Need Weekend Plans? Exciting Happenings in the Triangle

Looking for something exciting to do on Saturday? If so, join NC State's Department of Plant Pathology in two fun-filled activities! On Saturday, the Plant Pathology Graduate Student Association (in conjunction with the Plant Pathology Society of North Carolina and USDA APHIS PPQ Center for Plant Health Science and Technology) will be hosting the Bug Bus exhibit at BugFest.  BugFest is an annual event put on by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  BugFest features displays, exhibits and tons of activities for children both inside and outside of the museum. Every year BugFest has a different theme insect with this years being mantids! Need to brush up on your mantid knowledge before the big day? Then check out this great post from the Museum of Natural Sciences blog, Mantid Madness.  Our exhibit, the Bug Bus, features insect vectors of plant pathogens.  Kids can hop on the Bug Bus and collect stamps in their BugFest passports as they learn about different plant diseases and pests.  Our booth will be located inside the museum on the first floor (underneath the whale). So, if you are brave enough to make your way through hoards of screaming children, then come check us out! It's FREE! 

More information on BugFest can be found here.

Well if BugFest doesn't whet your appetite, maybe football and barbecue will.  NC State's Department of Plant Pathology will also have a booth at the annual CALS Tailgate.  Tailgate is the largest single Alumni event held at NC State University.  Tailgate "is a showcase for the College's academic, research and extension mission, packed around fun events like a silent auction, live band, departmental displays, children's games, great food, fun and friendship!" McCall's will be catering an all you can eat BBQ buffet.  Join us as we cheer on the Wolfpack! 

More information on CALS Tailgate can be found here.  

Rainy Day Weekend Activities

Need something exciting to do this weekend? Join the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic at BugFest and CALS Annual Tailgate.  BugFest is an annual festival that celebrates all things creepy and crawly! This year, the theme is spiders! The festival is held at the North Carolina Museum of Science in downtown Raleigh.  NCSU Department of Plant Pathology (with the Plant Pathology Society of North Carolina and USDA) will once again be featuring the BugBus exhibit.  Grad students will be showcasing mites as plant pests and carriers of plant pathogens.  Kids can come learn about spider mites, fig mosaic virus, rose rosette virus, nematodes, and mummy berry disease.  We will have microscopes set up so kids can view these tiny mites in action. BugFest hours are from 9am to 7pm on Saturday, September 17th.  There are plenty on indoor exhibits, along with lots of spidery themed things to do outside! 

For more information on BugFest, click here.

In addition to BugFest, the Department of Plant Pathology will also be at CALS Tailgate.  CALS Tailgate is an annual event for NC State Alumi.  In addition to a great meal, attendees will get the opportunity to see what our College has to offer from academics, research and extension.  The event is packed around fun events, like a silent auction, live band, departmental displays, children's games, and of course, lots of free stuff.   The Department of Plant Pathology will have a display featuring the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic, Plant Propagation Unit, and Turfgrass Diagnostics.  Head over to our booth to see what our department has been up to and learn about plant diseases. 

After the tailgate, you can head over to watch the NCSU vs. South Alabama game for Military Appreciation Night.  Mark Gottfried, the new men's basketball coach, will be showing his appreciation for our military by parachuting into the stadium!

For more information on CALS Tailgate, click here

Hopefully the cool rainy weather won't ruin your weekend! We hope to see you Saturday!

 

Lions, Tigers, and ORB SPIDERS, OH MY!

With BugFest coming this weekend to Raleigh's Museum of Natural Sciences, we found it appropriate to have a short posting on spiders, specifically orb spiders.  For those of you not familiar with BugFest, it is an annual festival that celebrates all things creepy and crawly! Each year, the festival has a different theme, with this year's theme being SPIDERS.  David Stephan, the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic's resident entomologist, prepared the following post on orb spiders, a common group of spiders found throughout North Carolina.  

Orb Spiders

Spiders are among the most maligned and misunderstood creatures on Earth.  These fascinating arthropods are mostly beneficial to humans as predators of insects and other pests, but the few that are genuinely dangerous to us have given all spiders a bad rap.  Almost all spiders are venomous (except for the species in one obscure family), and almost all are predators.  Very few species are truly aggressive, most opting to freeze or flee in encounters with people.  All spiders produce silk, and many of them use this silk in various ways for prey capture, construction of retreats, courtship, protection of their eggs, etc.

Orb spiders of the family Araneidae are among our largest and most beautiful spiders (oh yes they are!).  They spin those large, radially symmetrical webs that people often find in their yards from mid summer into fall.  Outdoor lights and windows attract many insects, which makes them popular sites for orb spiders and others to spin their webs.  The spider may wait in the center of its web, or in a hidden retreat nearby, ready to rush out and wrap prey that fly into the web.  Most adults will die by winter, after preparing 1 or more sturdy egg cocoons.  Orb spiders are timid and avoid contact with people, but blundering into one of their webs in the dark could give you a heart attack.

Golden Silk Orb Spider, Nephila clavipes
(Photoby David Hillquitst, Bogue Banks, NC)

Our largest NC orb spiders belong to the genera Araneus, Argiope, Neoscona and Nephila.  The mostly tropical species of Nephila include the world’s largest orb spiders, and can build spectacular webs.  The silk that spiders produce has amazing properties of tensile strength and extensibility, and scientists have been studying it for many years.  Researchers in the College of Textiles here at NCSU have worked with orb spiders in the past.  Currently, researchers in our Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering are using the latest technology to study, duplicate and even improve on some of those properties of spider silk. 

Golden Silk Orb Spider, Nephila clavipes
(Photoby David Hillquitst, Bogue Banks, NC)

Not enough spider info to satisfy your appetite? Be sure to visit BugFest, Saturday September 17th.  NCSU Departments of Plant Pathology and Entomology have displays with even more info about spiders!

Additional Links:

BugFest

Golden Silk Spider

Special thanks to David Stephan for contributing this post!