Transcript: UGA peach entomologist Brett Blaauw on “Consider this Next” with Kacie Luaders

On this “Consider This Next” Halloween special on CivicSciTV Radio, Kacie speaks with Dr. Brett Blaauw, a peach entomologist at the University of Georgia. Blaauw shares strategies for communicating about insects to diverse audiences, from engaging kids with fun facts about dung beetles to helping adults appreciate pollinators through their connection to coffee and chocolate. They discuss agricultural extension methods including on-farm research, conferences, and apps. The conversation highlights the critical role of beneficial insects, especially parasitoid wasps, in natural pest control.

On lessons learned from engaging audiences about insects, Blaauw shared that communication success depends on meeting people where they are and making information relatable. “Breaking barriers is a very difficult part of any scientific career,” he said, noting that finding common ground—whether it’s a child’s fascination with dung beetles or an adult’s appreciation for coffee and chocolate—helps shift attitudes toward insects. He emphasized that in-person interactions remain the most impactful, explaining that farmers and the public alike “really do enjoy” hands-on conversations far more than blogs or apps. 

The transcript below has been edited for clarity and length:

Kacie: Welcome to Consider this Next on CivicSciTV Radio, I’m your host, Kacie Luaders. Here on the show, we connect with diverse voices across the civic science landscape, scholars, practitioners and leaders shaping the intersections of science within our society. Our mission to uncover lessons from their work and translate them into actionable insights, like all programs from the Civic Science Media Lab, whether on video, radio or digital print, consider this next is here to keep decision makers, from researchers and practitioners to local community members, informed, inspired and equipped with the latest insights.

Today, we’re venturing into some new and delightfully creepy territory for our special Halloween edition, we’re diving into the world of entomology with Dr Brett Blaauw, a peach entomologist at the University of Georgia, who works with farmers across the southeast to manage pest insects while protecting beneficial species. In our conversation, we’ll explore how he communicates complex entomological concepts to diverse audiences, from kids to farmers who need practical pest management solutions. We’ll also hear about the many tools extension specialists use to reach their audiences, from one on one farm visits to digital apps and why some communication methods work better than others, and because it’s Halloween, Dr Blaauw has something special in store, a truly spine tingling insect story that might just change how you think about some of nature’s most misunderstood creatures Join us as we consider how making science relatable, whether through engaging examples or practical applications, can transform people’s understanding of the natural world. So we have a very exciting guest on today’s episode of consider this next we are venturing into some new territory for this spooky Halloween edition of the show. I would actually love if you could introduce yourself and tell the folks what it is that you do.

Brett: Yeah, I’m Dr. Brett Blaauw. I’m a peach entomologist at the University of Georgia. So that’s basically I will get to work with peach farmers in the southeast on helping to control or manage the pest insects, while also helping them to try to conserve or protect our beneficial insects.

Kacie: So I would love to know what brought you to this career path. How did you discover that entomology was something that you were interested in?

Blaauw: Yeah, so this one’s kind of always a fun one to answer, and a little embarrassing as well. If we go back to when I was a kid, I always enjoyed being outside looking at critters, bugs, all sorts of stuff in nature. I just I liked biology in general. But when we got into, like, high school, I started feeling more inclined to medicine. I wanted to help people. And so I thought, yeah, the best way to help people is through medicine. Unfortunately, I quickly learned out in college after visiting a hospital on a tour, and passing out after visiting the blood bank there, I was like, You know what? Maybe medicine is not exactly for me. Maybe we need to look at something else. And just by chance, I did a research project looking at aphids and lady beetles, or ladybugs, looking at how the lady beetles would feed on the aphids. I was like, this is really cool. And so my senior year ended up taking an entomology course, and I just loved it. It really brought me back to when I was a kid, being outside, being in nature, looking at critters. It was just like, This is sweet. And from there, I pursued a master’s. We’re looking at chemical ecology, looking back at these aphids and the lady beetles, and how chemicals and aphids protected them from predation from the lady beetles. And I was like, this is really cool, but I’m still not helping people. I still had this idea that I want to help people some way. And so my advisor suggested looking into agricultural entomology, specifically looking at IPM or integrated pest management, and I thankfully found a position at the Michigan State University working in a lab that worked in blueberries, and it was to basically help blueberry production by pest management, but also through pollination with beneficial insects. And I’m not like in many. This in but I feel like this way I’m helping farmers, and so I’m still getting to help people. And then after several years of that and doing a postdoc, I got a position down here at the University of Georgia, working in peaches, getting to help the growers produce fruits. And hopefully I’m still still helping people.

