LOS ANGELES TIMES - Move over, dogs. We’re entering the spider days of summer. When it warms up, spiders come out of their hidey-holes. Not to tan, but to catch their bread and butter: bugs. ... “There’s no sense making a web … if there’s nothing to eat,” said Rick Vetter, a retired research associate...
BBC SCIENCE FOCUS - Bed bugs have been around longer than humans. When researchers used bed bug DNA to get an idea of when they first evolved, they found that the ancestors of today’s bed bugs were already tiny but successful predators over 115 million years ago, during the reign of the dinosaurs. What they...
ABC 7 - Termite activity is considered to be "very heavy" in California and other southeastern states, and the options to rid your home of the destructive insect are limited and often expensive. But new research at UC Riverside is showing that help might be on the horizon. The two basic strategies to control termites...
EARTH.COM - Did you know that plants, just like humans, can fall ill, too? And much like our world, theirs is not immune to disease outbreaks and pandemics. As nature-lovers and responsible stewards of the earth, it’s vital we understand how we are unintentionally facilitating the spread of pathogens that cause “plant pandemics.” Two recent...
REAL SIMPLE - Flipping on a light and finding an invasion of silverfish in your bathroom or kitchen can be startling. With their silvery-metallic scales and fishlike movements scurrying along the walls and floor, silverfish can be scary—even though they don't bite. The insects are nearly one-half inch long, nocturnal, wingless, and six-legged, with three...
KSDK ST. LOUIS - Daddy-long-legs, which look like spiders with thin legs much longer than their bodies, are generally seen as harmless. But according to many versions of a popular rumor, daddy-long-legs are actually among the most venomous of all spiders but their fangs are too small to bite humans. Questions about whether daddy-long-legs bite...
WIRED - THE GLASSY-WINGED SHARPSHOOTER is a half-inch-long leafhopper that feeds by sticking its straw-like mouth into the watery tissue of plants. The insect is native to northeastern Mexico, but in the late 1980s, it made its way to Southern California. Since its arrival, it has wreaked havoc on the region’s vineyards. Most of the...
ENTOMOLOGY TODAY - The Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) has been identified on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. It is known for spreading the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, which causes citrus greening disease (also known as Huanglongbing). Citrus greening is one of the most serious citrus diseases in the world. Infected trees produce immature...
ABC 7 - Who would think something so small could be so devastating? Nevertheless, entomologists continue to sound the alarm about the goldspotted oak borer, an invasive insect that some experts believe has killed more than 80,000 oak trees across Southern California. "It's just fascinating how this insect has been around for 50 million years...
THE ATLANTIC - Every year, beginning around the end of March, my household starts planning a massacre. Our targets are our home’s clothes moths: My spouse and I lay pheromone-laced traps in the closets, living room, and bedrooms; we—and our two cats—go on alert for any stray speckle of brown on a cream-colored wall. The...