Dick is a professional entomologist with 30+ years experience in apiculture and tree
fruit entomology. He has been keeping and studying honey bees since 1973. He started
his entomology career as a consultant to the Nova Scotia tree fruit industry. Later he
served as extension entomologist / apiculturist for the Nova Scotia government. Dick
returned to the private sector in 2000 as President of Wildwood Labs Inc, a contract
research firm based in Nova Scotia, Canada. His work at WLI involved international
contract research and consulting, monitoring orchards for insect development and
forecasting, house fly surveys and recommendations, and insect identification services to
the general public, government and other organizations. The field and lab research
included bees, orchard IPM, bioherbicides, and vegetable trials. As well, he provided bee
health inspection services for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.
Dick is now working as an entomologist with Bayer CropScience. His role at BCS is
to plan, coordinate and execute bee studies and to be an internal and external resource on
bee health issues.
In addition, Dick taught entomology at Acadia University for three years, and is an
adjunct professor at the university. His teaching experience includes many short courses,
workshops, and seminars dealing with apiculture, entomology and IPM. Speaking
engagements and training sessions related to apiculture have been delivered in most
Canadian provinces, in numerous US states (including AZ, CA, NC, DC, VA, MT), as
well as in Portugal, France, Corsica, Germany, The Netherlands, England, and Italy.
Dick is also working toward a Ph.D. from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
The title of his thesis is Investigations of the Multi-factors Affecting Honey Bee Health.
(IAHAC), a working committee of the Europe-based International Commission on Plant-
Bee Relationships (ICP-BR) Bee Protection Group. Dick is currently co-supervising a
Ph.D. student working on Nosema. Finally, he has written articles on choosing
carbohydrates for feeding bees, how-to-monitor Nosema, and has authored or co-authored