When a graduate student at the University of Kentucky first showed off an area dedicated to pollinating insects during a 2012 turf research field day, few, if any, superintendents that day showed much concern for their plight, or how it might apply to golf course operations.
Much has changed since then. Emily Dobbs, the grad student working under UK entomologist Dan Potter, Ph.D., has moved on, and the many challenges faced by pollinating insects, and their significance, have intensified.
On Sept. 17, Potter will host "Bees, Pesticides and Politics: Challenges and Opportunities for the Green Industry", the first of two TurfNet University Webinars presented by USGA Green Section Award-winning entomologists.
On Sept. 23, Pat Vittum, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts, this year's Green Section Award winner, will discuss the latest in white grub control in "Everything You Wanted to Know About White Grubs (in 1 hour) but were Afraid to Ask".
Both are free for everyone.
Vittum's presentation will include information about the different beetle species that produce white grubs, the life cycles of each and differences between them. She also will discuss threshold levels, cultural strategies for control as well as preventive and curative chemical strategies.
Potter, who was the recipient of the 2010 USGA Green Section Award, will discuss the controversy between bees and neonicotinoid insecticides, why it matters, how to talk to the public about bees and pesticides, and how to safeguard bees and other pollinators when controlling pests in turf and landscape settings.
The presentation also will cover the differences between bees and wasps, and the major causes of bee decline including parasites, diseases, bee-keeping practices, and habitat loss, and how systemic insecticides might or might not be contributing to the problem.
These and all other TurfNet University Webinars can be found here.