Kacie: You have a scientific background in entomology and biology, and you’re now working with very specific population farmers. And so in this process, what have you learned about communicating with of course, farmers are scientific. They know how to grow things. They know how to make our food systems work. But for farmers who may not specifically have knowledge about pest control or the specific knowledge that you have, how did you sort of break the barriers communicating with those audiences?

Blaauw: So it’s a good question. Breaking barriers is a very difficult part of any scientific career, trying to make things more relatable to the public and to growers can be a real challenge, and I think they really does come down to figuring out a way to make it relatable. And I think with insects, because we interact with them all the time. Regardless if you’re living in a city or in the country, or for a farmer or just a kid outside, you’re more likely than not to interact with some sort of insect. Unfortunately, sometimes in the cities or in nature, you do experience cockroaches and mosquitoes, and those are no fun, I will admit that. But if you take the time to look around, you will see some things that are fun, like butterflies and bees. Lady beetles can be really fun. Lots of kids love lady beetles, or bright red really pretty and cool. And so trying to find something that can connect your audience to the insects is really important. And so with like kids, I like to look at fun things like dung beetles. Dung beetles, for a lot of the adults think that’s disgusting, but for kids, they can think of super fun, and dug beetles are really important, scientifically, because they help break down poop and do some nutrient recycling and make the soil healthier for things to grow. So they’re super important, but they’re also goofy and fun because they eat poop and that’s gross, so kids love it. So connecting with kids can be fun by just bringing in these weird anecdotes, but then with adults and farmers, we can talk about our fruits and vegetables. Now, they are crucial to living healthy lives, but without insects like the insect pollinators, like the bees and some butterflies and even flies, we won’t have these fruits and vegetables. And so relating like we can take this data saying if we lose our pollinators, we won’t have these fruits and vegetables. So if we don’t have bees visiting watermelon flowers and moving that pollen from one flower to another, we won’t have a good watermelon crop. And without watermelons, pretty, pretty sad, or without strawberries or blueberries, apples, peaches, without these insect pollinators, our food would just be more boring. And so it’s easy to relate stuff like that and say, Yeah, insects are really important. And then, especially if I’m talking to adults who bring in coffee and chocolate, and then it’s, yeah, we need insects because I can’t live without coffee and chocolate. So I just try to figure out who I’m talking to, and try to connect an example of what makes insects important to that audience. And so if it’s kids that make it fun and grows for adults, I try to pull at either their heartstrings or at their stomachs, and it’s it makes it relatable.

Kacie: I would love to know what are some of the specific outreach tactics specifically for farmer populations. Does your department actually employ? Is it like going and giving talks? Is it like going out into the farm and like doing some hands on stuff? What are some of the specific things? Yeah, great

Blaauw: Yeah, great question, because as the peach entomologist at the University of Georgia, part of my appointment is extension. So I’m technically called an extension specialist, and so through the Extension Service, that’s where I get to work with these grower cooperators. And that’s so strange to a lot of our population, because we don’t talk about extension in our everyday lives, but to a grower, it’s crucial, because this is where they get the information from our research projects that they can actually use in the field, and so we use a variety of tools to get that information to them. The best way that I find is actually just going and talking with the growers. So I can actually go to their farm, if they have time, we can sit down and talk about their problems, or they’re having insect problems, or their ways that we can help manage those issues, or maybe they need help with helping their bees, making sure that their bees are healthy. So there’s different things we can discuss and talk about, and I’ll give them recommendations. Unfortunately, I can’t do that all the time, because it would just be, I’d be constantly traveling, constantly talking with people, and so every year in Georgia, we have the Southeast Regional. Fruit and Vegetable conference, where we get to meet with a whole group of growers. And so there’s a peach session, which I can talk to all my peach growers in the southeast. We there’s also blueberry sessions, strawberry sessions, different sessions for the different commodities. And so that’s a way to reach a large audience all at once. But for a lot of people, that’s really not personal enough by talking to a big crowd, you can’t have very specific examples there. And so we also have smaller meetings where we are still not on one on one, but it’ll be maybe me and 10 other growers and talking, so we can still have a conversation, and not me just lecturing them about stuff. And so that’s a way to a really good way of getting that information directly to them. But then the most important, and also part of my research side, is that we can do the research projects directly on grower farms. And so they get, not only get to see how this research is implemented, but they get to be a part of the implementation. And so they can see whether or not it works and if they like it, and then if maybe they don’t like and they don’t want to do what I recommend, and that’s going to be a bummer, but it’s also very important, because if it doesn’t work for them, it’s not going to work for me. And so that cooperation with the growers is key on not only getting the research data, but also getting them to implement some of the recommendations that I’m making. But we also have blogs and newsletters I don’t participate in, but a lot of people in our department do podcasts so that they can get that information out to a very large audience. And one thing that we’ve been working on in my lab is an app. So we have an app that will have a bunch of information on pest management, beneficial insects that you can just access anywhere, anytime. And so there’s a lot of different ways we get our information out there, and hopefully we we can reach everybody where they need to be met.

