Holly J. Ferguson
Extension IPM Coordinator Specialist
Areas of Interest
My expertise is diverse within agricultural pest management. I have been involved in cotton pest management, beneficial arthropods of soybean pests, migratory behavior of the fall armyworm, and the creation of a genetic transformation system of the codling moth, the major pest of pome fruits in the state. In my current position as Extension IPM Coordinator Specialist, I am responsible for coordinating and managing a variety of IPM projects in many of Washington's minor crops. I am supported 47% by WSU Extension (Smith Lever 3(d) funds) and 53% from competitive research grants I have authored or co-authored. Extension activities include authoring the annual IPM report for Washington State. These reports cover the major IPM projects going on in the state, with emphasis on apples, cranberries, and small fruit for the period between 2001 and 2005. This is a required federal report on how the state spends its Smith-Lever 3(d) funds. I will soon be developing a new IPM Plan of Work to cover the period between 2006 and 2010. Also I write many of the web pages for the WSU agricultural IPM web site and assist in keeping the web site up-to-date. In addition, I provide Extension Education through oral and poster presentations to a diverse group of agricultural stakeholders in Washington state and beyond, including grape growers, home gardeners, tree fruit growers, horse owners, hay growers, pesticide applicators, and university and ARS researchers. My commodity support is diverse, including tree fruits, mint, wheat, potato, timothy hay, carrots, juice grapes, and wine grapes. I help facilitate local, state-wide, and regional projects involving IPM principles. I supervise the ongoing research projects at the Environmental and Agricultural Entomology Laboratory (EAEL) located at IAREC in Prosser. Current and past research activities include: conducting a survey of mint growers on their pest management practices, control of overwintering cutworms in vineyards via attract and kill bait stations, efficacy trials in timothy hay for new miticides, lepidopteran survey in mint, and statewide survey of Peristenus parasitism of Lygus bug nymphs.
Education
- B.S., 1981, Economic Biology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
- M.S., 1983, Entomology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
- Ph.D., 1992, Entomology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Recent Publications
Ferguson, H. J. and D. Walsh. 2004. Pest management practices in Washington State mint: A 2002 survey summary. Washington State University EB1988E. (pdf)
Waters, T. D., D. B. Walsh, R. P. Wight, and H. J. Ferguson. 2005. Acaricidal efficacy against McDaniel mite in timothy hay. Arthropod Management Tests (submitted).
Waters, T. D., H. Ferguson, and D. B. Walsh. 2003. Ode to a cricket (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Amer. Entomol. 49(1): 5.
Waters, T., D. Walsh, H. Ferguson, and F. Zalom. 2003. Lygus parasites show promise, but no silver bullet. Agrichemical and Environmental News. (web page)
Walsh, D., H. Ferguson, and R. Wight. 2003. Cutworms can climb no more! Barrier technique shows promise, conserves beneficials in vineyards. Agrichemical & Environmental News (web page)
Ferguson, H.J, Cobey S., and Smith B.H. 2001. Sensitivity to a change in reward is heritable in the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Animal Behaviour. 61: 527-534.
Robinson, K.R., H. J. Ferguson, S. Cobey, B. H. Smith, and H. Vaessin. 2000. Sperm-mediated gene transformation of the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Insect Molecular Biology 9: 625-634. (pdf)
Neven, L. G., H. J. Ferguson, and A. L. Knight. 2000. Sub-zero cooling synchronizes post-diapause development of codling moth, Cydia pomonella. Cryoletters 21: 203-214.
Neven, L.G., S. R. Drake, and H. J. Ferguson. 2000. Effects of the rate of heating on apple and pear fruit quality. J. Food Quality 23: 317-325.
Recent Grants funded
Western Regional IPM grant, 2003: $79,392
EPA Region 10/American Farmland Trust, 2003: $50,000
Awarded commodity research funding, Co-PI, 2003-4, totaling $156,384
