much more than that right now, other than to say that others have written a ton about it already. So check out some of the links that I’ve provided for some background information.

But, I do have a reason for this brief blog post. It turns out that the Canadian government, via the Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) are starting to take some notice and have issued a notice of intent to begin consultations on this subject. The notice of intent gives 90 days for interested parties to comment.

Some quotes from the notice of intent:

…in spring 2013 with more typical weather patterns, we continued to receive a significant number of pollinator mortality reports from both corn and soybean growing regions of Ontario and Quebec, as well as Manitoba. Consequently, we have concluded that current agricultural practices related to the use of neonicotinoid treated corn and soybean seed are not sustainable.

Bee health is a complex issue that goes beyond the incidents in 2012 and 2013 and may involve a number of additional factors, including parasites, disease and climate. Health Canada’s PMRA is currently conducting a re-evaluation of all uses of neonicotinoid insecticides in cooperation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) as part of the work being done with international partners. We are expediting this re-evaluation, which will help us better understand and manage potential risks these pesticides may pose to long-term bee health.

A few things to keep in mind:

  • Although the notice of intent seems to mainly target dust-related problems – and pesticide-laced dust is definitely an issue – it’s not the only issue.
  • Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides. That means that they end up in the plant’s tissues. This is why they are very effective against herbivores (and why they were touted as such a great thing) because they are mainly targeted at things that are eating plant tissues. But the pesticide also ends up in the pollen and nectar, and that is what bees and other pollinators forage on.
  • On that topic, it’s not just honey bees that are affected. Bumblebees, as noted above, are also known to be vulnerable. In addition there are many other native pollinators – bees and otherwise – that are likely to be affected (and honey bees are not native pollinators in North America).
  • Many other organisms and ecosystems may be harmed by this class of pesticides, including fish, birds, non-pollinating insects, and soil microorganisms. This article is a decent synopsis.

It’s good to see something resembling traction on this issue emerging here in Canada.

If anyone feels so inclined, the notice of intent contains instructions for making a statement on the continued use of neonicotinoids in Canada.

 

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To spray or not to spray?

Earlier this afternoon I was interviewed by the local television station news program on the occasion of today being Canada’s National Day of the Honey Bee.

As I noted in my previous post, our city is currently being inundated with forest tent caterpillars. They are everywhere, and it’s hard to take a walk in one of our city’s wonderful green spaces without literally bumping into them at every turn as they rappel out of the trees above. Yesterday evening I spent a bit of time in my yard and then spent most of the rest of the evening removing strands of caterpillar silk that had festooned me.

What does this have to do with Honey Bee Day? Well, as the planned news story is bound to point out, the temptation for caterpillar-plagued homeowners is going to be to spray the heck out of the little leaf-munching critters with whatever pesticide they can get their hands on. That urge, I would argue, is a mistake for a number of reasons:

  • At this point in the tent caterpillar infestation, they have done almost as much damage as they can do. I have been observing that they are growing quite well (unfortunately for us!) and are going to be entering their pupal (cocoon) stage shortly. In other words, spraying now won’t do much to reduce any remaining damage that they may still do. The damage is mainly done.
  • In any case, in the face of such a massive infestation, spraying a can of pesticide at a few of the caterpillars is analogous to facing up against the JTF2 with a BB gun. You may inflict some minor damage for a moment, but you’re going to be overrun anyhow.
  • For smaller trees and shrubs (many of which these caterpillars only eat reluctantly at best anyhow), physical removal is as effective as spraying, and definitely much better for the environment.
  • And, spraying WILL impact other arthropods that are beneficial, including enemies of the forest tent caterpillar… and pollinators such as honeybees and various native pollinators (bumblebees and others).

