Cicadas are back, but climate change is messing with their body clocks.
CBS News reports: "Cicada watchers used to be able to predict their emergence as easily as astronomers could predict the recent solar eclipse. But that has become more challenging as the cicadas' patterns are changing as warm spring days happen more often."
Butterflies, bees, bugs and more: The summer of insect-counting gets underway in Germany.
AP reports on the country's "'insect summer,' now in its seventh year, organized by the country’s Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union, or NABU."
You may be having a bad day, but at least your car isn't careening off the road because there are so many smashed bug guts on it your tires can't get traction in the snot-like goo.
Ok mastodon brains trust, especially Aussie ones. Anyone know what little bugs come out of this. There were two of them & both shaped almost like the Tesla logo. There was also a little green praying mantis nest (or whatever they’re called) nearby. Very soft & papery to touch. #Bugs#Insects#Nest
The cicadas have arrived (West suburbs of Chicago). They seem particularly fond of the native plants such as cup plant. Although they are throughout the garden, it's nothing like the pictures I've seen with thousands all over. #Cicadas#cicadas2024#cicadageddon@gardening#insects#bugs
Good morning all, happy Hump Day! The cicada watch continues, these two were sitting on a leaf outside of my car. They're getting thick enough now to see flying in small swarms in the afternoon. This level of cicadas only happen every 221 years so it's pretty cool to see something like this, kinda like the rare eclipses, but with bugs. 🐛🪲
Have a great Wednesday! Try to make it fun if possible. I like harmless work shenanigans. 🤪
How cockroaches spread around the globe to become the pest we know today.
From AP: "A new study uses genetics to chart cockroaches’ spread across the globe, from humble beginnings in southeast Asia to Europe and beyond. The findings span thousands of years of cockroach history and suggest the pests may have scuttled across the globe by hitching a ride with another species: people."
Hello fellow Fediverse travelers, I hope your day is going well. While on break I took a cicada pic, they are increasing daily. 🪲 🐛 When they're all out it will be an impressive sight.
"Stranger than science fiction." That's how an ecologist describes a strange fungus that hijacks cicadas’ bodies and behavior, turning them into "zombies."
CNN reports on the the fungus Massospora cicadina and how it's impacting some of the cicadas emerging this year: https://flip.it/cxfw5K
This crittur, which I think is a bee fly, was sniffing around my seed pots, for some reason, literally putting its head to the compost as if sniffing, then moving to the next pot. #gardening@gardening#bugs
Ooof. Never argue with an ant colony. Cleaning out a storage box in the garden. One corner has an ant colony in it, partially destroyed by my clearing. Also present: Two 3cm-ish false widow spiders, shiny black. Can't escape the box now the contents have been removed, sides are too smooth.
Left the job and went to have lunch, expecting to need to re-home the spiders. Figured they had plenty of ants to eat. On return, no sign of the smaller spider. The larger has had a disagreement with the ants. It has not ended at all well for the spider.
This week’s episode under review: Bugs S03E10 – Renegades.
Simon and Eugene discuss whether this episode was always intended to be the finale of season 3, whether it’s another sequel to the Cybernauts, and Eugene gives us his interpretation of Australian Eric Idle.