#The Secret of the Strength of the Great wall of china Lies in Sticky Rice Mortar The use of sticky rice was one of the greatest technical innovations of the time.
which provide energy for the potential pollinators. But the floral nectar of some plant species also includes small quantities of substances known to be toxic,
The presumption is that natural selection has favored those plants that satisfy the desires of their pollinators.
or bacteria to pesticides but none of these have yet been agreed upon as the reason for this astounding decline The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8%last winter,
The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination,
which means that bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy. Link via reddit Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati n
Deers, Black bucks, Peacocks, Blue bulls, Chinkaras, are some of the animals that you would find roaming around their settlements.
#Use Cucumbers and Other Natural Products To Keep Insects Away Repel Pests Naturally! You may not know it,
Home improvement blog Apartment Therapy suggests using cucumbers to keep ants away, along with other natural repellents that keep multi-legged home invaders at bay.
Instead of using harsh chemicals to keep bugs away, try some natural, free solutions Weve previously mentioned how to repel mosquitoes with plants,
and offered vodka-based insect repellent, but what about the ants finding refuge from the summer heat in your home?
Apartment Therapy serves up a few tips that we hadnt seen before, including discs of cucumber.
As summer approaches, ants flock to kitchens on the hunt for food crumbs. Ants are appalled by cucumbers;
therefore, the cucumber slices work best when placed near cracks or other areas where ants may enter the home.
You will need, of course to change out those discs every so often as they spoil, and youd probably want to put them on top of wax paper
For other ways to repel flies, moths, and other bugs, check out the article below. If youve got your own trusty DIY bug repellent solution,
sound off in the comments below. Household Pest Control: 5 Natural Bug Repellents Apartment Therapy Photo by Il conte di Luna.
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#Monsanto Takes Fight To Control Your Food To Supreme court The battle over the non-regulated status of genetically modified crops has reached the US Supreme court. Monsanto has appealed,
and youll see birds, bugs, plants, and animals that youd never come across on the ground.
If confirmed, the study could bolster the idea that early angiosperms promoted the rise of certain insects.
Modern insects like bees and wasps rely on flowers for nectar and pollen. oethe fossil record suggests that a lot of these insect groups originated before angiosperms appeared,
said Stephen Smith of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. This study shifts the oldest angiosperms back farther in time towards the origin of groups like bees and flies,
the scientists say. oeif you take our dates and superimpose them on the evolutionary tree for these insect groups,
all of a sudden you get a match, said Beaulieu. To trace the origins of flowering plants, the researchers used genetic comparisons of living plants and clues from fossils to reconstruct the relationships among more than 150 terrestrial plant species
said Donoghue. oebut its hard to imagine flowering plants would have had a big impact on the origin of major insect groups
#Aphids Genome Reflects Its Reproductive, Symbiotic Lifestyle Colony of young aphids. Aphids could be considered the oemosquitoes of the plant world,
depending on the oeblood of plants to survive. They live in symbiosis with bacteria that pass from one generation to the next,
Aphids with the same genotype can be winged wingless or. In different seasons, they develop as asexual females who produce offspring with identical genes through parthenogenesis.
The genome of the pea aphid sequenced by the International Aphid Genomics Consortium, reflects these unusual characteristics
and more, said Dr. Stephen Richards, assistant professor in the Baylor College of Medicine Human genome Sequencing Center
The consortium released the 464 megabyte draft genome of the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) in the current issue of PLOS Biology. oebecause this is a different kind of insect not a fruit fly, not a beetle,
not a hymenoptera (butterfly and moth) we are seeing things that people have not seen in other projects,
said that even though he pushed hard to get the aphid genome sequenced, oeit turned out to be far more interesting than
He agreed with Richards that the aphid presents a special case. oelook at this little insect,
000 in other insects and 25,000 in humans, said Richards, a corresponding author of the paper. oethus it seems that pea aphids (one among the 4,
500 other aphid species on the planet) have duplicated some of their genes, said Dr. Denis Tagu,
senior scientist with The french National Institute for Agricultural Research. oewhat does this mean? It means that the pea aphid probably did a kind of backup of its genetic material.
