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TULSA, Okla. — At the 21st National Conference on Urban Entomology, held this week in Tulsa, cutting-edge pest research was shared from leading university researchers as well as the next generation of urban entomologists.
The conference also helps bridge the gap between the research community and the pest management industry. Pest management professionals who attended this year’s conference were presented with valuable research findings to help them stay ahead of the information curve.
“As an example, we have a number of ant species that are very threatening, that have a massive impact on the economy and many of the papers presented addressed this topic,” said Texas A&M's Dr. Roger Gold, who also serves as the NCUE secretary-treasurer.
Case in point, parts of the western U.S. are struggling with velvety tree ants, Liometopum occidentale. Dr. Laurel Hansen, professor at Spokane Falls Community College, reviewed this pest during her presentation. Hansen noted that this pest’s range extends from the West Coast to as far east as Wyoming and Texas, and south from the Mexico baja northward to British Columbia, Canada. Velvety tree ants are particularly troublesome because they are a wood-destroying insect, they produce a painful/irritating bite when disturbed and they have large colonies.
University of Clemson Professor Dr. Pat Zungoli reviewed a problematic invasive ant in the Southeast – the Asian needle ant, Pachycondyla chinensis. The Asian needle ant poses a threat to public health because allergic reactions to stings from Asian needle ants can lead to anaphylaxis. Mississippi State University’s Blake Layton gave a presentation on rover ants, Brachymyrmex patagonicus, and their presence in Mississippi.
A pest recently in the news has been a species that is a close relative of crazy ants, formally known as Paratrenicha species near pubens — and also referred to by some as crazy rasberry ants. Gold reviewed this ant in a presentation titled “They don’t die…easily. The true story of an ecologically dominant invasive ant species.” These ants, which apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship, are invading homes and yards across the Houston area and shorting out electrical boxes.
Based on the number of papers presented on termites, this pest still remains the most popular urban entomology research area. However, this year’s conference featured a diverse mix of pest topics, including several relating to resurgent pests. For example, the NCUE presented one of its student scholarship awards — the Ph.D. Award — to University of Kentucky’s Alvaro Romero for his bed bug research. Romero gave a presentation titled “Bed bug research: Catching up with a forgotten pest.”
Other highlights of this year’s conference included the presentation of the NCUE Distinguished Achievement Award in Urban Entomology Award to University of Florida’s Dr. Nan-Yao Su (see related story), and the NCUE Student Paper Competition. The three winning papers were:
- First place: Matthew Tarver, University of Florida — “Gene expression profiles of R. flavipes in response to socio-environmental conditions”
- Second place: Preston Brown, Virginia Tech — “The population expansion of pest ant species in the presence of S. invicta during stages of urban succession”
- Third place: Nicky Gallagher, Ohio State University — “Termite mediated alteration of food items”
Brown also was the NCUE’s other student scholarship winner — capturing the Master of Science award. Brown presented his paper titled “Changes in diversity: A successional study of pest ant species in Puerto Rican housing developments.”
The next NCUE will be held in May 2010 in Portland, Ore.
Sponsors of this year’s NCUE were: BASF, Bayer Environmental Science, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont Professional Products, MGK, Orkin, Pest Control Technology (PCT) magazine, Pest Management Professional magazine, S.C. Johnson & Son, Syngenta Professional Products, Terminix and Whitmire Micro-Gen Research Laboratories.