Emily Bick

Fletcher Robbins, Krista Hamilton, Tracy Schilder, Benjamin Bradford, Emily Bick

Journal of economic entomology. 2026 May 6. pmid:42090325, doi:10.1093/jee/toag114

Implementing an extensive pest survey is expensive and time-consuming, so optimizing site selection is critical to success. Efficiently allocating resources and maximizing survey coverage in areas where crops are at risk from pests could alleviate economic losses and threats to food security. Therefore, we developed a “site score metric” to quantitatively assess the value of each existing site to the survey. The site score metric is based on (i) historic corn production intensity, (ii) pest…

Emily Bick, Lene Sigsgaard, Martin T Torrance, Salena Helmreich, Laurence Still, Brittany Beck, Rami El Rashid, Jesper Lemmich, Thomas Nikolajsen, Samantha M Cook

Pest management science. 2023 May 14. pmid:37183217, doi:10.1002/ps.7538

CONCLUSION: Optical sensors are a promising tool for early warning of insect pest immigration. The aggregation pattern of pollen beetles post immigration could be used to precisely target control in oilseed rape crops. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Klas Rydhmer, Emily Bick, Laurence Still, Alfred Strand, Rubens Luciano, Salena Helmreich, Brittany D Beck, Christoffer Grønne, Ludvig Malmros, Knud Poulsen, Frederik Elbæk, Mikkel Brydegaard, Jesper Lemmich, Thomas Nikolajsen

Scientific reports. 2022 February 17. pmid:35173221, pmc:PMC8850605, doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06439-6

Insect monitoring is critical to improve our understanding and ability to preserve and restore biodiversity, sustainably produce crops, and reduce vectors of human and livestock disease. Conventional monitoring methods of trapping and identification are time consuming and thus expensive. Automation would significantly improve the state of the art. Here, we present a network of distributed wireless sensors that moves the field towards automation by recording backscattered near-infrared modulation…

Emily N Bick, Cindy R Kron, Frank G Zalom

Journal of economic entomology. 2020 August 18. pmid:32804241, doi:10.1093/jee/toaa165

The three-cornered alfalfa hopper, Spissistilus festinus (Say), was shown to transmit Grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV), the causative agent for Grapevine red blotch disease, in a greenhouse study on grapes. GRBV is a major concern of wine grape growers due to its economic impact on wine quality. Plants in the family Fabaceae are preferred hosts of S. festinus and are commonly planted as cover crops or present in a vineyard’s native vegetation. In late winter, during grapevine dormancy, S….

Emily Bick, Daniel M Dryden, Hoang Danh Nguyen, Heather Kim

Journal of economic entomology. 2020 January 8. pmid:31907550, doi:10.1093/jee/toz359

There is high demand for accurate insect sampling methods to inform integrated pest management strategies. Despite widespread application, existing sampling methods, such as portable aspirating and sweep netting, can result in overrepresentation of prominent pests, underrepresentation of natural enemies, and damage to plants. In this study, we test a novel device for insect sampling via anesthetization. Specifically, we test the effect of CO2 (application pressure and duration of exposure) on…

Cindy R Preto, Brian W Bahder, Emily N Bick, Mysore R Sudarshana, Frank G Zalom

Journal of economic entomology. 2019 February 24. pmid:30796773, doi:10.1093/jee/toz022

The three-cornered alfalfa hopper, Spissistilus festinus (Say) was shown to transmit Grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV) in a greenhouse study. GRBV is the causal agent of Grapevine Red Blotch Disease, which reduces the quality of wine produced from infected grapes. Due to the general lack of prior concern regarding S. festinus on grapevines, the biology of this species in vineyards has been largely unknown. A 2-yr study with weekly sampling was conducted in a Californian vineyard to increase the…

Emily N Bick, Nora J Forbes, Christopher Haugen, Grant Jones, Shawn Bernick, Fredric Miller

Journal of economic entomology. 2018 February 24. pmid:29474690, doi:10.1093/jee/toy018

Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis (Fairmaire; Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is decimating ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) in North America. Combatting EAB includes the use of insecticides; however, reported insecticide efficacy varies among published studies. This study assessed the effects of season of application, insecticide active ingredient, and insecticide application rate on green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.) (Lamiales: Oleaceae) canopy decline caused by EAB over a 5- to 7-yr…

Haleh Khodaverdi, Trevor Fowles, Emily Bick, Christian Nansen

Journal of economic entomology. 2016 August 24. pmid:27551149, pmc:PMC5066476, doi:10.1093/jee/tow188

Increases in severity and frequency of drought periods, average global temperatures, and more erratic fluctuations in rainfall patterns due to climate change are predicted to have a dramatic impact on agricultural production systems. Insect pest populations in agricultural and horticultural systems are also expected to be impacted, both in terms of their spatial and temporal distributions and in their status as pest species. In this opinion-based article, we discuss how indirect effects of…