We train county extension educators and master gardeners to use loupe magnifiers (also called a hand lens) to check for pest and disease problems. When you look through these devices, you can see small arthropods (aphids, mites) or fungal structures (rust pustules, fungal fruiting bodies). On Amazon, they are about $10 each, but we buy them in bulk so we get them for about $5 each. Some of our demo magnifiers are broken, so this would allow us to replace them. Also, we give them to extension educators for free when they attend our training events so we can make sure each agent has what they need to identify pests and plant diseases in the field. A $10 donation would cover the cost of two magnifiers.

We use these in training with county educators and are trying to provide one for each county extension office. They plug into either a cell phone or computer and allow educators to take images of very small things (ant faces, hairs on insects, etc.) They cost about $25 each.

Each case of pipette tips is about $50. We use pipettes for all types of laboratory tests (nucleic acid extraction, PCR, serology, preparing media) and they are single use only.

We use these tubes for one type of RNA extraction, for cDNA synthesis and for running PCR reactions. They are single use only, so we go through them quickly. Each case costs just under $100.

The staff in our lab provide over 50 presentations a year and many of them are in-person, where we travel the training site. We usually rent a car from motor pool and pay a mileage rate. We go all the way to Guymon or Idabel sometimes so this donation would help get us there.

We are often asked to test for new pests and plant pathogens using PCR. Each time we do this, the start up cost is at least $1000. This is because we have to purchase a lot of reagents that are unique to the test (such as primers, probes and artificial positive controls). Then, we have to run through a lot of "practice" samples until we optimize and validate the test for use in our lab.

In October 2026, there is a workshop in Raleigh, NC on ornamental pests and diseases. This is where diagnosticians learn about new pests and pathogens that may be headed our way. The cost will be about $1500 per person. We are hoping that we can send at least one diagnostician, but preferably all three.

Our diagnosticians would like to attend annual meetings of the Entomological Society of America and American Phytopathological Society. At these conferences, we learn about new and invasive pests and diseases, new methods for identifying these organisms and management strategies. Each national meeting costs about $2500 (or more) to attend.