Swarming is carried out by numerous animals and some plants, but in English we use special words to describe it. Horses, cattle and sheep frequently run together as a herd or a flock; fish swim together as a shoal or a school; some plants move through the sea together as a bloom and some flying insects swarm in the same way in the air.
Bees swarm when a colony or part of a colony has to find a new nest. Normally, the swarm will fly to a location very close to the old nest and huddle together whilst the most knowledgeable worker bees fly off to look for a suitable nesting site.
There could be as many as 50 of these scouts and they might fly up to a kilometre to find a good spot. The scouts will probably take into account the potential size of nest that could be built there, because it has to house the present number of bees plus any eggs and offspring that will inevitably come.
They probably also concern themselves with the availability of a not-too distant food source and shelter from predators, as there are birds and some insects that consume bees and others that may steal their honey.
The swarm will wait for the scouts to come back. As they come back, normally one at a time, they perform a little dance to explain what they have discovered and where it is. The hive can almost certainly judge how credible the proposed new location is by the enthusiasm displayed in the dance.
All the bees watch the dances and an especially fervent scout may persuade another scout to go with her to reconnoitre her find. They might visit a number of finds several times, but sooner or later the scouts will settle for one of the locations and report back to the swarm.
The sight of up to 50 scouts all dancing enthusiastically about the best of the new locations is enough to enthuse the swarm and it will take off and follow the scouts to its new home.
Of course, beekeepers do not like to lose their swarms or part of them each year, so they place luxury homes nearby to attract the bees into. If that does not work, the bee-keeper has to purchase a new swarm or swarms, something that is becoming increasingly a problem to do.
Beekeepers wishing to attract a new wild swarm frequently use a pheromone to attract the scouts to the new hives that they have set up near existing hives close to an ample source of trees, wild flowers or bushes.
If bees choose a new site in or around your home, your first thoughts ought to not be to destroy it. Bees seldom attack unless they feel threatened, so if the hive is far from the house, you could leave it there.
However, if they start building in your attic, they may cause some structural damage, besides being a nuisance. If this is the case, phone your local environmental health agency or a local beekeeper to remove it for you.
Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on many topics, but is currently involved with how to get rid of pests. If you would like to know more, go over to our website at Bugs Infestation.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Dec 10th, 2011. Comment.
There are more than 3,500 species of the mosquito and they have been around for over 30 million years. The word mosquito comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word for little fly. They are similar to crane flies and chironomid flies. Mosquitoes are a member of the Culicidae family, which means midge or gnat.
Both males and females feed on nectar and plant juices, but in some species, the female has to feed on humans, because she needs the nutrients protein and iron to help her produce eggs. The females? feeding on humans causes many contagious diseases that has an effect on millions of humans every year.
The adult female lays her eggs in standing water. This could be a lake, bucket of water, a puddle, and in some cases, a few droplets in a leaf.
The mosquito is a holometabolous insect. This means that it will go through four stages which are outlined here:
The first stage is the larvae. This is the recently hatched stage of various insects that differ considerably from the adult.
The next stage is known as the pupa. This is a non-feeding time that takes place between the larvae and the adult stages.
The pupa floats on the water and the adult mosquito will emerge from the pupa at this time. The adult mosquito lives between four and eight weeks.
The mosquito has three senses. They are chemical, visual, and heat. There are certain things that attract a mosquito to a person.
Carbon dioxide and lactic acid appeal to a mosquito. These are found in warm blooded mammals and birds. Regular breathing puts out these sorts of gases. Some sweat will also put off these gases.
Garments that contrast with the background will attract a mosquito also. Heat is easily detected by a mosquito.
Mosquitoes can be found in a cool spot during the day whilst it is hot. If they are disturbed, they will bite during this time. They are more active while it is cooler.
Mosquitoes are known to infect humans with many kinds of diseases. They carry viruses and parasites from human to human. Some common viral illnesses are malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, and Chikungunya.
It is estimated that more than two million people die from these illnesses every year. It has been found that most of these illnesses are carried by ?elderly? females.
There are numerous products on the market to help avoid mosquito bites and chancing acquiring a deadly infection. Many of these products contain DEET. It is highly recommended. DEET can also be applied full strength, but 20-50% is normally strong enough.
