About Forensic Entomology

This week, I am stumped on what to write about. It is midterm season, so I am preoccupied with schoolwork and just have been thinking about other things. I decided to write about a career that I am interested in: forensic entomology.

TW: Discussion around death, pictures of bugs and decomposing organisms, mention of physical abuse, rape, murder, and other heinous crimes.

Forensic entomology is the study of insects as evidence for crime solving. This includes looking at insect larvae life stages to determine how long the body has been decomposing, insect infestations of properties, and food contamination.

This field is not new to me; I learned a lot about it in my forensics class in high school. We even did a project on how the decomposition of pig's feet differs in the environment it is in (water, buried, in sunlight). This included looking at the fly eggs and larvae and determining how long it had been decomposing. I've always thought fondly of this project and enjoyed learning about forensics.

Stiff by Mary Roach is my favorite book, and it discusses forensics in great depth, including some forensic entomology. This one chapter in the book that I think about often is when she compared the sound of fly larvae eating human flesh to the Snap, Crackle and Pop cereal in milk. Yeah, this probably would turn a lot of people off to the idea of studying forensic entomology, which I understand. However, I think it's super interesting.

Fly larvae on a decomposing peach. Taken by Nigel Cattlin.

There are a few different types of forensic entomology. The most common one people think of is medico-legal forensic entomology which includes examining arthropods at scenes where murder, rape, physical abuse, or smuggling crimes occurred. Forensic entomologists can determine if the arthropods found on a body differ from common arthropods in the location the body is geographically found. This can help investigators determine if the body was moved or not. They also can look at if there are larvae present and the life stage that they are in. This helps determine how long the body has been decomposing and an estimate for time of death. Additionally, for cases of severe physical abuse, forensic entomologists can determine the severity and time of injuries by looking for myiasis, which is the infestation of a living organism by blowfly maggots.

Another type of forensic entomology is stored-product forensic entomology which is the study of insect infestation in sellable products, often grains and flour. Forensic entomologists can help build cases against production companies by finding evidence through contaminated products. The last type of forensic entomology is urban forensic entomology. These entomologists deal with pest infestations within urban buildings, mostly rental buildings where residents want to sue landlords for improper care. These two types of forensic entomology is interesting because of their intersections of public health and science.

That's all I have for today; I hope you learned something!