Principal Investigator
Dr. Loeb has research and extension responsibilities for grape and small fruit crops. His research interests focus on how host plant traits and other environmental factors influence interactions between plants and their herbivores, and herbivores and natural enemies with the specific applied goal of developing novel approaches to pest management. His more applied research program focuses on the ecology and integrated control of specific arthropod pests of grapes and small fruit crops. His extension program emphasizes educating growers on pest biology and management alternatives. He co-teaches a course on grape pest management every fall and advises graduate students and postdoctoral associates on insect ecology, biological control and integrated pest management.
Post-Graduate Researchers
Dr. Dara G. Stockton studies the biology, behavior, and management of agricultural pest species with a focus on invasive pests of specialty crops. She has worked with the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) in Texas and Florida, and spotted-wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) and allium leafminer (Phytomyza gymnostoma) in New York. Her current research is focused on behavioral ecology, overwintering biology, and integrated pest management. Current projects include:
- Determining the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Cultivated and Wild Resource Use by Drosophila suzukii Using Novel qPCR Gut Contents Analysis. Project initiation phase.
- Promoting pollinators in New York berry crops in the era of spotted- wing drosophila. Project planning phase.
- Evaluating visual preferences of allium leafminer to improve monitoring technology. Manuscript preparation phase.
- Diet hierarchies and host preference in Drosophila suzukii. Data collection phase and project evaluation.
- The behavioral and ecological basis of seasonal habitat selection in spotted-wing drosophila. Data collection phase and project evaluation.
- Determining habituation to VOC oviposition repellents developed against Drosophila suzukii. Manuscript preparation phase.
Dr. Linnea Meier
Graduate Students
Samantha Willden is a PhD candidate in Entomology with research interests in insect ecology, biological control and sustainable pest management. She is currently working on protected culture strawberry to determine how UV-selective plastics impact arthropod communities and pest management. Her specific projects include 1) describing the effects of plastic tunnels on strawberry pests and beneficial predators, parasitoids, and pollinators, 2) determining how UV-selective films impact the pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana, a popular commercialized entomopathogen, against tarnished plant bug on strawberry and 3) exploring how rearing practices influence movement and retention of predatory mites on strawberry to improve control success against two-spotted spider mites. Overall, the goal of her research goal is provide new and innovative ways to more effectively and sustainably manage pests of high-value crops.
Rekha Bhandari
Research Support
Steve Hesler is the research support specialist for the program. His responsibilities entail coordinating the day-to-day operations in the lab. Project highlights from the past 16 years that Steve has been in this position include projects pertaining to the ecology of tydeid mites and their association with grape powdery mildew in cultivated grapes, the chemical ecology of grape berry moth as it relates to host recognition, and the management and ecology of invasive grape and small fruit pests.
Steve received a B.S. in Earth Science – Education from the State University of New York at Oswego. When not in the lab, Steve is a member of the Geneva Little League Board of Directors, a member of Our Lady of Peace Parish Council and a CYO basketball coach.- Karen Wentworth
- Gabrielle Brind’Amour is research technician in the lab. Her responsibilities are focused mostly on spotted wing drosophila research projects including maintenance of our research colonies and conducting experiments in the lab, greenhouse, and field. Gabe, as she is called in the lab, brings microbiology expertise to the lab, which has been important in investigating interactions between bacteria and fungi and spotted wing drosophila. Gabe received her BS in Biology from Cornell University.