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Washington resident Dominic Reisig, professor and extension specialist at NC State, was recently awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension at the Entomological Society Meeting that was held in Vancouver. This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to extension entomology.

Reisig has held extension and research responsibilities for field crops in the state since 2009. He is based at the Vernon James Center in Plymouth, providing him with a direct opportunity to collaborate with growers, consultants, and those in the agricultural industry. He received his B.A. in biology, with a Spanish minor, from Point Loma Nazarene University. He then received an M.S. in integrated pest management and a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of California, Davis.

His extension program has raised awareness of stink bugs as a major pest of corn and has collaborated on the refinement of economic thresholds and reduced sampling time for this pest. Reisig’s program has also evaluated economic thresholds for tarnished plant bug in cotton and has collaborated on documenting early evidence of insecticide resistance. Additionally, his program has promoted alternative insecticides to mitigate resistance for this pest and has evaluated a systems approach beyond insecticides for management.

Finally, his program is collaborating with social scientists to increase grower planting of non-Bt refuge corn and his research has led to the promotion of egg-based thresholds for bollworm to counter Bt resistance in cotton. Virtually 100% of North Carolina cotton growers are using these thresholds, saving more than $9 million each year. His program has ongoing efforts to develop new management techniques, as well as to try to manage this insect on a wider scale, known as area-wide management.