insects

Webinar: Protecting Pollinators

The birds and the bees need our help. Pollinators help to feed us and make our world more beautiful, but their habitats need protecting. Backyard gardeners to big companies alike know this and some are creating strategies to safeguard these precious creatures.  This webinar shows how you can protect pollinating bees, wasps, bats, and birds on various scales. You'll hear strategies that are being implemented in small to large scale gardens. You'll be informed of best practices and inspired by the work that's being done. 

Mosquitoes and Zika Virus: "We Don't Have to Live in Fear"

By Emily Monosson / On February 24th, 2016
Mosquitoes, along with their disease-causing hitchhikers like West Nile, Equine encephalitis, Dengue, and now Zika, are on the move, finding new habitats and naïve populations ripe for infection. Just as Lyme has made tick experts out of us all (no, that one is just a dog tick), we are on a first-name basis with mosquitoes like Aedes and Culex.
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Another one bites the dust, nature conquers biotech — again

By [node:field_contributor] / On March 19th, 2014
Cross-posted from Emily Monosson's Evolution in a toxic world And another one bites the dust. Corn rootworms, once the scourge of corn growers, stymied by corn engineered to produce Bt toxin (a crystalline toxin that basically pokes holes in the guts of these worms) are back. No matter how you feel about biotech, this is bad news because it can only lead to increased pesticide use.
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Changing the World Gene by Gene

By Emily Monosson / On March 12th, 2014
Here’s the skinny: evolution is happening all the time, all around us. Living things are like one roiling mass of DNA. OK, so that’s a little over the top.
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Considering bees, industrious but not industrial

By Ann Vileisis / On January 14th, 2009
Nowadays when I see bees in my garden, I pay close attention. I have noticed at least four different types. They buzz purposely—so focused on the periwinkle blue flowers of my rosemary hedge. I crouch down to examine their fuzzy bodies and the gorgeous floral interiors that are the center of their apian attention. The wondrous dance of bees and flowers has been evolving for millions of years, but in the past few, it has it become frighteningly tenuous.