Ask an Entomologist

Wow. It’s been four years since my last post. It’s been about that long since anyone’s written anything here, really.

At first, I was busy. I graduated with my PhD in plant sciences from the University of Wyoming, and took on a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO working in plant phenomics. I wasn’t working on insects, so I didn’t think about insect biology. Just wasn’t reading the bug papers anymore. At some point, I went a day without thinking about Ask an Entomologist. One way or another, that day turned into 3 years.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Ask an Entomologist over the last year.

I left my postdoc very burnt out, having learned a lot of lessons about what I wanted from my day-to-day work. I was extremely lucky to land a full-time, permanent job as an entomologist in mid-2025. I get to work with the animals I love again.

So I was reading the papers. Getting back into insect biology. Rearing insects. Professionally! In a stable job. A good job. No plans to job hunt for the foreseeable future. No moving. Finally.

I started to think about the stuff I wanted to write about. Started making contacts for new collaborations, new projects even. Answered some emails. Started working on projects with a few friends in the plant science world. For the first time in a very long time, I began to think about my future.

It took me awhile to reach this conclusion, but Ask an Entomologist was not a part of that future.

The work we did here, science education and media work, was invaluable and helped foster a love of insects in society. We were able to collaborate with journalists in a way which addressed a lot of myths around insects. When our little blog gained a massive readership, we were able to show the public how insects and society impacted each other. Millions of people read our work, and that fact allowed me to accomplish a lot of lifelong goals.

I recently got back from a road trip which was an important milestone. It was my first-ever vacation, the first time I’ve been able to afford to travel out of state. I used the opportunity to visit folks in the SciComm community I admired; many of whom became close friends over the years. A lot of these folks are no longer online for various reasons. Some started families, others (including me) landed full time positions and could no longer focus on maintaining a large audience. Others decided to start to become more politically active-something I intend to do after the midterms.

While I don’t have a passion for SciComm anymore, I do have a passion for Ask an Entomologist. I loved this project. I loved dissecting all the questions you asked about insects. Digging into things, not knowing things. Telling all of these incredible stories about people, insects, and society. The late-night research sessions, the mysteries. Giving cake advice to celebrity chefs. Collaborating with journalists, even when they panic-called me on my lunch break. The awkward first date spurred by somebody else’s casual mention of AaE at a PhD graduation party. I’m grateful for every moment, and every story is something I will cherish forever.

Overall, I think my role in the SciComm community has become obsolete. For 20 years, I had some sort of SciComm project going continuously. Taking a break from the endeavor simply made me realize that I need to do other things. If something ever happens with AaE, I’d like to maybe be involved in the background. However, my days of being a public-figure scientist are long behind me…and I’m happy with that.

I want to thank you all for being curious, and being courageous enough to ask us the questions that made us fall in love with these animals over, and over, and over again. Thanks for supporting us while we grew, not only as scientists, but as people. Thanks for cheering for us as we navigated all of these enormous life changes. Thanks for helping us make those changes.

Maybe I’ll run into you one day. I hope I do. Don’t be a stranger…ask me anything you want. I’d love to know more about what you do. I might ask you some stuff as well.

It’s been a wild ride. This blog, and our Community, has led to some of the happiest moments of my career.

Thank you, everybody, for everything.