insects

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Disease Threatens Florida Oranges

Scientists search for solutions to citrus greening disease

(Newser) - Florida’s orange growers face a powerful adversary in a disease know by its shorthand of HLB that causes citrus trees to “green”—produce only sour, misshapen fruit, Scientific American reports. With every county in the state affected, the citrus industry has dedicated $10 million this year alone...

Cyborg Bugs Could Warn of Fires, Chemical Attacks

(Newser) - Cyborg bugs may sound like creatures in a Michael Bay movie, but they could save your life, New Scientist reports. The Pentagon is trying to implant electrodes in crickets and cicadas—which communicate via wingbeats—and program them to “speak” differently around certain chemicals. “The insect itself might...

Giant Ant Colony Spreads Across World

Insects from different continents treat each other as family

(Newser) - In what may be a first for the animal kingdom, one giant family of ants has established itself in different parts of the world, the BBC reports. Researchers studying the species known as Argentine ants in Europe, the US, and Japan found that they had a strikingly similar chemical profile,...

Fly Strike Shows Another Side to Prez

No 'negotiation' in direct smack

(Newser) - President Obama’s precision fly-swatting has caught the nation’s attention—perhaps because it showed a surprisingly forceful approach, writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. “Some Americans fear that President Obama is too prone to negotiation, comity and splitting the difference,” Dowd notes. “This moment...

PETA to Obama: Flies Have Feelings, Too

Group unhappy with prez's brutal fly attack

(Newser) - At least one group isn’t impressed with the president’s killer reflexes: PETA. The animal-rights group sent Obama a no-kill trap after he nailed a fly, midair, during a CNBC interview Tuesday. The bug-battling tool captures insects alive. “We support compassion for even the smallest animals,” says...

Super Fly No Match for Obama Death Slap

Lightning-fast prez pulverizes persistent fly during White House interview

(Newser) - A fly that invaded a CNBC White House interview yesterday was no match for the leader of the free world, the Christian Science Monitor reports. After repeatedly warning the fly to get out of there and let him discuss financial regulation in peace, President Obama delivered a surgical strike, dispatching...

Bush Interrogation Memo Approved Use of Insects

(Newser) - Among the weirder revelations emerging from the newly released CIA memos on harsh interrogations: Bush administration lawyers approved the use of insects. Apparently, one detainee in particular had a phobia about them, so interrogators wanted to slip one into his "cramped confinement box," Time reports. The technique never...

Pay for Soup, Enjoy Insects, Mold Free
Pay for Soup, Enjoy Insects, Mold Free
OPINION
Feb 13, 2009 1:33 PM CST

Pay for Soup, Enjoy Insects, Mold Free

FDA's classification of food 'defects' a slippery slope

(Newser) - If you're eating, stop reading now: The FDA's rules on foreign matter in food products are a veritable entomology lesson. Maggots, fly eggs, rodent droppings, grit, mold, burlap, cigarette butts, and parasites are all OK with the agency in limited quantities, writes EJ Levy in the New York Times, adding,...

Mosquitoes Sing Love Songs

(Newser) - Birds and bees get all the attention, but mosquitoes have some love moves all their own, scientists say. It seems that when a boy mosquito meets a girl and things turn romantic, their wings beat at precisely the same speed to create a sort of harmonic mating song, the BBC...

Surprise! Coked-Up Bees Get Buzzed, Too

Drugged-up bees get overexcited and dance like crazy

(Newser) - Coked-up bees get as buzzed as their human counterparts, the New York Times reports. Researchers probing the nature of addiction discovered that when bees were given a dose of cocaine their judgment was altered and they became much more enthusiastic about food finds, performing the waggle dance more often, faster,...

An Insect Bioterror Strike? Sounds Overblown
An Insect Bioterror Strike?
Sounds Overblown
opinion
Jan 5, 2009 8:49 PM CST

An Insect Bioterror Strike? Sounds Overblown

(Newser) - Sure, bug swarms can spread nasty things, but using them to unleash bioterror isn't as easy as they say, Robert Roy Britt writes in LiveScience. One expert said in the Telegraph today that dispersing insects as weapons is "relatively easy"—but consider that terrorists would have to team...

