Dr. Jaret Daniels was on Science Friday discussing the impact of hurricanes on endangered species!

Dr. Carey Minteer was invited to be the keynote speaker for the South Carolina Exotic Pest Plant Council’s annual meeting in Columbia, SC in September. Dr. Minteer gave a presentation titled "Biological Control of Invasive Plants: Tales from Florida."

Dr. Carey Minteer was awarded the 2017 Annual Achievement Award for Extension from the Florida Entomological Society. Dr. Minteer was honored along with Ken Gioeli (St. Lucie Co. Extension) for their work with the air potato biological control program. This award was presented at the FES meeting in July.

Dr. Oscar Liburd was an invited speaker at the 2017 Organic Food and Farming Summit held in Gainesville, Florida, September 17th to the 19th. The title of his presentation was "Managing agricultural pests organically." Dr. Liburd and Lindsy Iglesias (Ph.D. candidate in the Liburd lab) held a workshop at the Summit on using biological control to manage agricultural pests.

On September 7th, Dr. Adam Dale and Dr. Billy Crow hosted the UF/IFAS Evidence-Based Turf Management Short Course - Pest Management at the Entomology and Nematology Department.  A class of 20 turfgrass professionals spent the day getting hands-on training with turfgrass insect and nematode pests.

In early October Dr. Jennifer Gillett-Kaufman was named the chair of the UF Extension Engagement Advisory Committee.

Dr. Jennifer Gillett-Kaufman was an invited speaker at the 2017 Organic Food and Farming Summit held in Gainesville from September 17th to the 19th. The title of her presentation was "Challenges and opportunities for new specialty crops: Growing olives in Florida."

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new UF/IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station (NCBS) in Cedar Key, on September 22nd. Prior to the construction of the three-story building, IFAS professionals did not have a home base for the ongoing research, teaching and Extension activities conducted in the region. 

Bethany McGregor, a Ph.D. student in lab of Dr. Nathan Burkett-Cadena at UF FMEL, attended the International Conference of the Society of Vector Ecology in Mallorca, Spain, October 1st to the 7th. Bethany co-organized the student symposium along with UF FMEL Ph.D. student Casey Parker. Bethany's oral presentation was titled "Effect of trap height on Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) abundance, physiological status, and species composition at a big game preserve in Florida, USA."

Fall 2017 ENSO Travel Grant recipients

First Place: Rebecca Zimler
Second Place: Clancy Short

Our first place winner will receive up to $500 from Dr. Norm Leppla and our second place winner will receive up to $250 from ENSO as reimbursement to cover travel expenses associated with conferences or research.

From the Outreach Coordinator

Here are our events from September:

• September 19th- Meadowbrook Elementary – Oliver Keller
• September 20th – STEM is Elementary Showcase – Laurel Lietzenmayer
• September 21st – Glen Springs Elementary School – Laurel Lietzenmayer
• September 23rd – Fun 4 Gators Touch-a-Truck – Laurel Lietzenmayer
• September 26th – Meadowbrook Elementary – Oliver Keller
• September 30th – TailGator – Sara Alvarez, Dr. Rebecca Baldwin, Genhsy Monzon, Becca Perry, George Roman, Johanna Schwartz

Upcoming Events

• October 15th – Alachua County Library
• October 21st – Brooker Creek Preserve
• October 24th – Chiles Elementary
• October 26th – Hidden Oak Elementary
• October 26th – Science and Robotics Night at Howard Bishop Middle School
• October 28th – Tallahassee Science Festival
• November 2nd – Science Night at Metcalfe Elementary
• November 3rd – College Career Fair
• November 9th – Oak Hall Lower School
• November 16th – Meadowbrook Elementary

ABOVE: (from left to right) Sara Alvarez, Rebecca Baldwin, Becca Perry, George Roman, Genhsy Monzon, and Johanna Schwartz pose with bugs from the arthropod petting zoo at TailGator.

The live critters are always a hit with children and adults alike. The critters are available for you to check out should you be leading an outreach event. We have doubles of our most popular critters, as well as various native insect species depending on the time of year. We have large wood and Plexiglas cages for viewing our native orb weaving spiders. There is one travel cage and one larger static cage. Please be sure to contact us and review the protocol on transporting and handling the critters if you are not already familiar with it. If you lead an outreach, be sure to fill out a documentation form so your event can be included in the newsletter and we can log all outreach events.