Some of the brand name insect repellents are: Off, Cutter, White Mountain, and Repel. There are also candles, wipes, nets, traps, and foggers obtainable on the market. There are also organic repellents on the market. You can also create your own repellent.
Smoke from campfires and mud or clay assists stop mosquitoes from biting. Some herbs, such as Rosemary, will also keep mosquitoes away.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on a number of subjects, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Nov 19th, 2011. Comment.
The resurgence of the numbers of bed bugs during the last fifteen years has been blamed on the higher number of people going on long-haul vacations and the increased amount of immigration from Asia and Africa..
It is not that some people carry the bed bugs home on their bodies, but bedbugs may have laid eggs in the travellers’ garments or the bed bugs might have taken refuge in the suitcases.
In this fashion they are carried home, and being very hardy to temperature variations they prosper in their new home country. If the carriers are on vacation, then the bed bugs could easily become unloaded into the hotel. This is how bed bugs can become dispersed unknowingly by humans.
You see, bed bugs do not flourish in a filthy environment necessarily. Bed bugs do not mind whether you dropped a bit of potato on the floor last week and did not sweep it up. They do not feed on what we like, even if they are hungry. They just eat blood.
If you are like this, then you will attract mice or rats, cockroaches and ants, but not bed bugs. It is a mistake to think that bedbugs like dirt and rubbish. They most likely prefer it fairly clean actually, but they do need to have cracks and crevices to hide in, but there are lots of those in most rooms.
They like to wriggle behind the skirtings and other woodwork. They also like broken plaster, peeling wall paper and torn mattresses. Because they are so flat, they can get into virtually any gap.
This means that any hotel can become infested with bedbugs, the Ritz, the Carlton, Holiday Inn – any of them.
This is the problem for us. If it was merely run-down, dirty hotels that had bed bugs, we could circumvent them, but you simply should not judge a book by its cover.
There are methods of checking your room though. Look out for small bugs that look a bit like an apple seed. Look in the seams of the chairs and check the mattress, if there are any tears in it, have it swapped.
You can also experiment by lying on the bed to warm it up and then throw back the bed clothes swiftly. You might spot a couple of fleet-footed insects running for cover. They are bedbugs.
Obviously, the first thing you have to do is tell the hotel manager. If you are not satisfied that he or she is taking you seriously, move or / and ring the environmental health department of the local council.
Whether you discover bedbugs or not, they still may be there to hitch a ride home with you, so spray or dust your suitcase with a powerful pesticide before you travel home and to be really secure, have your clothes dry cleaned, because bedbugs cannot survive temperatures over 45c.
If you cannot organize this on the last day of your holiday, make certain you do it after you arrive home, but make certain that you do not give any insects you have brought with you a opportunity to get out and reproduce.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several subjects, but is at present concerned with the Dust Mite Pillow Cover.. If you would like to know more, visit our website at Bed Infestation.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Nov 17th, 2011. Comment.
We all know that mosquitoes are pests. None of us likes being bitten by them. Most people say ‘bitten’ although this not true. ‘Stung’ is also not true. What the mosquito is really doing is taking some of your protein in the form of blood though her proboscis, so that her eggs will have something to feed upon while they are developing.
In consequence, your blood is supplying the albumen (the ‘white’) of the mosquitoes’ eggs. It therefore follows that it is only the female mosquito that ‘bites’. In the course of sucking your blood, the mosquito squirts some juices into you. It is not fully understood what these liquids contain, but one is an anti-coagulant to keep your blood fluid and another might be a pain-killer so you do not feel the proboscis entering your pore. Some think that there might also be an antiseptic, but it is not accepted by every one.
Some mosquitoes also introduce other parasites into you, which can result in diseases like malaria, dengue, yellow fever and Japanese jungle encephalopathy. Mosquitoes are responsible for killing millions of people every year. Luckily the liquid that they inject comes from another source other than where they store the blood they have already taken, otherwise they could distribute AIDS as well.
Having said all that, another indirect cause for alarm is in the deterrence of mosquito bites. The single most effective method of preventing mosquitoes landing on you is spreading mosquito repellent on your skin, and the most effective mosquito repellents contain DEET. However, it is now considered that the frequent use of DEET can cause neurological issues. Consequently, it worth looking for natural mosquito repellents.
