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Emily May

@emtomology.bsky.social

3.2K followers 1.9K following 160 posts

Agricultural conservation scientist @xercessociety. Pollinators, pesticide toxicology, IPM, habitat restoration, resilient food systems. Views are my own.📍Vermont | she/her

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Nov 17

Hello new followers! I am a
🐝 conservation scientist
🐝 ecologist & entomologist
🐝 Vermonter
🐝 native plant & veggie gardener
🐝 pinball champ
🐝 lover of hiking, biking, baking, poetry, and crafts/creative pursuits of all kinds.

Glad to join you here.

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 17d

Want to dig deeper? Join us Oct 7 for a Bee Safe, Grow Well webinar with Sarah Salatino of Full Circle Gardens and Xerces staff. Learn how nurseries can grow plants that are safer for pollinators - and bring your questions, there will be lots of time for Q&A! 🌸🐝 xerces.org/events/bee-s...

Bee Safe, Grow Well: Pollinator-Safe Nursery Practices with Full Circle Gardens | Xerces Society

Across the country, innovative nursery growers are implementing practices that protect pollinators while still keeping pests at manageable levels. In this webinar, Xerces is proud to feature Sarah Sal...

xerces.org

Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 17d

Excited to share our new video, Growing Pollinator-Safe Plants: What Nurseries Can Do (and How You Can Help)! 🐝🌸🌎 This project has been 3 years in the making, featuring interviews with nursery managers on steps they take to reduce pesticide risks.

Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcdv...

Growing Pollinator-Safe Plants: What Nurseries Can Do (and How You Can Help)

YouTube video by The Xerces Society

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Emily May

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 22d

Time for the world to install a gigawatt of solar power capacity
2004: A year
2010: ~ a month
2015: ~ a week
Now: < A day
ourworldindata.org/data-insight... 🧪

Line chart showing that there's been a rapid escalation in how quickly the world installs a gigawatt of solar power capacity.

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Sep 12

Prophylactic seed treatments make up an increasingly large share of ag pesticide load, but have no basis in scouting/thresholds - and in millions of acres of corn/soy, limited to no benefit for crop yields. We need both policy and incentives to shift towards more sustainable approaches.

Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Sep 12

The question is: how do we shift practice at scale? What training, tools, policy, or financial incentives could help make threshold-based pest management the norm?

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Sep 12

This is why we emphasize scouting/monitoring and use of thresholds as core components of IPM. Nice to see the evidence for how scouting/thresholds can reduce inputs and improve outcomes!

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Sep 12

Exciting new meta-analysis: compared to calendar spraying, threshold-based management cuts insecticide use by 44% and costs by 40% without reducing yields, and supports more beneficial insects. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Threshold-based management reduces insecticide use by 44% without compromising pest control or crop yield - Communications Earth & Environment

Pest control programs using pest density thresholds cut insecticide uses by 44% and costs by 40%, while maintaining yield and pest suppression, and enhancing beneficial insect populations, as revealed...

www.nature.com

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Sep 12

And stay tuned: we'll be putting together at least a webinar or two by the spring to explain and explore EPA's Insecticide and Herbicide Strategies and what they might mean for listed species

Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Sep 12

Newly registered or re-registered insecticides and herbicides will be rolling out with labels that may require drift/runoff mitigations to protect ESA-listed species. Learn more about how to navigate the menu of mitigations in a 90 min webinar next Tuesday from EPA: www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...

Mitigation Math: Webinar Offers Tips to Tally Points for Pesticide Use

In 2026, more pesticide labels are likely to require measures to protect endangered species. EPA is offering a webinar next week to help farmers navigate these requirements.

www.dtnpf.com

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Aug 30

Like rubbing salt in a wound, it can also just be wildly inaccurate. Four syllable words?
banana: sure, just make sure to pronounce it ba-na-na-na

Screenshot of Google ai overview for the search “four syllable words.” Examples include ability, banana, celebration, delivery, and elephant. (Alt text note: neither banana nor elephant are four syllable words)

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Reposted by Emily May

Evan Frost @wildwoods.bsky.social · Aug 26

"Places that are used to fire, to relying and thriving on it, are now encountering fire regimes that are staggeringly different from those with which they evolved...The complex ecologies that thrived alongside their milder predecessors will be pushed beyond the point of recovery." 🌏

Brooke Jarvis @brookejarvis.bsky.social · Aug 26

Here's a gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/m...

In the Scars of L.A.’s Wildfires, Ecological Lessons Bloom

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Emily May

Pam Kan-Rice @ucanrpam.bsky.social · Aug 5

“As classroom temperatures rise over time ... students tend to show declines in attention, memory and test performance,” said @edithdeguzman.bsky.social @ucanr.edu @luskininnovation.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...

Rising heat is causing students to underperform across the globe

A new study, which reviewed dozens of published articles from around the world, found that cumulative heat exposure has negative consequences for students' cognitive outcomes.

www.latimes.com

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Aug 3

Vermont is a soccer state! What an incredible season and undefeated run to the national #USL2 championship @vermontgreenfc.bsky.social

People sitting in the stands at Virtue Field at UVM looking out at the soccer pitch before the finals match. The back of the shirts read “Vermont Green Football Club”

Selfie in the line of people waiting to get into the stands for the national championship, an hour before it opens up. All of the people in line are garbed and ready for the undefeated Vermont Green FC to take on Ballard FC for the USL2 finals.