One hypothesis is that one copy of this backup is kept unchanged and used for the functioning of the cells and the organism,
the pea aphid adapt to its environment. oeanother possibility is that maybe aphids require extra copies of genes
Stern said. oemaybe the aphids need all these to regulate all parts of their life cycles.
Heres hoping the ongoing global bee die off comes to an end soon it seems were losing some of the smartest insects on the planet.
The honey-making insects prefer nectar with small amounts of nicotine and caffeine over plain nectar, researchers revealed.
which provides energy for the potential pollinators. But the floral nectar of some plant species also includes small quantities of substances known to be toxic, such as caffeine and nicotine.
and cockroaches to tarantulas and find which might have come first. In a scientific and technological tour de force that was nearly a decade in the making, a team of scientists from Duke university,
A big surprise to tumble out of the new tree is that the closest living relatives of insects include a small and obscure group of creatures called remipedes that were discovered only in the late 1970s living in a watery cave in the Bahamas.
the researchers are putting the strange shrimp together with the six-legged insects, Hexapoda, to form a new group they dubbed Miracrustacea,
As a oesister clade to hexapods, the Xenocarida likely represent the sort of creature that came onto land to start the spectacular flowering of the insect lineage,
and a mayfly, had also been thought of as an early crustacean, but it too was shown to have a relatively modern origin in the new analysis,
scorpions, dragonflies, barnacles, copepods and centipedes. Remipedes, one of the two species of Xenocarida in the study, had to be fetched from partially submerged limestone caves in the Yucatan peninsula and preserved just so.
Two of the varieties contained genes for the Bt protein which protects the plant against the corn borer pest,
#Hotlix Insect Candy in Pictures Hotlix insect candy Even the sweetest tooth might find these confections easy to resist.
Pics) Californian based candy creators HOTLIX have been making people cringe with delight with their outrageous confections for over 25 years. oeour first insect candy was flavoured a tequila lollipop with a worm in it back in 1982,
and our insect candy has taken off worldwide. The brainchild of Larry Peterman, 70, HOTLIX have expanded their line to include devilish delights from apple,
lemon and orange flavoured Cricket Suckers to Amber Insectnside and spice-flavoured Larvets. oelarry has
what he calls the worm ranch where he grows all of the insects for food products,
revealed Katy. oeour latest insect candy has been flavoured the chocolate scorpion which have proved to be very popular.
apple peel and banana peel so they are filled clean bugs with nutrients. And like the chocolatier from Roald Dahls hit childrens book, Larry is very protective of the secret process behind making insect candy. oethe owner does not divulge exactly what the process is before they are cooked
because over the years we have had a lot of people who have tried to copy the process. So far though our secrets have stayed safe and sound.
#Scientists Identify Ecuadors Yasuni National park as One of Most Biodiverse Places On earth Crowned like a king, the spike-headed katydid,
Panacanthus cuspidatus, is projected one of 100,000 insect species in Yasuni. A team of scientists has documented that Yasunã National park,
in the core of the Ecuadorian Amazon, shatters world records for a wide array of plant and animal groups, from amphibians to trees to insects.
an Ecuadorian botanist working with both the Smithsonian Institution and Finding Species. Perhaps the most impressive statistic of all is that a single hectare of forest in Yasunã is projected to contain 100,000 insect species. According to eminent entomologist Dr
That, or the subjects confused the study with a casting call for another sequel to Cocoon.
its surely worth a try. 8. Red Hot Chili pepper Salsa Before Anthony and Flea, there were habeã eros to get everyone hot and sweaty.
Spanish fly Empanadas The longstanding legend that oespanish Fly can drive the ladies wild is a dangerous myth.
The Spanish fly is actually a green blister beetle found in southern parts of Europe. For centuries, a preparation made from the insects dried and crushed bodies (a substance known as cantharides) was used medically as an irritant and diuretic.
If the chemical is given to a woman, it will severely irritate the urinary tract, causing extreme burning and itching in the vaginal area.
Today, Spanish fly is considered actually a poison, as an overload of cantharides can cause kidney malfunction, gastrointestinal hemorrhages or even death.
although youd never know that based on the number of Spanish fly-related porn sites on the Web. via Mental Flos t
#Punishment Important in Plant-Pollinator Relationship Charlotte Jander placed either a wasp carrying pollen or a pollen-free wasp in a bag around a fig fruit.
