Category Archives: Insects

Stinging deaths, back yard poisons and billions spent: model predicts Australia’s fire ants future

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Exclusive: Cost blow-out has experts worried people will use ‘huge’ volumes of pesticides to protect themselves from ‘tiny killers’

Australian households will spend $1.03bn every year to suppress fire ants and cover related medical and veterinary costs, with about 570,800 people needing medical attention and 30 likely deaths from the invasive pest’s stings, new modelling shows.

The Australia Institute research breaks down the impact of red imported fire ants (Rifa) by electorate, with the seats of Durack and O’Connor in Western Australia, Mayo in South Australia and Blair in Queensland the hardest hit if the ants become endemic.

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Blair: $1.7m in medical costs, $1.5m in vet costs and $5.1m in household pesticide costs.

Dickson: $1.4m in medical costs, $1.2m in vet costs and $4m in household pesticide costs.

Ryan: $1.5m in medical costs, $1.3m in vet costs and $3.4m in household pesticide costs.

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NSW bans hay imports from south-east Queensland amid fear of fire ants after Cyclone Alfred

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Invasive Species Council says moratorium a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ to inadequacy of national eradication program

New South Wales has temporarily banned the import of hay from parts of south-east Queensland as a precaution against invasive fire ants, which are on the move in large numbers thanks to flooding from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

But the Invasive Species Council said the move is a Band-Aid response and accused the Queensland, NSW and federal governments of dropping the ball in suppressing fire ant numbers within infested areas.

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Eastern monarch butterfly population doubles in a year

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Migratory insects covered 4.2 acres in Mexican forests this winter but number remains far below long-term average

The population of eastern monarch butterflies – which migrate from Canada and the US to Mexico during the winter – has nearly doubled over the last year, according to a recent report commissioned in Mexico, generating optimism among nature preservationists.

The modest growth in numbers for the orange-and-black butterflies follows years of ongoing conservation efforts – and perhaps provides a sliver of optimism after otherwise discouraging long-term trends for the species.

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Butterfly population in US shrinking by 22% over last 20 years, study shows

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Drop in line with rate of overall insect loss as scientists point to habitat loss, pesticide use and the climate crisis

Butterflies may be among the most beloved of all creatures, routinely deified in art and verse, but they are in alarming decline in the United States with populations plummeting by a fifth in just the past two decades, according to the most comprehensive study yet of their fortunes.

The abundance of butterflies in the US slumped 22% between 2000 and 2020, the new analysis of more than 76,000 mostly regional surveys, published in Science, found. For every five butterflies fluttering daintily around at the start of the century, just four remain today.

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UK bumblebee numbers fell to lowest on record in 2024, shows data

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Bumblebees declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to conservation charity

Figures show 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees in the UK since records began.

Bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to data from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. The researchers said the drop was probably due to the cold and wet conditions in the UK last spring.

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Flies in hospital wards may be spreading drug-resistant bacteria to patients

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Scientists in Nigeria found the insects carry infections resistant to last-resort antibiotics, adding to fears about superbugs

Flies buzzing between beds may be spreading drug-resistant bugs among patients in hospitals, according to new research.

Researchers from the Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research (IOI) found that houseflies in Nigerian hospitals carry bacteria resistant to some key antibiotics, including those used only as a last resort.

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Government overturns Tory measure and bans emergency use of bee-killing pesticide

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Emergency use of Cruiser SB, a neonicotinoid pesticide highly toxic to bees, to be outlawed in UK in line with EU

Bee-killing pesticides have been banned for emergency use in the UK for the first time in five years after the government rejected an application from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.

The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB, which is used on sugar beet, is highly toxic to bees and has the potential to kill off populations of the insect. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. It combats a plant disease known as virus yellows by killing the aphid that spreads it.

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Slovenian girl, 12, saves project aiming to reintroduce cicadas to New Forest

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Conservationists failed to capture elusive insects this summer, so Kristina Kenda offered to step in

When British conservationists flew to Slovenia this summer hoping to catch enough singing cicadas to reintroduce the species to the New Forest, the grasshopper-sized insects proved impossible to locate, flying elusively at great height between trees.

Now a 12-year-old girl has offered to save the Species Recovery Trust’s reintroduction project. Kristina Kenda, the daughter of the Airbnb hosts who accommodated the trust’s director, Dom Price, and conservation officer Holly Stanworth in the summer summer, will put out special nets to hopefully catch enough cicadas to re-establish a British population.

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Labor has ‘pressed pause’ in fight to contain spread of fire ants, invasive species council says

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If unchecked, pest species would burden health system with 650,000 more appointments and more than $2bn in costs each year, expert says

The federal government’s response to a Senate inquiry into the spread of invasive fire ants has been labelled inadequate with experts saying Labor has “essentially pressed the pause button”.

An April upper house report contained 10 recommendations. The Albanese government on Monday said it supported three in their entirety and three in principle – including calls for funding reviews, more transparency and improved council collaboration.

