bugs

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>

Girl Mocked Over Her Love of Bugs Gets Last Laugh

Sophia Spencer co-authors research paper

(Newser) - Its insights into the use of social media to promote entomology is just one reason a new scientific paper is making headlines. The other is that its co-author is an 8-year-old girl. Sophia Spencer of Canada has long loved creepy-crawlies, especially carrying them around on her shoulder, but her venture...

Cops in the West Issue Warning on Oddly Moving Roads

Swarms of Mormon crickets are plaguing a bunch of states

(Newser) - Farmers in the US West face a creepy scourge every eight years or so: swarms of ravenous insects that can decimate crops and cause slippery, bug-slick car crashes as they march across highways and roads. Per the AP , experts say this year could be a banner one for Mormon crickets—...

London Overrun With Mystery Bug Swarm

The flying insects descended on Greenwich

(Newser) - Social media users in London are buzzing about an apparent swarm of flying insects that has descended on one part of the city. Videos posted to Twitter Tuesday show people ducking as the insects descend on Greenwich in southeast London, reports the AP . It's not clear what the bugs...

Mosquitoes, Ticks Are Coming for Us All This Summer

Warm winter means a pest-heavy summer is likely

(Newser) - America is about to be hit with a major infestation of ticks and mosquitoes, with the National Pest Management Association's chief entomologist predicting a "pretty buggy spring and summer." Popular Science reports this year's unusually warm winter—the sixth warmest ever recorded in the US—means...

Couple Donates Massive Bug Collection Worth $10M

Charles and Lois O'Brien spent 60 years amassing their collection

(Newser) - Lois O'Brien tells the Guardian she and husband Charles have had "sort of an Indiana Jones life." But instead of ancient artifacts, the O'Briens spent 60 years collecting insects across 70 countries and seven continents. Those bugs—approximately 1.25 million of them—now fill more...

For 60 Years, This Bedbug Fell Off the Fla. Map. Now It's Back

Tropical bedbug has potential to wreak more havoc than regular variety

(Newser) - The last time a tropical bedbug was confirmed in Florida, the average price of a new home was less than $10,000 , and Perry Como topped the charts. But USA Today reports this jacked-up cousin of the regular bedbug has now apparently made a reappearance in the Sunshine State, after...

17-Year Cicadas Are Coming ... as Many as 1.5M an Acre
17-Year Cicadas Are Coming
... as Many as 1.5M an Acre
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

17-Year Cicadas Are Coming ... as Many as 1.5M an Acre

Get ready Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia

(Newser) - There will soon be a buzz in the air in the Northeast. Billions of cicadas with a 17-year life span have spent the entire 21st century underground in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, reports Fox News . But when nighttime soil temperature hits 64 degrees for four...

Apple Doesn't Pay Hackers, So Hackers Help FBI: Experts

The black market is doing just fine, though

(Newser) - Hack into Google, Facebook, or Microsoft products and one can reap "bug bounties" that those companies pay to unearth their own flaws. But Apple doesn't pony up for such detective work, which is why security experts say they're not shocked an outside party— Reuters notes an Israeli...

100 Species of Bugs Live in Your Home

Don't fret: Most are harmless, say scientists

(Newser) - You thought Asian camel crickets were bad. A new report in journal Peer J finds hundreds of bugs likely lurk in your home, including spiders, beetles, ants, and book lice. Scientists got down on their hands and knees and combed 50 houses in the suburbs of Raleigh, NC, picking up...

Burning Man Is Crawling With Big, Biting Bugs

In the days leading up to the desert event, early arriving Burners find an infestation

(Newser) - There's a burning question in the days leading up to this year's Burning Man: Who let the bugs out? And while that may seem like an ordinary question at the start of any Burning Man, this year it's particularly literal as early-arriving Burners photograph an apparent infestation...

Wasp's Scary Name Inspired by Harry Potter

JK Rowling approves of 'Soul-Sucking Dementor' name

(Newser) - What name is worthy for a ferocious flying insect that swoops down on supposedly indestructible cockroaches, paralyzes them with its devastating sting, then drags them off into a corner to devour them? "Soul-Sucking Dementor" sounded pretty good to visitors at Berlin's Museum fuer Naturkunde. They were offered the...

Cockroaches Have Individual Personalities

Some are shy; others love to explore, researchers say

(Newser) - Before you spray that bottle of Raid, take a minute to consider: You could be killing a brave little fellow, or perhaps a shy one. That's according to new research indicating that "cockroaches have personalities," as scientists say in a statement. Specifically, they have two, the Guardian...

Your Christmas Tree May Be Full of Creepy-Crawlies

Slugs, bugs, spiders, frogs—up to 25K might be hiding out in your evergreen

(Newser) - Perhaps there's some merit to having a skimpy-looking Charlie Brown Christmas tree: At least you can see if there are any critters hanging out there. Oregon entomologists checked out 100 evergreen fields and discovered more than 67,000 bugs and other small pests from 836 species, the Wall Street ...

Invasive Asian Crickets May Well Live in Your House

They could be squeezing out native bugs: researcher

(Newser) - Asian camel crickets are now so common in the US, they may even be beating out their native cousins. Hundreds or thousands of the striped creatures may very well be sharing your house, a study from North Carolina State finds; indeed, 90% of scientists responding to a census found them...

Giant Moths Descend on Malaysia

Though alarming, moth swarms not dangerous

(Newser) - To some they represent the souls of dead relatives, to others they are beautiful pollinators, but to many they are just plain creepy. What are they? Giant Lyssa Zampa moths, swarms of which have descended on Malaysian homes and even a football match, the BBC reports. “The moths are...

Insane Grasshopper Invasion Hits Albuquerque

Swarms actually show up on weather radar

(Newser) - Albuquerque is dealing with so many grasshoppers that their swarms look like rain on weather radar, ABC News reports. "We have actually been noticing the insects on radar since about Memorial Day," says a National Weather Service rep. At first, the service couldn't figure out what the...

India's Famine Solution: We'll Eat Bugs

FAO discusses farming insects for food

(Newser) - Hopefully people in India like munching on crickets and other, um, delicacies. As the country's Food and Agriculture Organization warns a global famine will strike in 50 years, scientists are experimenting with an interesting source of alternative protein: bugs. "We are now doing a lot of work on...

Gifts Also Rule Animal Kingdom

They offer piggyback rides, share food

(Newser) - Many species of animals are just as into gift-giving as we are, though they may be better at avoiding that last-minute shopping rush. Often, the New York Times explains, the presents are tied to mating. "This is an incredibly cool and important topic in sexual selection that we’re...

Tree-Munching Bugs Wage War on Christmas

Adelgids deplete fir tree population

(Newser) - Talk about a war on Christmas: It's happening right now in southern Appalachia, and the aggressors are freckle-sized bugs with no natural predators. The balsam woolly adelgid, as the creature is known, is wreaking havoc on Canaan and Fraser firs, famed as Christmas trees. The onslaught is leaving trees...

ObamaCare Site's Re-Launch Stumbles Out of the Gate

1/3 of all enrollments reportedly screwed up

(Newser) - The new and supposedly improved HealthCare.gov isn't off to a great start. The site flooded with traffic yesterday morning, slowing it to a crawl and spiking its error rate, the LA Times reports. By 10am the government had turned on a "queuing" feature, essentially putting would-be applicants...

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>