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Teaching Resources

• 3-D Insects → website
  See three dimensional virtual insects over the web. Developed by Alexi Sharov, these insects are fun to manipulate and very realistic.
  
  
• AT0554 - Chemical Application Web Site → website
  Web site for the Agricultural Technology course - AT0554/Chemical Application. The course is located on the Virginia Tech Blackboard Server and requires a VT PID and course registration to enter.
  
  
• American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators Web Site → website
  The official web site of the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators (AAPSE). AAPSE is an international association of pesticide safety educators who work in government, educational institutions, and industry.
  
  
• Arthropod Pest Management ENT 5214 → website
  
  
  
• Beekeeping at Virginia Tech → website
  Information on apiculture and social insect programs at Virginia Tech.
  
  
• Biological Control → website
  Biological control website created for the public
  
  
• Computer Classroom
  A computer classroom is located in Room 301A Price Hall. The classroom contains state-of-the-art personal computers, projecting equipment, a printer, and page and slide scanners. The room is run by the Computing Center and is open for university-wide use. Access to the Library System (VTLS) and the internet is available through each computer. Room hours will be posted before each semester. Special workshops, classes, or meetings overide open-access use. These events can be scheduled with the secretaries in the Entomology main office. Classes are generally scheduled at the beginning of each semester. If there are any problems noticed in the operation of the equipment, please notify the lab contact.
  
  
• Computer Workstations
  Several Apple and Intel-based computer work-stations, printers, scanners, and a copier are available for instruction and research in Room 300B. These facilities are available on a first come-first serve basis. Paper for the printers is not provided.
  
  
• Department Shop
  This production shop includes many hand and power tools for creating and modifying equipment needed for teaching and research. Because of the hazards involved, the facility is restricted for use only by its manager, a highly skilled technician. Requests for services of the shop should be made through the Department Head or, for graduate students, through the student's Major Professor.
  
  
• Dodson Urban Pest Management Laboratory → website
  The Dodson Urban Pest Management Laboratory (DUPML) is an educational center that facilitates urban pest extension, research, and teaching. Currently, the DUPML is home to thousands of cockroaches, termites, ants, and bed bugs. These insects are the focus of a number of applied research projects that are intended to improve our ability to manage pests using the most effective, yet least toxic, methods available.
  
  
• Graduate Assistantship Opportunities → website
  Listings of funding opportunities for graduate assistantships for Entomology graduate students at both the Masters and PhD levels.
  
  
• Guide to Trees & Shrubs of Virginia → website
  This guide is intended to assist homeowners in the easy identification of trees and shrubs found throughout Virginia. It also provides characteristic information about the tree or shrub as well as information about the habitat.
  
  
• Insect Identification Laboratory → website
  Easy to use keys and picture guides covering major groups of insect and mite pests in Virginia, including major pests of vegetables, ornamentals, Christmas trees, stored food, and households. Includes lists of fact sheets of common insect pests, and a printable form that can be used when submitting insect samples to your local county extension office. Also includes many images, illustrations, and links to related information.
  
  
• Insect Pest Management ENT4254 → website
  
  
  
• Insect Structure & Function Class Web Site → website
  Insect Structure and Function is a course in functional morphology taken by most graduate students in the Department of Entomology.
  
  
• Journal of Pesticide Safety Education (electronic journal web site) → website
  The official scholarly peer reviewed journal of the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators (AAPSE).
  
  
• Master's of Agriculture and Life Sciences (on-line) → website
  This curriculum offers a master's degree to place-bound learners. This is a multidisciplinary effort with courses in five areas of concentration. Several Entomology Department faculty teach courses here.
  
  
• Med & Vet Entomology Lab
  A cell culture and arbovirus laboratory. This facility is maintained at the Biosafety Level 2 for work involving agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel and the environment. Equipment includes a biological safety cabinet, carbon dioxide incubators and an ultralow freezer. A walk-in environmental chamber is used for maintaining mosquito colonies.
  
  
• Med & Vet Entomology Lab II
  This lab is the hub for field research activities. Also, it contains 2 walk-in environmental chambers for additional mosquito rearing.
  
  
• Photographic Darkroom
  The Darkroom is available for use in preparing materials for research, teaching and extension activities. Because it is a shared facility, certain rules are necessary to protect the rights of persons using the darkroom. The set of rules posted in the darkroom are meant to form minimal guidelines for use of the darkroom.
  
  
• Physiology Laboratories
  These laboratories provide the opportunity for research using spectrophotometry, spectrofluorometry, respirometry, chromatography (HPTLC, HPLC, and GLC), centrifugation, radioisotopes, microscopy, and many other techniques. Environmental chambers are also available for use. Facilities also allow for the study of histology, fine structure and neurophysiology. These facilities include equipment for tissue sectioning, photomicroscopy and electrophysiology. Both scanning and transmission electron microscopes are also accessible on campus.
  
