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Professor of Entomology
Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences
Agricultural Engineering Building 320
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
Tel. (413) 545-1061
vandries@nre.umass.edu
Ph.D. 1975, Cornell University
http://www.umass.edu/psis/personnel/vandriesche/vanDcv.pdf
- Biological Control
- Invasive Species
- Parasitoid Biology
My interests include use of natural enemy introductions to suppress invasive species that are pests of agriculture or natural areas, currently focuses on invasive pests of forests. I am also concerned with evaluating the safety of natural enemy introductions. Summaries of these various interests follow:
Invasive pests often are damaging in many cases because they have escaped controlling natural enemies, which allows them to become more numerous or, for plants, more aggressively invasive, than they are in their native homes. Introduction of missing natural enemies is an effective method to solve many such pest problems. Invasive exotic species may be pests of agriculture or horticulture or pests of natural areas. My research includes work on natural enemy introductions and impact evaluation against thre forest pests: elongate hemlock scale, hemlock woolly adelgid and the ambermarked birch leafminer. In addition, I have interests in natural enemies of euonymus scale and a vegetable pest, the imported cabbageworm.
Biological control introductions--like all introductions of nonnative species for whatever purpose--must be done carefully, judging potential effects and estimating the net benefits. I have a special interest in field studies to assess the effects of natural enemy introductions on nontarget native species as part of my effort to improve our understanding of the safety of arthropod biological control.
Van Driesche , R.. G. 1983. The meaning of "percent parasitism" in the study of insect parasitoids. Environ. Entomol. 12: 161-1622.
Van Driesche, R. G. 1994. Classical biological control of environmental pests. Florida Entomologist 77:20-33.
Van Driesche, R. G. and T. S. Bellows, Jr. 1996. Biological Control. Chapman and Hall, New York (a text for teaching biological control), 539 pp.
Van Driesche, R. G. and M. S. Hoddle. 1997. Should arthropod parasitoids and predators be subject to host range testing when used as biological control agents? Agriculture and Human Values 14: 211-226.
Van Driesche, J. and R.G. Van Driesche. 2000. Nature Out of Place: Biological Invasions in a Global Age. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Van Driesche, R. G., M. Hoddle, and T. Center. 2008. Control of Pests and Weeds by Natural Enemies. Blackwell, London.
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