insects

The climate crisis has caused Japanese cherry blossoms to bloom in October and sped the arrival of spring in much of the U.S. But it turns out that humans aren’t the only animals who can trick plants into flowering early. Scientists have discovered that bumblebees can cause plants to flower as much as 30 days […]

By Liz Kimbrough The side of the road isn’t usually thought of as ideal habitat. But for insects, such as butterflies and their caterpillars, the long expanses of land along roads and utility corridors add up to a considerable amount of home turf. More than 45 transportation and energy companies, as well as dozens of […]

By Akito Y Kawahara Editor’s note: According to recent press reports, two Asian giant hornets – a species not known to occur in North America – were found in northwest Washington state in late 2019, and a hornet colony was found and eliminated in British Columbia. Now scientists are trying to determine whether more of […]

As it races to stop “murder hornets” from making themselves at home, Washington state has another invasive insect to worry about. Gov. Jay Inslee issued an emergency proclamation Tuesday against the “imminent danger” of a gypsy moth infestation in parts of the state’s Snohomish county, as CNN reported Friday. “[T]his imminent danger of infestation seriously […]

Invasive “murder hornets” have been spotted in the U.S. for the first time, prompting concerns for the nation’s honeybees and the trajectory of a year that has already brought locust invasions and a global pandemic. Four sightings of the world’s largest hornets — officially called the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) — were reported and […]

Spain is facing intense backlash after local officials sprayed bleach across 1.2 miles of beach near the town of Zahara de los Atunes on its southern coast, near Cádiz. Local officials and the business association in the picturesque fishing village used tractors to spray a bleach solution onto beaches a day before Spain allowed children […]

If you haven’t noticed as many bees, butterflies and fireflies as you used to, there’s a good reason for that. It turns out that insects that live on land have seen their population decline 9 percent every decade, which means we have lost nearly one-fourth of them over the last 30 years and 50 percent […]

Scientists are learning more about a caterpillar that is very hungry …. for plastics! The plastic-munching abilities of the greater wax moth caterpillar were first discovered in 2017, when a scientist and amateur beekeeper put some of the insects, who also eat beeswax, into a plastic bag only to discover that they had eaten their […]