More Sketchy Science: Do Tomatoes Really Eat Insects?

I’ve been seeing this story more and more around the news, exemplified by this Telegraph article…apparently, there are some researchers that discovered that tomatoes have hairs on them which trap and kill small insects. The Telegraph reports: New research shows that they capture and kill small insects with sticky hairs on their stems and then [...]

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 [...]

An Open Letter to the Iowa State Legislature

There has been an antievolution bill introduced in my home state. Today, you are faced with a choice. In Iowa, we have always prided ourselves on our educational system. A bill currently in the legislature threatens to take that away. I am, of course referring to House File 183, the so-called academic freedom bill. These [...]

Insects as weapons?

more animals http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4123782/Terrorists-could-use-insect-based-biological-weapon.html It seems there are some entomologists who think insects could be used as bioweapons. On the surface, it seems funny and almost alarmist…but the claim is actually not that far removed from reality. Still, I’m skeptical.

Captian Planet and the Boll Weevil

Okay…I probably should have done this to begin with, but let’s discuss some very basic boll weevil biology and pest management. The boll weevil Anthonomus grandis which is portrayed in this episode is a curculionid. This group of beetles is characterized by that long snout you see in the cartoon. They got this right, however [...]

OMG! Captian Planet did an episode on insecticide resistance!

Remember the old kid’s show Captian Planet? I got bored today during my O-chem lab time (I need my partner’s data…she’ll get there about 2:30 or so, hopefully) so I decided to look around on youtube. What did I find? An episode of Captian Planet which deals with insecticide resistance! Let’s see how accurate it [...]