September 9, 2009

August Sampling Shots: Cathy Roe's August sticky card was placed in a diverse perennial garden.

September 1, 2009

September already?  This summer went by so quickly for us here in the Agricultural Landscape Ecology Lab. Envelopes with August data have been arriving daily, it looks like our response will be as good if not better than our June sample.

August 16, 2009

Sampling Time is here again!  Volunteers will be collecting their August data either the week of August 16-22 or August 23-29.  We are looking forward to seeing what lady beetle species are present within your garden.

August 10, 2009

The results from the June data collection are now posted on the "2009 Results" page.  We are excited to compare these data with our August results!

August 5, 2009

We recently finished analyzing all of the June data that was sent in by our volunteers!  We had a return rate of 89.8% which I think is just amazing!  Below is a table showing the number of lady beetles collected by species. The most abundant lady beetle collected was the Multicolored Asian, followed by the 14 spotted.  Both of these are exotic species.  I was not surprised that the Multicolored was the most abundant, but I was not expecting the 14 spotted to be as numerous. We were encouraged that the Orange spotted lady beetle was the third most abundant, as this species has been reported as declining in the north-central states. I will be posting the full analysis on the website next week.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  We look forward to the August data!!

August 1, 2009

Wow, this summer has been flying by for us here in the Agricultural Landscape Ecology Lab.  We had three intensive weeks of field work at in July where we examined the amount of egg predation experienced by native lady beetles in three habitats: soybean, alfalfa and grassland.  We placed native lady beetle eggs in each habitat for 48 hours and determined the number that were removed by predators.  We have also been monitoring native and exotic lady beetle populations in these habitats this summer using both sticky traps and sweep nets.  Below are some pictures of us out in these sites collecting data.

July 9, 2009

June Sampling Shots:.  Russ Smucker's sticky card trap, and a two-foot lady beetle spotted in Zanesville, OH!

July 9, 2009

June Sampling Shots:  Jim Essman with his sticky trap in the Fayette Co. Phenology Garden.

July 5, 2009

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!  June sampling has ended and a large number of traps have been returned. Below are some pictures of Hilary and Tori sorting envelopes from our volunteers.

June 28, 2009

Going through the sticky traps I am surprised by the abundance of the 14-spotted lady beetle we are finding. This exotic coccinellid was first reported in Michigan in 2006.  We are finding as many as 8 individuals per card.  This record collection of 8 was reported by Dr. Dan Herms, Professor and Associate Chair of the OSU Entomology Department at Wooster.  It will be interesting to see if particular types of landscapes are favoring this invader.

June 26, 2009

Envelopes are rolling in!  We are thrilled with the return rate we have already seen for June week 1 sampling.  Nearly 60 envelopes have been returned.  We are just starting to go through them but so far nearly all the ID's have been correct, great job everyone!

June 25, 2009

June Sampling Shots: Even the First Lady of Ohio is involved in Buckeye Blitz. Below Ohio's First Lady Frances Strickland checks her sticky trap for lady beetles. We are honored to have her support!

June 25, 2009

Media Blitz!  Many of you may have seen us in your local newspaper this week.  Thank you to Pam Bennett, Denise Ellsworth and Candace Pollock for the press release and interest you have generated for native species conservation.  I am aware of articles featured in the Columbus Dispatch, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Washington C.H. Record Herald, and on Ohio Public Radio.  If you see an article about BLBB in your local paper, let us know!   

June 24, 2009

I cannot believe we are halfway through week 2 of the June sampling already!  Cards are beginning to show up in our mailbox, which is very exciting!!  We have been out in the field this week and plan to start going through what has been sent this Friday.  So far, the cards that I have looked at have all been correct in their identifications, great work!  Our week 2 sampling crew includes Bill Jones and the Hancock Co. Phenology garden who submitted the pictures below.  Great mulching Bill, I will use this photo the next time I discuss mulching!

June 19, 2009

It has been a busy week in the Agricultural Landscape Ecology lab.  I now have 5 students in the lab conducting summer research projects. Hilary Edgington, Bethany Hunt and Tori Massaro are working on lady beetle related projects.  Tori is going to compare the diversity and abundance of lady beetles found in food versus flower gardens. Bethany is going to determine if differences in the landscape surrounding each garden influence lady beetles, and if particular types of landscapes favor native species. Hilary is examining possible reasons behind the decline in native lady beetles, including possible predation by exotics.  Below some sweep nets are taking a weekend break from non-stop use for the last few weeks to collect lady beetles for a colony we have started. Shana’e Davis and Kojo Quaye are both working on an urban community garden project to measure beneficial insects and their services in community gardens in Cleveland, Columbus and Akron.  They have been working to get their sampling equipment ready.  Shana’e will be using sticky traps to measure natural enemies and Kojo will be using pan traps painted yellow, blue and white to measure pollinators.  We will compare the beneficial insect communities found within urban food gardens to traditional turf-based open spaces.

