Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

1. Regards from Saeid Mostaghimi, Administrative Advisor, Virginia Tech.
2. Minutes of 2017 meeting: Rodrigo offered to read the full minutes from the 2017 meeting. Carey made a motion that the reading of the minutes should be approved and submitted without reading, Jim seconded the motion. The motion passed.
3. Introductions: All attendees provided a short introduction about their involvement with the S1058 group.
4. Promote S1058: There was consensus that we need to bring more colleagues involved in biological control to the Annual Meeting. We need a clear guidance about how to join the group. Jim Cuda will send us a quick explanation about how to join the S1058 group. Norm Leppla suggested reaching faculty working on biological control of every state in our region. We need to include more students in our group meeting. Martha Mutschler-Chu suggested using ZoomMeeting as a platform to invite colleagues to give presentations. Norman Leppla suggested inviting colleagues in USDA, State Departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Forestry. Norman Leppla and Lance Armstrong volunteered to write a short blurb to advertise the group.
5. Integration of other approaches: Martha Mutschler-Chu encouraged the group to integrate biological control with different approaches. Martha suggested thinking on systems and how to promote ‘Management Packages for Pests’, rather than individual pests. Martha suggested including plant resistance as part of the evaluation of biological control agents.
6. S1058 Governance: Jason Schmidt suggested the consideration of having a Vice President of group. Norm Leppla mentioned that we do have a Governance and Jason suggested this should be updated.
7. S1058 Meeting: Jason requested feedback about how to handle the meeting. Jim commented about having a 2h meeting and then the symposium. To increase participation and promote the group, Jason suggested having a mixer after our symposium. Members agreed and suggested several private companies that could be contacted for fundraising. Lance Osborne and JC will contact these companies.
8. S1058 Opportunities: Jim Cuda commented on multi-country opportunities as a way to promote our group. Jim mentioned his NSF grant application with South Africa as an example for weed biological control. Martha mentioned opportunities to integrate host plant resistance of tomato. Lance commented with Jason about opportunities with whiteflies and expand this work in Georgia. Jim and Rodrigo mentioned the opportunities to collaborate on the hydrilla midge and determine its distribution in Louisiana. Jason had an interest in the distribution of biological control agents in Georgia. Carey Minteer mentioned the air potato biological control program in Florida, and how this program has expanded to other states in the region.
9. S1058 Economic Impact: Participants commented on the need to quantify the economic impacts of the projects. We know biological control is reducing pest numbers but we need to do a much better job at putting dollars in these cost savings. Carey mentioned her collaboration with economists to quantify classical biological control programs in Florida. There was a consensus to bring an economist in the conversation to evaluate the impacts of our programs. Rodrigo suggested the work on the economic impact of the water hyacinth biological control program developed by the US Army Corp of Engineers.
10. S1058 Societal Impacts: Members commented on the issues with the public when working with biological control. Carey suggested bringing social scientists to our meetings. Lance offered to check with Dr. Hayak from University of Florida as a potential speaker. Lance suggested about doing a short video to promote the benefits of biological control to wider audiences.
11. S1058 Name: Jason suggested changing the name of the group to: “Biological of Weeds and Arthropods in the Southeast”. Everyone in attendance agreed.
12. Project Rewrite: Jason, Carey and Rodrigo coordinated and finished the rewrite. The rewrite is out for external review. The deadline is March 9th to get back the revisions.
13. Meeting adjourned: No other business was discussed. James Cuda moved to adjourn the meeting at 15:30. Seconded by Carey Minteer. Motion passed.

Symposium: Biocontrol in the Southeast--From Weeds to Arthropod Pests.

Tuesday, Monday 5th, 2018. Cypress ABC, Doubletree Hilton at SeaWorld.

Moderator and Organizers: Jason Schmidt, Univ. of Georgia, Tifton, GA; Rodrigo Diaz, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA; Emma Weeks, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL and Carey Minteer, Univ. of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL.

Schedule:

10:30 Welcoming Remarks

10:35 AM 47 Diversity of biological control challenges and systems in the southeast. Jason Schmidt (jschmid2@uga.edu), Univ. of Georgia, Tifton, GA

10:53 AM 48 Air potato patrol, Outreaching for data. Christopher Kerr (christopher.kerr@ freshfromflorida.com)1 and William Lester2 , 1 Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gainesville, FL, 2 Univ. of Florida IFAS Extension, Brooksville, FL.

