By Allan Gonzalez
These are some links that helped me study for the certification test:

– Youtube video that helps you understand what you will be tested broadly.
– Reddit thread that guided me.
– Online practice test.

You will have to register with the FAA and UF EH&S.

New user accounts will have to register Helicon before stacking their first images. Otherwise, they will end up with a watermark and be limited to a lower quality. Please contact Jiri for the activation code.

We have the latest version of Geneious R9. To use it on one of the three lab computers, everyone must enter the license information (listed below) when prompted upon opening it for the first time under your user profile. This needs to be done on each of the three lab computers – entering the key into one computer does not grant automatic access on the other. After that point you should be good, but let me know if that is not the case. For the “Licensee”, you must enter Jiri’s name as shown below, not yours.

Please DO NOT download the new version of the software from the Geneious website and use it on any other computer. Our license allows for three computers to have it installed on.

Our License Information
1 x NON-COMMERCIAL PERSONAL LICENSE
Licensee: Jiri Hulcr

Our ambrosiasymbiosis.org website is a part of the backyardbarkbeetles.org site on BlueHost. Log in as backyay3. To edit a page, go to File Manager, open the folder public_html. Editing directly online is easiest.

How to view various website statistics:

For the Emerging Threats webpage, visit webstats.ifas.ufl.edu. Use the log in credentials below:

User: sfrc.ifas.ufl.edu
Pass: ifasstats

Then, select Content Optimization > Navigational Analysis > All Navigation and find the /emergingthreats/ subfolder. The navigational analysis for the selected date range will appear on the right.

In former days we used to acknowledge our funding sources using specific award numbers. It has become obvious that listing only the agencies is easier, and has equal impact. Therefore, please only list the following:

The United States Department of Agriculture – APHIS, the USDA Forest Service, and the National Science Foundation. For projects that include foreign fungi, please also list the Florida Department of Agriculture – Division of Plant Industry.

(The following project nunbers are here just in case hey are needed; they are typically not to be used in Acknowledgements. They are also not always updated.)
USDA-FS-FHP Coop agreement 12-CA-11420004-042 (anything related to fungi)
USDA Farm Bill agreement 14-8130-0377-CA (current Farm Bill; travel, pre-invasion assessment)
NSF DEB 1256968 (old NSF – anything related to beetles)
NSF DEB 1556283 (new NSF – anything related to fungi

This page is currently a work in progress intended to help aid in packing for international and domestic collecting trips

Collecting tools

The selection of tools partly depends on which types of scolytine beetles you are mostly interested in. For example, for twig bark beetles you will not need any of the heavy duty hardware. On the other hand, trying to pry ambrosia beetles out of a branch with a knife routinely leads to squashed specimens (for xylophages we recommend sawing out a wood “cookie” with the gallery in it, splitting it out with a chisel, and peeling pieces off with clippers, until you get at the beetle). Our recommendations of brands are based on years of experience, not on any relationship with the vendors.

If you have everything shown in the photo- you should be set for both wood and trap collecting.

Essential – extracting beetles alive or into ethanol

1. Tool/gear bag with strap
2. Hatchet
3. Anvil-style clippers (we recommend Bahco)
4. Folding saw
5. Chisel
6. Knife/box cutter (heavy duty), extra blades
7. Collection tubes prepped with ethanol, in collection box
8. Soft forceps (for grabbing beetles), with spare and loop for neck
9. Hard forceps (for careful bark dissections)
10. Headlamp (useful even in daytime)
11. Pre-cut collection labels
12. Labeling pens (we recommend .5 Pigma MICRON archival pen)
13. Collection bags, various sizes (for carrying sticks to dissect later)
14. Any tubes or other container with holes poked (for live specimens)
15. Kimwipes/tissues (for live specimens)

Funnel/bottle trapping

1. Lindgren traps or bottle traps (2L bottles or materials to make them (see below, also: http://ambrosiasymbiosis.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bbtrap.pdf)
2. Knife for constructing bottle traps, cutting rope
3. Rope and/or twine
4. Twist-ties or cable ties
5. Tape (electrical)
6. Lures, or >95% un-denatured etoh (seal in drinking alcohol bottle for checked luggage to pass TSA)
7. Bags for lures/ethanol
8. Squirt-bottle for re-filling etoh bags and tubes
9. Plastic pasteur pipette
10. Collection bags, various sizes (for carrying sticks to dissect later)
11. Any tubes or other container with holes poked (for live specimens)
12. Kimwipes/tissues (for live specimens)
13. Labeling equipment (Pigma pens, labels)

Light-trapping

1. Light source of choice, batteries, etc.
   1. We typically use at least two white (UltraFire Sk98 Cree Xml-t6) and two black (UltraFire SK98 UV) flashlights per sheet
2. Voltage converter if necessary
3. glasses with UV protection
4. White sheet (Queen size is best, usually can borrow from a hotel)
5. Rope/twine to hang sheet
6. Clips/clothespins
7. Bowl/tray for ethanol

Not essential but useful

1. Ethanol-resistant labeling markers
2. Tarp for cutting-up wood indoors (easy clean-up)
3. Multi-tool
4. Collecting notebook/log
5. Aspirator (pooter)
6. Electric or regular chain saw (remove oil if packing, also pack oil and allen wrench)
7. Scalpel (for very small galleries)
8. Pin/teasing needle (small galleries, can also just use hard forceps)
9. Watch glasses for IDing in the lab, under a scope.

