News Stories - Page 9

All mosquitoes require standing water for their larval and pupal stages to develop. As a result, any standing water that can be eliminated now is one less site where pest populations can develop when temperatures warm in the coming weeks. CAES News
Mosquito Season Prep
As January transitions to February, few of us are thinking about mosquitoes and the multitude of problems they can cause when spring arrives. But with January rain totals well above normal across the Southeast, it is a good time to take inventory of where standing water is holding and what can be done to eliminate it.
iStock 171572061 (1) CAES News
Bees in winter
As temperatures continue to drop and many pollinators fade from view, you may be wondering what happens to bees during the cold season. Do they hibernate? Are they hiding in plain sight? How a bee spends the winter depends on the species of bee, but the insects have an arsenal of strategies to survive the chill, including burrowing, gathering in tight clusters, or hiding in flower stems or leaf piles.
Honeybee Control and Removal certification training is underway. A class held at UGA-Griffin by Extension entomologist Dan Suiter covered state and federal laws, honeybee identification, removal techniques and more. CAES News
Honeybee Control and Removal
When a swarm of honeybees takes up residence in your house, you may not know who to call to help safely relocate the pollinators and preserve your home in the process. Thanks to a new certification program through the Georgia Department of Agriculture called Honeybee Control and Removal, it will be easier for residents to locate licensed professionals to handle the job.
On Aug. 23, 2019, students at Colham Ferry Elementary School participated in the state's first-ever pollinator census. On Dec. 1, the Great Georgia Pollinator Census will become the Great Southeast Pollinator Census, expanding to include both South Carolina and North Carolina in the citizen science research project. CAES News
Great Southeast Pollinator Census
Widening interest in efforts to support pollinators has led to a name change for the Great Georgia Pollinator Census, which will become the Great Southeast Pollinator Census on Dec. 1. The census began as a statewide community science initiative in Georgia in August 2019, created and coordinated by Becky Griffin, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension community and school garden coordinator.
Lewis Bartlett presents at the Young Harris Beekeeping Event last May. (Photo by Sidney Rouse) CAES News
Beekeeper Outreach
No line of research is too big or small for Lewis Bartlett β€” literally. From mammoth extinctions to the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), he’s published on a wide range of topics during and since university. But bees have had his attention since childhood.
This female Joro is the first of the species documented in Spalding County. UGA researchers are asking citizen scientists to report Joro sightings at jorowatch.org to track the species' spread throughout Georgia. CAES News
Spider Drift
Since first making an appearance in Georgia in 2014, Joro spiders have steadily expanded their range in Georgia, and now β€” just in time for Halloween β€” the spooky-looking species has reached the University of Georgia Research and Education Garden on the UGA Griffin campus.