Week 13: Trip to USDA/ARS and flour mill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week we visited a working flour mill at the KSU International Grains Program complex.  For your final blog posting, please address the following questions:

1) What is the major difference between managing pests at preharvest (i.e., in the field) versus post harvest (i.e., stored or processed materials)?

2) It was mentioned many time during the tour that proper sanitation is key to preventing pest outbreaks.  What are some of the main challenges in keeping a clean flour mill?  Why are older mills harder to keep clean?  If you were building a mill of your own, what things should you keep in mind as you think about sanitation?  (I've included some photos to help "inspire" you.)

 

3) Phosphine is a great fumigant for controlling many grain insect pests.  However, should you use something like this in a flour mill?  Why or why not?  Keep in mind, your answer could end up saving or costing you thousands of dollars!  

4) In the picture below, Dr. Campbell was discussing multiple tactics used to reduced or eliminate insects from attacking stored grain before it makes its way to the mill.  You've just harvested your first load of corn and you're about to auger it into the bin.  What did you do insure that your summer-long investment will be well-protected until the time it's sold?  (I'm looking for as many preventative control strategies as possible here.)

Week 12: Trip to Insect Zoo.

One of K-State’s fundamental missions is the “application of research, teaching, and outreach for the betterment of the quality of life for the citizens of Kansas”.   One strategy is to build upon currently working models for public engagement.  The Insect Zoo is definitely one of these resources!  Its mission is “to foster a better understanding and increased awareness of our microcosmic, natural world and of the important roles that insects and their relatives play in it” (http://www.k-state.edu/butterfly/mission_statement.htm).  This assignment is your opportunity to “give back” to the greater Kansas community by sharing your knowledge of insect pests that are relevant to Kansans.  Select posters will be displayed in the Insect Zoo based on the accuracy and creativity of the finished product.  Based on your visit to the zoo, please address the following:

1)  In thinking about your upcoming project or assignment (rough draft due 11/18/09), how do you plan to incorporate  insights/observations/conversations/experiences/current exhibits/etc. into your poster?  Feel free to use examples.

2)  What will be the biggest challenge in getting zoo visitors "excited" about your subject or insect of choice?  Conversely, what is something (information, image, fact, etc.)  that will definitely get their attention?

3) Include or imbed  your two best pictures or "wow photos" on your blog posting for this week that you plan to use in your poster rough draft.

4)  Based on our conversations with Kiffnie Holt, how much text should be used on a poster designed for the general audience?  With that said, how do you plan to address this requirement in your project?

Be creative, have fun with it!

Week 10: Overwintering Dectes.

The results from the class experiment are in!  It's now up to you to figure out just what happened. First a little background on the experimental design.

Experimental design:
 As you recall, we discussed many possible factors that may limit the successful overwintering of Dectes in soybean.  I've included a copy of the whiteboard scribble-session to spark your memory.  Based on a class consensus, you decided to test the effects of stem size using different host plants (soybean versus sunflower).  In addition, you agreed that the temperature thermocouples should be placed near the base of the plant and a clump of soil was to be used to insulate the base of the plant.  In short, the goal was to simulate field conditions as much as possible and only alter stem size.  On Friday, we (my student worker and I) collected "fresh" sunflower and soybean plants from the Agronomy North Farm and weighed out an equal amount of soil for each of the test plants using an electric balance (~1700 g/plant).  Note, it rained heavily on Thursday and all the samples (stalks and stems) were quite wet.

After samples were collected from the field, we immediately drilled them with a cordless drill at the base off the plant and placed thermocouples down into the base of each stalk or stem.  We then used a small piece (same size for each experimental unit) of duct tape to secure the wire to the stalk.

The temperature inside the plants were measured for 5 min prior to placing them inside the freezer.  The experiment was stopped after 145 minutes or when the rate of cooling decreased considerably.

Results are posted below.  Note, "xsun", "xsoy", and "control" are the mean temperatures for the 3 replicates.  I included a "control" treatment where a set of thermocouples were placed on the outside of the plant stalks and stems; this was done to measure the changes in external temperature.  Since each line is made up of >12,000 points, I excluded error bars for simplicity.  However, the variability between points was very small (standard errors around all points were never greater than plus or minus 0.5 degree C).

Discussion.

For the experimental design, feel free to include details that I may have missed.  What was the class hypothesis?  What were the other hypotheses discussed?  What happened in your experiment?  Does this "prove" or "disprove" your hypothesis?  Could you draw these conclusions without the "control" data points?  What effect, if any, would cold temperatures (below 0 degrees C) have on Dectes larvae that would be overwintering in these different host plants?  Recall, the two supercooling points that we obtained in class were -15.4 and -17.6 degrees C.  Did the rain have any effect on your results?  If so, how could you test for such an effect?  Where there any other possible sources of experimental error that you didn't account for in the current experiment?