The increasing problem of light pollution can have negative effects on both humans and wildlife. In people, it can cause sleep deprivation, increased stress, headaches and even anxiety. Artificial light can attract animals like sea turtles, moths and frogs, leading them astray and making them more vulnerable to predators and exhaustion. A new study has […]
By Natalie Kofler, Françoise Baylis, Graham Dellaire, Landon J Getz Every year, around one million people die of mosquito-borne diseases according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is why mosquitoes are considered one of the deadliest living creatures on the planet — not because they are lethal themselves, but because many of the viruses […]
By Marlene Cimons For nearly a century, scientists thought that malaria could only spread in places where it is really hot. That’s because malaria is spread by a tiny parasite that infects mosquitoes, which then infect humans — and this parasite loves warm weather. In warmer climates, the parasite grows quickly inside the mosquito’s body. […]
By Nicole Ferox It’s that time of year: Mosquitoes and ticks are out in full force, and so are all the latest bug repellent products claiming to keep them at bay. So what bug repellent ingredients do Environmental Working Group (EWG) scientists recommend for kids? Our top picks are DEET, Picaridin and IR3535. These ingredients […]
If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise until 2080, dengue fever could spread through much of the southeastern U.S. by 2050. That’s one of the findings in a study published in Nature Microbiology Monday on the potential spread of the mosquito-borne disease, which currently kills around 10,000 people per year and sickens 100 million. The […]
Flooding from Hurricane Florence has activated dormant “gallnipper” (Psorophora ciliata) eggs, among others, leading to the hatching of billions of unusually large mosquitoes. Gallnippers lay their eggs in moist, low-elevation areas, where heavy rains or flooding trigger eventual hatching. In less than a week, larvae grow to adult size, which is about three times that […]
Arachnophobes beware. A shoreline by the Greek town of Aitoliko has been swamped by a mass of mating spiders and 1,000 feet of their cobwebs. Earlier this week, a local named Giannis Giannakopoulos uploaded a YouTube video and posted several pictures of the spectacle on his Facebook page, showing shrubs, palm fronds and other greenery […]
Microplastics, which get gobbled up by whales, deep-sea fish and plankton, have also turned up in the bodies of mosquitoes, scientists have revealed. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters, is the first to show that bits of plastic can be transferred between a mosquito’s life stages that use different habitats. For the […]
By Carla Burns Experts predict mosquito and tick bites and subsequent infections will continue to rise as warmer climates expand insect habitats and populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that pest-borne diseases are “a large and growing public health problem in the United States.” Cases of diseases from mosquito, tick and flea […]
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