The senior 4-H team from Bleckley County took home first place at the Georgia 4-H State Wildlife Judging Contest held April 27 at Rock Eagle 4-H Center. Team members Rebekah Crosby, Benjamin Agnew and Maggie Powell earned the prestigious title of Georgia Master 4-H’ers.

As temperatures warm up and summer approaches, a surge in stinging and biting insects can quickly turn a fun day outside into an itchy, uncomfortable ordeal. Elmer Gray, a research entomologist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and specialist for UGA Cooperative Extension, shares insight into the most common insect pests of the season — and how to protect yourself and your family.

Researchers at UGA working with fire ants are trying to understand how a small group of ants can convince a larger group to change a fundamental aspect of their behavior—whether they kill or nurture multiple queens. Their work was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The lead author is Haolin Zeng, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology who completed his PhD at the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2022.