On Sunday, December 6, the MSNH went online again via Zoom for Online Holiday Bed Bugs with Entomologist Lou Sorkin, co-hosted in collaboration with the New York Entomological Society (NYES). Lou, a recently retired, long-standing employee of the American Museum of Natural History, who is also a well-known expert on bed bugs taught us all about these notorious insects including their life cycle, natural history and behavior. He even showed us some of his own bed bug colonies which we got to enjoy safely from our home computers. With more than 40 participants, this event was one of our most largest and most popular and Lou was so excited to talk about his bed bugs that the event lasted more than two hours with participants asking questions until the very end!
To view the video recording from this event, please visit our gallery.
Lou Sorkin is treasurer of the New York Entomological Society and also one of its primary meeting organizers. He recently retired earlier this year from his 42-year career in the Invertebrate Zoology Department at the American Museum of Natural History. While at the museum, Lou worked primarily with the spider collection, maintaining and organizing this huge collection and assisting many arachnologists from all over the world with their research. Besides his scientific career, Lou has been a longstanding educator for the museum, promoting insects and other arthropods to school groups, NYES and the general public and can often be seen walking around the museum wearing tobacco hornworms (pictured above) in hope that kids and parents will look up from their phones and ask questions about these blue caterpillars! Outside of the museum, Lou has been active in entomophagy (eating insects), organizing several bug-eating events as well as forensic entomology, with some investigations he has been involved with having aired on television. But despite his varied interests, one of Lou's true passions is the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). Over the past 30 years, Lou has been studying the life cycle and natural history of these notorious insects by examining infestations in homes, businesses, hotels and raising his own bed bug colony for research and education. Of course, in order to keep his colony alive, he has had to feed them, and over the years, Lou has fed himself to a few hundred thousand bed bugs! Many of his recent bed bug behavioral videos and explanations have appeared on his Facebook page and on certain insect and pest management groups and for this event Lou will share his knowledge about these insects with us.