I obtained a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Biological Sciences in Zimbabwe in 2015. My project focused on the potential insecticidal effects of botanicals namely Azadiracta indica and Nicotine tobacum on a gall forming pest, Leptocybe invasa.

Currently I am doing an MSc in Entomology in the Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria (UP) under Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI). I am under the supervision of Professor Brett Hurley and Doctor Michelle Schroder. Gonipterus sp n 2 (Eucalyptus weevil) is a eucalyptus leaf defoliating beetle and is native to Australia. Upon findings of this pest in South Africa in 1916, an egg parasitoid, Anaphes nitens which was introduced into South Africa in 1926. The unsatisfactory results in the control of the pest by A. nitens justifys the need to search for other specific biological control agents in the weevil’s native region. Centrodora damoni is one of the natural enemy of the weevil and very little is known about it. My main research aim is therefore to determine the biology of yet another egg parasitoid of Gonipterus spp complex,  Centrodora damoni, and study the interactions between C. damoni and the already released parasitoid, A. nitens in South Africa.