27 April Dr. Kirby Stafford Our last speaker of the year will be Dr. Kirby Stafford. Dr. Kirby C. Stafford III is Vice Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Chief Entomologist (Head) of the Department of Entomology and State Entomologist. He joined the Experiment Station in 1987. His research area is the ecology and control of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, with a recent focus on natural and biological tick control. Dr. Stafford has authored or co-authored 52 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals, has review chapters on tick management in two books, and produced a Tick Management Handbook and Fly Management Handbook. Prior to coming to Connecticut, Dr. Stafford worked at Penn State University on an integrated poultry pest management program. Dr. Stafford obtained his PhD in medical-veterinary entomology from Texas A&M University in 1985, where he also taught veterinary entomology in the Department of Entomology and College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University. Dr. Stafford received a Master of Science degree in entomology at Kansas State University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in entomology at Colorado State University. These very impressive credentials mean that he is an expert on a critter that is a major threat to our health as environmentally-conscious gardeners in deer-infested Connecticut.  His talk will be on the Least-toxic Management of Ticks in the Landscape.