June 18, 2009

June Sampling Shots: Fayette County Master Gardener Carolyn Essman plants her sticky trap in her front garden.

June 17, 2009

Trouble uploading pictures?  Some of our volunteers have been having difficulty uploading pictures.  This may be due to internet connection speed or the size of your image.  If your picture will not upload please try reducing the size of the image.  If it does not work, you can also email me the picture as an attachment and I'll add it: ladybeetles@osu.edu.  Thank you!

June 17, 2009

June Sampling Shots: Andy and Jilly Hunt (brother and sister of summer research assistant in our lab, Bethany Hunt) set up their sticky trap in the Hunt family backyard garden in Fairfield Co.  After just a couple days of collecting they found an orange-spotted lady beetle on their sticky trap!

June 16, 2009

June Sampling Shots: The First Unitarian Church of Cleveland has their BLBB sticky trap in the children's section of their new community garden.

June 15, 2009

June Sampling Shots: BLBB volunteer Chris Donohoo's mixed perennial bed with hosta, hellebores, peony and hydrangea in Cuyahoga Falls and Cathy Roe's vegetable garden with blooming sweet peppers, pole beans, tomatoes, potatoes, peas and cantaloupe.

June 15, 2009

June Sampling Shots: BLBB volunteer Elaine Richards with her sticky card trap, installed in her backyard garden.

June 15, 2009

Sampling Time!  Week 1 of June data collection is underway for the Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz program. I have received some great pictures of volunteers, their amazing gardens and their sticky card traps.  I will be adding these to the beetle blog.  Below is a sticky trap collecting data at the Licking Co. Phenology Garden.

June 8, 2009

Only 1 week to go until the first June sample collection.  We are so excited here in the lab to get the BLBB sampling underway!  We have a final count for our volunteer roster for 2009 and we have 180 volunteers.  Thank you so much for your support, I hope to see 180 envelopes in the mail soon!!

June 5, 2009

Last evening I traveled to the Knox County Extension Center to give the last BLBB program for 2009.  This event was organized by Troy Cooper, OSU Extension Educator-Horticulture.  I met one volunteer who has been collecting lady beetles since he was three! He is now almost 13.  It is really exciting to see young people interested in science and conservation.

June 3, 2009

I spoke at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History today.  Thank you to Cathi Lehn for arranging a brown-bag seminar to introduce the BLBB program!  We now have volunteers collecting samples from gardens at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Botanical Gardens, North Chagrin Nature Center, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, as well as several home gardens in the Cleveland metro area.

May 29, 2009

Today I introduced the BLBB program to a group of Master Gardeners from around the state who were gathered in Wooster for a 2-day local foods workshop.  This program was organized by Denise Ellsworth.  The group had many interesting natural enemy questions for me.  We signed up 48 volunteers for the program.  In the afternoon, Alfred Alumai and Hilary Edgington from our lab took participants on a natural enemy collecting trip.

May 14, 2009

I drove down to Springfield Ohio today to meet a great group of Master Gardeners.  I introduced the BLBB program and add 20 volunteers to the network!  This event was organized by Pam Bennett, State Master Gardener Coordinator.  Luckily the weather cleared in time for us to head out to the Clark County Phenology Garden at look for natural enemies and pollinators!

May 8, 2009

Today we shot the Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz Video.  The video was shot by Chris Dicus and I think he did an amazing job putting it together, especially given my poor acting skills.  I want to thank Chris and Mike Jeffers, his assistant videographer.  We also had a great crew of OSU employees who appear in the video, thank you to David Lohnes, his daughter Margie Lohnes and son Mark Lohnes, April Martin, Hilary Edgington, Andy Michel, and Wei Zhang. Below are some behind the scenes pictures of the video shoot.

March 31, 2009

Today was the launch of the Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz Program! I presented the program to a group of enthusiastic Ohio Master Gardeners at Fisher Auditorium in Wooster, OH.  The program was part of the Ohio Phenology Garden Network update organized by Denise Ellsworth.  I am thrilled to have signed up 82 volunteers today.