Course fees:
AFB Professional - FREE
AFB Enthusiast - $112.50
Non-AFB Member - $150.00
Join the Association for Butterflies now as a Professional and take it for free! Enthusiast may take the course for $112.50. Non AFB Members may take the course for $150.00.
Week One: Farm size and disease, Basic information, What is disease?, SOP, Journal, Breeding stock, Eggs, Larvae signs & symptoms
Week Two: Disease transmission, Outbreak triggers, Breeding Stock, Cleaning the lab (or rearing room), Disinfecting rearing containers/sleeves, Sanitizing eggs, Sanitizing pupae, Larval food, Sanitizing food, Instant/artificial diet, Disposal of material
Week Three: NPV, Cleaning the lab, Screening for disease, Bacteria, Bt, Fungus, Nosema, Serratia, Aspergillus niger, Toxic plants, Mechanical damage
Week Four: OE – a parasite, OE - signs and symptoms, OE - lifecycle, OE - in pupae, OE -Taping for OE, OE -How Monarchs contract OE, OE - Disinfecting eggs
Week Five: Final Exam - Week of March 1st. Due March 6th.
Edith and her husband Stephen have been butterfly farming for over 18 years. Their farm, co-owned with their daughter Charlotte, raises 30 species per year. In addition to raising butterflies, Edith searches the fields and woods for anything she hasn't raised and in the process, has learned a good deal about diseases and parasitoids.
Edith has been teaching this course every year since 2007. Each year it is updated with new photographs added to illustrate diseases and everything that pertains to disease in butterflies and raising butterflies.
Edith worked with Dr. Leellen Solter and Amanda Lawrence as they edited the material before it was offered as a course. The OE material was edited by Dr. Sonia Altizer and Dr. Karen Oberhauser first as a presentation (presented by Edith) at an AFB Symposium.