Hi, my name is Krishna Woerhide. I have been in Minnesota since 1996, before that I spent some time in Colorado and Arizona, and was raised near Lawrence Kansas. Most of my dad's family homesteaded parts of Nebraska, so it was fitting that UNL should offer a distance ento program. Growing up I was involved with 4-H, and among many other things had an entomology display. But for reasons yet unexplained to me, I was under the illusion that things that are fun are "play" and not work, so I went on to do other things.
In 2002, while working as a bookkeeper, I decided I wanted honey bees. Once I got my first hives, I became curious about their behavior so I started following them around. Eventually I could identify my own bees out foraging, and I started taking note of all the other insects. I purchased a macro lens for my camera and started taking pictures, then spent all my free time identifying what I was seeing. At a certain point I thought... this is what I want to do, study insects, so I enrolled at UNL.
In following my bees I started watching where they took water, and eventually became fascinated with mosquitoes. I have some ongoing mosquito research projects, and have also been involved with GLOBE's mosquito larvae protocol project. I'll also be helping with Drosophila research with the Minnesota Extension office this summer.
My ultimate passion, as it turns out, is insect conservation, which - with our current agricultural system and Zika fear, is sometimes a pretty hard sell. I would eventually like to do work in insect education, extension and outreach.