Insect Production Worker

About the role

The Insect Production Worker performs routine, repetitive assignments involved in insect mass production, packaging, storing, sterilization, and delivering of insects, and is also involved in the cleaning, disinfection, and maintenance of work areas in support of the insect production program.

Responsibilities

• Prepares and weighs out different rearing media and diet ingredients.
• Operates and/or synchronizes multiple pieces of equipment for preparation of insect diets.
• Assembles and disassembles production chambers.
• Cleans the chambers and the surrounding of the dispersal facility.
• Provides feed to insects, controls temperature and humidity, and harvests pupae or adults, records collection data, and verifies that the data is correct.
• Separates insects into categories such as sex and/or species and controls them to prevent escape or intermingling.
• Observes insect collections for obvious changes of life cycles, deaths, and general activity, and reports observations to the supervisor.
• Determines daily production of adults and pupae by determining the average weight and inputting that data into facility database.
• Prepares disinfectant, for cleaning and sanitation of equipment for rearing of various insect life stages and disinfects based on established protocols.

Qualifications

To qualify, you must show you have had training and experience of sufficient scope and quality to provide you with the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the duties of the position. Your answers to the vacancy specific questions must be supported by the work experience in your resume. For example, if you respond in the affirmative when questioned whether you have experience rearing insects, your resume must include this experience, mindful that experience may not be inferred by job title.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social).

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Benefits

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP) needs bright, energetic and committed professionals to facilitate the domestic and international marketing of U.S. agricultural products and to protect the health and care of animals and plants in the United States. We operate in domestic and global markets. Be part of an organization that protects the health and agriculture of the American people. Join our team!

To learn more about what it's like to work at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, what the agency does, and the types of careers, please visit the APHIS careers site.

APHIS is an emergency response agency. This means that all Agency employees may be asked or assigned to participate in rotating temporary duty assignments to support emergency programs at some time during their careers with APHIS. For details click: APHIS Emergency Response

You can make a difference! The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP) needs bright, energetic and committed professionals to facilitate the domestic and international marketing of U.S. agricultural products and to protect the health and care of animals and plants in the United States. We operate in domestic and global markets. Be part of an organization that protects the health and agriculture of the American people. Join our team!