Tag Archives: Death

A note on death in insects – pretending, surviving, and living

Posted on September 22, 2020 by JoanieTheEntomologist

My undergraduate student that I’m mentoring this semester asked me a question about when an insect is dead. He pondered this because we read a paper were researchers infected carpenter ants with a fungus were considered dead after no movement … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Why do social insects die facefirst in the nest?

Posted on December 16, 2015 by joeballenger2005

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 →

Posted in Behavior, Ecology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The truth about GMO mosquitoes.

Posted on February 4, 2015 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger People have asked Nancy and me a lot of questions about the sterile GMO mosquitoes the British company Oxitec is planning to release in Florida. We get these questions on a Facebook page we administrate as … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Education, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What happens to insects when they die of old age?

Posted on January 12, 2015 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger I think this is a really neat question for many reasons. Getting older is something we all deal with, and the person you were 5 years ago is not the person you are today. For everything … Continue reading →

Posted in Physiology | Tagged , , | 6 Comments