The Hawaiian Entomological Society

The Fair was held on April 7 through 9 at the Hawai‘i Convention Center. While there were less entomology projects this year (actually there were less projects over all this year) there were still some very good projects. The following awards were given:

Senior Research Division

First Place

Mr. Noa Gagner, a home school student. His project was called "A Novel Delivery System for the Beauveria bassiana Fungus to Control Invasive Fire Ants". Noa mixed B. bassiana with peanut butter to see if he would be able to control LFA populations. He conceived the idea because picked bananas usually leads to stings. HES member Brian Bushe assisted Noa with the fungus. Noa was unsuccessful in achieving control but he has some ideas for his next round of tests.

Junior Research Division

First Place

Anne Nakamoto of Waiakea Intermediate School, talked to HES member Jesse Eiben about ideas for her science fair project in the area of pollination. According to Anne, Jesse handed her some documents, she read them and saw a gap in the research which she decided to fill. The result, "Two Bees or Not Two Bees… (Pollinating Invasive Fireweed)?: That is the Question. A Study of Native Hylaeus Bee and Introduced Honey Bee Visitations to Flowering Fireweed as Compared to the Native Mamame Tree." This excellent project won first place in division and first place in Junior research. She did detailed and extensive studies on the visitation of fireweed and mamane flowers by Hylaeus and Apis. The results: Hylaeus was doing much of the pollination of Mamane and very little was actually going to fireweed. Anne's project was so well executed, I suggested she ask Jesse for funding to continue her valuable research.

Second Place

Last year, Kelsey Ige of St. Ann's Model School, did an incredible project on bed bugs (which was a very popular topic last year. This year she turned her sites onto roaches with a project called "Die! Cockroach Die!" Using her father, who is a pest control technician, to catch American cockroaches, she explored the development of oganic methods of controlling roaches. The best formulation, which looked like anti-freeze, was a mixture of citrus oil and Dawn® Apple Blossom. This repeat winner is thinking of being a pest control technician like her father but would prefer to be an entomologist.

Honorable Mention

Another repeat winner is Matthew Dufale of Kalakaua Intermediate School. He decided to take his project from last year, "Put Your Pest Aside" which was looking at ways to control pests through organic means, and combine it with fertilizers. The resulting project was "Ferticide". Of our winners, Matthew also wins in the best dressed category. He also had a beautiful display which included iPad and links to his ferticide project (unfortunately I do not have the link).

Ray Joyce Award in Medical/Veterinary Entomology

Ms. Meilan Sin of Kalaheo High wanted to find a an organic method of controlling flies for her beloved horses. Naturally, the title of her project was "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me!" Her original experimental design ran afoul of the IBC so she did her tests on flies (Lucilla) using horse droppings. She tested varios essential oils to see which ones would be more effective at repelling flies. She found that Eucalyptus and Tea tree oil were by far the most effective oils to repel the flies. She also noticed that the more expenisve the oil, the more effective it was at repelling insects. For those of you who think parents do all the work, Meilan reported that her dad is now doing his own research. Her horse also tried to help out on the project. And not just by providing the poop.

Mahalo to the following HES members who helped mentor students

• Brian Bushe
• Jesse Eiben
• Peter Follett

Research by Dan Rubinoff and Will Haines was featured on Hawai‘i Public Radio today to talk about the disappearance of Omiodes continuatalis. Listen now!

Photos from this year's 2012 Big Island Insect Count are up! Thank you to all the HES members that participated:

• Rob Curtiss
• Jesse Eiben
• Emmett Easton
• Robert Hollingsworth
• Dennis Lapointe
• Linda Larish

A big mahalo goes to Rob Hollingsworth for putting everything together yet again and for being this year's guest speaker. Unfortunately Rob is stepping down from this role but don't worry, Jesse Eiben will be taking over. Mahalo to Jesse!