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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: insects

insects stories: 34 news summaries

1 - 20 of 34 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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 Bedbug Dogs Sniff Out 
 Bloodsuckers 

Trained hounds in high demand as infestations rise

Oct 21, 09 1:49 AM CDT
(Newser) - The resurgence of an old pest has created new jobs for dogs. Bedbug infestations have soared in American cities over the last four years, creating boom times for exterminators, especially those using canny canines trained to detect the tiny suckers. Handlers say the dogs can expertly sniff out infestations and... More »

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infestation • bedbugs • insects • pests • dog • exterminators • pest control • dog training

Crazy Ants Swarm
Gulf Coast 

Tiny, frenetic munchers invade homes, snack on  electrical wiring

Sep 5, 09 5:15 AM CDT
(Newser) - Billions of "crazy ants" are munching their way through Gulf Coast counties in Florida and Texas, the Wall Street Journal reports. The tiny insects, believed to have originated in the Caribbean, happily make their homes in human dwellings and are tough to dislodge once they move in. The... More »

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Florida • Texas • ants • infestation • insects • exterminators

 Disease Threatens 
 Florida Oranges 

Scientists search for solutions to citrus greening disease

Jul 28, 09 5:01 PM CDT
(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... More »

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Florida • trees • disease • harvest • insects • oranges • fruit and vegetables • citrus greening disease

(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... More »

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technology • Pentagon • cicadas • chemicals • communication • insects • electrodes • crickets • wings

 Giant Ant Colony 
 Spreads Across World 

Insects from different continents treat each other as family

Jul 2, 09 2:10 PM CDT
(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,... More »

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Japan • Europe • United States • Argentina • insects • biology

OPINION

 Fly Strike 
 Shows Another 
 Side to Prez 



No 'negotiation' in direct smack

Jun 21, 09 6:18 AM CDT
(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... More »

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bug • negotiation • Maureen Dowd • insects • President Obama • fly

 PETA to Obama: 
 Flies Have 
 Feelings, Too 

Group unhappy with prez's brutal fly attack

Jun 18, 09 9:01 AM CDT
(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... More »

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Barack Obama • PETA • bug • insects • President Obama

 Super Fly 
 No Match 
 for Obama 
 Death Slap 

Lightning-fast prez pulverizes persistent fly during White House interview

Jun 17, 09 2:58 AM CDT
(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... More »

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Barack Obama • White House • insects • pests • President Obama

(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... More »

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War on Terror • CIA • torture • insects • Guantanamo prisoners • harsh interrogation

OPINION

Pay for Soup, Enjoy Insects, Mold Free

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

Feb 13, 09 1:33 PM CST
(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,... More »

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food • parasites • FDA • food contamination • insects • mold

(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... More »

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mosquito • insects • mating rituals

Surprise! Coked-Up Bees
Get Buzzed, Too 

Drugged-up bees get overexcited and dance like crazy

Jan 6, 09 11:08 AM CST
(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,... More »

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bees • drugs • drug addiction • cocaine • insects • scientific research

opinion

An Insect Bioterror Strike?
Sounds Overblown


Jan 5, 09 8:49 PM CST
(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... More »

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chemical weapons • terrorist • insects • bioterrorism

 Ravenous Beetles 
 Decimate West's Pines 

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

Nov 18, 08 1:48 PM CST
(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... More »

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environment • Montana • insects • Colorado • environmental damage • beetle • pine trees

Author Offers Creepy Look at Critters With Taste for Blood

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

Oct 21, 08 8:25 PM CDT
(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... More »

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blood • bats • bedbugs • insects • biology • Halloween • animal • Bill Schutt

 At 22.3 Inches, 
 Insect Is 
 World's 
 Longest 

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

Oct 17, 08 12:00 PM CDT
(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,... More »

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rainforest • world record • species • insects • Borneo

Fireflies May Be Succumbing to Light Pollution

Numbers plummeting around the world

Sep 1, 08 8:24 AM CDT
(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... More »

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pollution • light • insects • fireflies • lightning bugs

 Scientists Master Fly-Swatting 

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

Aug 29, 08 12:00 PM CDT
(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... More »

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bug • insects • pests • pest control

(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,... More »

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insects • butterflies • friendship

 'Super Termite' Found in Fla.

Fast-eating bug known to cause panic among homeowners

Aug 2, 08 3:51 PM CDT
(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. "... More »

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Florida • University of Florida • insects • homeowners • pests • exterminators • pesticide • termite

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