Supporting Pollinators & Beneficial Insects in Backyards and on Farms - FREE WEBINAR SERIES

Southwest Yard & Garden

Weekly Gardening Column for New Mexico

Supporting Pollinators & Beneficial Insects in Backyards and on Farms

FREE Summer 2020 NMSU Webinar Series

Tuesdays June 23 - July 28 at 3:00 PM MT

This bee is creating a pollen flurry on a cactus flower in Albuquerque. Photo courtesy of MJM Productions.

Buckeye butterfly sitting on the flower of a cutleaf coneflower at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas Learning Garden earlier this month. Photo credit Marisa Thompson.

This week, I’m excited to promote a new webinar series that’s free and open to the public. Find details about the program, each of the six upcoming webinars, speaker bios, and how to register for each webinar individually by visiting http://nmsu.life/8m. The program was originally planned to be a live lecture series focused on beneficial insect conservation in northern New Mexico. The program has been modified to a virtual format with a broader target audience to include the whole state and beyond. The following was written by the program organizers:

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and New Mexico State University Integrated Pest Management Program have partnered to bring you a six-part weekly webinar series on pollinator and beneficial insect conservation in New Mexico. This series will help you get to know the bees and other helpful bugs in your backyards and on farms in New Mexico. It will also cover designing and planting healthy habitat to support those insects and protecting pollinators from pesticides. Please join us!

Webinar Schedule - The webinar series will be held weekly on Tuesdays @ 3:00 PM - 4/4:30 PM MT.

Swallowtail butterfly on lilac in Albuquerque. Photo courtesy of MJM Productions.

June 23, 3:00-4:30 PM MT – “Pollinators of Northern New Mexico: How to Identify and Conserve the Bees in your Backyard”

Interested in understanding why pollinators are in decline and what you can do to help? Ever wonder what makes a bee a bee? Join Kaitlin Haase, Southwest Pollinator Conservation Specialist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and Dr. Olivia Messinger Carril, author of “The Bees in Your Backyard,” to learn about the causes of bee, butterfly, and other beneficial insect decline and what we can do to minimize these threats. Dr. Carril will take you on a tour through the incredibly diverse world of native bees in northern New Mexico, covering the basics of bee identification and biology.

June 30, 3:00-4:30 PM MT – “Helpful Bugs of Northern New Mexico: How to Identify and Conserve Beneficial Insects for Pest Control”

While we tend to pay attention to bugs around us when they become a nuisance, the vast majority of insects around our homes and gardens are actually beneficial, pollinating plants and keeping garden pests in check. Join Emily May, Pollinator Conservation Specialist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and Miranda Kersten, Sr. Program Specialist at the NMSU Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center to learn about the wide range of helpful bugs in northern New Mexico and strategies you can use to support them in your yard.

July 7, 3:00-4:00 PM MT – “Conserving Bees in Your Backyard: How to Create Habitat for New Mexico Pollinators in Small Spaces"

Wondering how your yard, garden, or patio can provide a home for pollinators? Join Kaitlin Haase, Southwest Pollinator Conservation Specialist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, for an overview of the components of pollinator habitat, how you can provide that habitat in small urban spaces, and which native plants of New Mexico are best for attracting pollinators.

Various beneficial insects visit flowers at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas Learning Garden last summer. Photo credits Alissa Freeman.

July 14, 3:00-4:00 PM MT – “Attracting and Supporting Crop Pollinators on New Mexico Farms and Ranches”

How do bees contribute to the pollination of fruits and vegetables on farms and in gardens? How can we support pollinators to improve crop pollination and yields? Join Emily May, Pollinator Conservation Specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, to learn about protecting and enhancing populations of pollinators, especially bees, on New Mexico farms and ranches. Topics covered will include how different pollinators contribute to crop pollination, pollinator habitat practices for annual and perennial cropping systems, and protecting bees and other pollinators from pesticides.

July 21, 3:00-4:30 PM MT – “Integrating Pollinators and Pest Management in New Mexico Gardens and Farms”

Pesticides are widely used in many landscapes, but can cause harm to pollinators and other invertebrates. Join Emily May, Pollinator Conservation Specialist with the Pesticide Program at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and Dr. Amanda Skidmore, IPM Small Farm Specialist at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas, for a webinar on the risks of insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides to pollinators, and strategies for protecting pollinators from pesticides on farms and in backyards. How can pollinators be considered when making decisions about pest management? What resources are available for making decisions about managing pests and choosing strategies that mitigate risks to pollinators?

