pest control
dr. dolittle | March 20, 2017A new study shows that globally, spiders consume 400-800 million tons of prey each year. That's roughly more than double the amount of fish and meat that humans consume. Impressive...yet creepy at the same time. I suppose we should thank them for their pest control efforts.
Sources:
M Nyffeler, K Birkhofer. An estimated 400–800 million tons of prey are annually killed by the global spider community. The Science of Nature. 104: 30, 2017. doi:10.1007/s00114-017-1440-1
News Beat video from YouTube
dr. dolittle | March 23, 2013
Entomologist Dr. Coby Schal at North Carolina State University studies the chemicals involved in insect communication in an effort to more effectively manage pests. His big interest is in chemical communication using pheromones and how they impact mating and other behaviors. His research has aided the control of cockroaches, bed bugs, mosquitoes and other nuisance bugs in major cities.
A very nice biography of his work was recently published in The Scientist. Some major discoveries that Dr. Schal made as a graduate student included observing that male cockroaches sit higher up in foliage in…
gregladen | September 29, 2011Thanks for visiting!The contents of this post have been updated and moved to THIS LOCATION. Please click through. Sorry for the inconvenience!
awild | May 27, 2008
As if we didn't already have enough pest ants to worry about, here is a relatively new one. The rover ant Brachymyrmex patagonicus, a tiny South American species, has been working its way under the radar across the southern United States. Its presence is now large enough that pest control companies are reporting a sudden increase in requests. According to gardeners I've talked to, these ants emerged in huge numbers here in Tucson about 5 years ago. Given the interest in this species, I thought I'd post a summary of what we know of this emerging pest and how to reliably identify it.…