June 22, 2020
Ever since colony collapse disorder struck honey bees in the US in 2006, a public education campaign has ensured that nearly everyone is acutely aware of the importance of insect pollinators and their conservation, with honey bees acting as the poster child of the “Save the Bees!” movement. But as is often the case, the […]
June 11, 2020
While most of our attention is caught up on protests and a deadly pandemic, the EPA has revoked a pesticide registration that has seized the attention of many of our nation’s farmers. Dicamba, an herbicide widely used to protect crops from competition with weeds, has been increasingly relied upon by many farmers. It provided control […]
June 2, 2020
This spring has certainly been one for the history books, with a deadly viral pandemic, social justice issues, and a looming presidential election with extremely polarized parties. For the first time since March, I have an opportunity to work from my office and provide some commentary on insect goings-on in the world. You may have […]
October 24, 2019
Recent research has shown that rats are smart enough to learn to operate specially-constructed rat cars. Not only do they learn to drive, but they seem to relieve stress as they learn. But before we bow down to our new automobile-driving rat overlords, we should also acknowledge that other new research shows that monkeys can […]
April 22, 2019
Today is Earth Day, a day to reflect on our effects on the planet and put in some work to ensure that we leave the planet as good or better than we found it. So without further ado, I’ve written a blog post to fulfill the foreshadowing I set up in our post about gigantic […]
February 21, 2019
The past few months, there have been abundant rumblings in the entomological research community about the state of insect conservation and risks of species extinctions (notice the not-at-all subtle foreshadowing of a future blog post). The research on insect populations is patchy and full of holes, but there are some charismatic species (such as the […]
