Insects, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 29, 2013

How to Land Safely on a Vertical Surface, Bee-Style (Op-Ed)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Landing is arguably the most nerve-racking element of any flight. To execute a safe landing, a pilot needs to know the plane’s speed and its distance from the landing surface....

Nov 27, 2013

Manipulative Parasites Make Hornets Their Nest (Op-Ed)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Hornets put fear into the minds of most, but there is a parasite that the hornets fear (if indeed they are capable of fear). Sphaerularia vespae is a parasitic nematode...

Dec 3, 2013

Buzzworthy: Company Offers Custom-Made Beehive Rentals

If you dream of dabbling in beekeeping, but aren't sure if you're ready to commit to owning your own hive, how about renting one? Eco Honeybees, a Virginia-based company, loans beehives to individuals, businesses and schools in and around metro Washington, D.C., suburban Northern Virginia and Maryland, reported TreeHugger. For...

Jan 16, 2014

How Queen Bees Reign Over Reproduction

When it comes to reproduction in social insects, nobody competes with the queen. For some time, scientists have known that queen insects give off chemical signals that prevent workers from reproducing. When a queen kicks the bucket, the signals wear off, and the workers become fertile again. Now, researchers have...

Jan 30, 2014

As Plant Virus Jumps to Bees, Does it Cause Colony Collapse?

Jeff Nesbit was the director of public affairs for two prominent federal science agencies. This article was adapted from one that first appeared in U.S. News & World Report. Nesbit contributed the article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Another potentially significant answer in the long-running mystery behind colony...

Feb 4, 2014

Bees' Salt-Sensing Feet Explain Swimming Pool Mystery

The first-ever investigation of the honeybee ability to taste with their front feet may explain a persistent bee mystery: Why they swarm saltwater swimming pools. Saltwater swimming pools don't require chlorine or other chemicals, but online home and garden forums are full of complaints about these swimming holes' dark side....

Feb 5, 2014

Bumblebees Can Fly Higher Than Mount Everest

Alpine bumblebees have the ability to fly at elevations greater than Mt. Everest, scientists have found. Bumblebees cannot survive the freezing conditions of Mt. Everest's peak. But researchers based at the University of California, Berkley simulated the low oxygen and low air density conditions of such high elevations to determine...

Feb 25, 2014

Farmers Get $3 Million in Bee Lunch Money

There's no such thing as a free lunch — unless you're a bee. A new Department of Agriculture initiative offers up to $3 million to improve the food supply for honeybees. Of course, the bees really do earn their keep. Commercial honeybees alone pollinate some $15 billion of produce each...

Jun 5, 2014

Parasitic Wasp Turns Roaches into Zombie Slaves using Neurotoxic Cocktail

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. For decades, scientists have tried to understand the complex and gruesome relationship between the parasitic emerald wasp Ampulex compressa and its much larger victim, the common household cockroach Periplaneta...

Jul 2, 2014

Newfound Wasp Literally Has Skeletons in Its Closet

A newly discovered wasp has been keeping a gruesome secret: It stuffs ant corpses into the walls of its home. As far as scientists know, the behavior is unique in the animal kingdom. The new creature has been named Deuteragenia ossarium, or the bone-house wasp, after the historical ossuaries piled...

Jul 28, 2014

How Texas Man Survived 1,000 Killer Bees

A municipal worker who got stung by an estimated 1,000 bees while mowing a park lawn on Thursday (July 24) was in stable condition. So how did he survive the buzzing attack? Turns out, the man's attackers — probably Africanized honeybees, according to the local fire department — are not...

Nov 6, 2014

Getting the Buzz on Bees

This Research in Action article was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Bees are big business. According to the White House, pollinators contribute more than $24 billion to the U.S. economy. A little more than one-third of that total comes from wild pollinators, such as...

Jun 16, 2015

Mind Meld: Social Wasps Share Brainpower

Wasps that live in large, social colonies may share brainpower, a new study finds. It takes a lot of brainpower to socialize. Animals that are social typically have large brains, or at least large areas in their brains that control higher cognition. But the opposite is true for wasps, the...

Jun 19, 2015

Honey Bees' African Ancestors May Hold Cure for Biting Mite Plague

Jessica Arriens, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), contributed this article to Live Science's& Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The honey bearers arrived in the early 17th century, carried into the United States by early European settlers. Apis mellifera, a name that truly translates as...

Sep 11, 2015

California's Killer Bees Are Spreading North

Bad news for apiphobes: Killer bees are on the move in the United States. Scientists from the University of California, San Diego recently collected hundreds of bees around the Golden State to determine how far north hybrid honeybees, or Africanized bees, have spread since they first arrived in the state...