Heather Ketchum

Rank/Title

• Professor 
  
• Director of the Oklahoma Biological Station

• PhD, Texas A&M University, Department of Entomology
• M.S., California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Department of Biology
• B.S. University of California at Riverside, Department of Biolog

• Medical
• Veterinary
• Forensic Entomology

I work primarily with undergraduate students providing opportunities to conduct original research or to join existing research projects. Research focuses on two major areas, medical/veterinary and forensic entomology.

I am interested in tick ecology, control and risk management, surveillance and associated pathogens that cause tick borne diseases. Much of our work has been conducted in state, regional, and local Oklahoma parks.

In the area of forensic entomology, I am interested in factors that influence seasonal activity of blow flies in Oklahoma, the effects of drugs and other toxins on blow fly larval development and how those affects may alter minimum postmortem interval estimates, and methods to standardize laboratory rearing of blow flies. Data collected from these studies is helpful in determining minimum postmortem interval in criminal cases that occur in Oklahoma.

Ketchum, H.R., E. Bright, H. Loeffler, S. Gillette, and R. Russell. 2023. The use of coffee bean oil to repel Amblyomma americanum. Proceedings of Oklahoma Academy of Sciences, 103:1-9.

Bright, E., and H.R. Ketchum. 2021. New geographic record for the Oriental latrine fly,

Chrysomya megacephala in Oklahoma. 46:789-792. DOI: 10.3958/059.046.0322

Ahadizadeh, E., H.R. Ketchum, and R. Wheeler. 2015. Human cutaneous myiasis by the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae), in Oklahoma. Case Report Journal of Forensic Sciences. DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.12776 

Teel, P.D., H.R. Ketchum, D.E. Mock, R.E. Wright, and O.F. Strey. 2010. The Gulf Coast Tick: A review of the Life History, Ecology, Distribution, and Emergence as an Arthropod of Medical and Veterinary Importance. Journal of Medical Entomology. 47:707-722. DOI: 10.1603/ME10029 

Ketchum, H.R., C.J. Coates, P.D. Teel, and O.F. Strey. 2009. Genetic variation in 12S and 16S mitochondrial rDNA genes of four geographically isolated populations of Gulf Coast ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) Journal of Medical Entomology. 46:482-489. DOI: 10.1603/033.046.0311