Plants and Pests Movie Stars In Educational Videos | Pest Control

Education has taught us the relationship of Plant and pests. This mirrors the same relationship of human and pests, both striving to survive however the other more dependent of the other. Scientifically, this is referred to as the host-parasite relationship.

While this is a natural phenomenon of nature, humans are more intelligent that we are able to control pests while being able to balance the cycle of life through professional pest control services. Modern pest control aims to control remove and control production of pests by using bio-organic pesticides that is geared towards specific parasites that eat on our home and post danger to our health.

Award-winning films by the Kiel professor show the life cycles of agricultural pests

To better understand the development cycles of agricultural pests such as viruses, bacteria and fungi, it can help to see them in action. The problem with this: the cycles take place on a micro level and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Joseph-Alexander Verreet makes them visible with his internationally award-winning educational films. The professor of plant diseases from the Institute of Phytopathology at the Faculty of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) shows recordings and animated sequences of life cycles of globally important cultivated plant pathogens in his films, magnified 400 times.

Soybean Rust: The Life Cycle of Phakopsora Pachyrhizi

Joseph-Alexander Verreet’s current film on “Soybean Rust: The Life Cycle of Phakopsora pachyrhizi” has now been awarded a“ Silver Globe” in the Education category at the“ World Media Festival 2018″ in Hamburg. Together with Dr. Holger Klink, Dr. Thomas J. Baum, Dr. Steven A. Whitham, and Dr. Daren S. Mueller of the Institute of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at Iowa State University, the instructional video was created. Verreet has received the award for the second time: “I am very pleased about the Silver Globe, as it confirms the joint work with my colleague Dr. Holger Klink. This encourages us to make more educational films”.

Educational Videos Host-Parasite Relationships (Pant-Pest Relationship)

Since 1999, Verreet and Klink have produced a total of 17 multilingual, multimedia educational films about crop plant pathogens, i.e. harmful pathogens. Through the combination of photo-realistic three-dimensional computer animations and real camera recordings, the films reproduce a lifelike overall picture. Complex biological micro-details and complete life cycles are shown, which are brought closer to the viewer in an informative and exciting way. The aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the biological-ecological interrelationships of host-parasite relationships in the micro-world. At the same time, the knowledge gained helps pave the way for more efficient control of the pests, so that agricultural yields can be better secured.

Scientific Film Awards

So far, Verreet has received various scientific film awards for his films, including a “Gold Globe” and two “Silver Globes” from the “World Media Festival”, as well as a Comenius Award from the Society for Education, Information and Media e. V. and seven awards at the annual “International Agrofilm Festival” in Nitra, Slovakia. For his instructional video “The Biology of Fungal Pathogens”, Verreet received the 2014 Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Society of Phytopathology (APS). The video is used in lecture halls around the world and is also used by Kiel students as an e-learning offer.

The educational films are aimed equally at teachers, pupils from a wide variety of school institutions, university lecturers, students of agricultural sciences, biology, ecology and related subjects as well as state and private advisory institutions and agricultural practice.