Free Republic

Boy, I sure hope this ends up in General/Chat and not in Breaking News! We are new homeowners and need some advice on eliminating insect infestations on several (about a dozen) fruit trees, mostly apple and pie cherry. The insects in question are black, about the shape of ladybugs but smaller and with white markings. They are prolific - I killed two in the process of mating. Anyone have any experience in this area? Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Awesome Animals More Weird Mating Habits: The longest-lasting copulation, according to University of Arizona biologist John Alcock (interviewed for an August Knight Ridder story), is that of the lowly "stick insect" (of the phasmida family), which goes on for several months at a time, even though, he said, it is "not clear this is welcome to the female." The male attaches himself to the female's back, which allows her to continue with her daily routine during the mating, while also discouraging competitor males. According to other biologists, some ticks spend up to eight hours on what resembles foreplay, and butterflies,...

August 03, 2005 It's raining insect poop out here! It was literally raining insect poop along much of the Grafton Loop Trail this weekend. Honest! Hiking up Puzzle Mountain on Saturday I stopped to rest. And that's when I first heard it. The sound of rain. But it couldn't be because the sun was out and the sky was bright blue. I waited, listened some more, looked up, and realized that what I was hearing were insects eating away the leaves of the hardwood trees and dropping poop all over the place, and occasionally dropping themselves onto the forest floor....

Dan Rather will be on Larry King in a few minutes to gin up interest in his full-hour interview with former pres. Clinton (7:00 sunday, cbs) "Veteran newsman Dan Rather discusses the beheading of an American hostage, and his interview with former President Bill Clinton. Tune in at 9 p.m. ET. "

April 8 ? Sonny Ramaswamy is trying to walk a very fine line. He doesn't want to be seen as an alarmist, but he thinks people ought to know about the thought that keeps haunting him these days. Ramaswamy, who chairs the department of entomology at Kansas State University, is concerned that the tiny little insects he has spent a lifetime studying could become implements of international terrorism. It's possible, he says, that even a stable fly, or something as tiny as an aphid, could be used to distribute deadly pathogens over a wide geographical area in a surprisingly...

That Bug Is No Insect: A New Branch On The Tree Of Life The family tree of life has a newly discovered branch. Genetic studies comparing mitochondrial DNA have revealed that what has long been thought to be the group from which insects arose, the Collembola -- wingless hexapods (or "six legs") commonly called springtails -- turns out not to be closely related to insects after all. Instead, these creatures belong to a separate evolutionary lineage that predates even the separation of insects and crustaceans. The research was carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI)...

News in Science 2/4/2003 Caterpillars fling faeces afar to fool foes [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s822336.htm] [photo] Above: a skipper caterpillar lays down a silk guy-wire for its leaf shelter. Below: adult skippers make some more (Pics: M Weiss, C Williams) Caterpillars shoot their faeces more than a metre from their homes to protect themselves from predators, an American ecologist has discovered. Dr Martha Weiss of Georgetown University in Washington, wondered if animals gain an evolutionary advantage by developing sophisticated strategies to manage their waste. In the current edition of Ecology Letters, Weiss reports on experiments with...

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - Superstar Michael Jackson turned up on crutches in a California courtroom on Tuesday after a close encounter with a spider. Jackson, whose bizarre appearance and baby-dangling antics have made headlines around the world for the past three weeks, was resuming testimony in a $21 million lawsuit over canceled millennium concerts. But it was the self-styled King of Pop himself, dressed up in a white satin vest and tie, who again provided most of the drama. Explaining the crutches and the white athletic sock he was wearing on one foot, Jackson told reporters; "It is a...

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) - A new insect species that looks like a cross between a locust and a cricket was discovered in the southern African country of Namibia, a team of scientists said. The scientists from the National Museum of Namibia, which led the expedition, said Monday they found the insect in Namibia's remote Brandberg mountains. The species has a flexible thorax, and the researchers have dubbed it the "gladiator." Live and dead specimens of the insect will be sent on loan to scientists in Germany for study. The Brandberg mountains, about 310 miles northwest of Windhoek, are a...