Entomology what?

May 22, 2018

Entomology what?

Entomology what?

Looking for jobs online is stress stress stress. Especially when you are not 100% sure what you want to do and job descriptions are not always truthful (talking from experience unfortunately). It’s a first job after all, I don’t need to be SUUURRRREEEEEE. A first job is a stepping stone to the beautiful world of dinosaurs, unicorns and rainbows.

My masters has been great to me allowing me to do bits and bobs of things including working with mosquitos and sandflies which I enjoy. Naturally, I ended up searching ‘insect jobs’ on the platforms I use. Reed, LinkedIn and Indeed all popped up with Entomologist roles. Reading the description, I was shocked! There actually is a job out there where you work with insects!!!!!! Ofcourse, I had to use my newly learnt word with friends and to recruitment consultants in case they had any graduate roles going in the area but no one seemed to know what I was on about, to show I am not making up a word to look cool here we are.

Basically, an Entomologist is a scientist who studies insects and their lives; their relationship with humans, the environment and other living things. This can be how they behave, how they live, what makes them pests and the diseases they carry, finding new species, insects found on dead bodies, the list is endless. Insects outnumber us and are found everywhere! Bees and wasps pollenating, crickets being eaten by lizards, blowflies scavenging on rotten flesh breaking down waste, dragonflies acting as predators to spiders and bot flies being parasites to us. We all know of insects as being harmful as they eat and spoil our food, spread disease and ruin our wooden furniture but they are helpful. If you have watched the bee movie you will understand!!!!

Without those pesky biting little stripy freaks (AKA Bees) we won’t have honey, the spread of plant male gametes, tomatoes and clover to feed livestock! As a meat eating person that is world destruction in my eyes! BEEEFFFF burgers! Away from the bees, there has been lots of articles about the future of food. Entomophagy is the word for humans using insects as food and it’s not a recent thing. Started in 2014, ‘Insects to Feed the World’ is a conference to promote the use of insects as human food and as animal feed in assuring food security. Livestock is an enormous burden on the environment (water, land, pollution, greenhouse gasses) and with billions of mouths to feed worldwide insects are a rich source of protein and micronutrients, don’t need all the space, water and special treatment of livestock.

Studying insects and understanding their impact makes all the difference in how we adapt and survive whilst sharing the world with them; serving as a basis for development in biological sciences, pest control, ecology, food production, pharmaceuticals and more. So, next time you are making a list of ultra-cool jobs I think Entomologist deserve to be included.