  
• Price Hall
  Price Hall is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Completed nearly 100 years ago, it was originally the Agriculture Building. Later, it was dedicated to Harvey Price, and today, it houses the Department's main office, classrooms, research labs, and faculty offices. We share the building with the Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Sciences Department.
  
  
• Quarantine Laboratory
  A Beneficial Insect Quarantine Laboratory with an adjacent greenhouse is located at Prices Fork. It is used to screen insects with potential as biological control agents. This is a federally approved facility consisting of a single-story building with unique features which meet the specifications of USDA, APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services). It is currently being used for the evaluation of the host specificity of potential biological control agents of weeds. Access to this building is restricted to personnel directly involved in the on-going research and other authorized personnel.
  
  
• State-Owned Vehicles
  Several trucks are assigned to faculty members of the department; other vehicles may be rented from the motor pool by the faculty. The following are guidelines for vehicle use:
  1. You must have a valid driver's license and be an employee of or be specifically authorized by the Department Head to drive a State-owned vehicle;
  2. Always observe speed limits and traffic laws. The driver is liable for any penalties resulting from traffic violations. The driver is also responsible for damage to vehicles resulting from negligence, misuse or abuse;
  3. If you have an accident, report it immediately to the Virginia State Police. An accident report must also be filed with;
  4. State-owned vehicles may not be used for personal transportation or hauling;
  5. Keep vehicles clean and lock them after use.
  6. Do not leave equipment in vehicles;
  7. Report mechanical malfunctions to the person in charge of the vehicle;
  8. Try to share rides and avoid unnecessary trips to maximize efficiency of vehicle use;
  9. The research program for which the vehicle was purchased has priority, but vehicles may be borrowed for other appropriate uses.
  
  
  
• Teaching Preparation Room
  This prep room houses a large portion of the Department's teaching collection and is a work area for specimen preparation used for instruction. Equipment for dissections and processing of sampled material is also stored in this room.
  
  
• The Cyber Cockroach at Virginia Tech → website
  This site has been developed to provide visual information on the anatomy and physiology of one of man's most ancient associates... the cockroach! One of its intended uses is as an instructional aid for students studying the biology of insects... entomology. Cockroaches represent a more or less primitive insect and is quite often used as a representative model for studies on insect anatomy.
  
  
• The Genetic Stock Center for the German Cockroach
  

  The Virginia Tech Department of Entomology established this Genetic Stock Center to organize and maintain the results of years of research on the genetics of the German cockroach, its biology, cytogenetics, behavior and insecticide resistance.

  The center houses mutant stocks of the German cockroach and approximately 30 other cockroach species. It also contains equipment necessary to perform routine procedures such as sexing and phenotyping. A phase contrast photomicroscope and materials requisite to chromosome studies are also available.

  The stocks are a resource unique to Virginia Tech. They constitute the only formal genetics for a hemimetabolous insect. Also, they are needed to detect, understand, and utilize genetic variation in order to devise optimum control strategies, as well as in research on the genetics of insecticide resistance and other traits important to cockroach pest management.

  
  
  
• The Gypsy Moth Server → website
  Information on identification, biology, and control of gypsy moth, as well as summaries of research on the pest.
  
  
• Virginia Fruit Web Site → website
  The Virginia Fruit Web Site contains timely information supporting the fruit industries in the mid-Atlantic area, emphasizing Virginia.
  
  
• Virginia Tech Pesticide Programs → website
  As a clearinghouse for technical information on pesticides and other toxic chemicals, Virginia Tech Pesticide Programs serves the citizens of the Commonwealth through Virginia Cooperative Extension. We are located in Blacksburg, Virginia at Virginia Tech in the Department of Entomology. Our department is part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. We provide educational opportunities and information to people who use pesticides as part of their livelihood, to consumers with questions about the use and impact of pesticides in their everyday lives, to students at Virginia Tech and at other institutions, and to decision-makers such as local, state and federal government regulators and legislators.
  
  
• West Africa Pesticide Programs → website
  This website allows pesticide residue chemists and pesticide safety educators who support agricultural activities in the West Africa region to network/communicate and share resources, including training materials.
  
  
• WhizID → website
  WhizID is web-based utility for creating interactive Diagnostic Systems on the WWW. It is probably best suited to identification problems, but can be used for almost any problem in which you want to lead a client to a particular piece of information through a question and answer session.
  
  

Department of Entomology Blacksburg, VA 24061 Phone: (540) 231-6341 FAX: (540) 231-9131 Send Email Login