Profile

I am currently a student in the Doctor of Plant Medicine program at the University of Florida. My project is to study and characterize the tropical fire ant Solenopsis geminata that was introduced and became invasive in the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. The main goal is to develop a biological control program using decapitating phorid flies as part of an IPM estrategy for this ant in the Galapagos Islands. My background is general agriculture, plant protection and entomology, which helped me develop my interests in insect rearing and developing insect diets, which is my strong suit. I have had the opportunity to work with several systems like green lacewings and its rearing host Angoumois grain moth, spined soldier bug, Caribbean fruit fly, tobacco bud worm, small hive beetle and Drosophila fruit flies, bark beetles and its parasitoids, pink hibiscus mealybug community and cactus moth. I am very interested in health nutrition and sustainable breeding of honey bees. In my free time, I enjoy watching movies or sitcoms with my family, and look after my honey bees and fruit trees in the backyard. Being a native Spanish speaker, I find this an important asset to communicate with both Spanish and English speaking scientists, workers, students and public in general.