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First there was one; then there were two – and before long there were billions of them. Invasive ants have managed to form super-colonies that have the potential to grow indefinitely. Ants normally form colonies with only one nest and one queen....
Does your TV seem to be bugged? How about that bug in your computer, not to mention, your video games. Is it really an electronic misfire, a phantom glitch or are they really, truly BUGGED? Did you know that the cockroach is the “Computer Geek”...
They’re everywhere! Termites are active across the state of California, from Redding to San Francisco, down to Fresno, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego. Both subterranean and drywood termites are well-known for damaging homes in...
Bed bugs are ancient insects and they’ve lived off warm blooded hosts since time began. Research shows that prehistoric bed bugs inhabited caves in the Middle East (the cradle of life), most likely feeding on bat blood until humans began to live in...
Nationwide, termites cause more than $2.5 billion worth of damage to homes each year. Crawling up into sill plates or foundation posts from damp soil, and flying into attics or crawl spaces, these relentless insects tunnel into and eat wood,...
Controlling the minds of other living creatures is science fiction or at best the stuff of horror stories, right? Well for some, becoming a real live zombie is a deadly reality. In the race for survival, mind control has become something of a...
September 22nd, marked the fall equinox this year; Where Summer blasts our days with her last hot breaths, and Fall creeps in with his first cool evening breezes. It's the time when, days and nights begin as equals and where days slowly shorten and...
Architects and engineers are turning to the insect world for ideas on creating the homes, working environments and products of the 21st century. Bio-Mimicry is Bio-Inspiration at it’s finest. Scientists believe that, as fossil fuels dry up,...
The changes in recent research tell us that the comparison of ants and termites is all wrong. The current scientific termite data shows that termites may look similar to ants, but in actuality, they are descendants of a common ancestor of...
Mosquitoes became the preeminent pest in America after the 1900 discovery, by Sir Ronald Ross, that linked them to the dreaded disease, Malaria. This was the Progressive Era, and American entomologist, Leland O. Howard, a staunch progressive,...
Beetles Comprise One-Fifth Of The 1.5 Million Living Species On Earth. There are more than a quarter million species of beetles in the world and 25,000 identified in North America alone. Beetles come in a variety of shapes and colors, from firey...
It is said that when man learned to farm, modern civilization began. We humans credit ourselves as being very intelligent creatures capable of learning to grow crops and keep cattle, but we are hardly the first species to acquire the skill....
Camouflage is an ancient art form among the worlds’ animal species and especially insects. In nature there are many ways to protect against potential predators: armor, poison, noxious smell, size or speed, etc. But perhaps no form of protection is...
Put the movie “The Birds” together with the 1999 film, “Murder of Crows” and you have a great horror show and it’s playing out right here is Southern California. Look, up in the sky, great flocks of crows are winging their way from communal...
Fear of insects (also known as entomophobia) mainly includes disgust or aversion to bugs. Insects and bugs often appear “ugly or disgusting” owing to their shape, colors, or wiggly parts. Bugs like flies, mosquitoes and fleas are also associated...
Cockroaches are one of the dirtiest and hardiest of natures’ creations. Their saliva, droppings and decomposing bodies contain allergen proteins known to trigger asthma and allergy symptoms, especially in children. In addition to exacerbating skin...
So, you've never eaten bugs? Well, more than half the world thinks you're really missing out. People in most countries eat insects. Central Americans eat butterfly larvae. South Americans eat beetles. Africans eat ants, caterpillars, termites, and...
The shortest poem ever written, composed by American poet Strickland Gillilan (also attributed to Ogden Nash) in the early 20th century, reads, “Adam, Had 'em”. Straight to the point, man has a long history with fleas. A fossil flea discovered...
There’s nothing like being awoken from a sound sleep by sudden itching, pinches or stings. These sensations send us scrambling from our warm covers, checking for bite marks and scouring our beds for the creepy crawlies we just know are using our...
At this time of year, in the early mornings, there is a soft glistening webbing in the trees and on the lawn, and hillsides are decorated with dew-frosted beauty. There is a fairytale quality to the scene and Nature’s art gallery is open for...
Locally, in California we have about 1,600 species of native bees, some social, like the honey bee, and bumble bee, but most are solitary and include native bees such as; carpenter bees, leafcutting bees, sweat bees, digger bees, mining bees, mason...
It seems that in the world of “Gopher Control”, nothing is foolproof. Methods of extermination abound and stories of success and failures run rampant. Whether your preferred method is to repel them and make them go elsewhere (like the neighbors’...
The natural world constantly amazes with it’s weird and fantastic creatures and the wide variety of methods they use to thrive. For an example of weirdness, take the Beaded Lacewing (Lomamyia latipennis), whose larvae go through a stage during...
Ants may be the perfect workers - they share chores, solve complex problems and work themselves to death without complaint. And now the behavior and appearance of nature’s most hard working insect has been copied in plastic and metal, with the...
The insect with the most toxic venom is not necessarily the most painful or the most lethal. Pain is a really subjective. What some might find excruciating, others might feel as merely uncomfortable. We can't compare venom on the basis of incidence...
Benjamin Franklin is sometimes credited with the invention of daylight saving time. In 1784, he made a joking reference to daylight saving in a letter from France but never thought anything of the sort would ever be adopted. The true mastermind...
In a U C San Diego study on the Africanized bees’ population growth in Southern California, it was found that more than 60 percent of foraging honeybees in San Diego County are now Africanized. News Flash -- Africanized honeybees, known as killer...
A recent survey of widow spiders in Southern California led by retired UC Riverside entomologist Richard Vetter revealed new information about their distribution in California. Currently brown widows are 20 times more common then black widows in...
All spiders crawl, some swim, others are known for their jumping skills and still others for their ability to catch a breeze and “balloon” to distant lands or into the nearest home. Spiders are fascinating creatures but not welcome visitors in our...
Ants, labor endlessly to support their colonies, each member having a specific job to perform, from the pampered Queens to the multi-tasking female workers to the short lived males, every member of the colony is continually in motion. So, with all...
