PETA’s entomological ignorance…a bit worse than I thought

The other day, I went on a rant about PETA acting overly sanctimonious by sending President Obama a flytrap because he had the audacity to swat a fly on national TV. Well…one of my readers forwarded me this article about humane cockroach control. When PETA doesn’t have to distort any facts, they actually write halfway [...]

PETA’s entomological ignorance.

PETA is one of those groups that bases it’s public statements on what it can best display it’s righteous indignation at. Remember Obama killing a fly at his interview? Here’s the video: Well, guess how PETA responded? But now People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling it an “execution,” wants the commander-in-chief to show [...]

A very short intro to beekeeping

Bug girl has a post about all the different crops that are brought to you by insects. I figured I’d give you an inside scoop as to how crop pollination works, since I’ve dealt with bees before. One of the most common misconceptions about beekeeping is that they mostly produce honey. A lot of beekeepers [...]

Single parenthood and navigating the treachery of academia.

I tend to try to stay away from personal topics, because I like to blog pseudoanonymously for a multitude of reasons which are explained very well here (the exact same reasons, actually). So I’m not going to go into great detail about my situation. To be honest, if you go to ISU I’ve got to [...]

What can flies tell you about where you’re eating?

Going for coffee in Ohare International? Looks like Starbuck’s in Ohare international airport got closed down for a fly infestation. The article says that they didn’t maintain their distance far enough from the door…probably true. Dumpsters are notorious for breeding houseflies and I know more than a few restaurants who keep their dumpsters close to [...]

I’ve had a weird month.

Being an entomology student can be exciting a way that’s both intellectual and in a way that’s more like ‘WTF’. People are a lot more curious about insects than they let on, and I get a lot of questions about bugs in my everyday life as a student when I tell people what I’m studying. [...]

Video of the week: The Winged Scourge

Man…I haven’t posted a youtube gem forever. Check this video out…it’s a really old video about malaria made by Disney in 1943. It shows how the parasite is transmitted, how the mosquito breeds and how to control them. It’s really an amazing video that shows what malaria does to the people infected by the parasite. [...]

Circus of the Spineless #40 will be hosted here!

Circus of the Spineless #39 is up at Bug Girl’s Blog. This is a blog carnival celebrating the biology and diversity of the vast majority of life: Metazoans without backbones! Send me your very bests posts about insects and other invertebrates at Cheshire.entomoblog (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll post them in the next edition [...]

Periodical cicadas are out early in Staten Island!

Okay…this is seriously cool. I love periodical cicadas. They’re these almost evil looking bugs that emerge in masse about every other decade. They’re from the genus Magicicada and there are about 7 species here in North America. Depending on the species, they spend either 13 or 17 years underground, after which they come up and emerge [...]

Should I go to University?

I got a lot of good entries for Skeptic’s Circle this week, and I got one entry I thought deserved it’s own post. The post came from Skeptigirl, and it’s a subject that kind of recieved a ‘hell no’ knee-jerk reaction from me at first because of how entrenched in academia I currently am. She, [...]