Rate My Professor Alejandro Del-Pozo

Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 2020, Del-Pozo served as an IPM-Entomology Advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension in the Salinas Valley, where he devised pest management tactics for aphids, thrips, and diamondback moth in vegetables. These included automated monitoring traps, drone-released beneficial insects like lacewings, insectary plants, and alternative insecticides to pyrethroids and neonicotinoids. Del-Pozo holds a B.S. in Agronomy from La Molina National Agrarian University, an M.S. in Entomology from Washington State University, and a Ph.D. in Entomology from North Carolina State University. His influential publications include "First-Generation Megacopta cribraria (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) Can Develop on Soybeans" (Journal of Economic Entomology, 2013), "Biology, pest status, microbiome and control of kudzu bug (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Plataspidae): a new invasive pest in the US" (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2016), "Economic Injury Levels for Bt-resistant Helicoverpa zea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Cotton" (Journal of Economic Entomology, 2021), "Epidemiology and economic impact of impatiens necrotic spot virus: a resurging pathogen affecting lettuce in the Salinas Valley of California" (Plant Disease, 2023), and "In-field evaluation of drone-released lacewings for aphid control in California organic lettuce" (Journal of Economic Entomology, 2021). Through Virginia Cooperative Extension, he contributes pest management guides and fact sheets that directly support horticultural and agricultural practitioners.