I am the Medical Entomology Extension Specialist at FMEL. I remain in close contact with over 65 mosquito control districts in Florida and assistant them with their needs. I provide training and information on topics such as mosquito identification, mosquito-borne diseases, integrated mosquito management, mosquito control product efficacy, and pesticide resistance testing. I inform UF/IFAS Extension faculty and staff, the UF community, and the general public on topics related to medical entomology. I also provide supporting materials to UF/IFAS Extension faculty and staff as well as the general public.
My interest in medical entomology began with my master’s thesis research co-advised by Alan Covich and Stephen Golladay on the adult mosquito community composition, arbovirus prevalence, and host-feeding patterns at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway in Southwest Georgia. My Ph.D. dissertation research, which was conducted at FMEL and co-advised by Philip Lounibos and Barry Alto, investigated the ability of Florida Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus female mosquitoes infected with dengue-1 virus (DENV-1) to vertically transmit DENV-1 to their eggs as well as the effects of larval environmental conditions on DENV-1 vertical transmission rates. During my postdoctoral position at Illinois Natural History Survey’s Medical Entomology Laboratory at the University of Illinois, I researched superinfection interference between DENV serotypes within Ae. aegypti mosquitoes.
After my time in Illinois, I began conducting applied mosquito research as the Senior Research Biologist at Manatee County Mosquito Control District in Palmetto, FL. There, I gained three years of experience in operational mosquito control. Currently, I primarily conduct applied mosquito research. I am interested in studying the susceptibility of Florida populations of Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Culex nigripalpus, Cx. quinquefasciatus, mosquito vectors of arboviruses affecting human health, to active multiple ingredients in pesticides as well as formulated pesticide products. I am also interested in the non-lethal effects of pesticide exposure on mosquito life-history traits such as survivorship, propensity to blood-feed, and fecundity, which can all affect vectorial capacity. Additionally, I am interested in novel mosquito control techniques such as pyriproxyfen autodissemination by adult mosquitoes as a method of larvaciding for container-inhabiting mosquitoes.
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