Tag: insects

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Zombie fungus controls ants like they’re puppets. Could it make the leap to humans like in ‘The Last of Us’?

In the popular TV series, a fungus has gained the ability to infect people.

Biological sex: What kind of variations exist in nature?

In plants and animals, one type of gamete – reproductive cell – is larger than the other.

Your blood is a power meal for mosquitoes

ASK A RESEARCHER: Mosquitos love human blood, but can they live without it? And what does a mosquito eat when it can’t get blood?

What happens to a species when it becomes more important to reproduce than to survive?

Researchers fiddled with how seed beetles were allowed to mate. The experiment showed that when the competition between the males becomes too strong, their offspring end up with more mutations.

Do lice prefer some people more than others?

ASK A RESEARCHER: Everyone and anyone can get head lice, but some people are more at risk than others.

You can combat long-tailed silverfish efficiently and safely, it turns out

It’s possible to get rid of silverfish by using bait with small amounts of cockroach poison, according to recent studies from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

What use are biting horseflies?

All animals, birds and insects have their place in the ecosystem, scientists say. But what good is a horsefly, really?

What happens to flowers and birds when we massacre mosquitoes with modern traps?

It’s only recently that people have thought that eradicating mosquitoes might be a bad thing, a mosquito researcher says.

Fighting the insect apocalypse with hotels, flowers and dead trees

The news is full of stories about how the world’s insects are disappearing, whether from pollution, climate change, habitat losses or a combination of all three. But there are simple measures that people can use to fight back.

Arctic moth turns up after 140 years

Norwegian researcher found a living specimen of a small grey moth presumed gone from Svalbard. He thinks this demonstrates how poorly charted parts of Norway’s polar archipelago are.

Bumblebees show social learning

VIDEO: When one bumblebee learned to get hold of the sugar water it taught others the trick.

Discovered unknown species deep underground

In pitch darkness, a kilometre below the surface, a ghostly insect hovers between cave walls. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” says researcher.

Nature’s engineers keep forests tidy

Trees are tough, even when dead. But a carefully choreographed relationship between specific beetles and fungi is what helps reduce them to sawdust over decades.

Discovery could yield bee vaccine

A team of scientists has found out how bees protect their young against diseases. “This could be tremendous,” says a Norwegian participant in the project.

Ants - man's best friend?

The relationship between humans and ants is far more complex than you might think.

Unwanted hitchhikers find a home in Norway

It used to be that bedbugs were something Norwegians worried about in hotels in New York, London or San Francisco. Not any more.

Life extinguishes in lonesome oaks

Hundreds of insects, lichens and fungi live in the hollow spaces of centuries-old Norwegian oaks which are the verge of disappearing.

Fish choose a collision course

Flying insects steer away from objects to avoid collisions, but fish swim toward them at full speed.

Imported plants with dangerous stowaways

A flood of non-native insects and arachnids are streaming unchecked into Norway. Some of them are classified as high ecological risks.

A northern treasure trove of exotic life

A valley in Norway is a treasure trove of rare species that have left their kin in Asia and Europe for remote Scandinavia.

De-bugging strawberries and raspberries

Beetles do a lot of damage to Norwegian strawberries and raspberries. Scientists are seeking effective alternatives to insecticide.

Sugar shock for busy bees

When genes that control honey bees’ taste for sweetness are inactivated, the bees nearly end up as diabetics. This can provide hints about the link between our sense of taste and our body's health.

Pull, push and kill cabbage root flies

Cabbage root flies can devastate fields of cabbage and broccoli. But a clever defence has been developed using fungi, Chinese cabbage and clover.

Lilliputian shop of horrors

Do you cringe at the thought of head lice or intestinal worms? Well, if you were a little creepy thing you would risk something much worse than an itch.