It’s not every day you come across someone who doesn’t 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 URI Biocontrol Lab, 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’re 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’re 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 “critter hunts” as a kid,  so she doesn’t get creeped out working with bugs all day long. “Working in the lab has even assisted in my own personal growth by reinforcing my intended path of working in a lab environment,” 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’t give you the heebie jeebies, you might also consider working with Professor Tom Mather at the URI Tick Encounter Resource Center. Or study mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue fever at the URI Institute for Immunology and Informatics. Or identify pest insects on plants with Research Associate Heather Faubert at the URI Plant Protection Clinic.

Fact is, if you don’t feel pestered by a few pests, then buzz on over to the URI Department of Plant Sciences and Entomology. Just don’t forget your repellent.