My name is Maya Schmidt and I’ve just begun my second summer working at the Beaverlodge Research Farm.It’s my first time working with the IPM program.
I’ve recently finished my first year of my Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Alberta. I am eager to learn tons this summer and have already had fascinating experiences in my first few weeks of the job. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been setting up flea beetle and diamondback moth traps located at various growers’ fields around the county. The flee beetle traps are a double sided yellow sticky card – the yellow colour of the card is what attracts the flea beetles. The diamondback moth ones are set up as a delta trap, with a sticky card and pheromone lure inside to attract male moths. Recently, we collected the first set of cards which need to be collected and replaced every week. The cards are processed by inspecting them under a microscope. We identify and count the target insects on each trap.
The other new students and I have also been assisting the two graduate students, Amanda and Shelby, with processing their wheat samples. Their experiments involve hand-threshing wheat head samples to identify and count wheat midge larvae infestation levels. Other collecting and processing involved red clover field trash where we are looking for overwintered weevils and red clover casebearers.
I hope to gain valuable experience, expand my scientific knowledge and perhaps step out of my comfort zone. It looks like it’s going to be an interesting summer!