Figs and the wasps that pollinate them present one of biologists favorite examples of a beneficial relationship between two different species. In exchange for the pollination service provided by the wasp,
and board for the wasps developing young. However, wasps do not always pollinate the fig.
Fig trees oepunish these oecheaters by dropping unpollinated fruit, killing the wasps offspring inside, report researchers working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Their results published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, show that sanctions against cheaters may be critical to maintain the relationship. oerelationships require give and take.
and their wasp pollinators. said lead author, Charlotte Jandr, graduate student in Cornell Universitys Department of Neurobiology and Behavior,
who conducted the study as a Smithsonian pre-doctoral fellow. oewhat prevents the wasps from reaping the benefits of the relationship without paying the costs?
Some wasp species passively carry pollen that sticks to their bodies. Others actively collect pollen in special pouches.
Jandr evaluated the ability of six different fig tree-fig wasp species pairs to regulate cheating.
She introduced either a single pollen-free wasp, or a wasp carrying pollen, into a mesh bag containing an unpollinated The wasps entered the figs to lay their eggs.
Jandr found that trees often dropped unpollinated figs before young wasps could mature. oethis is really about the all too-human theme of crime and punishment.
We found that in actively pollinated fig species when wasps expend time and energy to collect
and deposit pollenwasps that did not provide the basic service of pollination were sanctioned. However in passively pollinated species
when the wasps do need not to make an effort to pollinateanctions were said absent Allen Herre,
STRI staff scientist. oealthough we still need to clearly understand the costs associated with applying sanctions,
Similar results have been found among human societies and in social insects. It is very appealing to think that the same general principles could help maintain cooperation both within and among species. more via science news Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati d
The team tested their theory by releasing small hive beetles at the mouth of a beehive,
#Honeybees trained to smell TB Honeybees are such an amazing creature! New zealand biologists believe that honeybees can sense the faint floral odor on the breath of people infected with tuberculosis,
and are trying to find a way to train bees to help them diagnose TB
Honeybee on Snakeroot, a Creative Commons Attribution (2. 0) image from dendroica s photostream) Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati e
including a bug named in honor of Gotham City but in a sense, these bees aren t new at all.
This highlights the need for additional studies of our major pollinators, #and not just honeybees, he told me.
One bee may look like another, but there can be subtle morphological and genetic differences that set them apart.
Honeybees have been hard-hit by a mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder which experts suspect is caused by a combination of mites, parasites, viruses and pesticides.
Bumblebees are having problems, too. This discovery doesn t counter the idea that bees are told declining,
#Invasive bugs eat invasive plant Invasive plants VS Invader bugs. The battle has begun. For 50 years, farmers, scientists,
Megacopta cribraria, an insect that hitched a ride to Atlanta on a plane from Asia in 2009, eats kudzu.
The kudzu bug could eat away a third of the kudzu covering several states within a decade#I m all for it#
But the bug is also chewing up soybean stalks, reducing some yields recently by as much as a quarter,
#Just six years later, following the launch of the new Beetle, the company began its comeback.
$4. 99 4. Bugs and Insects Speaking of bugs, with a database of more than 900 pests, the Bugs and Insects app is a great resource for gardeners looking to determine the culprits who have been nibbling on their harvests,
Users can create lists, tag favorite#bugs, or just flip through the entire database to satisfy a curiosity about entomology.
#European union is conducting $4. 3 million study on nutritional value of eating insects Love bug salad Would you like a bowl of scorpion soup?
Experts in Brussels believe insects and other creepy crawlies could be a vital source of nutrition
They have launched a three million euro (£2. 65 million) project to promote the eating of insects
Proponents of entomophagy#insect eating#argue that bugs are a low-cholesterol low-fat protein food source.
According to one study, small grasshoppers offer 20 per cent protein and just six per cent fat, to lean ground beefs 24 per cent protein and 18 per cent fat.
Crickets are said also to be high in calcium, termites rich in iron, and a helping of giant silkworm moth larvae apparently provides all the daily copper and riboflavin requirements.
There are even claims that bees boost the libido. Insects emit less greenhouse gases than cattle
and require less feed, supposedly making them environmentally-friendly. And supporters claim they could help feed the world
The European commission is offering the money to the research institute with the best proposal for investigating Insects as novel sources of proteins#.
