Insects, spiders and bees

Leon Higley is an insect ecologist with the university who has researched and received grants about the endangered salt creek tiger beetle and how insects adapt in extreme environments. Higley also uses entomology to explain how insects affect forensic science. In 2007, he received the Founder’s Memorial Award from the Entomological Society of America for making significant contributions to the world of entomology.

Seymour is an extension educator at the West Central Research & Extension Center in Hastings, Neb. He works in the area of insect management for field crops.

Jody Green is a Nebraska Extension educator who specializes in urban entomology. Her primary focus is to develop educational programs related to structural and health-related insects such as bed bugs, head lice, ants, termites, cockroaches, fleas and other feared and hated pests for the community. Green is based in Douglas and Sarpy Counties in Nebraska.

Kait Chapman with home owners and renters, pest management, healthcare and housing professionals, child care providers, schools and others to resolve issues with household and landscape pests. Her primary focus is insects associated with plants and foods and those that affect humans like bed bugs and head lice. Chapman is a Nebraska Extension educator working in Lancaster, York, Seward, Cass and Otoe Counties in Nebraska.

Kyle Koch is an insect diagnostician and Nebraska Extension Educator. His emphasis is on invastive and threatening arthropod species, particularly those of economic significance. He is a panelist on Backyard Farmer, the UNL lawn and gardening video program and he is part of the university’s Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic that analyzes samples of insects and insect crop damage.

Justin McMechan holds a combined appointment with UNL’s Entomology Department and Nebraska Extension. His research areas include biological control, field crops entomology, insect ecology, insect pest management, insecticide and environmental toxicology, plant resistance to insects and plant-insect interactions.

Lynch-O’Brien specializes in insect ecology, pollinator health and science literacy. She coordinates the insect science undergraduate program and develops programming to support Nebraska One Health and the UNL Entomology Department’s science literacy program.

Eileen Hebets researches the evolutionary strategies that spiders and other arachnids have adopted to communicate, gather information about their environments, and maximize their reproduction.

Wu-Smart holds a Ph.D . in entomology from the University of Minnesota in 2015. She leads the Bee Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where staff and students organize beekeeping workshops and field days and answer questions about pollinator health and management. Her research areas include agriculture and public health, insect ecology, insecticides and pollinator health. Recent research examined the effects of neonicotinoids and other pesticides on honey bees and bumble bees.