That final point, I believe, is going to be one of the messages of the news item later today. Specifically, don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Or, in other words, don’t lose sight of…

  • the honeybees
  • the native pollinators
  • the spiders that eat garden pests
  • the parasitoid flies that dine on tent caterpillars
  • the ladybugs that eat your aphids
  • the seed-dispersing ants
  • the dragonflies that eat mosquitoes
  • that beautiful swallowtail butterfly that brightens your day
  • …you fill in the blank…

…for the caterpillars.

I realize that even after reading this, some folks are still going to want to buy a can or two of pesticide and use it in their yards. If that is you, then:

  • be sure to carefully follow the directions on the label because they are there for a reason.
  • remember that these are powerful chemicals and that more is not necessarily better.
  • do your best to limit your application to the area in which you deem that it’s needed.
  • protect yourself, your kids, and your pets during and after spraying.

I’ll close with a personal story. The other day I was in a garden store buying a few bedding plants and some soil for our gardens and containers. Near the checkout there was a display of pesticide that is labeled for use against forest tent caterpillar. A customer and a store employee were talking about how best to use the stuff. Being a nosy entomologist I joined the conversation and made my case. Following more discussion between the three of us the customer finally said, “well, I know that this won’t really help with the problem in my yard, but I’m just so grossed out by them that I want to do something.”

I’m not sure if she ended up buying the product or not. But I suspect that a lot of spraying goes on for that very reason – i.e. a general dislike of insects – particularly in vast quantities – combined with a desire to do something… anything.

So, one last plea – please carefully consider your need use a pesticide in this situation. This plague will be over for the year soon enough. If we are lucky, natural enemies and disease will knock the population down this year and we won’t be seeing these creatures in any substantial quantities for quite a few years to come. In the meantime pesticides will not alleviate the problem, but they might end up hurting some friends that you may not even know that you have.

If you would like more information on pollinator conservation, please see this page hosted by the Xerces Society.

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(And a small side note: I’ve been seeing a few “friendly flies” around lately. So hopefully their population levels will pick up and they’ll help to wipe out this infestation. Fingers crossed! Keep in mind that these creatures are called “friendly” for a reason. Specifically, they like to land on various surfaces, including people. But they are harmless to everything except for forest tent caterpillar cocoons. If they are going to be a factor in knocking down the tent caterpillar infestation, there are going to be a lot of them around very soon. Here is a picture of one so that you know what to look for. Click on the photograph to enlarge. Notice the stripes on the thorax, the pattern on the abdomen, and the nice, big reddish/burgundy eyes.)

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What’s with all these caterpillars?

Prince George, British Columbia, where I live, is in the midst of a forest tent caterpillar outbreak. The number of these little caterpillars has been increasing each year for the past three or so years. And that means that people are noticing them and asking questions. This morning I received a phone call from an affiliated pair of local radio stations and gave them an interview. That has not been my first inquiry on the topic and so, because Twitter is not the best long-term repository for such answers, I’m hoping that this blog post will answer many of the questions that folks might have. I’ll update this post as I receive new questions. So fire away.

What are some of the basic facts about this insect? The forest tent caterpillar is a native species with a range that extends across much of Canada and the USA. They generally present wherever its host trees reside, and they numerous hosts depending upon the geographical locale. Here in western Canada they often feed on aspens and other poplars. They also eat the leaves on some other leafy-tree (angiosperm) species, although there are also some that they avoid. But they do not attack conifers.

Despite their name, forest tent caterpillars do not construct tents. They get their name because they are related to other species – notably eastern tent caterpillars – that do. Forest tent caterpillars do spin silk and often leave large patches of silk in areas where they congregate. Although they do not have tents, they do aggregate in groups and they also move around in little parades following each other from branch to branch and from tree to tree. In some major outbreaks the number of aggregating and parading caterpillars can be so high as to make roadways slippery and dangerous to drive on.

