I've been bitten by ants (not too bad) and horseflies (sharp sting), and stung by hornets (yow!) and honeybees (barely registers). I'm glad to have experienced these bites and stings, but after watching this video that compares the sting of a honeybee to that of the tarantula hawk wasp and the bullet ant, I'm not interested in receiving their venom.
Watch: what is the world's most painful insect sting?
This is butterfly porn
Every year, Monarch butterflies travel 3,000 miles from Canada and the norther United States to Central Mexico's Oyamel fir forests. Once they arrive, they rest until Spring. Then…. it's time to get busy. (Smithsonian: Epic Animal Migrations—Mexico) READ THE REST
Meet the aphids that are born pregnant and eager to destroy your garden
From KQED's Deep Look at the secret life of aphids: "Aphids are just experts at reproducing," said Ian Grettenberger an entomologist at the University of California, Davis. "Given the right conditions, they can multiply really quickly and get out of control." For most of the year female aphids giving live birth to clones that are… READ THE REST
Scientists just found a 50-million-year-old fossilized bug penis. That's huge. And also very small.
A new paper published in the Journal of Paleontology, titled "A new remarkably preserved fossil assassin bug (Insecta, Heteroptera, Reduviidae) from the Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado" contains a lil' surprise below the bug belt. As Haaretz reports: Looking at the photograph, one's eyes are drawn to the dark figure-8 seemingly attached to the… READ THE REST
Get ready for summer grilling season with this stainless steel skewer set at almost 20% off
Skewers are about as primal an instrument as man has ever devised. In fact, a stick with a fashioned tip for just that type of open-flame cooking was found at a campsite believed to date back over 300,000 years. With all that research and development time, it would be easy to imagine that pretty much… READ THE REST
This walnut charging dock for your Apple devices makes your desktop super-classy
Even in this new age of home offices and remote employment, we still haven't really advanced the state of desk decor much, have we? The walls around you may have changed and your boss may have to Zoom you rather than casually eyeball your productivity during a judgmental walk-by, but the immediate desktop environment probably… READ THE REST
These cool robotic and coding explorer kits can turn your kids into STEM-ready learners
STEM jobs are expected to increase to more than 9 million next year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With job markets still recovering from the COVID shutdowns and seismic shifts in scores of industries over the past year, it's no wonder that many parents are getting smart and deciding to get their… READ THE REST