Hillier Lab at Acadia

The Hillier Lab would like to welcome back Grace Bowen-MacLean back to the lab. She we start her Honours Research Project on Spider Mite Chemical Ecology. So excited to have her back in the lab!

Finally able to start experiments again! We built a green house at home; tested out how stable we could keep temperatures even with snow and very cold conditions; planted some test plants; planted a block of radish three weeks ago; started phytotoxicity testing today for one of our industry partners with my jr. scientist. Very exciting day

Something to make you smile on this snowy isolation day! Stay warm and healthy everyone!

Two fully planted phytrotrons at the KCIC. Phytotoxicity testing and Bioassays are lined up for weeks! So excited to share all the delicious vegetables when the research is complete with humans. The insects will be stuffed

The joys of Drosophila research!

Never a dull moment when there are samples to process!

Getting some very encouraging results testing tick repellents today! There is hope that one day soon we can safety explore the great outdoors, without having to use DEET products. Awesome work Hillier and Faraone labs.

Great day in the Hillier Lab! Simon Pawlowski got a single sensillum recording (SSR) with an Armyworm moth, on his first attempt. I guess Kirk, Kevin and Thanusha got the rig all warmed up for you Thanks to all the technicians for keeping our Armyworm colony alive and healthy(Angie, Grace & Taylor).

We have an undergraduate student, Jacob, visiting from ST. FX to learn about spider identification with Post doc Catherine Scott.

Thanusha got her first SSR (Single Sensillum Recording) on January 15th, 2020, after months of hard work. Over the last month she has been successful in getting many more recordings from Spruce Budworm.

New Post doc opportunity in Forest Entomology between Acadia, NRC-CFS, Parks Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Nova Scotia Lands and Forestry on invasion biology of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid:

If Wednesdays are getting you down, just put one foot in front of the other like our two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae)!

A wonderful shot of our honours student, Varun Dhunna, doing a volatile collection from the ginkgo tree, a living fossil, at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens! https://twitter.com/HillierLab/status/1216725847371059203