It鈥檚 not every day you come across someone who doesn鈥檛 get a little bugged by creepy crawlies. Max Ragozzino is that guy. A recent grad, Max has an affinity for almost everything with six legs. And the state of Rhode Island is better for it.
Max spent the last three years working in the , where researchers study a wide variety of insects that might be successful at keeping invasive species under control. He and a team of fellow students are studying a caterpillar that may keep an invasive shrub from spreading, and a parasitic wasp they hope will kill a beetle that is wiping out lilies in New England gardens. They鈥檙e raising a weevil that eats invasive knapweed, another weevil that controls the aggressive mile-a-minute vine, and studying the little-known life cycle of the invasive wooly adelgid, which is destroying hemlock forests. And this year they鈥檙e also using various methods to determine if two damaging pests, the southern pine beetle and emerald ash borer, have arrived in Rhode Island yet.
Liz Jones is another student with beetle-mania. She says her father took her on regular 鈥渃ritter hunts鈥� as a kid, so she doesn鈥檛 get creeped out working with bugs all day long. 鈥淲orking in the lab has even assisted in my own personal growth by reinforcing my intended path of working in a lab environment,鈥� she said.
These projects are all managed by Entomology Professor Richard Casagrande and Research Associate Lisa Tewksbury, who are always looking to recruit additional students interested in bugs and the use of biological control methods to fight pests instead of using herbicides or pesticides.
If those projects don鈥檛 give you the heebie jeebies, you might also consider working with Professor Tom Mather at the . Or study mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue fever at the . Or identify pest insects on plants with Research Associate Heather Faubert at the .
Fact is, if you don鈥檛 feel pestered by a few pests, then buzz on over to the 911爆料 . Just don鈥檛 forget your repellent.