Clemson University Vegetable Entomology

Today’s office 🍓

A little late but shoutout to for the fun yard sign (and advocacy for protecting our precious invertebrates). See also the recent article in American Entomologist showing some of the insects found in collected leaf bags. In my own yard I created a large bed around a large live oak where I dump most my leaves. I’m lazy and hate bagging leaves and I find this a perfect compromise to also conserving all the insects I strive to create habitat for, such as the wriggly live oak metria moth I found in the leaves while raking.

Irrigation pond, bird’s eye view

Searching strawberries at to determine if the predatory mites will be successful at managing the spider mites

Clemson apiculturist Ben Powell showing off a display of the invasive yellow-legged hornet at the annual meeting of ESA’s Southeastern Branch 🐝

Even though it’s been a cold January, my strawberry trial already has plenty of spider mites. But I also found many eggs of the predatory bigeyed bug, which will soon hatch and feast on the nearby mites

Another successful Entomological Society of America conference for the Clemson Vegetable & Strawberry Entomology lab. Well done to PhD students Amna Ghani, Pragya Kiju, and Sabina Parajuli for presenting their research.

I spy 🕷️

500 maters in. Evaluating new ways to manage spider mites.

CREC’s egret trees at the butterfly pond