Area(s) of Expertise

Mountain Conifer Integrated Pest Management

Education

B.S. University of Illinois (1981)
M.S. North Carolina State University (1984)
Ph.D. North Carolina State University (1988)

Responsibilities

Extension (100%): Mountain Conifer Integrated Pest Management

• Providing support to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension agents with responsibilities for mountain conifers, primarily Christmas trees.
• Developing scouting techniques and economic thresholds for insects, mites, and diseases of Christmas trees and commercially grown ornamental conifers.
• Determining least-toxic pesticides and lowest rates for pest control.
• Increasing the awareness of the benefits of IPM and facilitating its implementation by identifying and responding to clientele needs, and developing education programs and materials.
• Assessing the adoption and impact of IPM to producers of mountain conifers.

Projects

• Work towards overall reduction of insecticide use among Christmas tree growers.
• Teach Spanish-speaking farmworkers to scout for pests in Christmas trees and increase safety when applying pesticides.
• Determine the extent of elongate hemlock scale on Fraser fir Christmas Trees and develop control measures.
• Investigate methods of grub control in nursery beds and in Christmas Tree fields.
• Evaluate control of Botrytis shoot blight in seedlings.
• Aid county extension agents in answering their questions about hemlock woolly adelgid.

Links

Christmas Tree Research and Extension

Extension Forestry

Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center

Publications

• Overview of immigrant worker occupational health and safety for the agriculture, forestry, and fishing (AgFF) sector in the Southeastern United States (2013)
• Occupational health policy and immigrant workers in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector (2013)
• Control of Phytophthora root rot in field plantings of Fraser fir-with fosetyl-al and mefenoxam (2006)
• Impacts of balsam woolly adelgid on the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir ecosystem and the North Carolina Christmas Tree Industry (2005)
• Resistance in fir species to Phytophthora root rot (1998)

View all publications