South Dakota Trip (Spearfish) - Spring 2025
South Dakota
yellow toadflax
We continued west to the Black Hills, where we set up Rhinusa pilosa monitoring grids and released Mecinus janthinus at sites near Nemo and Sawyer, South Dakota.
Weather
🌦️ Mid 50s with on-and-off drizzle, occasional sun breaks. Cool and damp.
On Wednesday, May 14 we drove from Aberdeen to Spearfish, SD. We visited two sites while in the Black Hills, both south of Deadwood, SD.
Nemo
Rhinusa pilosa Monitoring Grid, Biocontrol Caged & Open Release
Site activities:
- Build exclosure (grids already in place)
- Setup trail cameras to monitor herbivory
- Build release cage ontop of existing monitoring transect
- Release M. janthinus biocontrol agents in cage and in open release transect
- Retrieve weather data from data loggers
Sawyer Mecinus janthinus Releases
Our Sawyer site is located almost directly south of Deadwood, SD. We built a release cage on the exist caged-release transect. We also released M. janthinus in the cage and on the open transect.
