Salt Solutions and Myllocerus Rearing Environments

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Salt Solutions and Myllocerus Rearing Environments

• Ricardo Muniz
• USDA Agriculture Ambassador
• Agriculture Research Service
• Subtropical Horticulture Research Station
• Miami, FL
• June/July 2009

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The Ambassador

• My name is Ricardo Muniz and I am a junior at
  Coral Reef Senior High School in Miami, Florida.
• I was born in Anchorage, Alaska but raised in
  Miami.
• I am involved in FFA, my church youth group, and
  I am a black belt in martial arts.
• I own, breed, and show animals including rabbits,
  chickens, ducks, geese and goats.

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• Coral Reef high school, home of the barracudas,
  opened in 1997 and currently has over 3,000
  students enrolled.
• Currently an A school
• Ranked 18th in the nation in 2008
• 6 academies including IB, VPA, Business, Legal,
  Medical,
• and of course Agriscience and Engineering.

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The Mentors

• Dr. Nancy Epsky Micah
  Gill

My mentors supported me and taught me not only
about the agriculture industry but also about
hard work, dedication, responsibility, and
leadership.
Biological science technician
Research Entomologist
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The subjectMyllocerus undata

• Invasive species that poses a threat to the
  agriculture industry in Florida.
• Feeds on many host plants including various
  citrus and ornamental trees.
• Adults feed off the leaves of their host plants,
  larvae feed off the roots.

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Before
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After
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The Project

• What The purpose of my project was to determine
  the humidity level at which Myllocerus larvae
  thrive.

• Why This experiment will present a lot of
  information necessary to mass rear Myllocerus
  weevils.

• How We will control the humidity for Myllocerus
  larvae by rearing them in containers with
  different salt solutions.

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The procedures

• 1- Create salt solutions of KCL,
• MgCL, and NaCL.
• 2- Pour Salt solutions into
• acrylic containers.
• 3- Measure and weigh sand in
• portion cups, place into containers with salt
  solutions or with controls.
• 4- Record relative humidity and temperature with
  data logger.
• 5- Weigh sand 3 days later.

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The results
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The procedures (Part 2)

• 6- Prepare artificial diet.
• 7- Place diet pieces into portion
• cups with sand and weigh.
• 8- Weigh periodically for 2 weeks, determine
  weight loss.
• 9- Start rearing study with fresh diet.
• 10- Place one Myllocerus neonate inside each cup.
• 11- After 2 weeks record larval survival, weigh
  remaining diet and larvae.

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After 3 days
The Results Part 2
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The Learning Experience

• I learned.
• About the agriculture
• industry and research involved with it.
• Why research is
• necessary in the
• field of agriculture.
• What kinds of fields
• of research there are
• in the agriculture industry.
• About the leadership skills it takes to succeed
  in the industry.

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The Future

• In the future I plan to
• Graduate from high school.
• Get accepted to and graduate from a college with
  a highly rated agriculture program.
• Become a leader
• in agriculture and
• make a positive
• impact in the
• community
• through my
• agriculture career.

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A special Thanks to

• USDA- HSI Agricultural Ambassadors Program
• Vladimir Diaz
• Dr. Nancy Epsky
• Micah Gill
• Ms. Washington Mrs. Jackson