By 2020, you will be buying insects in supermarkets. We will be amazed that in 2011 people didnt think it was going to happen.
I think it will start with ground-up insects in sauces and burgers. Grinding them up will make them look more palatable.#
#He said bugs were biologically similar to shellfish and that flying insects should be regarded as shrimps of the sky#.
#Old sources of protein will be feed insufficient to the growing world population, #he added. The price of regular meat will soar.
#However, Stuart Hine, a senior entomologist at the Natural history Museum, said insects still may not solve all problems.
and insect diseases can spread rapidly enough to kill a farms entire stock in a day.
Insects are fantastic, but they arent the ultimate solution if the world desperately needs food.
Surviving on insects when you cant cook them is one thing; but most cultures who eat insects,
cook them, #he added. In addition to the research project, the EU is also asking national watchdogs including the UK Foods Standards Agency to investigate current insect-eating habits to decide which,
if any, bugs will need safety assessments. This follows the recent emergence in the UK of a very niche market in edible insects,
prompted in part by the television series, Im a Celebrity#Get Me Out Of here!
in which contestants eat unpalatable bushtucker#meals. Todd Dalton, of Edible, which supplies insects for human consumption to Selfridges
and Fortnum & mason, said the EU interest in the area was unlikely to help. The EU is wasting taxpayers money.
People arent suddenly going to start eating insects because the EU is spending money researching. It would be great
but our eating habits wont change until our stigma about consuming insects is removed.##Previous attempts to achieve this have failed.
Those enjoying their Sunday lunch today may also wish to consider that some studies found so many insect fragments slip into food that we eat the equivalent of 500g of bugs per person, per year.
Later, Buddhist chants echoed the buzz of cicadas from nearby trees as Abe burned paper inscribed with the names of the dead, a ritual in
#Beekeeping thrives in U s. cities There are more than 1000,000 bees in a hive on top of City hall in Chicago.
In the garden stand two beehives where more than 100,000 bees come and go in patterns more graceful,
Already this season, one hive has produced 200 pounds of surplus honey which is really a huge amount of honey,
#said beekeeper Michael Thompson after checking the hives one July morning. The state average is 40 pounds of surplus honey per hive.#
#The Chicago bees success could be due to the citys abundant and mostly pesticide-free flowers.
Not to mention the urban residents who are building hives at a brisk pace. Beekeeping is thriving in cities across the nation,
Honey from city hives makes its way into swanky restaurant kitchens and behind the bar,
The White house garden has beehives. The city of Chicagos hives#nine in all, on rooftops and other government property#are just part of the boom.
Ive seen hives set up on balconies and in very, very small backyards,#said Russell Bates, a TV commercial director and cofounder of Backwards Beekeepers,
a 3-year-old group that draws up to 100 mostly newcomers to its monthly meetings in Los angeles. The group is backwards
All their hives are populated by local bees theyve captured #or rescued#as the groups members like to say#from places theyre not wanted.
The Backwards Beekeepers group is working to legalize beekeeping in Los angeles. The mysterious disappearance of honeybees,
first reported in 2006 by commercial beekeeping operators who lost 30 to 90 percent of their hives,
The U s. Department of agriculture estimates about one-third of the nations diet directly or indirectly benefits from honeybee pollination.
The restaurant recently put six beehives on the roof of an academic building, and Doebel and his students will study the bees,
#Greg Fischer of Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery in Chicago has about 40 beehives in the city and another 60 in more rural areas.
Chicago resident Carolyn Ioder started hives two years ago after growing vegetables and raising chickens.
Her bees live in three hives in a community garden in a once-vacant lot near a fire station and elevated train tracks.
and other Superbugs Even more health benefits from honey are being identified. The Guardian reports that Welsh scientists are collecting honey to help identify new antibacterial drugs.
professor of microbiology at Cardiff University, sees tackling bugs such as MRSA with new plant-based products as an urgent matter.
to protect our honeybees and end the routine use of antibiotics on farms. LINK Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati l
spawning deadly superbugs, #and ultimately making people and animals sick. In other words, if more farmers switch from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOS) to open pastures, there will be no need to grow imitation meat in a lab. Photo credit:
Less than 24 hours later, a woman walked into the Eldredge Bros. Fly Shop in Maine
And now, instead of ending up on a fly, its going into womens hair, #said Matt Brower, a guide and assistant manager at Idaho Angler in Boise.
