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Dr. Lane KreitlowLane’s foray into beekeeping began when she was a second-time-around undergraduate at NCSU in the mid-1990’s. After finishing a liberal arts degree in communication, she didn’t like her job prospects, nor could she shake the feeling that she missed the boat on her true calling. So, two years later, she went back to school to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology. |
At the time, she had a wide range of zoological interests, including a particular love of primates, invertebrate zoology, and even considered studying sharks at one point. She happened upon Dr. John Ambrose’s Bees and Beekeeping course in 1996, which she took out of pure interest, never expecting that this choice would set the path for the rest of her career.
After earning her undergraduate degree in Zoology, she went on to pursue a master’s degree in Apiculture with Dr. Ambrose studying the use of heat treatment as a potential control measure for varroa mites. She went on to a PhD program at Va Tech with then Va State Apiculturist Dr. Rick Fell, initially to continue working with honey bees but switched course when she learned of Dr. Fell’s involvement with death investigations at the VA Medical Examiner’s office. Intrigued, Lane continued to be involved with the VA State Beekeepers Association during those years, but most of her research focus was on the use of insects to determine time of death- a field she found utterly fascinating. She was actually the first student at Va Tech to earn a degree in the subject area of forensic entomology. She served as an expert witness for numerous death investigations that involved insects, where she would collect and analyze insects present during autopsies. A few of the cases she worked on involved death by bee stings but most of her research and casework involved maggots, adult flies and other decomposing insects. Lane received several awards for her work in forensic entomology, including the James M. Grayson award, the Kosztarab Scholarship in Systematic Entomology, the distinguished PEO Scholar Award and was recognized in the Roanoke Times. She thoroughly enjoyed working in forensic entomology, but she really missed the bees.
After completing her doctorate degree, Lane moved back to Raleigh where she had the great privilege of working with Dr. David Tarpy on the “hive giveaway” in 2005, while also working on a research project involving Russian-hybrid bees. She later worked as the staff entomologist for NCDA&CS as a regulatory entomologist, while concurrently teaching Forensic Entomology and serving as an adjunct assistant professor at NC State. During that time, Lane continued to work on forensic cases involving insects, authored a chapter in a forensic entomology textbook, served on graduate student committees at both NCSU and VA Tech, and received the Outstanding Recent Alumna award for both the Department of Entomology and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Va Tech.
Lane eventually left those positions to focus on her family and has been a free agent ever since. She currently works for her husband’s laboratory robotics company and is building a small bee business with her son. Lane is a prolific writer, and is working on several honey bee-related projects. She is the content editor of the Bee Buzz and co-organizer of 5CBA bee school. Lane entered the MBP as a tribute to Dr. Ambrose and achieved her Master Craftsman Certification in July 2019. She is a proud member of the 5-County Beekeepers and plans to continue in bee-related activities at both the state and chapter levels. She may revive her forensic entomology interests at some point but for now is focused on her first true insect love, the honey bee.