Generally useful in travel

1. Power adapter
2. …

If culturing fungi from wood/beetles:

Dry media

Plates

Scalpel and blades

Spreaders

Rubber gloves (1 box, transferred to zip-loc bag)

Minuten pins

100 uL Pipette

100 uL pipette tips – autoclaved (figure 20 tips/beetle, e.g. 30 beetle isolations = 600 tips)

Parafilm

Lighter

Pellet pestles (~20)

1.5 mL tubes

1.5 mL tubes prepped with PBS for serial dilutions (15/beetle, 30 beetle isolations =450 tubes)

Tube of Tween

Tube rack

Cryotube slants (pre-made, in cardboard vial boxes, generally 125+)

Extra empty sterile cryotubes

Extra empty sterile 1.5 mL tubes

Mite paper – 3’ folded and stored in zip-loc bag to extend effective life

Gallon zip-loc bags to put plates in (mite protection)

Permits and labels for shipping fungi back

Padded envelopes/small boxes for shipping slants back

Packing tape

Arrange for in advance

Permits for shipping fungi arranged

Travel authorization submitted to Cindy Love

Completed online travel registration checklist found here: http://ufic.ufl.edu/travelregistration.html

Team Assist insurance set up, card printed to take on trip

Vaccinations if required/recommended for destination

International calling setup on cell phone

International driver’s license (if renting car)

Pcard/personal credit/debit card travel authorizations

Accommodation reservations

Things to make sure are available at destination/hosting lab in advance (if needed)

Plates plus potentially other lab tools, consumables listed above (allow time for hosting lab to order to ensure arrival in time)

Autoclave

Glassware for autoclaving media

Sterile hood

Bulk ethanol (lots necessary if trapping – illegal to fly with large amounts of ethanol)

Microscopes

Microscope camera

Printing capabilities

WiFi and printing capability

Incubators

traps to borrow

DNA Equipment

DNA Consumables

Entomology Equipment

Other

Hi labmates,

My goal for this lab is that everybody has fun with science, is productive, and ends up being competitive on the job market. To make sure that everyone can work towards these goals, here are expectations for all members of the lab.

Everybody

• Always label all your samples. Unlabeled samples are automatically discarded.
• Senior folks are expected to mentor junior ones (occasionally, within reason).
• No music or radio in shared work spaces please. You are always welcome to use headphones, of course.
• When you are at work, work! Please no on-line shopping, etc.
• Anyone is welcome to use the lab vehicle for work-related travel, but you have to reserve it on the Google calendar.

People with PCards

• If you were given the right to spend our grant money, you also have the duty to take care of the paperwork. Specifically, the person who makes a purchase is responsible for filling out the PCard form (except for the project number). Paloma, Adam or me fill out the project number and sign off as the funding source. The person who made the purchase submits both the PCard form and the signed receipt to the accountants.
• If you are refilling a consumable that we routinely use, go ahead and buy it, but it’s always a good idea to clear it with Adam. If you are buying something new that we have not used before, please always consult with me or Adam.
• Travel: if you have a PCard, you were given the right but also the duty to organize your travel. So most people are responsible for filling out their own TA and TER. Paloma or me will fill in the project number and sign. In special cases (no PCard, or complicated travel) Paloma will be happy to help with everything, but not on a regular basis.

Undergrads

• Maintain your updated schedule on Google Calendar.
• Spend the last 20 minutes of every week washing dishes and cleaning up.

Grad students

• This is the real structure of your appointment: 10% doing something good for the broader lab (website, mentoring, clean-up…); 10% doing something good for the Department (seminars, volunteering…we have to make sure the department likes us), and 80% working on your research.
• Strive for balance and productivity: figure out how you work best, and don’t forget to go out and play. When or where you work is up to you, but I expect on average at least 40 hours/week of active work, reading, writing, or thinking.
• Leave or travel is fine, but make up for it.
• A progress report every half year (usually a presentation).
• Application for some funding every year (not necessarily the first year).
• You will have your first manuscript written on the third year at the latest (I will help you with it).
• Master at least one of the following: a relational database software, a computer language, or some important statistical approach, ideally in R.
• Please give credits and co-authorships generously.
• Be a dues-paying member of at least one professional society.
• Keep extensive notes in lab notebook! It may seem like a waste of time initially, but it’s absolutely essential for troubleshooting.

Postdocs

• This is the real structure of your appointment: 10% working on your own stuff, 20% doing something good for the broader lab (particularly mentoring), and 70% working on your primary project. In reality though, postdocs should work with 150% commitment, and not because of me but because of the job market competition :).
• You will initiate writing your first manuscript in the first half year, and have it ready for submission at the end of the first year at the latest.
• You have the right to be the first author on all papers that you are mostly responsible for, I am the last author.
• Keep stellar lab records.

Jiri, the PI

• Will provide reference letters anytime upon request.
• Will work with you on your grant applications.
• Will grant co-authorship to everybody who contributed something without which a paper wouldn’t exist, and first authorship to whoever did the most work or wrote most of the paper. I will usually be the last author on papers generated in this lab.
• Will provide career advice and work advice anytime upon request.
• Will immediately inform about any funding and employment change for individual students.
• Will present a lab plan, including funding news, every half year.

Thank you!
Jiri

codes

• ACF gate: #9044
• Lab car number 4722
• Basement lock 8910
• Ricoh copy machine: 12345
• compound storage cage: PATH

shipping

For courier, provide Cindy this information:

• Name and address
• Account number from which it’s paid (can use my startup, # 95589)
• Approximate weight
• Content description

Our address for courier delivery:
Jiri Hulcr
UF School of Forest Resources and Conservation
1745 McCarty Drive
Gainesville, FL 32611

Our FedEx account number:
120405926

Our address for regular mail:
University of Florida
School of Forest Resources and Conservation
PO Box 110410
Gainesville, FL 32611