Wondering just what kind of bug that is? Or that funny looking plant? Concerned that you may have unwanted weeds or insect pests encroaching on your garden or field? Bring your samples to the Richland County Fair and get them identified.
Insect and plant specialists with the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) in Sidney MT, will be on hand Friday evening of the fair to help identify plant or insect samples brought in by interested fairgoers. The plant and insect identification station will be held at the NPARL fair booth located at the front of the Agricultural Building from 6-8 pm on Friday, August 7.
Interested persons are encouraged to bring their plant and insect samples for identification at that time, although they can also drop off samples throughout the four-day fair for analysis. Insect samples are best brought in plastic or glass jars or containers while plant samples can be brought in plastic or paper bags (paper is best for moist samples). It’s also best to have a sample of the whole plant, including roots and flowers wherever possible, to speed identification.
To further speed identification, forms asking for additional information on where a particular plant or insect was collected, along with surrounding habitat and other details, will be available, both at the booth during the fair and ahead of time at the NPARL website ( http://www.ars.usda.gov/pa/nparl ). As noted above, persons unable to participate on Friday can bring in samples earlier and drop them at the NPARL booth for analysis. You will be asked to provide a phone number or email address so that we can contact you with the results. We will do the same for those samples researchers are unable to fully identify on Friday.
For more information, contact Beth Redlin at 406-433-9427 or 406-433-2020 or by email at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)