Andrei Alyokhin

Professor of Applied Entomology

Research Program: Presently, humans posses a vast arsenal of different pest control techniques, ranging from synthetic insecticides to natural enemies, and from transgenic plants to quarantine regulations. What is lacking, however, is a good understanding of the ecological consequences of their implementation for both target and non-target organisms. When a particular action is taken, whether it is an insecticide application, planting of a transgenic cultivar, or release of a biological control agent, it is imperative that we can forecast the sequence(s) of events it might trigger. Limited-scale toxicological and host-range assays, still commonly used for decision-making, often do not reflect actual developments in the field. Therefore, a more sophisticated approach, which takes into account an intricate web of cause-and-effect events within a given ecosystem, is required to achieve a long-term success both in pest control, as well as in conservation of beneficial organisms. Most ecological systems are very complex, and their good understanding is extremely difficult. However, sustainable development of the human civilization is hardly possible without such an understanding. As a scientist, I hope that my research will contribute to building a knowledge-based foundation for predicting effects of human intervention in insect communities. I am also interested in more theoretical investigations of factors responsible for growth and diversity of insect populations.

Publications:

Kinney, M., M. Moyet, E. Bernard, and A. Alyokhin. 2022. Suppression of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and reduction of other bacteria by black soldier fly larvae reared on potato substrate. Microbiology Spectrum 10(5): e02321-22. https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.02321-22

Pallis, S., A. Alyokhin, B. Manley, T. B. Rodrigues, A. Buzza, E. Barnes, and K. Narva. 2022. Toxicity of a novel dsRNA-based insecticide to the Colorado potato beetle in laboratory and field trials. Pest Management Science 78: 3836-3848.

Erbland, P., A. Alyokhin, and M. Peterson. 2021. An automated incubator for rearing black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens). Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers 64: 1989-1997.

Galimberti, A., A. Alyokhin, H. Qu, and J. Rose. 2020. Simulation modelling of Potato virus Y spread in relation to initial inoculum and vector activity. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 19: 376-388.

Alyokhin, A. and Y. H. Chen. 2017. Adaptation to toxic hosts as a factor in the evolution of insecticide resistance. Current Opinion in Insect Science 21: 33-38.

Booth, E., A. Alyokhin, and S. Pinatti. 2017. Adult cannibalism in an oligophagous herbivore, the Colorado potato beetle. Insect Science 24: 295-302.

Chen, J., A. Kitazumi, J. Alpuerto, A. Alyokhin, and B. de los Reyes. 2016. Heat-induced mortality and expression of heat shock proteins in Colorado potato beetles treated with imidacloprid. Insect Science 23: 548–554.

Alyokhin, A, D. Mota-Sanchez, M. Baker, W. E. Snyder, S. Menasha, M. Whalon, G. Dively, and W. F. Moarsi. 2015. Red Queen on a potato field: IPM vs. chemical dependency in Colorado potato beetle control. Pest Management Science 71: 343-356.

Leppanen, C., A. Alyokhin, and S. Gross. 2012. Competition for aphid prey between different lady beetle species in a laboratory arena. Psyche: A Journal of Entomology 2012: Article ID 890327, 9 pp. <doi:10.1155/2012/890327>

Alyokhin, A. 2011. Scant evidence supports EPA’s pyramided Bt corn refuge size of 5%. Nature Biotechnology 29: 577–578.

Alyokhin, A. 2011. Non-natives: put biodiversity at risk. Nature 475: 36.