Feature Story

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Summertime brings out the flying and sometimes stinging insects in Mississippi, and some of them look a lot alike.

The mostly harmless carpenter bee resembles the sometimes bothersome bumble bee. Both are important pollinators in the Mississippi landscape.

Blake Layton, entomologist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the look-alike carpenter bees and bumblebees are not even in the same entomological family.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Trophy bucks and high-quality deer herds are not the result of random chance, but of planned management of habitat and harvests.

“The white-tailed deer is likely the most economically and ecologically important animal in Mississippi,” said Bronson Strickland, wildlife management specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University Extension associate will be supporting landowners and fisheries resources throughout Mississippi.

Bill Maily began his new duties as an Extension associate in MSU’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture on Aug. 1 and will work from the Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Raymond. Before joining the department, Maily was an area Extension agent in the Hinds County Extension Office.

MISSISSIPPI STATE - Most duck hunters look forward to the thrill of mimicking duck calls to attract members of the flock.

James Callicutt, a former Mississippi State University graduate student, has spent much of his life as a duck hunter and call maker. Most recently, he has studied the sounds of female mallard ducks and compared them to sounds from man-made duck calls constructed of different types of materials.

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE - The services at Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine reach far beyond the university and the surrounding community.

MISSISSPPI STATE – The dean of Mississippi State University’s College of Forest Resources and director of the Forest and Wildlife Research Center will take on an expanded leadership role.

Effective Aug. 19 and pending formal approval by the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, George M. Hopper will also serve as the dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – With most of the state needing rain and south Mississippi under exceptional drought, landowners are watching as their trees deal with stress.

Glenn Hughes, forestry professor with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said dead or dying trees, both pine and hardwood, are becoming a common sight in south Mississippi. This concerns both homeowners and forest landowners.

Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum in Starkville reminds visitors of what a small Southern community once was, but also what it could be.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Many adults know from experience about the scars school bullies can leave and should remember that the evidence is not always obvious.

Karen Benson has witnessed behavior by bullies and their victims in the course of teaching relationship classes to teens. She is a child and family development area agent based in Neshoba County with Mississippi State University’s Extension Service.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Researchers at Mississippi State University have developed technology that uses reflected light to analyze the presence of certain nematodes in cotton fields so producers can increase profits.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – This spring’s rash of deadly tornadoes bears a striking resemblance to the Super Outbreak of 1974, but the summer weather that followed both of these La Nina springs is very different.

Grady Dixon, an associate professor of geosciences at Mississippi State University, said this spring’s tornadoes were caused by a predictable weather pattern.

“A strong low-pressure system moving across the Midwest, coupled with warm, humid conditions over the East and Southeast and a strong jet stream, caused the early spring tornado events we had,” Dixon said.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- An upcoming conference in Louisiana will provide a chance for participants from rural Mississippi and Louisiana to learn about unique tourism options.

The Miss-Lou Regional Tourism Summit will be Aug. 9-11 in Oak Grove, La., which is located in the northeast corner of the state, near the Mississippi River.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – For those interested in what varieties of muscadines are good for juice or best eaten fresh, Mississippi State University is offering a field day Aug. 13 in Pearl River County to teach about this fruiting vine.

The 2011 Muscadine Field Day will be held from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at MSU’s McNeill Unit, a branch station of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The event is free and open to the public, and sampling is encouraged.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – An Aug. 13 tour of Mississippi State University’s South Farm will teach participants about the university’s warm-season forage research and demonstrations.

The Warm-Season Forage Tour will be held from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Henry H. Leveck Animal Research Farm at MSU. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. The tour is hosted by the MSU Extension Service forage program and the Oktibbeha County Extension Office.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Starting in August, students will again go in the mouth of a model of the human body and explore for 30 minutes as volunteers teach them fun, healthy lessons about their bodies.

VICKSBURG – Three mid-south universities met recently to develop a plan to combine resources to strengthen support for agricultural enterprises.

Experiment station and Extension Service directors from the University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and Mississippi State University met June 11-13 in Vicksburg to discuss cooperating on research and educational programs to benefit agriculture.

PICAYUNE – Pat Drackett is the new director of Mississippi State University’s Crosby Arboretum in Picayune.

The Crosby Arboretum was established in 1980 as a living memorial to timber pioneer and philanthropist L.O. Crosby Jr. It is part of MSU’s Coastal Research and Extension Center and showcases the native plant species of the Pearl River Drainage Basin of south-central Mississippi and Louisiana.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Elected and appointed municipal government officials in Mississippi have another resource to turn to for leadership and problem-solving in the daily operation of local government.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service’s Center for Governmental Training and Technology recently published its Third Edition of Municipal Government in Mississippi. The center distributed more than 1,200 copies of the book at the recent Mississippi Municipal League Annual Conference in Biloxi.

By Bonnie Coblentz
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Summer of Innovation Camps being held across Mississippi look like a lot of fun with rockets, but children who participate are also brushing up on their science and engineering skills.

The camps are a White House effort spearheaded and funded through NASA. In Mississippi, 26 camps are being offered this summer through 4-H, the youth development arm of the Mississippi State University Extension Service.