Entomology Commons^™

The Forgotten Cousin In Freshwater Community Ecology: Tidal Freshwater Wetlands, Jack R. Mclachlan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tidal freshwaters are unique in their placement in the landscape, forming where freshwater riverine flows are sufficient to overwhelm the saline water of the incoming tide, but not strong enough to suppress tidal water-height fluctuations. Tidal freshwaters and their wetlands have been overlooked by freshwater and marine researchers alike; neither discipline considers tidal freshwaters to fall under their purview. Invertebrate communities in tidal freshwaters are thought to be species depauperate; the consensus is that they support fewer taxa than nearby non-tidal freshwaters, but little is known about how these communities are structured. This study investigated how tidal hydrology, an atypical …

Biological, Behavioral And Preventative Management Of The Invasive Insect Pest, Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila Suzukii Matsumura), In Maine Lowbush Blueberry (Vaccinium Angustifolium Aiton), Gabe Alnajjar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research was conducted in order to identify the potential for utilization of various management techniques against the invasive Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, commonly referred to as the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), using Maine lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) as a model crop system. These included evaluations of three prospective approaches often considered when developing agricultural pest management programs for novel insect pests: 1) biological control through the intended release of natural enemies, in this case entomopathogenic fungi; 2) behavioral management through mass trap deployment in order to capture and kill adult SWD, and; 3) prevention through the deployment of …

Coming Spruce Budworm Outbreak: Initial Risk Assessment And Preparation & Response Recommendations For Maine's Forestry Community, Cooperative Forestry Research Unit, University Of Maine, Maine Forest Products Council, Maine Forest Service

General University of Maine Publications

The Maine Spruce Budworm Task Force was formed in summer 2013 by the University of Maine’s Cooperative Forestry Research Unit (CFRU), Maine Forest Service (MFS), and Maine Forest Products Council (MFPC) to begin preparing for the next outbreak of the eastern spruce budworm.

The last SBW outbreak during the 1970s–80s grew quickly, killed millions of acres of spruce-fir stands, and cost the region’s economy many hundreds of millions of dollars. Although it is not possible to predict exactly when defoliation of balsam fir and spruce will begin, how severe the next outbreak will eventually become, or how long it will …