Calling all budding Entomologists!

For all you aspiring Entomologists out there! We now have a position open in the UNL Entomology department for a student wanting to pursue a M.S. or PhD in Entomology. You'd be working with the Outreach Coordinator to provide outreach programs. If you love insects and want to educate children about them, check the link to learn more!

Hello everyone!

Hello everyone, my name is Sarah Zuehlke and I love insects. Here is a little bit about me.  Currently I live in the state of Maryland. I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biology for my undergraduate degree. My favorite class in undergrad was an Entomology class I took my last semester. Now I am an online distance student at the University of Nebraska studying for a Masters Degree in Entomology. This is my second semester at Nebraska and so far I am really enjoying it. I am taking Management of Horticultural Crops this semester and it is really interesting. I am learning so much about insects and pest insects that attack plants it is amazing! I am realizing that I have seen some of these signs and symptoms of pests and hadn’t even realized insects caused the damage! 

I have liked insects ever since I was young. I come from a large family and have several brothers and it is funny that I am the only girl and am the one to like insects! Over the years I have collected crickets, grasshoppers, beetles you name it. I especially enjoy raising insects and every year I have quite the zoo of insects I am caring for. My favorite insect is the praying mantis. I like to breed them and raise the nymphs to adults. In the spring it is always a joy when hundreds of little mantises hatch out of their egg cases. I have bred the Chinese mantis and the Carolina mantis. This year I managed to  raise a lot of Carolina mantises. Consequently I have tons of egg cases the females laid. I can't wait until they hatch! At this time I actually have two healthy female Carolina mantises still alive! And two female Chinese mantises. Probably the longest living mantises I have had yet.

I enjoy collecting insects I find in my gardens around my house.  I have a pretty large insect collection that is growing every year as I find new and different insects.

I volunteer in the Entomology department at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. I have met and worked with several distinguished Entomologists and seen some pretty amazing insects. 

I am looking into different careers I can do with a Masters in Entomology, but I am not set on one thing at this time. Ecology interests me a lot and so does insect collection. I am interested in doing field work and collecting insects in the wild. I also wouldn’t mind working in an insect zoo or something like that. And now that I am taking a horticultural class I am interested in learning more about insects and plants.

Entomology in the News!

There are a lot of interesting things going on the world of Entomology right now! Here are a few of the highlights:

New Tarantula Named After Johnny Cash

Spread of Bee Disease Largely Manmade

Zika virus news from Entomological Society of America (ESA) 

Guest Bloggers

This semester, we will be featuring a few guest bloggers from the Management of Horticultural Insects class. They will be discussing their interests in entomology or other related insect topics. Our first guest is Ross Barr. Please enjoy hearing about some of the career choices our students are already in or are exploring as they pursue their Entomology or related degrees!

Introduction and Entomology

Hey everybody.  I just wanted to give a quick introduction about myself.  My name is Ross Barr, and I grew up on a diversified grain and livestock farm near Liberty, Nebraska.  I graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2012 with a B.S. in agronomy.  I am currently a pilot in the Air Force and am working on my M.S. degree in agronomy.  My goal is to eventually return to the family farm after my military service commitment is complete and farm with my brother.  After I graduated with my bachelor's degree, I was stationed at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma for pilot training for about a year and a half.  I am now stationed at Offutt AFB in Nebraska, flying the RC-135.  I wanted to come back to Nebraska, and I am fortunate to have been stationed close to home.  I enjoy going home on my weekends off to help my dad and brother on the farm. 

I only took one entomology course as an undergraduate at UNL, and have only taken a couple of entomology courses for my graduate degree, but the more courses I take, the more amazed I am with insects.  I'm not sure what interests me most about them…maybe their biology and life cycles.  I'm hoping to be able to apply some things I learn from my entomology courses in the future.  Like I mentioned before, I really want to return to the family farm after my military service is complete to farm with my dad and brother.  I honestly haven't thought of doing anything else besides that.  If I can't do that for some reason, I would probably try to get a job in the agriculture field somewhere in Nebraska.  I haven't thought too much about flying for the airlines, but that could always be an option for me as well.  I've considered joining an Air National Guard unit after my active duty commitment is up so I can continue to fly, but that's too far in the future to see.  In the back of my mind, I've always thought it would be fun (and scary) to be a crop duster.  I've done a little bit of research on it recently, but I don't know too much about how to get started in that business.  Anyway, I hope to continue to learn about insects and apply what I learn in my future career.  I am looking forward to everyone else's posts. 

Hornworms!

Happy New Year! Every semester, the undergraduate students in the Insect Biology class here in the Entomology Department are responsible for rearing a tobacco hornworm "pet." They receive their hornworms as an egg or first instar larvae, and record their observations as the hornworm goes through its life cycle from egg to adult (although by the end of the class, most have reached the pupal stage and will likely emerge in the spring or summer)

 

 Tobacco hornworm Larva 

 

                         Tobacco hornworm prepupa (olive green), and newly pupated hornworm

This activity is a great way for students to experience an insect that goes through complete metamorphosis first hand. Also, since this is a pest species, students often comment about how much the hornworm eats the larger it gets, which is why they can become such pests! In the "lab" or "home" setting for the student experiments, the hornworms are fed an artificial diet, so no tobacco, tomato, or other plants are harmed in this process!

To learn more about rearing hornworms, check out this great video. This shows the supplies that the students use with their hornworm pet. All in all a very interesting project, although since I am a mantis, I wish they were being reared for my lunch!