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Firefly species may blink out as US seeks to list it as endangered for first time

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Bethany Beach firefly, found in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, faces dangers to habitat because of climate change

The US government is seeking to consider a firefly species as endangered for the first time, according to a proposal from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Bethany Beach firefly, found in coastal Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, is facing increasing dangers to its natural habitat because of climate change-related events. They include sea level rise, which is predicted to affect all sites within the known distribution by the end of the century, and the lowering of groundwater aquifers.

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‘Butterfly emergency’ declared as UK summer count hits record low

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Conservation group calls on government to ban insect-killing neonicotinoid pesticides outright

A national “butterfly emergency” has been declared by Butterfly Conservation after the lowest Big Butterfly Count since records began.

An average of just seven butterflies per 15-minute count were recorded by participants in this summer’s butterfly count, the lowest in the survey’s 14-year history.

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Fear for koalas after bushwalker finds fire ant nests near Queensland sanctuary

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Calls for suppression efforts to be extended after at least five nests discovered at Logan in the Daisy Hill koala bushlands

Fire ants have reached protected koala habitat and a koala priority area in south-eastern Queensland, with experts warning of the danger the highly invasive pest poses to native wildlife.

At least five red imported fire ant (Rifa) nests were discovered in Neville Lawrie reserve at Logan, which is part of the Daisy Hill koala bushlands, at the end of August.

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Mosquito-borne virus prompts public health restrictions in Massachusetts – and backlash

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Climate crisis could accelerate spread of mosquito-borne diseases like eastern equine encephalitis, experts warn

Local officials in Massachusetts have issued warnings about mosquitoes carrying eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), and, in one case, placed restrictions on the use of public fields at night, prompting backlash from some residents.

Public health experts, and others, are also concerned that such mosquito-borne viruses could become more common in the United States because of the climate crisis.

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How a little-known 17th-century female scientist changed our understanding of insects

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Maria Sibylla Merian’s beautiful and disturbing illustrations, which shaped how we look at the natural world, will be on show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum

More than three centuries after she made a perilous transatlantic voyage to study butterflies, a rare copy of the hand-coloured masterwork by the great naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian is returning to Amsterdam.

The Rijksmuseum, which holds more than half-a-million books on art and history, last week announced it had acquired a rare first-edition copy of Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium), described as a high point of 18th-century book production when the Dutch Republic was “the bookshop of the world”.

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Rare mosquito disease prompts Massachusetts to close public parks

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State also bug spraying in several communities due to virus that spreads to humans via bite of an infected mosquito

A rare but serious – and potentially lethal – mosquito-borne disease has prompted officials to close public parks as well as implement targeted bug spraying in several communities in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, a resident of nearby New Hampshire has died after testing positive for the disease, eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, according to the Associated Press.

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First £1 coin featuring King Charles III enters circulation

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Design with bees on reverse, part of collection inspired by plants and animals, was voted people’s favourite

The first £1 coin bearing the official portrait of King Charles III has entered general circulation as part of a collection inspired by plants and animals found across the four nations of the United Kingdom.

The latest design, featuring two bees, has been issued to Post Offices and banks, with nearly 3m coins making their way into tills and pockets.

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Rare moth found in Cambridgeshire orchard threatened by busway plan

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Appearance of dark crimson underwing causes excitement on land that would be bisected by road scheme

Beneath oak canopies, in an orchard full of hundred-year-old apple trees, excited exclamations rose from a group of moth enthusiasts last week.

The Cambridgeshire Moth Group had just trapped a dark crimson underwing, a species so rare that none of them had ever seen it before. Indeed, the colourful invertebrate is only usually ever found in the New Forest and is considered nationally scarce.

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Startling genome discovery in butterfly project reveals impact of climate change in Europe

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Project to study all 11,000 species of butterflies and moths finds ‘two species in the act of being created from one’

The chalkhill blue has some surprising claims to fame. For a start, it is one of the UK’s most beautiful butterflies, as can be seen as they flutter above the grasslands of southern England in summer.

Then there is their close and unusual relationship with ants. Caterpillars of Lysandra coridon – found across Europe – exude a type of honeydew that is milked by ants and provides them with energy. In return, they are given protection in cells below ground especially created for them by the ants. Chalkhill blues thrive as a result, though their numbers are now coming under threat.

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UK failing to monitor apparently falling wasp populations, expert warns

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Gardeners and pest controllers say wasps, important predators and pollinators, appear to be in sharp decline

The UK is not doing enough to track wasp populations as numbers appear to plummet, a leading expert has warned.

While there were national monitoring schemes for some invertebrates, including bees and butterflies, there was no such programme in place for wasps, said Dr Gavin Broad, principal curator of wasps at the Natural History Museum.

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Australian scientists genetically engineer common fly species to eat more of humanity’s waste

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Black soldier flies could help cut planet-warming methane produced when organic waste breaks down, Macquarie University team says

A team of Australian scientists is genetically engineering a common fly species so that it can eat more of humanity’s organic waste while producing ingredients for making everything from lubricants and biofuels to high-grade animal feeds.

Black soldier flies are already being used commercially to consume organic waste, including food waste, but tweaking their genetics could widen the range of waste their larvae consume while, in the process, producing fatty compounds and enzymes.

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