Current Research

I am currently a PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder! My research focuses on the health of the honey bee Apis mellifera, a crucial component of industries that rely on their pollination and honey production services. Beekeepers across the globe are plagued by the brood mite Varroa destructor, which invades and kills bee hives by vectoring disease, reducing bee immune function, and stealing vital tissue. While some management methods exist, this mite is becoming resistant to traditional acaricides, necessitating the need for novel treatment methods.

My project focuses on understand how these parasites distribute themselves within a host colony. If mites prefer specific hosts or alter their behavior based on conspecific presence, we can exploit these cues to reduce mite fitness and help beekeepers manage their pest population. I am also interested in the role of the shared microbiome between host bees and parasitic mites. Some mites fail to reproduce and are considered non-reproductive. Is this behavior triggered by differences in microbiome composition? If so, these differences could be used to target essential microbial community constituents to trigger non-reproduction in mites.