Christopher Hayes

Bio

Dr. Hayes’ research background is at the intersection of urban and public health
entomology. He began his career studying and rearing dog heart worm (Dirofilaria
immitis) within Anopheles mosquitoes. This interest in mosquitoes and management led
him to pursue a career as a Pest Management Professional (PMP) in North Carolina.
After several years in industry, he found his way to the Duke Global Health Institute
(DGHI) where he obtained his Master of Science in Global Health. His research while at
DGHI focused on mosquito landscape ecology and population dynamics associated
with land use change in Thailand and Rakhine State, Myanmar. While in the field he
experienced the overlap of urban and structural pests with vector control programs and
tools. This led him to pursue his PhD. in the lab of Dr. Coby Schal at NC State
University. His doctoral research focused on the impacts of Long-Lasting Insecticide-
treated Nets (LLINs) on bed bug behavior, and their potential role in driving the now
widespread insecticide resistance seen in bed bugs globally. His work highlighted the
complex pest ecosystem in vector control settings and developed innovative bioassays
to evaluate the role of LLINs in disrupting bed bug host-seeking and aggregating
behaviors. His work further demonstrated a lack of repellency and mortality to bed bugs
associated with LLIN exposure.

He currently leads the Hayes Structural Pest Research Lab where he pursues questions
of critical importance to the structural pest management industry and human wellbeing
related to urban and peri-urban pest insect ecology, behavior, and biology within a One
Health framework. His current research focuses on:

•  The roles of medically relevant urban pests (i.e. bed bugs, German cockroaches,
  biting flies, and fleas) within vector control systems, and the impact of those
  systems on pest populations on a global scale.
• Surveillance of invasive structural pests (i.e. Asian needle ant, Formosan termite)
  and the evaluation and development of novel management strategies to mitigate
  the spread of these pests.
•  Structural pest insect behavioral ecology, repellency, resistance, and
  management strategy efficacy.