Program Areas: Agronomic Crops; Animal Sciences & Forages; Commercial Horticulture; Forestry, Wildlife & Natural Resources; Home Grounds, Gardens & Home Pests
Specialty Areas: Structural and household pest management, including termites.
Area of Interest:
- Fundamental Research: Arthropods’ biology, behavior, physiological / chemical ecology, toxicology, molecular immunology and disease transmission.
- Applied Research: developing and advancing Integrated Pest Management (IPM); exploring and evaluating efficacy of new chemicals, formulations, and application methods and alternative IPM tactics.
- Pest groups: Social insects (termites, ants, cockroaches, wasps, etc.); invasive insects (kudzu bugs, etc.), health pests, veterinary pests.
Current Research Projects:
- Inhibitory properties of new polymers against animal and plant bacterial pathogens
- Investigating the development and treatment of plant diseases caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa using theoretical and experimental methods
- Ionomics of the plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa: The role of trace elements and nutrients in infection and progression of disease
- Differentiation of Xylella fastidiosa strains via analysis of environmentally-mediated genes
- Infection traits and growth of "Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus" inside microfluidic chambers
Areas: Termites, Cockroaches, Urban Structural IPM