Reposted by Emily May

Vermont Green FC @vermontgreenfc.bsky.social · Aug 3

UNDEFEATED NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! 🏆

THE INVINCIBLES! ✨

YOUR VERMONT GREEN FOOTBALL CLUB! 💚

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Reposted by Emily May

Elizabeth Hilborn @elizabee.bsky.social · Aug 2

Hundreds of monarch butterflies died in a winter 2024 event. Investigation implicated multiple pyrethroid insecticides:
tinyurl.com/3h3y7wuf

From The Guardian:
"Combinations of pesticides can have a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic.
The solution...less pesticides."
🧪🌍🦋

Monarch butterflies’ mass die-off in 2024 caused by pesticide exposure – study

New peer-reviewed research found an average of seven pesticides in each of 10 butterflies tested

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Emily May

Waldo Jaquith, but Spooky @waldo.net · Jul 21

Starlink's connection speeds drop below the federal definition of "broadband" at a density of ~7 customers per square mile, according to recent research. The more the customers in an area, the slower everybody's connections get. Data shows that 83% of US Starlink customers get sub-broadband speeds.

thexlab.org

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Reposted by Emily May

Dan Jagger @auditorynerves.bsky.social · Jul 21

US scientists describe the effects of Trump's cuts.

“If you cut the funding to the people who are doing the work right now, you don’t know what they would have innovated in 10 years or 15 years or 32 years like Rosalind Yalow. We don’t know what we’re losing.”
🧪
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘A disaster for all of us’: US scientists describe impact of Trump cuts

President’s assault on science –particularly climate science – has led to unprecedented funding cuts and staff layoffs

www.theguardian.com

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Jul 12

USDA rescinded more than $1 billion in regional conservation grants. These local partnerships help make federal dollars go further. Without RCPP investment, tens of thousands of acres of land and water conservation projects won’t happen. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...

Groups Weigh Options After USDA Rescinds $1 Billion in Regional Conservation Grants

In June, USDA canceled more than $1 billion in conservation grants to nearly 70 groups under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. Some groups are appealing USDA's decision. Meanwhile, other ...

www.dtnpf.com

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Jul 12

USDA disaster assistance is now open for farmers hit by 2023–24 storms or weather events! If you had crop insurance or NAP, check your mail for a pre-filled form and apply at your local USDA office. A separate sign-up for uninsured losses is coming this fall. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...

USDA Opens up Natural Disaster Aid for Crop Farmers Who Faced 2023, 2024 Losses

USDA has opened up enrollment for the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP), which will provide aid to crop farmers who suffered losses in 2023 and 2024 due to natural disasters. The first stage...

www.dtnpf.com

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Jul 11

Third year of flooding on July 10th in Vermont - the impacts are being felt, and the urgency is real.

Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · Jul 11

"With the data now showing faster warming than anticipated, a lot of policies now need to be urgently updated with a matching acceleration of ambition.
Acceleration means net-zero by 2050 is simply not good enough to avoid the disastrous impacts of rapid climate change..."

Dr Tom Harris @drtomharris.bsky.social · Jul 9

The widely acknowledged acceleration of global warming has deep policy implications, not just for climate policy, but everything from migration to insurance, from food security to building codes.

drtomharris.substack.com/p/what-accel...
#climatechange #acceleration #policy #migration #finance

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Reposted by Emily May

Tony R. Walker @tonyrwalker1.bsky.social · Jul 9

🚨 New paper published in @nature.com today by L. Monclús, H. P. H. Arp, K. J. Groh, A. Faltynkova, M. E. Løseth, J Muncke, Z. Wang, R. Wolf, L. Zimmermann & M. Wagner 👇

Mapping the #chemical complexity of #plastics

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics - Nature

An inventory of 16,325 known plastic chemicals, including >4,200 hazardous compounds, supports the development of safer plastics.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Emily May

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · Jul 9

On Aug 1, tariff rates are scheduled to rise to historic highs. average tariffs on women’s clothing will rise to 48 percent, wine to 20 percent, and toys to nearly 50 percent.

taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/too-m...

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Jul 9

So sad to hear about Sheila’s passing. She was a brilliant native bee scientist, advocate, and mom, gone far too soon. The world feels smaller today.

Rest in power, Sheila. We’ll keep fighting for the wild things and for justice, as you did fiercely and with so much heart. 🐝🌻💛

Hannah A. Brazeau @habrazeau.bsky.social · Jul 8

If you can, please donate to help with funeral costs and supporting her family. RIP Sheila Colla. www.gofundme.com/f/support-sh...

Donate to Support Sheila Colla Through Cancer Treatment, organized by Anna Penner

There is a good chance that you already know Sheila Colla: she is a brillian… Anna Penner needs your support for Support Sheila Colla Through Cancer Treatment

www.gofundme.com

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Reposted by Emily May

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · Jul 8

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · Jul 2

For more, read our blog about this monarch kill: xerces.org/blog/how-urb...

How Urban Pesticides Can Harm Monarch Butterflies: A Cautionary Tale from California

In January 2024, volunteers stumbled upon a devastating scene: scores of dead and dying monarch butterflies near the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary overwintering grove.

xerces.org