Ants in the Desert

Ants navigate by leaving scent trails, marking their journeys by leaving pheremones in their wake, to be followed by other ants or to find their way back home. Desert ants can’t do that, since it’s too windy there, and scents dissipate. Here’s how they compensate. A video by Robert Krulwich and Jason Orfanon, animated by OddTodd (Todd Rosenberg).

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We’re Saving the Wrong Bees

Efforts at saving honey bees may make people feel good and agribiz happy, but the little critters are really buzzing bad boys. Wild bees are better for the environment. A Deutsche Welle video.

More:

“The Problem with Honey Bees,” Alison McAfee, Scientific American

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Rappin’ ’bout Brood X Cicadas

Rapper MC Bugg-Z (entomologist Andy Lima) has the 411 on those 6-legged 17-year cicadas.

More:

“A Fairfax Entomologist Is Rapping His Welcome To The Brood X Cicadas,” Jacob Fenston, DCist

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Cicadas

Brood X is back! Big, red-eyed bugs will keep DC and 15 states awake for two weeks. A video by Samuel Orr with music by Dexter Britain.

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Crickets. Yum!

Cricket farmers Adam Brody and Jude Tallichet raise insects in their Manhattan apartments. On purpose. For food. They want you to add the musical hoppers to your diet. A New Yorker video.

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Walking On Water

Water striders (aka pond skaters) flitter across the surface of ponds and slow-moving streams. How do they walk on water, and why? A KQED video.

Read more here.

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Mosquito Festival!

The internet is just humming about Mosquito Festivals. If you’re just itching to go this summer, there’s only one pesky problem: Which one to go to? The mosquito festival in Texas has some pretty good music, but the one in Russia has a Most Delicious Girl Contest judged by swarms of bloodthirsty insects. There are ‘skeeter celebrations in Oregon, Indiana, Arkansas, Montana, New York State, and Italy. No wonder blood bank deposits are running low.

We just hope these insect-centered events live up to all the buzz, and to the high standards set by the big Blackfly Festivals of Vermont and Maine and the legendary Luckenbach Mud Dauber Festival & Chili Cookoff.

Related:

“How mosquitoes zero in on warm bodies,” Jonathan Webb, BBC News

“The 20 Most Mosquito-Plagued U.S. Cities,” Vicky Gan, CityLab

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Hopocalypse!

We warned you but you were too busy ranting about BP to listen. Now the plague is nearly upon us, a grasshopper infestation of epic proportions. The critters are poised to devour rangeland and crops in Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, all across the American West. It will be the worst grasshopper outbreak in 30 years. Stockpile food now.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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