July 28, 3:00-4:00 PM MT – “Ask Me Anything: New Mexico Pollinator and Beneficial Insect Expert Roundtable”

Have a lingering question about bees, beneficial insects, New Mexico native plants, or other topics? This Ask Me Anything session will feature a panel of experts from the NMSU Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center and The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation answering questions asked during our webinar series or submitted by email. Feel free to ask us anything regarding pollinators, beneficial insects, gardening, farming, and pest control in the Southwest US!

For more details and to register for each webinar individually, visit the series website at http://nmsu.life/8m. Anyone is welcome to submit questions to nmsuipm@nmsu.edu any time during the series.

Two bees on a cactus flower in Albuquerque. Photo courtesy of MJM Productions.

A bee visits a coreopsis flower at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas Learning Garden earlier this month. Photo credit Marisa Thompson.

SPEAKERS:

Dr. Olivia Messinger Carril, Ph.D., Author. Dr. Olivia Messinger Carril has been studying native bees for over 20 years. She received her Master’s degree from Utah State University, where she studied the bee fauna of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. For her Ph.D., Dr. Carril studied a specialist bee, Diadasia, and its host plants; she received that degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2013. In 2015 coauthored the book The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bees. She lives in Santa Fe, NM, with her husband and their two young daughters. When she isn’t dreaming up new questions to ask about bees, she works on two more bee identification books, as well as some bee surveys for northern New Mexico.

Kaitlin Haase, Southwest Pollinator Conservation Specialist, Xerces Society, Santa Fe, NM. Kaitlin Haase is the Southwest Pollinator Conservation Specialist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and works to create climate-resilient, connected pollinator habitat in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. She collaborates with and educates public and private urban land managers in New Mexico and the desert Southwest on pollinator-friendly practices for landscaping, gardening, and open space restoration. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University, where she studied impacts of drying on aquatic invertebrate diversity in natural and human-made ponds. Before graduate school, she worked as an ecological science technician in a variety of systems across the U.S., including predator-prey ecology in Michigan, riparian restoration in Virginia, and rare species monitoring in Massachusetts.

Miranda Kersten, Sr. Program Specialist, NMSU’s Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center. Miranda Kersten received an M.S. in Integrative Biology from Oklahoma State University, where she studied the effects of land management practices on a milkweed-dependent moth and its parasitoids. She has worked in invasive species removal and riparian restoration in New Mexico. She has worked with NMSU since 2018, focusing on pollinator IPM, monitoring beneficial insects across urban landscapes, and managing IPM research projects.

Emily May, Pollinator Conservation Specialist, Xerces Society. Emily May is a Pollinator Conservation Specialist with the Pesticide Program at The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. She received an M.S. in Entomology from Michigan State University and has studied habitat restoration, bee nesting habits, and the effects of pest management practices on wild bee communities. Her work with Xerces since 2015 has focused on supporting pollinators and beneficial insects through habitat creation and mitigating pesticide risk to bees and other beneficial insects.

Dr. Amanda Skidmore, NMSU Extension IPM Specialist. Dr. Amanda Skidmore is an entomologist with a background in sustainable agriculture and integrated pest and pollinator management (IPM) systems. Her research has focused on improving pest management practice in specialty cropping systems, specifically on the impacts of these management practices on natural enemies and pollinators.

Send gardening questions to Southwest Yard and Garden - Attn: Dr. Marisa Thompson at desertblooms@nmsu.edu, or at the NM Desert Blooms Facebook page (@NMDesertBlooms)

Please copy your County Extension Agent (http://aces.nmsu.edu/county/) and indicate your county of residence when you submit your question!

For more gardening information, visit the NMSU Extension Horticulture page at Desert Blooms (http://desertblooms.nmsu.edu/) and the NMSU Horticulture Publications page at http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/.

Marisa Y. Thompson, PhD, is the Extension Horticulture Specialist, in the Department of Extension Plant Sciences at the New Mexico State University Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center, office: 505- 865-7340, ext. 113.