11:11 AM 49 Orseolia javanica (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), a candidate biological control agent for the invasive cogongrass Imperata cylindrica. James Cuda (jcuda@ufl.edu), Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

11:29 AM 50 Phragmites die-offs in Louisiana: Role of exotic scale and opportunities for biological control. Rodrigo Diaz (rdiaz@agcenter.lsu.edu), Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA.

11:47 AM 51 Update on the progress of the Brazilian peppertree biological control program in Florida. Patricia Prade (patriciaprade@gmail.com)1 , Carey Minteer2 and James Cuda1 , 1 Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2 Univ. of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL.

12:05 PM 52 Mass rearing of the hydrilla tip mining midge Cricotopus lebetis: challenges and solutions. Emma Weeks1 , Rachel Watson (rwatson25@ ufl.edu)1 , Courtney Stachowiak1 , Andriana Mitchell1 , Eutychus M. Kariuki2 , Nicole Miller1 , Alissa Marie Berro1 and James Cuda1 , 1 Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2 Florida A&M Univ., Tallahassee, FL.

12:23 Break
1:23 PM 53 Foraging depth of Cricotopus lebetis Sublette larvae. Eutychus M. Kariuki (eutychus1.kariuki@famu. edu)1 , James Cuda2 , Stephen Hight3 , Raymond L. Hix1 , Jennifer Gillett-Kaufman2 and Lyn Gettys4 , 1 Florida A&M Univ., Tallahassee, FL, 2 Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 3 USDA - ARS, Tallahassee, FL, 4 Univ. of Florida, Davie, FL.

1:41 PM 54 Impact of roadside mowing on spotted knapweed and its biological control agent, Larinus minutus. Beth Ferguson (mef005@email.uark.edu) and Robert N. Wiedenmann, Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR.

1:59 PM 55 Environmental drivers of natural enemy diversity and pest suppression. Carmen K. Blubaugh (carmen.blubaugh@wsu. edu) and William E Snyder, Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA.

2:17 PM 56 Potential for acylsugar-mediated control of important insect vectors/viruses in tomato. Martha Mutschler-Chu (mam13@cornell.edu)1 , John Smeda1 , Diane E. Ullman2 , Sulley Beh Mahmoud2 and George G. Kennedy3 , 1 Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY, 2 Univ. of California - Davis, Davis, CA, 3 North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC.

2:35 PM 57 Predator-in-first for commercial bell pepper field production. Cindy McKenzie (cindy.mckenzie@ars.usda. gov)1 , Vivek Kumar2 and Lance Osborne2 , 1 USDA - ARS, Fort Pierce, FL, 2 Univ. of Florida, Apopka, FL.

2:53 PM 58 Comparing predation potential of Delphastus beetles against B and Q whitefly. Vivek Kumar (vivekiari@ufl.edu)1 , Cindy McKenzie2 and Lance Osborne1 , 1 Univ. of Florida, Apopka, FL, 2 USDA - ARS, Fort Pierce, FL.

3:11 PM 59 Trap crops for attracting the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), and its natural enemies. Alexander Gannon (agannon@ufl.edu) and Norman Leppla, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

3:29 PM 60 Augmentative biological control of whiteflies in tomato with predaceous plant bugs. Philip A. Stansly (pstansly@ufl.edu), Univ. of Florida, Immokalee, FL. (WITHDRAWN)

3:47 PM 61 Untangling the effects of predator releases and transient natural enemies on pest populations in strawberry high tunnels in Mississippi. Eric Riddick (eric.riddick@ars.usda.gov), USDA - ARS, Stoneville, MS.

4:05 PM 62 Landscape and host plant effects on two important omnivorous arthropod taxa in field crops. Dawn Olson (dawn.olson@ars.usda.gov)1 , Adam Zeilinger2 , Kristina Prescott3 , Alisa Coffin1 , John Ruberson4 and David A. Andow3 , 1 USDA - ARS, Tifton, GA, 2 Univ. of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 3 Univ. of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 4 Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS