Winter hit U.S. honeybees hard with the highest loss rate yet, an annual survey of beekeepers showed. The annual nationwide survey by the Bee Informed Partnership found 37.7 percent of honeybee colonies died this past winter, nearly 9 percentage points higher than the average winter ...
Catapulting spider springs a surprise on unsuspecting prey, study finds
Just when you thought spiders couldn't get any more terrifying. A study published Monday has found that an arachnid species is capable of winding up its web to store up elastic energy, before releasing its grip and catapulting itself at furious speed toward its unsuspecting ...
Leading Japanese insecticide maker plans to expand sales in China and Southeast Asia
Leading Japanese insecticide manufacturer Earth Corp. plans to expand sales in China and Southeast Asia via a subsidiary in Malaysia, as the risk of dengue fever and malaria in the region drives up demand for repellents. The company has set up a wholly owned unit ...
Japanese man jailed for two years in Ecuador for attempt to smuggle insects and spiders to Hokkaido
A 26-year-old Japanese man was sentenced to two years in prison in Ecuador for attempting to smuggle a massive haul of insects and arachnids out of the country, officials said Thursday. The defendant was arrested at Quito airport in March with 248 spiders, cockroaches, wasps, ...
Why do zebras have stripes? Because they make bad landing strips for flies
Scientists are providing new evidence to answer the long-standing question about why zebras have stripes. It appears stripes make terrible landing strips, bamboozling the fierce blood-sucking flies that try to feast on zebras and carry deadly diseases. Researchers on Wednesday described experiments demonstrating that horse ...
Japanese researchers extend life span of flies, offering hope for slowing aging in humans
Japanese researchers pin down a way to activate autophagy, a key metabolic function in cells, leading to a slower aging process and longer life span in a nonhuman study.
Global 'catastrophic collapse' of insects threatening pollination and food chains: study
Nearly half of all insect species worldwide are in rapid decline and a third could disappear altogether, according to a study warning of dire consequences for crop pollination and natural food chains. "Unless we change our way of producing food, insects as a whole will ...
Bug business: Cockroaches corralled by the millions in China to crunch waste
In the near pitch-dark, you can hear them before you see them — millions of cockroaches scuttling and fluttering across stacks of wooden boards as they devour food scraps by the ton in a novel form of urban waste disposal. The air is warm and ...
Fancy some roasted crickets for a light snack? Look no further than in the local supermarket aisles. Sainsbury's has become the first British supermarket chain to stock edible insects in a bid to boost sustainable food sources that produce fewer greenhouse gases. "Insect snacks should no ...
Greek spiders spinning giant webs, enjoying smorgasbord of insects brought on by summer heat
It's not quite the World Wide Web — but the spiders of Aitoliko in Greece have made a good start. Spurred into overdrive by an explosion in the populations of insects they eat, thousands of little spiders in the western Greek town have shrouded coastal ...
Bugs struggle amid Japan's record summer heat
Specialists in Hyogo believe populations of mosquitoes and beetles have suffered this year as the moist environments where their young thrive have dried up in the heat wave.
Kids cheer on their bugs at the Kabutomushi Sumo Competition
The National Kabutomushi Sumo Tournament, where rhinoceros beetles are made to fight on tree branches instead of sumo rings, was held recently in Yamagata Prefecture.
