Suzanne Wainwright-Evans

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Editorial Content Director, Pest Management

Extras

Bothered by a pest? The Buglady can help!

One of Suzanne’s earliest memories is playing in the woods in Virginia and watching aphids. She was amazed at the numbers and how they were packed so tightly together, looking as almost one animal. She was hooked. In high school, Suzanne was part of an ecology club, and her interest was focused on the insects. And thus, “the Buglady” was born. (“I think more people call me Buglady than Suzanne,” Buglady says.) As she got older, Suzanne started to learn more about the human disregard for the environment and our own safety, and she knew she didn’t want to be part of the problem – she wanted to help make a difference. So off to the University of Florida Buglady went, getting degrees in both entomology and horticulture. After college she worked with other companies but just couldn’t find her niche. So in 2001, she started Buglady Consulting, through which she works with commercial growers across the US who are dealing with pest issues. Her work focuses on the conservation of beneficial insects and biological control, as well as reducing pesticide use. (She also spends way too much time photographing insects – but her pictures are amazing!) The Buglady currently lives in her own piece of paradise in rural Pennsylvania with her husband, dogs, cats and mice. She’s involved with 19th century reenacting from a gardening and cooking aspect (focusing on candy-making and baking), collects clear toy candy molds and Springerle molds, and is Star Trek obsessed. She also collects old varieties of plants and monitors them for their attractiveness to beneficial insects, then uses the plants for cooking and crafting. When she’s not baking or playing with her bugs, she’s with her doggies Pico and Brea – both rescue doggies and spoiled rotten. “And for those who know me well,” she says, “I am Suzanne, and I am a candy cast iron mold addict. There – I admit it.”

Quotes

On how she got started: “People often ask me, ‘How did you get into bugs?’ I typically reply that bugs are a kind of insect. For example: flies, grasshopper and butterflies are not bugs. But a stink bug is a true bug. Then people just look at me with a blank stare…and then I tell them I have always loved insects, not just bugs.”
On communicating with the insects: “They call me the bug whisperer, but they don’t whisper back very well – being they don’t have lips.”

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