Faith Riedell: A Day in the Life of the Entomology Intern

Hello, it’s me Faith again. I am the entomology intern, and today we will talk about my daily duties and such. I start off my day in the Butterfly Wing picking up the dead butterflies and refilling the vertical feeders for the butterflies. Then, my next task is releasing butterflies where we take the butterflies from the emergence case and release them into the Wing. After that’s all done, I get to mist the walking sticks, which is something I enjoy because they are still little and very cute. From there my day can go all over the place. I may have to step in and docent in the Wing, or I may have to do something in the lab like feeding the cockroaches. All the ways my day can take a turn always makes it more fun. My favorite part of the day is interacting with the insects up close and hands on. At the end of the day I close up the Butterfly Wing and clean the lab before I head home. Being an intern here is an amazing experience because I wouldn’t get to interact with so many insects if I wasn’t.

• Faith Riedell