A package of the most popular fly tying hackle for hair extensions, a black and white striped feather called grizzly saddle
when they attract a fly into their sticky trap and close their mouth around it.
Mosquito#An estimated 2-3 million fatalities a year Venomous Snakes#An estimated 50,000-125,000 fatalities a year Deer-An estimated 2, 000-4, 000
#CDC Confirms Lemon Eucalyptus oil as Effective as DEET Mosquitoes can be a huge problem. Its easy to say youll never use DEET,
My home state boasts mosquitoes that rival your house pet in size and stature. But even still, many fear the toxicity of DEET and try to avoid it even with those mini-monsters landing on you noon and night.
The CDC confirmed that lemon eucalyptus oil can be as effective as DEET in repelling mosquitoes
when oil of lemon eucalyptus was tested against mosquitoes found in the US it provided protection similar to repellents with low concentrations of DEET.
according to APHIS. The program will most certainly be more timely and efficient, #for a biotech industry that has gained 7 million acres of crop cultivation in two years,
#The primary jailbreak apps store, Cydia#named after the insect that bores into apple trees#now earns about $10 million in annual revenue and counts about 4. 5 million active weekly users hunting
because they eat large numbers of crop damaging insects, reducing the amount that has to be spent on pesticides.
According to the researchers, a single colony of 150 big brown bats in Indiana ate almost 1. 3 million potentially damaging insects a year.
#Stink Bug Epidemic Spreads to 33 U s. States Stink bugs Stink bugs, the smelly scourge of the Mid-atlantic, are hitchhiking
Officially known as the brown marmorated stink bug, sightings of the pest have been reported in 33 states, an increase of eight states since last fall.
The National Pest Management Association warns homeowners this week that the bugs growing populations are likely to make infestations significantly worse this year.
The bugs have been spotted as far west as California, as far north as Minnesota and as far south as Florida.
The eight states recently joining the stink bug party are Arizona Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, according to the USDAS Greg Rosenthal.
Stink bugs are named for the pungent smell they emit when frightened, disturbed or squashed. They have glands that produce a defensive compound,
#Entomologist David Rider of North dakota State university says there are more than 4, 700 species of stink bugs in the world#250 of them in the USA and Canada.
while others are beneficial predators that feed on insects#but now its just the brown marmorated one in the USA thats causing all the fuss.
Last summer, there was a major infestation of the brown, three-quarter-inch bugs in homes throughout the Mid-atlantic, the worst reports coming from West virginia, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New jersey.
but the bugs can be devastating to farmers. They feed on a wide range of important food crops,
Some growers have lost their entire crop to stink bug infestations, #Hoelmer says. This adds up to many millions of dollars of losses in crop values.
and combat stink bugs. Funding for the USDAS stink bug research in fiscal year 2010 totals nearly $1. 09 million,
The two seasons when people most notice the bugs are in the fall #when they come inside homes looking for warmth and shelter#and in the spring,
The bugs dont bite and arent poisonous. They dont transmit disease and dont suck blood,
The bugs probably got to the USA in the late 1990s by hitchhiking in container ships from Asia.
the Asian bugs have few natural predators in the USA. Native species do not seem to recognize them as prey,
However, a tiny parasitic wasp from Asia known as a Trissolcus wasp#a bug smaller than a gnat#is showing promise as a possible biological control.
These wasps, which are natural enemies of the brown marmorated stink bug in Asia, might be able to nip the stink bug explosion in the bud by preying on brown marmorated stink bug eggs, the only type of eggs that species of wasps eats.
Hoelmer says that research is underway to determine whether it will be safe to release this specific species of wasp into the wild in the USA:
We already know that each species of Trissolcus only recognizes certain kinds of stink bugs as suitable food for their offspring.
If they cannot locate their species of stink bug hosts, they wont reproduce and they wont survive.
However, we want to be sure that any wasps that are released to control the brown marmorated stink bug will not create problems for other stink bugs,
especially species that are beneficial.##Via USA Today Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati
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