Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson has done something remarkable. Last month Bobbi was honored by Yale University for her insect eradication efforts. Her collection of 27 spotted lanternflies was entered into the Peabody Museum of Natural History database, where her label sits permanently. Bobbi also accepted her new title from the University “donor scientist” during the Jan. 20 ceremony.

Bobbi’s story started three months prior when she was spraying a water, dish soap, and apple cider vinegar mixture, a homemade repellent which she found on TikTok, to her neighbor's trees to kill spotted lanternflies, an invasive species that is harmful to trees and other plants. Bobbi's neighbor, Gordon Lawshe, called the police suspiciously saying, “there’s a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth