What’s Eating My Food?: Garden Pest Management

Gardeners love sharing their harvest—with other humans, not bugs. But an integral part of sustainable gardening is limiting the use of pesticides, since overuse can lead to and speed up resistance. So how can you safely protect your produce from plundering pests? Entomologist Jessica Green will show you responsible ways to defend your veggies from invaders.

Presenter: Jessica Green has worked at OSU as a vegetable crop entomologist for 12 years. She has performed research trials on cabbage maggot, diamondback moth, armyworm, wireworm, and western corn rootworm. Jessica runs VegNet, a regional pest monitoring and reporting network, and was among the first to identify winter cutworm when it was detected in the Willamette Valley in 2015. Ms. Green holds a split appointment between OSU’s Oregon IPM Center and the Pesticide Safety Education program. She lives in the forest with her son, husband, mother, and 28 chickens.

About Growing Oregon Gardeners: Level Up Series

The cost of food keeps climbing. One in five people faces hunger in Oregon. And the pandemic showed us the fragility of our supply system. Growing our own food—for us, for our families, for our neighbors—is an action gardeners can take to strengthen food security in our local communities. This year's Growing Oregon Gardeners: Level Up series is aimed at helping gardeners take a bite out of hunger. The closed-captioned webinars will be broadcast via Zoom and streamed via our Facebook page on the second Tuesday of the month, at noon, February through October 2024. This series is open to the public, and OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers receive 1 Continuing Education Credit for each class. You can take one, or take all. This webinar is being recorded and will be available to view on our website within two weeks of airdate.