Despite tipping over every rock and lifting every piece of peeling bark on my property over the years, I have yet to find a scorpion. So, for the last few evenings, when I take my dogs out I’ve carried a black light flashlight. Scorpions are known to fluoresce under UV, which is a curious thing […]
Science
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HumBug: Skeletons in My Closet
Let me get one thing out of the way right off: I am not an entomologist in the sense that I have no degree in the subject, nor do I work at it as a profession. Like Sherlock Holmes, I like to think of myself as a talented amateur. I do it because I enjoy […]
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HumBug: It’s a Bug’s Life
I should explain I am using the word “Bug” in the generic sense … any small creepy crawly critter born with more than four legs. There is another technical definition for the word: a member of the insect order Hemiptera. The “true bugs” are generally shield shaped, with front wings about half the size of […]
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HumBug: Walking on Water
A quick flick of movement across a calm spot on the water brought a water strider to my attention. Although they might resemble spiders with their with spindly legs and dark bodies, they are actually members of the order Hemiptera (half wing) or “true bugs.” Their remarkable ability to skate so adroitly across the surface […]
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HumBug: Scaly Protection
The order of butterflies and moths, Lepidoptera, gets its name from Greek words meaning “scale wings.” Like a mosaic, those scales make up each species’ distinctive markings. Listed in the literature are a number of ways those minute scales contribute to the animal’s well being. As a layer of insulation on their body, they help […]
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GMO Salmon Spawns Huffman’s Ire
Congressman Jared Huffman is not having the fish. According to a press release, Huffman is “deeply concerned” about the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of genetically engineered salmon. He cites the engineered salmon’s potential to damage wild salmon populations, ecosystems and the fishing industry, as well as the lack of labeling requirements for producers. The […]
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HumBug: Look What the Rains Brought
As the seasons change, the macro invertebrate fauna (aka bugs) change. It’s November, and it finally rained at my house. At night when my dogs take me out for a walk I’m finally seeing my long awaited friends, the glow worms. Rapacious slug hunters, these little firefly relatives are usually found on the ground amongst […]
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HumBug:Waiting for Rain
No one needs to tell us 2015 has been a dry year so far. Brown lawns, crops under stress, wild fire dangers all reveal our lack of recent rainfall. There is another group of organisms under stress as well. Although probably not high on any homeowner’s endangered species list, termites are facing a problem. Throughout a […]
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HumBug: Don’t Worry, Bee Happy
With great alarm, many articles have informed us that honeybees are dying out in record numbers. The phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder. There are numerous theories from over use of neo-nicitonieoids insecticides, GMO crops, mites, climatological stress and a combination of all of the above. Like a plague, it has wiped out many hives […]
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HumBug: Neglected Damsels
Whenever I give a talk on dragonflies, I point out that there are two subgroups to the order Odonata. The dragonflies (anisoptera, which means “same wing”) and the damselfiles (zygoptera meaning “different wing”), which I am told refers to the sizes and shapes of the front and hind wings. I guess because they’re bigger and […]
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HumBug: Good Mothers
In grammar school I learned that only the birds and mammals cared for their young. Later I learned that crocodiles and alligators build and protect nests, but largely the “lower lifeforms” do little after laying their eggs. Aside from the social insects that feed, protect and rear the young into adulthood, parental care is relatively rare […]
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HumBug: Yellowjackets
Once, while recovering from shoulder surgery, I heard my wife scream from the backyard. Arm immobilized with a brace, I stumbled outside. She was under attack from dozens of yellowjackets. Before I could get her away from them she had accumulated nine stings. The scars she got from accidentally disturbing a nest in the ground […]