Author Archives: Polistes fuscatus

So, Vespa mandarinia still continues to capture the imagination of people across the US. The Washington Department of Agriculture recently confirmed the first sighting in 2021. So, right now seems like a good time to give an update. Mostly as … Continue reading →

This month, we got a pair of questions where people were asking about weird bees. I was taking pictures of bees in my garden and I saw one that looked like it had a ball of cotton in its mouth. … Continue reading →

Earlier this week, I had a conversation with journalist Clare Proctor about some flies which were swarming over Chicago. Earlier this month, Chicago was overrun with some kind of fly. According to Matt Bertone and Erica McAllister, they were Muscoids-any … Continue reading →

It’s the start of field season, so Joanie, myself, and Nancy all have had a lot to plan for this month. So instead of doing a really deep dive on a question, I wanted to talk a little bit about … Continue reading →

We get a lot of weird questions in our inbox about parasites. Most of them, we can’t answer because doing so would amount to giving medical advice…but every so often we get a question completely out of left field. Like … Continue reading →

Written by Joe Ballenger I wanted to know if it is possible for the adult butterfly to be poisonous while the caterpillar of the same species is not poisonous? I think this is a really insightful question, and I’ve got … Continue reading →

Our question this week comes from the Nature Check discord. Nature Check is a project where we use games like D&D to talk about science, and you should totally check it out! In the food channel, we were talking about … Continue reading →

Written by Joe Ballenger So this is a fantastic question, especially if you’re trying to shed those extra pounds after Thanksgiving and Christmas. So do bugs get fat? Yeah, they do. Sometimes it’s adorable, and sometimes it’s…not.

Written by Joe Ballenger I was on Twitter recently, and one of my colleagues found a rather cool article by Luke Hollomon about plants and anesthesia. When we’re working with insects in the lab, we often have to knock them … Continue reading →

Written by Joe Ballenger In December 2019, the world changed forever. I know that’s a bit of a heady way to begin this article, but it’s true. The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has changed a lot of the way people live, … Continue reading →