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Ag/Business
May 22, 2013
613 7th Street
Prosser, WA 99350
509-786-1711
Photos by Betsy Beers, WSU
Graduate student Lessando Gontijo nets syrphids to measure their attraction to sweet alyssum.

Flower power fights orchard pests; WSU study published

Wenatchee Washington State University researchers have found they can control one of fruit growers' more severe pests, aphids, with a remarkably benign tool: flowers. The discovery is a boon for organic as well as conventional tree fruit growers. The researchers recently published their study in the journal Biological Control. They found that plantings of sweet alyssum attracted a host of spiders and predator bugs that in turn preyed on woolly apple aphids, a pest that growers often control with chemical sprays.

WSU hop researchers learn advanced brewing techniques from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Prosser - In 1980, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. founder Ken Grossman effectively put the Cascade hop of Yakima, Wash., on the map. The hop was central to the pale ale that made Grossman's company a household name.
More than three decades later, Washington State University researchers studying optimal brewing qualities with that same hop recently interned with Sierra Nevada master brewers to hone their brewing skills and learn advanced brewing methods that are being pioneered by American craft brewers.
State Veterinarian urges owners to vaccinate horses against West Nile virus

Olympia As the weather warms up across the state and mosquitoes become more prevalent, the Washington State Department of Agriculture is advising horse owners to make sure their horse's vaccination is current for protection against West Nile virus.
In August 2012, a two-year-old gelding pastured near Grandview was euthanized after it became ill following a bite from a mosquito infected with West Nile virus. The horse was not vaccinated for the disease.
April unemployment rate drops
to seven percent
Olympia Washington's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to an estimated 7 percent in April, the lowest point since December 2008, when the rate was 7.1 percent.
The state added an estimated 3,800 jobs in April, seasonally adjusted. Economists also revised the March job numbers upward by nearly 4,000 jobs, from a preliminary estimated loss of 5,500 to a loss of 1,600.