Andony Melathopoulos

I have wide interests in the area of keeping native and managed bees healthy in working and natural landscapes. A major area of my work focuses on how pesticide applicators understand the risks associated with pest management decisions. This has taken the form of large scale assessment of language of the Pollinating Insect Hazard Statement on pesticide labels (work led by two former Honors College students in my lab, Matthew Bucy and Leah Swanson) but also evaluation with pesticide applicators during recertification training.

Prompted by the work of a current PhD student in my program, Emily Carlson, I have also been increasingly interested in estimating how pesticide use practices contribute to pesticide exposure. This has led to work I do on residual acute toxicity of insecticides to bees on weathered foliage and flowers, and attempts to compare how these residues dissipate relative to insecticide chemistry and crop. I partnered with the Oregon State Arthropod Collection (OSAC) in 2017 to develop the Oregon Bee Atlas and the first and only Extension Master certificate program devoted to native bee survey, the Master Melittologist program. I have also worked on problems associated with pollinating crops in Oregon and I have active work looking into increasing the nectar and pollen resources available to bees in working landscapes.