MARCH 31 • 2022 | 49

I

nsects are David Lowenstein’s pro-
fessional expertise. He works as 
an extension educator for MSU 
Extension, helping people in Michigan 
learn how to deal with insects and how 
to care for their lawns, flower gardens, 
vegetable gardens and trees. 
 
Growing up in the 
Riverdale section of the 
Bronx, Lowenstein did not 
have a garden. His parents’ 
apartment on the first floor 
looked out on the lawn, so 
he could see the landscaping 
service cut the grass. Once, he planted 
tomato plants outside the apartment, 
but the landscapers mowed them down. 
He says he did take care of a spider 
plant inside the apartment. 
On the way to his undergraduate 
degree in biology at City University 

of New York, Lowenstein helped with 
a professor’s research project on the 
varying diets of fish in the Bronx River. 
Mostly the fish ate insects; the mix of 
insects varied according to the urban-
ization of the surrounding area. At a 
summer internship at the University 
of Wisconsin, Lowenstein worked on 
biological controls, essentially, using 
good insects to manage harmful ones, 
especially the brown marmorated stink 
bug, which infests fruit trees. He went 
back to Madison to earn his master’s 
degree, followed by his Ph.D. in Urban 
Agriculture at the University of Illinois 
in Chicago.
“This is not a typical path for a 
Jewish boy from the Bronx, but I enjoy 
it,” he says candidly. In a way, though, 
this career does represent a return to 
his ancestral roots. His grandparents in 

Germany worked in cattle trading.
People call on Lowenstein for advice 
about how to convert part of their 
lawns to native plants. Why might 
someone want to do that? Lowenstein 
says, “Turf looks nice, but it requires 
maintenance. Turf provides not much 
food for beneficial insects. Butterflies 
and bees do much better with native 
wildflowers and ornamental grasses. 
Native plants require no herbicides or 
pesticides; you might fertilize wildflow-
ers every couple of years.”
How does working as an entomologist 
and agricultural adviser impact living 
as a Jew? 
“My supervisors and employers have 
always been fully accommodating about 
Shabbat observance and taking off for 
Jewish holidays,” he says. “That has not 

He offers tips on how to convert part 
of your lawn to native plants.

David Lowenstein 
— Entomologist

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

David 
Lowenstein

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