Done with 1 out of 3 presentations I will be giving here in Savannah, GA during the Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference. Discussed predatory mite use against spider mites in small fruits (mostly in strawberries). The "Emerging Issues in Small Fruits" session by the SRSFC 🍓

A short summary of predatory mites that have shown potential or good performance for caneberry pest management Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium | Predatory Mites for Mite Pest Management in Caneberries:

I had my last Extension presentation of the year today, discussing the high incidence of TSW disease we had in NC tobacco during the 2025 season. Looking forward to the start of the 2026 extension meetings.

Sharing the research my lab conducted in 2024 testing 14 miticides for the control of russet mites. I'm thankfull for the hardwork of my lab members that made that large experiment to fruition and the support of the The IR-4 Project to conduct the experiment

Every year this 2nd week of November, I'm back to back presenting first at ESA and right after at The Strawberry Expo. This year the Strawberry Expo was held at Raleigh where lots of growers and specialists gathered to discuss main topics on research and strawberry production

Colombia representing at the 2025 ESA Meeting in Portland, OR!! Very happy to see one of our extraordinary colombian scientists making our people and our country proud with her work on bee ecology and evolution at Penn State 🇨🇴

In strawberries, achene size can reveal the cause of fruit deformities. Poor pollination leaves small achenes where fertilization failed, while tarnished plant bug feeding causes enlarged achenes. Though once rare in North Carolina, they are showing up in high tunnels this fall

Last week, I contributed as a speaker for the first time in the Southeastern Professionals Fruit Workers Conference. This year, it was held at Mills River, NC, where a grad student competition was held and many specialists conducting research on fruit crops

Today, we visited our tea field at Clinton and they have tons of open flowers. Many bees, flies, and beetles were visiting the flowers attracted by their strong, sweet smell. Here is a cool video of one of the many pollinators we found in these tea flowers 🌸🏵🌼

My program is now working with tea as an emerging crop in NC. Tea farmers in the southeast are establishing tea plantings and are in need or pest management reccomendations. We have established a tea planting and will be monitoring for pests during its early establishment 🍵

Our biggest ever collected Prionus larvae, almost 3.5 in long and more than 9 grams in weight. This guy was extracted from an uprooted highbush blueberry plant at a commercial from in Sampson County, NC last week 🫐🐛

Strawberries in the ground today! We will have three strawberry trials this year, two at the Research Station in Castle Hayne and one at a commercial farm. We will monitor for spider mites, thrips, and sap beetles. I'm getting excited about this strawberry season 🍓

Dr. Max Scott (NCSU entomologist) discusses the significant threat posed by screw worms, a parasitic insect that lays eggs in live animals, leading to severe economic and health impacts on livestock. https://t.co/lx55QZq0OE

Getting ready to start a miticide trial soon against spider mites under greenhouse-grown peppers. Looking forward to test the efficacy of a few products for future use in peppers culture 🫑🌶

🌱 Great time at Discover the @NC_PSI day! Shared our lab projects, saw amazing PSI work, caught up with @NCStateCALS colleagues, and met PSI’s biggest supporters 😁 @KellyJAvilaM @MPrietoTorres @sarah_m_cochran @Carlomatrax @plantdisease @plantpathgrads @sd_aps @FFARFellows

Today was the last of 3 preplant strawberry meetings in the last 10 days. Growers are getting ready to put plants in the ground and our NCSU strawberry team, including me, are helping them refresh all the management methods available against insect and mite pests and diseases 🍓

Curious about careers in entomology education beyond the classroom or tenure track? Join us August 26 for a dynamic ESA webinar exploring career paths from K–12 teaching and extension to zoos, museums, government outreach, and edu-tainment. Register: https://t.co/0JQGJkRXWO

Back to back strawberry presentations yesterday and today the 2 strawberry pre-plant meetings. We had also a great strawberry disease update from our plant pathologist Caleb Bollenbacher and Bill Cline 🍓

Today the Tobacco Field Day at the Oxford Research Station, hosted 100+ attendees and our Tobacco team (agronomist, breeder, plant pathologist, and entomologist) presented their work to growers, agents, and industry reps.

Last week, 40 high schoolers learned about insect pests in strawberries and peppers and Prionus beetles in blueberries during the Horticultural Science Summer Institute at our NCSU Horticulture Department. They had the opportunity to see the pests first hand!