{"id":69358,"date":"2005-12-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-students-seek-natural-methods-for-controlling-invasive-species\/"},"modified":"2005-12-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-27T00:00:00","slug":"uri-students-seek-natural-methods-for-controlling-invasive-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2005\/12\/uri-students-seek-natural-methods-for-controlling-invasive-species\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 students seek natural methods for controlling invasive species"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. — December 27, 2005 — Most efforts to eradicate invasive pests involve the use of chemical pesticides. But two 溏心vlog免费B站 students are taking a different approach: finding natural methods of controlling these unwanted, introduced species.<\/p>\n


\nDave Viola of East Greenwich and Caitlyn MacGlaflin of Charlestown spent the last six months working with 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers Richard Casagrande and Lisa Tewksbury evaluating interactions between insects and plants as part of a research fellowship they were awarded last spring.<\/p>\n


\nViola, a senior environmental plant biology major, investigated how to control Spartina, a salt marsh grass that is native to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts but which has become a pest species along the West Coast. Here in the East, picture wing flies feed on Spartina to keep it under control, but before the flies can be released to control the plant in the West, Viola wanted to learn if they might eat other plants and become pests themselves.<\/p>\n


\nSo Viola introduced the flies to 540 pots containing 30 species of plants to see if the insects would lay their eggs on the plants. If so, the insect larvae would eat the plants and kill them. \u201cI found the larvae in six or seven plant species, some of which are economically important to the area, like rice in California,\u201d he said. \u201dSo using the flies to control Spartina in the West doesn\u2019t seem like a viable option.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nMacGlaflin\u2019s project was somewhat the reverse of that pursued by Viola. Rather than attempt to control a plant using an insect, she was attempting to protect a plant from an insect. \u201cAn invasive insect called the lily leaf beetle lays its eggs on the underside of lily leaves and once the larvae hatch, they feed on the plant,\u201d explained

\nMacGlaflin, a senior animal and veterinary science major. <\/p>\n


\nMacGlaflin conducted tests to determine if a hybrid lily called Black Beauty \u2013 which is a vigorous hybrid with a beautiful flower — had natural defenses that would thwart efforts by the beetle to feed on it. Her results were encouraging. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cI found that the eggs laid on Black Beauties don\u2019t fully develop, so the larvae don\u2019t destroy the plant,\u201d said MacGlaflin. \u201cPlanting the hybrid Black Beauty in home gardens instead of planting oriental or Asiatic lilies gives gardeners an alternative to using pesticides to kill the beetle.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nViola\u2019s research was funded through Rhode Island SeaGrant and the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, while MacGlaflin received funding from Coastal Fellows and the New England Greenhouse Conference. The 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program is a unique program designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 10th year, the Coastal Fellows Program teams students with faculty, research staff and graduate students to help them gain skills that will ensure their future success.<\/p>\n


\nAfter the students graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 next spring, they both plan to attend graduate school.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — December 27, 2005 — Most efforts to eradicate invasive pests involve the use of chemical pesticides. But two 溏心vlog免费B站 students are taking a different approach: finding natural methods of controlling these unwanted, introduced species. Dave Viola of East Greenwich and Caitlyn MacGlaflin of Charlestown spent the last six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}