Unfortunately, there is no mosquito repellent as reliable as DEET, but some combinations of treatments are nearly as effective. For instance, some people say that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have eaten bananas, so you could avoid bananas if you are near mosquitoes. Others say that mosquitoes are less likely to go for people who have consumed garlic or Yeastvite or Bovril.
Mosquitoes abhor the smell of lemons, so a local application of lemon juice is very efficient although the effect only lasts about thirty or forty minutes. However, there is a plant called the citronella and this deters mosquitoes equally as well. The citronella does not smell of lemons unless it is disturbed, but then it is very aromatic.
Grow them in pots on your window sills, on your deck or on your patio. The wind blowing through them is enough to discharge the smell. You can also collect the dead leaves and put them in your pillow. You can also rub green leaves directly onto your skin.
There are quite a few natural mosquito repellents, but they do not all work for everybody and nobody knows why. One theory is that diet and alcohol affect your attraction to mosquitoes. It is also possible that mosquitoes in different areas like different types of people, so it is always worth asking for local advice.
Owen Jones publishes pieces on various subjects, but is currently involved with Hand Held Insect Killer devices and stationary units at Electronic Insect Killers.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 27th, 2011. Comment.
Entomology at its simplest is the study of insects and related animals. It is a subsection of biology and zoology. The animal class of Insecta is by far the largest group of animals in the world.
To give you an suggestion of how huge the subject is and how much work there is yet to be done, just more than a million insects have been classified, but it is estimated that there are 30,000,000 more species to categorize.
Many of these insects do not even have names yet and the habits of lots of those with names is still a complete mystery. This part of the study of entomology: the study of insects’ relationship with humans, the environment and other plants and animals is vital work.
This means that entomology has an effect on agriculture, biology, chemistry, criminology, forensic science, ecology, economics, food, forestry, genetics, health, trade, pharmaceuticals, robotics and veterinary medicine just for a start!
This means that there are plenty of kinds of jobs in which a knowledge of entomology plays a functional role. For instance, if you are interested in insects and computers, you could develop computer programs for farmers to help them plan for all types of situations from attacks by pests to pollination by bees.
If you like to work in the field, you could work in forestry. If you like chemistry, you could work on chemicals like insect repellents
If you like maths, you could work on statistics, insect populations, growth predictions etc. In other areas you could work on the genetic engineering of plants to resist insect attack; work in a zoo rearing and feeding insects both for food for other animals and as exhibits or work in scenes of crimes using the insect life on a dead body to help supply proof for an investigation.
With so many kinds of jobs on offer, it is easy to find a branch of entomology to interest you. There is also a boundless quantity of specimens – there are approximately 1,600,000,000 insects on the planet for each human being and there is no form of terrestrial life on the planet that does not rely on insects for its existence. It is also the most diverse life form on the planet.
A colossal problem that is growing year on year is the shortage of food, yet it is likely that 40% of all food produced is either consumed or spoiled by insects. If that single problem could be solved, it would give us a breathing space to work out the problem in the right manner. It is obvious that entomology will play a pivotal role in solving this difficulty.
Entomologists have a huge deal of effort to do in protecting the environment and one of the most multifaceted environments is the rain forest. Approximately half the world’s species of plants and animals are discovered only in rain forests.
Lots of of these species have not been classified and they might hold the solutions to curing a lot of of the most lethal illnesses affecting mankind today.
A century ago, the diseases that killed most people worldwide were not the ones that we face now and that is largely because entomologists studied the insects that spread the virus (mosquitoes, ticks and fleas) and learned how to control them.
Nowhere near as many people die these days from malaria, Yellow Fever and dengue as they did 100 years ago, because we know how to control mosquito populations and individuals realize that it is the mosquito spreading the diseases.
These are the life-threatening illnesses, but imagine how much money we spend protecting our pets and livestock. And how much do individuals spend on killing cockroaches, silverfish and bed bugs?
There is a huge amount of money being spent on insects so plenty of jobs are out there for those with an fascination for bugs.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on many topics, but is at present involved with getting rid of mosquito bites. If you would like to know more just go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 23rd, 2011. Comment.
The study of insects is known as entomology. Entomology is a sub-section of biology and is one of the oldest sciences. Man has studied the habits of insects, usually with a view to getting rid them, since the first plague of locusts landed on early farmers’ crops tens of thousands of years ago. However, entomology was not really recognized and learned as a science until the Sixteenth Century.
