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LinkedInPosts Tagged: Vernard Lewis
A Celebration of ESA Award Winners
Tuesday, Nov. 2 will be a special day of celebration at the annual Entomological Society of...
UC Davis distinguished professor Frank Zalom will receive ESA's highest honor, Honorary Member, on Tuesday, Nov. 2. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bravo to Vernard Lewis and Margaret Collins: Two Legendary Entomologists
Congratulations to emeritus Cooperative Extension specialist Vernard Lewis of UC...
In this image, taken in October 2018, consultant and mentor Vernard Lewis (left), confers with Andrew Sutherland, UC integrated pest management advisor for Bay Area counties, about the Villa Termiti at the UC Berkeley Field Station. Sutherland, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, was recently awarded state funding to remodel the Villa for future training of pest management professionals in the state. (UC ANR Photo by Pam Kan-Rice)
In this 2018 image, entomologist Vernard Lewis shows staff research associates how to insert termites into wood blocks. The project involved placing the wood blocks in a house to see if heat and wintergreen oil will kill termites. In front is Casey Hubble of UC Cooperative Extension, Contra Costa County, and in back is Kathleen Campbell of UC Riverside. (UC ANR Photo by Evett Kilmartin)
Retiring entomologist will be missed
He built a villa for termites, delighted school children with giant cockroaches, did...
Of Termites, Bed Bugs and Cockroaches
We're all going to miss him. The termites, bed bugs and cockroaches--not so much. "Him" is Vernard...
UC ANR urban entomologist Vernard Lewis stands by his Villa Termiti, built just for termite research. (UC ANR Photo)
Madagascar hissing cockroaches at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bedbugs prove difficult to detect
UC scientists combat resurgence of bedbug in behavioral studies and monitor trials
Bedbugs are showing up more frequently in California and around the world, and new UC research shows that current methods for detecting the blood-sucking pests aren’t very reliable.
Detecting bedbugs is key to controlling them so a UC study tested three commercial monitors. At best, the monitors containing attractants captured 10 percent of the bedbugs, wrote UC scientists from UC Cooperative Extension, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside in the July–September 2013 issue of California Agriculture, UC's peer-reviewed journal of agricultural, natural and human resources.
As bedbugs become more prevalent, the researchers call for improving monitors as well as developing new methods to lure the insects more effectively.
“If we could put out bait and the bedbugs find it and die, wouldn’t that be great?” said Vernard Lewis, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley and lead author of the article. Lewis is testing attractants for bedbugs and observing their behavior.
In Villa Termiti, a room built for studying insects, Lewis set up an experiment to see how far the bedbugs moved in a 24-hour period. He found that the bedbugs moved around to a bed, rug or low table, but most stayed close to the cardboard on which they were released in the middle of the floor. The monitors containing attractants captured up to 10 percent of the bedbugs, twice as many as the monitors that didn’t contain attractants, but not a statistically significant difference.
Lewis and his colleagues are studying new ways of detecting bedbugs and exterminating them.
Effective detection to determine the effectiveness of treatments made to eliminate bedbug infestations would be helpful. “When a property is treated and bedbugs reappear, at this point, we can’t tell whether the bedbugs survived the treatment or they are moving in from next door,” Lewis said.
The Lewis Lab is also exploring new methods of bedbug control that minimize the use of pesticides.
Co-author Dong-Hwan Choe, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, is currently studying essential oils from plants such as clove and wintergreen to see if they can be used as alternatives to synthetic insecticides.
Andrew Sutherland, UC Cooperative Extension advisor for the San Francisco Bay Area, has been meeting with pest control professionals to share the latest bedbug research results and integrated pest management approaches to minimize the amounts of pesticides used.
Sutherland also has begun training UC Master Gardener volunteers to answer questions about bedbugs and to share information about integrated pest management to control insects in the home.
“Master Gardeners in urban counties increasingly get requests regarding household pests,” said Sutherland. “UC ANR is interested in providing education and outreach on this topic because urban pest management significantly impacts water quality and other environmental resources. I have designed a 'Household Pests' unit used in 'Advanced IPM Training' for Master Gardeners.’”
“Master Gardeners will be able to help residents identify bedbug specimens and direct the general public to our Pest Note at http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html,” he said.
“Many clients think they may have bedbugs, but actually have recovered specimens of other insects,” Sutherland said. “In those cases we are able to prevent unnecessary and sometimes dangerous pesticide applications. When bed bugs are identified, our message is always to contact a professional pest control operator.”
The exact causes of the bedbug resurgence are not known, but increased international travel among people, pesticide resistance among bedbugs, the ease with which bedbugs can spread, and reduced indoor use of residual insecticides may be contributing factors.
The bedbug article in the July–September 2013 issue of California Agriculture can be downloaded at http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.edu.