Kacie: Can you just, I don’t know if it’s a secret or not, but can you tell us more about this app as a form of communicating with the public?

Blaauw: Oh yeah,no, the app is not secret. It has actually been out for almost 10 years now. It started off a very small, niche type of app. It was designed for disease management and strawberries, and it was actually developed out of Clemson University. And slowly, we’ve been adding in more and more people to work on that, but also more and more crops and diseases and insects and actually weeds now, and it’s become this. This almost like a huge thing. There’s multiple apps now. It’s called MyIPM. And so there’s MyIPM for fruits and nuts, my IPM for vegetables, MyIPM for field crops. And it’s actually my IPM for Hawaiian crop, so more of a tropical crop things. And so this app is designed to help diagnose issues in the field. So I’ll have pictures of different diseases, different insects in the damage that they cause to the different fruits and vegetables. So we have a peach section that will have as dozens of pictures of different insect pests and the damage that it does to that fruit. So a farmer or a homeowner who has a peach tree in their backyard sees some sort of weird damage on their fruit, they can pull up this app and say, Oh, it looks just like this. Oh, it’s plum curculio. And then it’ll have a list of things that could they can do to help manage that pest. So it’s a super helpful tool. It’s completely free. All the extension specialists are in the southeast, and there’s some in the Northeast that work on it. We all love it. It’s just it’s become our baby.

Kacie: So you’ve mentioned several communication methods, traditional like going to the community, being present in person. You mentioned speaking at sort of conferences and gatherings, digital communication tools like blogs, podcasts, apps. I would love to know what have you learned as the communicator when it comes to receiving feedback from either one or multiple of these methods being in person? I’m sure there’s a different type of feedback than someone who’s at a conference, than someone who so I would love to know like, how are you measuring the success of this sort of information transmission in all of these mediums?

Blaauw: Yeah, that’s a great one, because it is very difficult to really get feedback from people, especially when you have a blog or an app. But one way we have tried to do that is with surveys. It’s not the most exciting way of doing it, and a lot of our grower cooperators do not like taking surveys. And I’m actually, I’m part of that problem too. I hate taking surveys, but they can be very informative. And so when we release something new or have a big meeting, we often will have a survey and say, was this topic important to you? What have you learned from it? Will you be able to use this knowledge to benefit your production practices? Or does this app, does it have the information you need? How often do you use it, etc, like etc, stuff like that. And this hugely important. Moment, and it has shown that, you know, a lot of times, depending on what we’re talking about, those in person, meetings, actually going out and visiting the farmer, are the best ways of getting that information out there. They really do enjoy that. But at the same time, depending on what we’re trying to disseminate to the growers, it could be more. Yeah, they like that group mentality. Having a group where they can discuss it with their peers, so they can have not just their opinion, but hear what the other growers are doing, can be very beneficial. And so what it comes down to is they really like the kind of in person stuff. Getting the blog posts and the app is very helpful, but the in person communication is just a lot more valuable. We find that with the public as well, because it’s just more fun, right? It’s one thing to read something on a screen, it’s another to talk about it in person.

Kacie: Yes, we’ve certainly heard various versions of that sentiment from guests on this show. Being in community often yields just like a type of rapid feedback mechanism that is hard to replicate in digital spaces. But yes, digital space is also important. Yes. So you’ve already alluded to some of the ways that you target your messaging about specific insects, for specific audiences, children versus adults, versus food growers, of people who are working in industry for the general public, if there are folks who are listening to this, who are still like Ill bugs, are still just they make me squirm. What is something that you wish people understood, or that people perhaps would appreciate more about the work that you and your colleagues do?

