Author Archives: cullenlab

Posted: June 14, 2012 

Dr. Ebony Murrell has joined the lab at postdoctoral research associate to work with the USDA NIFA – OREI project. Welcome to the lab Ebony!

Posted: April 14, 2012

Entomologist Eileen Cullen is an expert on integrated pest management, field and forage crops, and conventional and organic agriculture.

Cullen is among a group of concerned scientists that wrote a letter to the EPA in March 2012 warning about the spread of recently discovered populations of corn rootworm that are resistant to genetically engineered corn, and urging the organization to take steps to discourage the spread of this menacing pest.

The group’s warning was delivered in the form of a EPA Open Docket Letter posted on March 7 titled “Comment submitted by Patrick Porter, North Central Coordinating Committee NCCC46 (22 members).”

For more information, read NPR’s The Salt blog post:
Insect experts issue ‘urgent’ warning on using biotech seeds.

Courtesy of CALS News

Posted: March 21, 2012

Snbetor via Flickr

Insect Experts Issue “Urgent” Warning on Using Biotech Seed. In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 22 of the nation’s top experts on corn insect pests lay out some of the implications of this discovery, and they are potentially profound.
[Read more...] 

The NCCC46 letter is here.

Courtesy of National Public Radio

Grow Magazine: Fall 2009

A beetle’s newfound abilities remind us that life is always adapting to overcome our best strategies. How the eternal struggle for survival changes the way we farm. 

“There’s really no way around the fact that if you expose an insect population to one suppressive method over time it will develop resistance,” says Cullen, an associate professor of entomology for CALS and UW-Extension. “Most insects reproduce quickly, and that means that they have more opportunity for exchanging their genes and adapting to management practices.”
[Read more...]

Courtesy of Grow Magazine

CALS News: September 15, 2009

Historically, crop rotation has worked to keep the western corn rootworm in check in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case anymore. For a number of years, parts of Wisconsin have been home to a unique strain of western corn rootworm that figured out how to buck the system.

“It’s become resistant to crop rotation,” explains University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Eileen Cullen. “This is a behavioral variant strain of the normal western corn rootworm population. Rather than mating and laying eggs back in corn, the variant shifted its behavior to lay eggs in soybean fields. The pest has adapted to the fact that soybean fields will be corn the next year.” [Read more...]

Courtesy of CALS News

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: August 4, 2009

Photo: Tom Lynn

Sandhill cranes love to nibble on newly sprouted corn seeds. Coating the seeds with a new biopesticide liquid formula seems to stop the corn harvest from flying away and nurtures a peaceful coexistence of cranes and corn growers.
[Read more...] 

 
Courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Grow Magazine: Summer 2009

UW-Madison entomologist Eileen Cullen, who specializes in integrated pest management to control insects in crops, worked with the International Crane Foundation, the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association, a private company, and state and federal agencies. After lab work and field trials, she sought and gained U.S. EPA approval for a plant-derived biopesticide that can be safely applied to corn seeds to repel sandhill cranes. [Read more...]

Courtesy of Grow Magazine