Ravenous Beetles Decimate West's Pines

Harsh winter sole hope for containing insect that has affected millions of acres—and is moving east

(Newser) - Peanut-sized bark beetles have drilled into and killed millions of acres of green pines from New Mexico to British Columbia, threatening the Rockies’ iconic lodgepoles with extinction, reports the New York Times. With only costly and temporary fixes available, preservationists are hoping for an atypically frigid winter to contain the...

Author Offers Creepy Look at Critters With Taste for Blood

Bats, bedbugs, leeches, and mosquitoes have a common thirst

(Newser) - With Halloween nearly upon us, the author of new book on bloodsucking creatures—vampire bats, bedbugs, leeches, and the like—leads the New York Times on a sanguivore safari. The world's bloodthirsty creatures vary enormously, as Bill Schutt details in Dark Banquet, and some are mere dabblers, but many specialists...

At 22.3 Inches, Insect Is World's Longest

Just-discovered Phobaeticus chani roams the Borneo jungle, looking twiggy

(Newser) - A stick insect called Phobaeticus chani has claimed the distinction of world's longest insect, beating out its nearest competitor by an inch, the Independent reports. Named after the amateur naturalist who brought it to scientists' attention, the bug measures 22.3 inches with its legs outstretched. A treetop rainforest dweller,...

Fireflies May Be Succumbing to Light Pollution

Numbers plummeting around the world

(Newser) - From backyards in Tennessee to river banks in Thailand, fireflies are disappearing. And the lights may be going out, said scientists who gathered last week in Thailand, because of human light pollution. Urban sprawl has caused a loss of habitat, AP reports, but it also may be that bright cities...

Scientists Master Fly-Swatting
 Scientists Master Fly-Swatting 
Aug 29, 2008 12:00 PM CDT

Scientists Master Fly-Swatting

To defeat a 100 milliseconds reaction time, stealthy swatting is crucial

(Newser) - Scientists using high-speed cameras have figured out why it is so difficult to swat pesky houseflies, the Independent reports. A fly's tiny brain can detect a threat, adjust flight course, and take evasive action in 100-thousandths of a second. The researchers, writing in the journal Current Biology, recommend thinking one...

For One Man, Best Friend a Butterfly

(Newser) - Walking in DC last summer, Dan Southerland felt a butterfly land on his shoulder—where it stayed perched for the next few hours, as he ducked first into a photo store to document his fluttery friend, then into a steakhouse, and finally on a taxi ride to his suburban home,...

'Super Termite' Found in Fla.
 'Super Termite' Found in Fla.
Aug 2, 2008 3:51 PM CDT

'Super Termite' Found in Fla.

Fast-eating bug known to cause panic among homeowners

(Newser) - One of the world's most feared termites has been caught gnawing on a Florida Gulfport home. Exterminators say they have saved the house, but admit that the "super termites"—or Formosan subterraneans—included winged swarmers, which indicates that that colony has existed for more than 5 years. "...

Vanishing Bees Reveal Dangers of Pesticides
Vanishing Bees Reveal Dangers of Pesticides
opinion
Jul 30, 2008 6:20 PM CDT

Vanishing Bees Reveal Dangers of Pesticides

Why won't the US do the right thing, ban dangerous products?

(Newser) - The rapid, mysterious deaths of billions of honeybees demand a closer look at how we use and control pesticides, Al Meyerhoff writes in the Los Angeles Times. A family of toxic chemicals called neonictonoids—led by two Bayer pesticides called Gaucho and Poncho—may be killing off the insects, but...

Pine Beetles Eat Through Western Forests

Huge bug infestation doing more damage than wildfires

(Newser) - The biggest infestation of mountain pine beetles in decades is devastating huge tracts of forest in the Western states, USA Today reports; forestry workers say the bugs are killing even more trees than the wildfires ravaging California's forests. The larvae consume the inner bark of trees, usually lodgepole pines, killing...

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