Dr. Kimberly Stoner leads the study of pumpkin and winter squash pollination for the Pollination Security Project, counting bees on flowers on 20 fields in Connecticut, and relating those bee counts to pollen deposition on the stigmas of the female flowers. In addition, she collects samples of pollen and nectar for measurement of pesticide residues and samples of bees for molecular analysis to track movement of RNA viruses and various microbes in different species of bees.
In her other bee projects, she is completing a project comparing numbers and diversity of bees on different plants grown on diversified vegetable farms – herbs, cut flowers, ornamental plants, cover crops, wildflowers, and weeds. She is also doing long-term monitoring of bee diversity in several sites around Connecticut.
Her background is in vegetable entomology, particularly breeding plants for resistance to insect pests, biological control of insect pests, and other alternatives to insecticides for managing vegetable insects. She has worked with many organic farmers and organic landscapers, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association for 20 years, and she was the lead author on the first organic standards for landscaping in the world. She is an Associate Scientist in the Entomology Department at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, where she has been since 1987.
Contact Information
Voice: (203) 974-8480
E-mail: Kimberly.Stoner@ct.gov