Work in the Entomology Department

As a Wildlife ecology major on my last year of school, it was high time I got a science job. On wandering through Deering one day (the plant, entomology and soil science building) I found a job position advertisement! 

I applied and not long after got an interview, and as you might have guessed, I got the job! 

This is my all time favorite job, and I've worked a few places in the past that I liked. 

The project we were working on involved the invasive red fire ant Myrmica rubra. This non native fire ant was taking Maine by force, coming in from tree nurseries that didn't properly inspect the soil their saplings came in. Another possible cause of the red fire ant spread is from mulch infested with the ants. 

We were looking at ways to try to reduce the number of fire ants without hurting native any species. Most of my job entailed sorting through pit falls (a kind of trap where the insects fall into a hole, usually a buried cup, with water in it with a drop of soap. The soap breaks the surface tension of the water so insect can't simply climb back out again. They get stuck in the trap). I would sort all of the insects into their scientific order (butterflies and moths are Lepidoptera, flies are Diptera, ants, bees, and wasps are Hymenoptera, beetles are Coleoptera, etc). 

Another part of my job was to feed and clean out the dead fire ants that we had in a large tupperware container. This was for a separate project for another students thesis paper. After I pulled the dead ants out of the sample and fed and watered the rest (we wanted them to die of nematodes, not of dehydration or starvation) and the thesis student would then check them under a microscope for nematodes. Nematodes are these small parasites that kill ants.

She then later infected healthy ants with the nematodes she extracted from the dead ants. I'm not sure how her project ended, but once I find out I will edit this post again.

I had to srt through this plant matter and remove every insect I could find from it. Simple, but enjoyable work.

This is everything I was able to pull out from that sample!

The next few photos are some interesting insects I found and took pictures of via microscope. 

A collembula. These guys are pretty cute, and very small. If you look closely at a dandelion flower, you may see these guys hoping around on it!

Here is a pitfall sample. Depending on the density of ants and other insects in the pitfall, one pitfall could take us a week to get through. 

I can't seem to rotate this picture, but here you can see how many ants were in this thing. This was a medium difficult one to go through. Some were much worse, some a lot easier. 

Some fire ants and a cockroach

My sorting method. 

A jar of beetles

Closeup of a ground beetle. 

Ground beetle eye

Ground beetle back

Feeding the ants. 

Below is a picture of the fire ants in their container. The sides were coated with a material to prevent them from climbing the sides when the cover was off, but die to moisture problems the coating would wear off. To prevent the ants from escaping, we would put them into a large container that was also coated, and for any ants that climbed to high we would catch them in a little vacuum.

The sponge is where they got their water from. We would add a few drops.

This is what we fed them. On the left is tuna, and on the right, sugar. 

Here I am feeding the little buggers. 

And now, removing the dead and putting them aside. 

This sums up the work I did for the semester. My favorite job ever, and it reignited my interest in entomology.