25-S206 Insects in Managed Ecosystems: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful – Janet Sperling

Insects can be pests or beneficial. They are an intriguing background in our efforts to manage our environment. They have managed to defeat most simple control strategies devised by humans, so learning to live with insects requires an integrated pest management mindset. Ecological complexity meets economic necessity as we work to de-escalate the use of pesticides. In parallel with last year’s ELLA course on medical entomology, this course will be a general overview of how insects function in the environments we influence, how they interact with each other and how humans are constantly running to stay ahead of our tiny adversaries. We will use examples drawn from gardens, agroecosystems and forestry as we describe the astonishing variety of insects that can be equally as charming as annoying, depending on your perspective.
Instructor: Janet Sperling

Janet is an entomologist intrigued by insects and fascinated by the bacterial communities they carry. She received her BSc (Horticulture) in 1983, MSc (Entomology) in 1988 and PhD (Systematics and Evolution) in 2021 from the University of Alberta.