Kenya is home to a pest called the tsetse fly. They can carry and transmit a disease called “sleeping sickness” through their bite. Figuring out the areas in which they live is crucial, especially for farmers who spend a lot of time outside.

But tsetse flies cannot swarm a new habitat like other insects do. When they find a suitable place to live, that population of flies is constrained to that area.

Mark Devisser is a PhD student in the Department of Geography at Michigan State University, and his research focuses on the livestock version of the disease, which impacts East Africa’s local beef production.

Photo: Mark Devisser