She spent six years with the USDA's insect physiology laboratory and was the state coordinator of the Master Gardener program for three years. She has given hundreds of talks to grower groups, master gardeners and garden clubs, and teaches botany, entomology and horticulture classes. She has collaborated with the Maryland Park Service and U.S. Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Zoo, Longwood Gardens, the U.S. Botanic Garden, the U.S. Herb Garden, the National Arboretum, the American Horticultural Society, Time-Life Books and St. Remy Press and helped a junior high school girl with her science fair project. She also has helped Brownies and 4-H Clubs with their projects and consulted with people in Senegal, Bolivia, Peru and Africa. Talk about your understatements.
Diagnosticians play an indispensable role in plant pathology.
Her primary task within the University's Department of Entomology is to examine 900 to 1,200 plant samples each year, diagnosing diseases on all types of crops. Here in the Chesapeake Bay region, the kind of integrative pest management Dutky does has become imperative for the area's environmental health, particularly with nutrient management. The point of integrative pest management is to minimize pesticide use. As we become more global, exotic diseases and pests are popping up, making the connection with the university extension more important. This year, her approach helped quell an outbreak in a crop of poinsettias imported from Guatemala.