October 1, 2025

Pest Management Solutions for Specialty Crops and Specialty Uses

LATEST NEWS

The Fight Against Citrus Greening: Emerging Biologicals

Offer Hope

As HLB continues to devastate the citrus industry in Florida and beyond, IR-4 and stakeholders seek fresh solutions in emerging biological technologies. A robust, diverse toolkit is needed to support citrus growers. 

Learn more in our latest story by Robin Siktberg.

EVENT UPDATES

Join Us Next Week: 2025 Environmental Horticulture Workshop

Potential project information sheets, project requests, and a final agenda have been posted to help stakeholders prepare for the upcoming Environmental Horticulture Workshop. You can find these items under "Workshop Materials" on the event web page. We will keep this page updated before, during, and after the workshop as new resources become available.

There's still time to join us October 7-8, in Kansas City, Missouri (or virtually). The workshop will take place at the Crowne Plaza Kansas City Downtown. At this event, stakeholders involved in the Environmental Horticulture Program will collaborate to set national and regional research priorities for the next two-year cycle.

Visit the event web page to register, find hotel booking information, and view the updated workshop materials. We hope to see you next week!

Final Lists Posted from the 2025 Food Use Workshop

Following last months's 2025 Food Use Workshop, final prioritization lists were posted on the event web page under "Workshop Materials." Daily recordings and presentations are available on this page as well.

We applaud our sponsors and stakeholders for helping to make this event possible and successful. Thank you for supporting our mission and coming together to refine a long list of important nominations down to a fundable number of projects. We are optimistic about the new pest management options this work will generate for specialty crop growers across the country!

Thank you, 2025 Event Sponsors!

Sponsors make IR-4's events possible and help us deliver on our grower-focused mission. It's been a fantastic year for IR-4 events, and our sponsors have been vital to this success.

Are you interested in joining IR-4 as an event sponsor for 2026? We welcome your partnership! Please reach out to ir-4_project@ncsu.edu for more information.

RESEARCH UPDATES

Food Crops

The latest tolerance success was added to the IR-4 website in August. Find other tolerance successes under Food Crop Successes & Stories.

• Afidopyropen (Federal Register date: July 23, 2025)

Environmental Horticulture

Thank you to our ornamental stakeholders for submitting an impressive number of Project Requests and Grower Surveys ahead of this year's Environmental Horticulture Workshop! We appreciate your engagement in this program—our research is guided by the needs of growers, and your input is invaluable to our success. View this year's submissions under Workshop Materials on the event web page.

— Stay tuned for more in October —

Follow us on social media!

This work is supported by project award no. 2022-79111-38469, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, with substantial cooperation and support from the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, USDA-ARS and USDA-FAS. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy. In accordance with Federal Law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.