Blaauw: Yeah, so this is a great question, and I could you could probably have a whole story just on the importance of insects and why people should care about them. So I’ll try to do my best. And especially with entomology, is that it’s a huge field, and even though I’m an agriculture person, no pun intended about the huge field. It’s huge in terms of people working in the lab. So there’s a lot of molecular work looking at how different microbes interact with the gut of insects, and how that can relate into how they develop. And so if you don’t have a certain microbe in the gut, that insect might die, and that can just be a really interesting concept, but it can also relate to pest management. There’s people looking at the evolution of different insects as how they came to be. And then there’s people like me who are out in the field, and I just count bugs and look at how we can help support the beneficials and and kill some of those bad ones. There’s people who are working in cities, looking at Urban entomology, looking at how we can better remove cockroaches and termites. There’s just a really broad type of research out there that’s just really cool, but also very important. And so things like with what I’m working on is, yeah, it might not save a life, but it can really help with the production of our fruits and vegetables, which can be very important for a healthy life and a happy life. And so if I can help growers produce that fruit, I’m helping them with their business, which can ultimately help the society. And so bugs are creepy and crawly. I totally understand. I think cockroaches are gross. I hate things like bedbugs and ticks and all that, but there’s so many other really cool bugs out there. They’re butterflies, dragonflies, there’s giant water bugs that can nibble on your toes and ponds. That’s terrifying, but it’s super cool. And so it’s just like, there’s so much out there that we are still learning, and I think it’s just fun and be great for the society to just really appreciate that there’s some of those gross things out there, but there’s a lot of cool things too, just because it’s the Halloween special, if there’s one insect that people misunderstand, and for a lot of for my work, it would come down to wasps. So wasps in general, right? Yeah, so you think of wasps, you think of these mean bully insects, and so they get a bad rap. Well, everyone loves bees, right? Bees are cute, mostly furry. There’s adorable insects that are out there pollinating. Everyone loves bees. How could you not? However, they’re really close relative. Wasps are hated. There’s memes all over there, and it’s talking about how awful wasps are, and to some points they they are pretty awful. They’re mean, they’re aggressive, but that’s just part of their behavior. They are predators. They’re out there looking for food to feed their offspring, and so if you get in their way, or if they feel threatened, they will stink, they will attack you, and that that’s no fun. I 100% agree. But in an agricultural setting that predatory behavior can be very important. So they’re just like other animal predators, just like us, but they’re looking for meat with a wasp. Instead of eating chicken nuggets, they’re eating aphids. Or instead of eating a nice juicy steak, they’re eating a juicy caterpillar. So that. Can benefit us if we have Caterpillar pests, and there’s a wasp like a yellow jacket that is looking for a caterpillar to eat, it can easily help us naturally manage some of those insect pests. And so wasps, especially the predator ones, can be very helpful in removal of those pests, but the coolest one, right? So there’s a whole nother group of wasps. These are the parasitoids, or the parasitic wasps. They can be almost microscopic to almost like, two inches long. They’re huge, diverse group of insects, and they don’t predate, like, like the yellow jackets. Do these ones actually lay their eggs, either on or inside other insects and arthropods, and then once those eggs hatch, those larvae then eat the inside of that insect. So, for example, an aphid. So this is a tiny, little insect. There are wasps that will lay their eggs. They basically inject that egg right into the aphid. The larvae then hatch, eat the aphid from the inside out, develop pupate inside that aphid, while the aphid then is dead, and then we’ll burst out of the aphid as a new Wasp adult, she’ll go on to find more aphids, lay her eggs, and the whole cycle continues. It’s super gruesome, but it’s also super cool and really good at helping naturally control some of our pests. So as well, though it’s kind of like, I think for Halloween, these parasitoid or Ross are super hardcore.

Kacie: I think that that is the perfect summation of exactly what science communication can do. It can maybe freak you out a little bit, but you can learn so much depending on the story, depending on the storyteller. And thank you for yes, our Halloween special, putting those visuals into the minds of all of our listeners and for all of the work that you do. So where can people find out more about your work?

Blaauw: Yeah, the University of Georgia. Search for me at the University of Georgia Department of Entomology. Brett Blaauw, I’ll pop up there. I also have Instagram that I’m not super active on, but I usually post some fun things about peaches. Blaauw bugs, B, L, A, A, u, w, B, U, G, s. I’m trying to be more active on that.

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