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Member Symposium

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Bridging Generations: Celebrating 50 Years of Innovative Biocontrol Programs in California & Beyond

Sunday, November 9, 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
Location: Oregon Convention Center, Portland Ballroom 253, OCC

Oral Presentation Poster Display

    Organizer(s)

  • RL

    Ricky Lara

    Senior Environmental Scientist
    California Department of Food and Agriculture
    Sacramento, California

  • NM

    Nathan Mercer

    Post Doctoral Scholar
    Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management
    California Department of Food and Agriculture
    Sacramento, California

  • Christopher Borkent

    Integrated Pest Control - Biological Control Program
    California Department of Food and Agriculture
    Sacramento, California

This symposium celebrates the 50+ years of contributions by the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Biological Control Program, and its diverse partners, to the development of innovative biological control solutions for sustainable management of invasive insects and noxious weeds that threaten agricultural and natural ecosystems.

Presentations:

  • 8:00 AM - 8:05 AM Pacific
    Introductory remarks

    Presenting Author: Ricky Lara – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 8:05 AM - 8:25 AM Pacific
    Inception of California's biological control 'services' program and successful accomplishments in the biological control of exotic weeds

    Presenting Author: Michael Pitcairn – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 8:25 AM - 8:45 AM Pacific
    Development of California's state biological control program, milestones over a 34-year career

    Presenting Author: Charles Pickett – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Michael Pitcairn – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 8:45 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific
    Exploration across Africa and release in California of olive fruit fly parasitoids

    Presenting Author: Kent Daane – University of California

    Co-Author: Xingeng Wang – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Charles Pickett – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Kim Alan Hoelmer – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Arnaud Blanchet – USDA-ARS EBCL

    Co-Author: Vaughn M. Walton – Oregon State University

    Co-Author: Marie-Claude Bon (she/her/hers) – USDA

    Co-Author: Alan Kirk – USDA-ARS EBCL

  • 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM Pacific
    Developing a biological control program for bagrada bug in California

    Presenting Author: Brian Hogg – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Ian Grettenberger – University of California

    Co-Author: Christopher Borkent – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Nathan Mercer – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Keith Stokes – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Evelyne Hougardy – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Nastaran Tofangsazi – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Charles Pickett – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 9:15 AM - 9:25 AM Pacific
    Break
  • 9:25 AM - 9:40 AM Pacific
    UCR and CDFA: Getting the bugs under control!

    Presenting Author: Mark Hoddle, Ph.D. D.Sc. (he/him/his) – University of California

  • 9:40 AM - 9:55 AM Pacific
    Assessments of floral feeding and parasitism by Peristenus relictus (Ruthe) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in a diversified strawberry production system

    Presenting Author: Diego Nieto – Driscoll's

    Co-Author: Jana Lee – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Gracie Galindo – Genective

  • 9:55 AM - 10:10 AM Pacific
    Washington and California: Our shared invasive plant problems and solutions

    Presenting Author: Jennifer Andreas – Washington State University

  • 10:10 AM - 10:25 AM Pacific
    Leaf pH and hormone treatments boost feeding and oviposition in Ceratapion basicorne

    Presenting Author: Ikju Park – University of California

  • 10:25 AM - 10:35 AM Pacific
    Break
  • 10:35 AM - 10:50 AM Pacific
    A model of winter and spring phenology in the yellow starthistle rosette weevil (Ceratapion basicorne), applied in California and beyond

    Presenting Author: Fritzi Grevstad – Oregon State University

    Co-Author: Dan Bean – Colorado Department of Agriculture

    Co-Author: Carrie Preston – Oregon State University

    Co-Author: Brittany S. Barker, PhD – Oregon State University

  • 10:50 AM - 11:05 AM Pacific
    Whither fair program? The current status and future directions of the CDFA Biological Control Program

    Presenting Author: Christopher Borkent – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 11:05 AM - 11:20 AM Pacific
    CDFA biocontrol awards
  • 11:20 AM - 11:25 AM Pacific
    Closing remarks

    Presenting Author: Ricky Lara – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Poster session
  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Adventures in rearing Ceratapion basicorne, a new biocontrol agent for yellow star thistle

    Presenting Author: Michael Pitcairn – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Robert Munoz – CDFA

    Co-Author: Nathan Mercer – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Viola Popescu – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Christopher Borkent – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Assessing the feasibility of biological control for Arundo donax in Southern California

    Presenting Author: Winnifred Opio Aool (she/her/hers) – University of California

    Co-Author: Nathan Harms – US Army ERDC

    Co-Author: Ikju Park – University of California

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Biological control of invasive weeds in California, current status of long term and ongoing projects

    Presenting Author: Nathan Mercer – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Viola Popescu – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Michael Pitcairn – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Christopher Borkent – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Do deep diving larvae exploit enemy free space? Spotted wing drosophila larval depth in berries and parasitism by the natural enemy Ganaspis kimorum

    Presenting Author: D. Valle Rogers – University of California

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Effect of rosette size on larval development and survival in Ceratapion basicorne, a new biological control agent for yellow starthistle

    Presenting Author: Fritzi Grevstad – Oregon State University

    Co-Author: Carrie Preston – Oregon State University

    Co-Author: Dan Bean – Colorado Department of Agriculture

    Co-Author: Brittany S. Barker, PhD – Oregon State University

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Generalist predators that feed on the cotton seed bug (Oxycarenus Hyalinipennis)

    Presenting Author: Theodore L. Adams – University of California

    Co-Author: Christina Hoddle (she/her/hers) – University Of California Riverside

    Co-Author: Mark Hoddle, Ph.D. D.Sc. (he/him/his) – University of California

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Overwintering in California: A continued look at Trissolcus japonicus resilience

    Presenting Author: Daniel Roberts – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Vincent Maiquez – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Ricky Lara – California Department of Food and Agriculture

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Rapid identification of cryptic biological control agents using near‐infrared spectroscopy

    Presenting Author: Evelyne Hougardy – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Peishih Liang (she/her/hers) – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Ronald P. Haff – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Kent Daane – University of California

    Co-Author: Xingeng Wang – USDA-ARS

    Co-Author: Brian Hogg – USDA-ARS

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Rearing non-targets for host-specificity testing of Dolichogenidea gelechiidivoris, a key parasitoid of Tuta absoluta

    Presenting Author: Ricky Lara – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Michael Bernabe – CDFA

    Co-Author: Daniel Roberts – California Department of Food and Agriculture

    Co-Author: Brian Hogg – USDA-ARS

  • 11:25 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
    Sex-ratio distortion in a weed biological control agent, Ceratapion basicorne (Coleoptera: Brentidae), associated with a species of Rickettsia

    Presenting Author: Kristi Gladem (she/her/hers) – University of California

    Co-Author: Paul Rugman-Jones – University of California Riverside

    Co-Author: Emma Shelton – Colorado Department of Agriculture

    Co-Author: Kelly Hanrahan – Colorado Department of Agriculture

    Co-Author: Dan Bean – Colorado Department of Agriculture

    Co-Author: Brian G. Rector – USDA-ARS