150 Points of Pride

The Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has a proud and distinguished history. As part of Iowa State's sesquicentennial celebration, 150 points of pride related to the College - accomplishments, discoveries, contributions, highlights, famous and interesting people - will be posted here. These postings will coincide with 150 days of the 2007-2008 academic year, beginning Aug. 20, 2007 and ending May 2, 2008, with time off for the Thanksgiving, winter and spring breaks. Check back each Monday for five new items.

First VEISHEA Chair was College of Agriculture Student

Wallace McKee, a College of Agriculture student majoring in animal husbandry, was the general chairperson of the first VEISHEA in 1922. After earning his bachelor's degree in 1922, McKee was an agriculture extension agent in Marion County, public relations director at the Chicago Union Stockyards and a farm manager with Equitable Life Assurance Society. He also farmed for more than 57 years. McKee served as VEISHEA parade marshal in 1977 and 1982. He died in 1988 at the age of 91.

Fast Fact: VEISHEA is the largest student run festival in the nation and brings tens of thousands of visitors to the campus each year.

Entomology Department Features Popular Bug Web Site

The BugGuide.Net is an online community of naturalists who share observations about insects. The site creates a virtual collection by capturing the place and time the bug images were submitted. Troy Bartlett, an amateur entomologist and photographer from Roswell, Ga., started the site but was soon overwhelmed and seeking a new home for the website. John Van Dyk, systems analyst in the Department of Entomology, contacted Troy and together they moved the site to the department's data center, where it currently receives more than one million hits per day and is one of the top users of bandwidth at Iowa State.

Fast Fact: In January 2008, users of the guide included 16,654 contributors and 79 editors. There were more than 15 million hits on the site and 135,100 images to view.

Catnip Captures Attention as a Natural Mosquito Repellent

Researchers began testing catnip oil as a possible repellent against mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus in 1998. Joel Coats, Iowa State entomologist, and Chris Peterson, a graduate student, found that nepetalactone, the active ingredient in catnip oil, repelled better than the compound used in most commercial bug repellents. Catnip is primarily known for its effect on cats, as a meat tenderizer and a folk treatment for fevers, colds, cramps and migraines. The doses tested only contain 1 to 5 percent of the essential oil because catnip oil is too strong to put directly on skin.

Fast Fact: The catnip plant is a perennial herb in the mint family and grows wild in most parts of the United States.

Monitoring Mosquitoes to Protect Iowans

The Iowa State University Medical Entomology Lab is the central location for monitoring diseases transferred from insects to humans. Wayne Rowley, professor of entomology, began monitoring mosquitoes in Iowa in 1968 after a child in Wisconsin died of a mosquito-borne illness. The program expanded to become the Iowa State Medical Entomology Lab and has been used to monitor West Nile virus since 2001. Lyric Bartholomay, professor of entomology, took over the lab in 2006 and coordinates mosquito surveillance each summer. The lab sends reports alerting state health agencies if mosquitoes are carrying West Nile virus. This allows the agencies to implement mosquito control measures and warn the public of West Nile virus activity.

Fast Fact: The medical entomology group at Iowa State studies both mosquito-borne and tick-borne diseases in the state of Iowa through collaborative surveillance projects. In addition, the lab focuses research efforts on molecular interactions between mosquitoes, ticks and pathogens.

Insect Zoo Provides Hands-on Experience for Students

The Insect Zoo in the Department of Entomology is an outreach program developed in 1999 to foster an appreciation for insects found in Iowa and throughout the world. The zoo is coordinated by Angela Tague with the help of Iowa State students. Participants can view and interact with live insects and other anthropods. The zoo showcases the diversity, ecology and behavior of anthropods and teaches basic concepts of biology. Students of all ages can visit the zoo in the Science II building on campus. Zoo coordinators also take the display to schools and youth organizations in Iowa.

Fast Fact: Between 200 to 350 groups each year request a tour or presentation from the Insect Zoo, reaching more than 12,000 Iowans.

*Some historic photographs courtesy of the University Archives.

150 Points of Pride Archives