Carabid Beetles for Sustainable Agriculture - Kelly Jowett

Posted July, 6th, 2020

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We will be holding an online meeting at 7.00 pm on Thursday 9th July for BASE-UK members with Kelly Jowett from Rothamsted Research, whom some of you may already had contact with regarding her current research.

Kelly Jowett is a PhD student at Rothamsted research, working on pest-eating ground beetles. Studies have shown that ground beetles eat a range of important crop pests and can control the populations of livestock pests too.  They also support biodiverse habitats and provide food for farmland birds. Kelly’s PhD project is working towards discovering which landscape features and farm management practices encourage ground beetle species, and so in turn could be invaluable for pest control in crop areas.

During the talk Kelly will explain the needs of carabid beetles, and how these are provided for by farm habitat management. She will give an overview of current research and how this relates to integrated pest management. She will also give an introduction to different types of beneficial carabid beetles, how to encourage a diverse beetle population, and how to design and carry out a monitoring programme. 

As part of her PhD she is also seeking the opinions of farmers on the benefits of ground beetles in crop protection. If attendees engage with the extra content of her survey, they receive a pitfall trapping factsheet and are introduced to carabid identification with a short quiz. 

There will be plenty of time for any questions you have within the event.

Please email Rebecca for the meeting link 0n rebecca@base-uk.co.uk

The meeting will be recorded and available to members afterwards.