Entomology has had many famous devotees but the most famous was Charles Darwin. More recent entomologists are Karl von Frisch the Nobel Prize winner for medicine in 1973 and E. O. Wilson the two time Pulitzer prize winner.
Entomologists are also frequently credited with helping solve murders by studying the insects that are discovered on and in the dead body. This is quite possible and not merely a device used in Hollywood films.
The first thing to understand is that not all creepy crawlies are insects. For example, spiders are not insects, but many entomologists are not so strict and have an interest in arachnids (spiders), worms, slugs and snails.
All insects pass through a number of stages of life, but there are two kinds of insect development ‘simple metamorphosis’ and ‘complete metamorphosis’.
The first sort includes most beetles and bugs like bed bugs. They are born as eggs and hatch into larvae (nymphs), which, if not perfect copies of their parents do look a lot like them
The second sort are also born as eggs, also hatch into larvae, but they look nothing like their parents – so dissimilar in fact that if you do not know what they are, you could not imagine. The larva then grows into a pupa when it appears to become dormant, this is not the case though, there is plenty going on and when it comes out from the pupal stage it is unrecognizable. Butterflies are like this.
If you would like to study insects, you have to focus because there are at least 1.3 million species of insects that we have found so far and there are lots more to name and classify.
You would be forgiven for imagining that these unknown insects, worms, slugs and beetles et cetera are all in remotest Africa or in thick jungles, but last year a carnivorous slug was found in a garden in the middle of Cardiff in the UK.
In order to study insects, you usually have to catch them without killing them. This means nets and traps. it is simple enough to get a butterfly net (or fishing net) and you can create your own pitfall traps for ground beetles. You will also need a good book to help you classify your find and a magnifying glass to be able to better see it.
One word of caution though: you may think that there are too many insects and that no one really cares about them, but this is not true. There are many insects in every country that are protected and you will be breaking the law by capturing them or hurting them, so the first thing to do is find out which ones you may study and which ones it is better to leave alone.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our web site at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 21st, 2011. Comment.
Who would have guessed that the London Underground is home to a unique species of mosquito? The species is known as the London Underground mosquito and is considered to have evolved from Culex pipiens. The London Underground species has been dubbed Culex pipiens molestus, because it is a tireless biter.
It is not new, but it is comparatively new in biological terms. Molestus is known to have bitten Londoners during the Second World War whilst they were taking refuge during the air raids. However, there are other references to a mosquito with the same name, molestus, 170 years before the war, when there was no underground railway system in London or anywhere else in the world.
This mosquito was first discovered in the London Underground, which is why it received its name, but it can be discovered in metro and underground railway stations all over the world. No one actually knows a lot about this insect population yet.
Some people suggest that it is a variant of a local Culex pipiens that has adapted to living in warmer, underground tunnels, whilst others say that is a southern (and therefore warmer) variant of C. pipiens that is able to live in the colder north because it has inhabited the warm train tunnels of the underground systems.
Yet others, notably Kate Byrne and Richard Nichols, suggest that it is a totally different species from Culex pipiens. Their proof for saying this is that there are differences between pipiens and molestus: they display very different behavioural patterns and do not mate readily with each other.
C. pipiens molestus will bite rats, mice and humans and dies in cold temperatures but remains active all year round, whereas C. pipiens can tolerate cold weather, only bites birds and hibernates if the weather gets very cold.
On the rare occasions when the two varieties cross breed, the eggs are infertile, which implies that they are distantly related if at all. Recent studies indicate that molestus originated in one source but spread rapidly around the world, perhaps in freight.
Second-hand tyres have been held responsible for spreading molestus around the world. There is a colossal international trade in second hand tyres and it is infamously difficult to get all the water out of a tyre that has been left in the rain. Mosquitoes can breed in a tiny amount of water, so this is a possibility.
There is a strange and not entirely explained twist to the story of the molestus, the American version of molestus pipiens still bites birds which leads some individuals to suggest that molestus is a separate species, but that it has formed a hybrid in America with pipiens.
This is quite frightening, but quite possible, because the American pipiens can transmit human encephalitis brought about by the West Nile virus, an outbreak of which hit New York in 1999.
There is a lot more to find out about the London Underground mosquito, since the story is only just starting to unfold. The real story will almost certainly come out of America where this new mosquito has proved to be the most dangerous.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our web site at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 17th, 2011. Comment.