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Insects

Mosquitoes Develop a Taste for Reptile Blood in the Galapagos

The evolution of mosquitoes in the Galapagos Islands spells trouble for reptiles including the iconic giant tortoise. While most mosquitoes prefer the blood of mammals, the black salt marsh mosquito has developed a taste for reptile blood, putting the islands’ unique native wildlife at risk of contracting new mosquito-borne diseases.
From Science Daily:
The research team believe [...]

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Taiwan Shuts Down Highway for Butterfly Crossing

Drivers in Taiwan are slowing down – and even stopping – as the annual migration of milkweed butterflies across a highway commences. The Taiwanese government shut down one lane of the highway, lowered the speed limit and even putting up protective nets as the insects cross the road. Trees have been planted along the highway [...]

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Maggots in Your Mushrooms: Contamination is Rampant in our Food Supply

Insect filth. Rodent filth. Parasites. Mildew. Cigarette butts. Mammalian excreta. These are just a handful of the revolting things that are currently named as “allowable defects” in an FDA booklet entitled “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans”. The very booklet that [...]

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Global Warming May Spread Tick-Borne Disease

Warming weather may expose humans to disease through bites from brown dog ticks, which have previously far preferred dogs to people. Brown dog ticks became unusually aggressive around April 2007, which was abnormally warm.
Several cases of serious illness were reported in people who had been bitten, so scientists began investigating and found large numbers of [...]

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The Lost Ladybug Project: Help Scientists Save Disappearing Ladybugs

First it was bees, which are important to the balance of the environment in so many ways – especially pollination.  Now, populations of ladybugs around the world are inexplicably disappearing, and these once-ubiquitous little beetles also perform an important service in the natural world: controlling the population of harmful crop-destroying insects.  After noting a sudden, [...]

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Ant Problem? Tackle it with Green Solutions

Once you start seeing ants around the house, it seems like it’s a never-ending problem – unless you want to resort to dangerous chemicals, which can be toxic to kids and pets (not to mention the environment). There are actually some fairly easy, humane, green ways to kill ants – or if you’re really [...]

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