What is the life cycle like? How long will these caterpillars be around? Forest tent caterpillars spend the winter in the egg stage. They hatch out around the same time as bud burst, which means that they have leaves to eat as soon as they leave their eggs. The new caterpillars are quite small, but grow rapidly as they defoliate trees. They move in groups from one tree to the next when food is depleted. The caterpillar stage lasts for a few weeks – usually from about mid-May until the end of June or early-July depending on the local climate. At that point, once they have grown to a good size, they pupate in little cocoons in sheltered locations. The pupal stage lasts a few weeks and then adult moths emerge in July and early-August. The adult moths only live a few days, during which time they mate and the female lays a band of a few hundred eggs around the branch of a host tree. Then the next generation is ready to take on the winter and to emerge the following spring. If you see a lot of adult moths one year (as we did last year here in Prince George), there is a good chance that you’ll have more caterpillars the next year. So keep an eye on the number of adult moths in your area this summer.

Why are there so many of them this year? Forest tent caterpillar populations are cyclical. On occasion – perhaps every ten years or so in any particular location – there can be a population explosion for a few years. The explosions are always self-limiting, as are most biological phenomena. A variety of factors are likely involved in ending an outbreak: disease, predators and parasitoids, starvation, or even untimely inclement weather. Sometimes one of these is all that’s needed to knock the populations down to sub-outbreak levels; often several of these factors work in concert to have that effect.

Are they going to kill my trees? Probably not. Most healthy trees can survive a few years of defoliation. In fact, many trees put out a second set of leaves after losing their first set. Add to that the fact that even in a large infestation, caterpillar populations in any given area may focus on one stand of trees one year, and another the next. So not every tree is necessarily going to be fully defoliated in every year. Defoliation takes away the tree’s food source, because trees, like other plants, make their food by catching sunlight and carbon dioxide with their leaves. So forest tent caterpillars reduce yearly growth in trees. In fact, researchers can study tree rings, which are indicators of growth, to track past outbreaks of defoliators.

A few trees will undoubtedly die if they are already stressed or if an infestation continues on for a number of years before the caterpillar population collapses. But if you see any large tree in an area that harbors forest tent caterpillars, you can bet that it’s already survived a number of previous outbreaks.

What can I do about it? Not much. Once populations get to this level, pesticide spraying is mainly futile, particularly in small areas such as a few trees in your backyard. At most you will spend money and time on a treatment that really won’t have much of an effect. Killing a few caterpillars may make it seem like you’re doing something, but there are plenty more where they came from. At worst, you will kill beneficial organisms (including some that would otherwise be happily killing forest tent caterpillars); you will have deleterious effects on your local ecosystem; and you could be exposing your family and pets to pesticides.

As pointed out by another entomologist on Twitter, there are some cases where larger scale use of Btk, which is not toxic to most creatures other than tent caterpillars, is advisable:

But those are usually special, large-scale situations, often involving aerial applications.

In most cases you can take a non-pesticide approach in your yard. You may want to do this if you have young trees in your yard that may not be as resilient as older, larger trees. You can remove caterpillars by hand or with your garden nozzle. And you can use sticky bands on the trunk so that nomadic parades of caterpillars can’t get to the leaves by climbing up the tree (although they may descend from above on little silk lines). Besides that, though, it’s best to just let nature take its course. The population will collapse soon enough, and in the meantime it is an interesting biological phenomenon to observe.

Have you done any research on forest tent caterpillars? Yes. About a decade ago I was involved in work on tree responses to having their leaves fed on by this insect. In one study we surveyed all of the genes that were turned on and off in leaves while the tree was being fed on. In another study, we found that while the caterpillar was feeding on some leaves, undamaged leaves in other parts of the tree began to release chemical signals into the air. We think that those signals are used to attract in enemies of the caterpillars. In other words, it seems that the tree is calling for help when it detects that it is being fed upon. There is still more work to do on that, however.  For instance, we are not sure which of the chemicals that the attacked tree is releasing – if any – serve to attract enemies of the caterpillar.

Can you make these things into wine? Yes.

Where can I find more information? Along with some of the links above, you can look here, here, and here.