Credit: Tom Myers
CLEVELAND – PCT announced Tom Myers, owner of All-Rite Pest Control, Lexington, Ky., as the winner of our 22nd annual Best Pest Photo Contest.
Myers won with a mantidfly photo he captured on his property, about 15 miles south of Lexington. Myers said mantidfly sightings in the Lexington area can be rare, but that he sees them often on his property.
He describes the mantidfly as "a small insect that looks very much like a praying mantis. It is in the Order Neuroptera and eats other insects."
Myers said this particular mantidfly is a mimic of a paper wasp. "It appears to be sizing up the sweat bee as a possible meal," said Myers, who added that the mantidfly is good at natural pest management.
Myers, a board certified entomologist (B.C.E.), has owned and operated All-Rite Pest Control since 1977. He is an accomplished insect photographer whose photos have appeared in National Geographic. In 2014, his photos were on exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
"I love wildlife photography," he said. "It is a constantly changing environment where you have to work fast and to be able to catch that fleeting moment in time. Insect wildlife photography is a part of that excitement. Insects have great diversity and make great subjects. They can be found almost everywhere. First in the process is finding the subject and then being able to capture a great image that is in focus and properly exposed with pleasing lighting. "
Myers photographs insects a lot during the summer outside in Kentucky and other areas. He has a photo lab in his home where he can shoot urban insects any time of year. "I am not retired at this point but I am able to spend more time photographing than I have been able to in the past," he said.
Myers wins $500 from PCT for his winning photo, which will also appear alongside this year’s finalists as part of digital slideshow and in the pages of PCT.
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