My Intro to Bugs!

Greetings fellow readers!

My name is Nicole Luhr and am currently taking this class as a pre-requisite for grad classes for an Entomology Masters. I graduated from South Dakota State University with a bachelor's in Agri-business, but chose to pursue a masters in entomology due to my current work situation.

Currently, I work for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an Entomology Research Technologist. In previous years I worked as a temporary summer employee for the department and became interested in this area due to a great supervisor who taught me many things in which I came to have many questions about various insects and therefore made me curious about the area of study. Pursuing an Entomology Masters will benefit my knowledge as an employee and someday I hope to maybe work for a company and give recommendations for problems that farmers have in their field.

Last year I initiated a study with fall armyworm in soybeans with a grad student from Brazil. I intend to continue the study here in the U.S. for him since the environment isn't as favorable for them in Brazil due to many predators.

A couple of insects that interest me are western corn rootworms and aphids. As a research technologist I have more rootworm trials than others. I also rent crop ground where I plant corn on corn which is where I can utilize research information for my own operation.

Aphids are the other interest since these are a popular pest in areas. There can be a high number of them in a field but the damage from them isn't really noticeable until later on. They can also multiply rapidly by starting at just 50 or so and going to hundreds within a very short period of time given suitable weather conditions.