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Tag Archives: Beneficial Insects
Bees carrying leaves? What’s up with that?
Written by Joe Ballenger Your Name: Clark Your Bug Question: I noticed a small flying insect about the size of a honey bee, fuzzy, all black flying around with a small leaf in its legs. It flew down between some … Continue reading
Posted in Behavior, Ecology, Pollination
Tagged Agriculture, Bees, Beneficial Insects, Leafcutter bees, Megachilidae, Pollination, Pollinator Biology, Pollinators
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How similar is Entomology to Pokemon? Do scientists ever make bugs fight?
Written by Joe Ballenger The release of Pokemon Go has been great for us entomologists, because we have been able to get people to realize why we love our jobs so much. The creator of Pokemon, Satoshi Tajiri, actually got … Continue reading
Posted in Behavior, Culture, Developmental Biology, Ecology, Insect Rearing, Physiology
Tagged Agriculture, Beneficial Insects, Bug Fights, Butterflies and Moths, Culture, Parasites, Physiology, Wasps
1 Comment
If I am allergic to honeybees, am I also allergic to other bees?
Post written by Joe Ballenger Does the allergy to honeybee stings carry over to other bees like the bumblebees and carpenter bees? Allergies are very complicated, but they also effect a lot of people. So this is a topic … Continue reading
Posted in Chemistry, Physiology
Tagged Allergy, Antibodies, Bees, Beneficial Insects, venom, Wasps
1 Comment
What proportion of insects dying in captivity is considered ‘normal’?
Written by Joe Ballenger Your Name: Caryl Your Bug Question: I raise early season monarchs inside in New Zealand.(I bring the chrysalides inside because of our poor spring weather with heavy rains and gales). Yesterday 12 eclosed but 3 fell … Continue reading
Posted in Behavior, Insect Rearing
Tagged Beneficial Insects, Butterflies and Moths, Butterfly, Physiology
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Why do social insects die facefirst in the nest?
Written by Joe Ballenger First and foremost, I’m really glad we got this question: From: Katharine I’ve been keeping an eye on a wasp nest in my grandmother’s yard for a while. Since we just had a cold snap, I … Continue reading
Why can’t you buy a jar of fireflies? Or: What factors decide which insects are sold online?
One of the neat things about this project is that we get some questions that are asking about things in a very narrow sense, but hit on some really important and interesting topics which are very relevant in a broader … Continue reading
Please stop sharing the ‘wasps are jerks’ memes.
I really try not to use this blog to jump on the soap-box too often but for some reason the internet has decided that wasps are the Martin Shkrelis of the insect world, and I think this needs to stop. … Continue reading
Why can’t male bees (or wasps) sting?
@BugQuestions I heard male bees don’t have stingers. Is that true of all bees or just some species? — Kristen Bower (@krbower) September 6, 2015 This question came to us over Twitter, and given my recent post about bee genetics … Continue reading
Posted in Developmental Biology, Evolution, Physiology
Tagged Bees, Beneficial Insects, Defenses, Human Evolution, Hymenoptera, Sexual Dimorphism, Wasps
3 Comments
Why are cicadas showing up dead on my porch?
We get a lot of letters in our inbox, and some of my favorite inquiries are ID requests where someone also notices something interesting going on. Here’s an example of one such question: Your Name: Becky Boots Your Bug Question: … Continue reading
What did these wasps manage to get themselves stuck in?
We get a lot of neat pictures in our inbox, and I think this is one of the cooler images we’ve gotten because there’s a lot going on in this picture. I’m not 100% certain of what the wasps are … Continue reading
Posted in Chemistry, Ecology, Education, Taxonomy
Tagged Beneficial Insects, Biochemistry, Cockroach, Hymenoptera, Physiology
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