WSU Cougar Head Logo Washington State University
WSU Insider
News and Information for Faculty, Staff, and the WSU Community

Experts offer multilevel bug defense

 


Photo: WSU Spokane Extension Master Gardeners Levi Strauss, left, Wayne Green and Brigitta ozefowski discuss a strategy for dealing with a caterpillar outbreak. (Photo courtesy of WSU Extension Spokane)


 

By Robert Frank, WSU Today
 
Spiders and beetles and flies. Oh my!
 
Eggs and bugs in my food! Oh yuk!
 
‘Tis fall, and along with a bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables, the autumn temperatures also can usher in a multitude of bugs and critters. These insects thrive in the surrounding fields, trees, soil and grass, and can be transported indoors on clothing, produce, pets, firewood, etc. Or, they can simply reside in and around a house.
 
 

Identify it!
If you’re trying to identify an insect, plant disease or plant, try the following websites:
 
• Hortsense, ONLINE @
http://pep.wsu.edu/hortsense

.
 
• Pestsense, ONLINE @
http://pep.wsu.edu/pestsense

.
 
• Urban Integrated Pest Management and Pesticide Safety Education ONLINE @
http://pep.wsu.edu

.

When Washington’s homeowners, farmers and businesses find themselves inundated with bugs, they often turn to WSU for help. For homeowners, the primary responders for questions are the 4,153 volunteers who are certified Master Gardeners.

 
If the Master Gardeners get stumped, or if the question is commercial in nature, the challenge is passed on to entomologists at the Plant & Insect Diagnostic Laboratory at WSU’s Puyallup Research and Extension Center. And, if Puyallup can’t nail down a solution, the query is passed on to WSU Pullman’s entomology department.
 
Working together as an extended statewide team, “we perform these services for pretty much anyone that has a problem,” said Richard Zack, chair and associate professor of entomology. “And, if the problem is significant enough and we can’t help, we may go out to someone else — another university, the U.S. Department of Agriculture or whoever is the leading expert.”
 
 
Front line
“The Master Gardeners are really the front line for this,” said Zack. “They do a marvelous job and it’s hard to overestimate their value.”
 
Carrie Foss, coordinator for the WSU Urban Integrated Pest Management Program, agrees. She said a family of websites has been created — including Hortsense and Pestsense — that make the management of insect and plant problems enormously easier.
 
Together, these sites draw about 278 visitors a day. It’s little wonder why — no matter where people live, they invariably have issues with insects or plant diseases.
 
“These websites are a tremendous resource,” said Zack, they cut down on a lot of personnel time that otherwise would be involved in identifying (insects or plants or diseases).”
 
 
 
Master Gardener Cathi Lamoreux identifies spider specimen sent in by homeowner. (Photo courtesy of WSU Extension Spokane)
 
 
Concerns swarm
 
Questions about insects often come in waves, generated by massive hatches, migrations and media coverage.
 
“There are ebbs and flows to these things,” said Foss. “When people suddenly get spiders in their home, it is usually when they bring in firewood. In the springtime, one of the common problems on the west side is slugs.”
 
Zack agrees: “In the Moscow-Pullman area, this has been a big grasshopper year. And in mid-October, we’ll have a big aphid breakout, with clouds of them in the air.”
 
The Tri-Cities area recently had an invasion of beetles, with one resident couple noting that they “swept their driveway and sidewalks three times each day, sucking up the black bugs with a shop vacuum cleaner.” Another homeowner said, “It can look like the ground is moving.”  (To see the article, go ONLINE @ www.seattletimes.com and search “Beetlemania.”)
 
 
Avoid grease spots
 
If people can’t identify an insect they can bring or mail a specimen to their local extension office. However, there are some tricks to doing that as well. Sometimes, people simply throw the specimen in an envelope and mail it in. But when it arrives, Zack said, it may “look like spot of grease with a leg or a wing.”
 
To find out how to properly submit an insect or plant specimen, go to the WSU Puyallup Plant & Insect Diagnostic Laboratory website — ONLINE @ www.puyallup.wsu.edu/plantclinic — and follow the instructions.
 
Meanwhile, keep in mind that there are about 10 million species of insects in the world, and many live regularly in your house. Oh my!
 

Next Story

Recent News

WSU Core-to-Career program announces members of third cohort

Twenty-one Washington State University faculty have been named as the newest members of the Core-to-Career professional development program that impacts undergradutes’ career readiness.

Sharing American political and judicial expertise overseas

Recipient of a Fulbright Senior Specialist award for a three-week visit to Slovakia, WSU’s Cornell Clayton held a series of lectures for graduate and undergraduate students focusing on contemporary American politics.

College of Education appoints Eric Johnson as associate dean

Eric Johnson, an English language learners professor, will begin his two-year term on Aug. 16 and will focus heavily on faculty and staff professional development aimed at fostering an inclusive and equitable educational environment within the college.

WSU lab joins network identifying new pathogens

As part of the $1.7 billion Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence, the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory will play a key role preventing the spread of disease-causing pathogens, including new COVID-19 variants.

Find More News

Subscribe for more updates