Keith Mason
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As a Research Technician for the Berry Crops Entomology lab, my primary duties involve managing large scale on-farm research projects in grapes and blueberries. In other on-farm projects and small plot trials, I test the efficacy of new insecticides in controlling key insect pests in berry crops.
Recently I have become more involved in projects that aim to enhance pollination and biological control of insect pests in blueberry fields and vineyards. I also collect phenological and climatological data that is used to construct and test growing degree-day based developmental models for grape berry moth, cranberry fruitworm and other pests of berry crops. During the winter, in addition to catching up on all the data analysis, reporting, manuscript writing, and grant proposal preparation, I also maintain this website.
Other Research Interests
I earned my Masters degree from Florida State University under the direction of Walter Tschinkel. Using a combination of flow-through respirometry and video data analysis, I investigated the relationship between respiration rates, levels of group activity, and tempo (speed of individual movement) in ant colonies. Ants will always hold my interest and I am very happy to now be working to demonstrate the role ants and other terrestrial arthropods play in the biological control of insect pests in blueberry.
Personal
My wife Julienne and I have two wonderful children, Lindsey (10 years) and Justin (7 years). As a family, we enjoy traveling, camping, cooking (and eating) and just plain goofing off. It is truly amazing how much fun you can have without cable TV! I also like to play the guitar, home-brew beer, garden and spend time in the woods kicking pine cones.