Cranshaw, Whitney (S.)

views updated

CRANSHAW, Whitney (S.)

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: Hampshire College, B.A., 1976; University of Minnesota, M.S. (entomology), 1979, Ph.D. (entomology), 1981.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Colorado State University, Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, C201 Plant Science Building, Ft. Collins, CO 80523-1177; fax: 970-491-3862. E-mail—whitney.cranshaw@colostate.edu.

CAREER:

Author, entomologist, and educator. Colorado State University, professor of entomology and extension specialist.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Award for Arboriculture Research, International Society of Arboriculture, 1989; F. A. Anderson Award for Distinguished Service, Colorado Cooperative Extension, 1990; Person of the Year award, Green Industries of Colorado, 1992; NACTA/Shepardson Meritorious Teaching Award, Colorado State University, College of Agriculture, 1995; Award of Excellence, Young Entomologist's Society, 1995, for Bagging Big Bugs: How to Identify, Collect, and Display the Largest and Most Colorful Insects of the Rocky Mountain Region; Turf Professional of the Year award, Rocky Mountain Regional Turfgrass Association, 1996; Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension, Entomological Society of America, north central branch, 1999; Most Valuable Professional Award, Colorado Association of Lawn-Care Professionals, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Bagging Big Bugs: How to Identify, Collect, and Display the Largest and Most Colorful Insects of the Rocky Mountain Region, Fulcrum Publishing (Golden, CO), 1995.

Pests of the West: Prevention and Control for Today's Garden and Small Farm, Fulcrum Publishing (Golden, CO), 1992, revised edition, 1998.

Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2004.

Contributor to volumes such as Compendium of Potato Diseases and Pests, 2nd edition, edited by W. R. Stevensonand others, American Phytopathological Society (St. Paul, MN), 2001 and Insect Pests of Peas, edited by J. M. Kraft and F. L. Pfleger, American Phytopathological Society, 2001. Also contributor to periodicals and journals, including Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, HortTechnology, Southwestern Entomology, Colorado State Extension Bulletin, and Arthropod Management Tests. Author of numerous extension fact sheets for Colorado State University.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author and entomologist Whitney Cranshaw studies insects, pest management, and arthropods affecting horticultural commodities in the Colorado region. Cranshaw works at developing applied pest-control management techniques for crops and vegetables while serving as a source of information regarding managing household insects and dealing with medically important insects. His academic research focuses on pest management for vegetables, shade trees, turfgrass, and specialty crops.

Cranshaw's Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs collects detailed information on more than 1,400 common insects seen in yards and gardens across the country. Cranshaw organizes the book by the type of damage insects do, letting readers locate their particular pest under categories such as leaf chewers, borers, sap suckers, stem and twig damagers, flower, fruit, and seed feeders, and more. More than 1,000 photographs detail many of the insect species and illustrate their varied stages of development. The text also provides material on many types of arachnids, mollusks, mites, and other creatures found in yards and gardens.

Not all insects are destructive, however, and Cranshaw notes that some are quite beneficial and good to have around. The ladybug larva and the green lacewing eat aphids, for example, and several species of wasps lay their eggs on caterpillars. "Cranshaw hopes the book will alert people to these beneficial bugs so that they don't kill them," noted Adrian Higgins in Washington Post. "Moreover, both the pests and beneficials represent just a fraction of the insects that call our yards home." Cranshaw provides a chapter on management principles and techniques, but leaves it to the reader to locate specific pesticides and pest control suggestions.

Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs is "an exceptionally well organized and complete text on garden insects," remarked Joel M. Lerner in the Washington Post. Library Journal reviewer Brian Lym called it an "ambitious reference work" that will be "a welcome addition to all horticultural and gardening collections." Carol Harras, writing in Booklist, called the book "a marvel among insect identification manuals."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2004, Carol Haggas, review of Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs, p. 1253.

Library Journal, April 15, 2004, review of Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs, p. 70.

Organic Gardening, September, 1988, "An Insect Einstein."

Washington Post, April 24, 2004, Joel M. Lerner, review of Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs, p. F5; June 17, 2004, Adrian Higgins, "Creatures Entitles to a Little Crawl Space; In the Garden, the Good, Bad, and Truly Beneficial Bugs," review of Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs, p. H1.