Oldest #Viruses #Infected #Insects 300 Million Years Ago

Viruses are packets of DNA in a protein shell. They can't reproduce on their own so take over DNA and protein making machinery of a host to survive. By comparing the genes of bracoviruses that live in parasitic wasps with those of free living insect viruses that haven't inserted their genes into a host genome called nudiviruses, and to their cousins the baculoviruses researchers determined that the two groups split about 310 million years ago. This is as old as insects themselves so insect viruses were already present from the beginning from the evolution of insects. Viruses have been found to infect every type of life; there are even viruses that infect viruses. 

Read More at Live Science

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Man-Eating #Mushrooms #death

Artist Jae Rhim Lee believes we should think about the way we deal with death in a new way. Instead of embalming our deceased loved ones and doing everything possible “to preserve the body and protect it from the environment, with the idea that decomposition is something to be avoided,” Lee says the Western burial ritual distances us from death and our own mortality. Her suggestion is that we embrace decomposition and so has designed a prototype of a burial suit that can be seeded with mushroom’s spores that have been specifically trained to digest the tissues of the human body.

Read More at The Scientist

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School #Bugs

School Bugs

As children across the country settle into the new school year,  hundreds of children in a school, and up to 30 in each class, the risk of disease increases. Most parents will be aware of the more mundane colds,  headlice, chickenpox and conjunctivitis, but there are more frightening sounding diseases that are doing the rounds too. The Guardian has put together a timely guide to help worried parents giving all the facts about scarlet fever, threadworms, slapped cheek syndrome and hand, foot and mouth.

Read More at The Guardian

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What The Well Dressed #Mouse Is Wearing This Season #wildlife

Scientists at Stanford University have developed a tiny but powerful microscope that can fit on a mouses head and peer inside their brains without interfering with their actions. Previously studying mouse brains involved the mouse being held down or at least having their head restrained. With this new system the mice are free to behave naturally and freely. The microscope that looks a like a hi tech top hat could also be mass produced cheaply.

Read More at Discovery 

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Plankton Under The #Microscope #interesting #wildlife #photos

In his new book Ocean Drifters: A Secret World Beneath out this month, molecular geneticist Richard R. Kirby takes a close look at plankton. Plankton form the foundation of the marine food chain. They also remove carbon dioxide from the sea and provide Earth's atmosphere with oxygen. Rising sea surface temperatures due to anthropogenic climate change could  alter the sea's food web and the ecology of Earth. The book also boasts 150 high-magnification photographs, some of which are diplayed in this stunning slide show.

View Slide Show at Scientific American

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6 Of Nature's Most Diabolical #Predators

Fungus gnat maggots produce dangling strands of mucus that are illuminated by  glowing bacteria to lure moths to a sticky end in the Glow Worm Cave of New Zealand.  Broods of the parasitic blister beetle clump together and release pheromones to imitate a female bee, luring down a male so they can hitch a ride. When the hapless male eventually finds  a real female bee to mate with the grubs transfer to her and she witlessly carries them back to her nursery where they feast on her young. The Portia spider designs a new tactic for every individual spider they hunt, playing on the prey's species, behaviours and circumstances. Some female fireflies imitate the mating flashes of competing species to lure the males  in, kill and eat them. The cobra lily lures insects in, traps them, and devours them when they fall exhausted into a drowning pool of corpse filled fluid. The assassin bug impale prey on straw-like mouthparts, pump them full of digestive enzymes and suckout their innards. Ain't nature grand!

Read More at Cracked .com (Warning: Strong Language)

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The Komodo Dragon – The World's Largest #Venomous #Animal

Fascinating slide show of this fearsome predator. It can kill prey as large as a buffalo and is able to eat 80% of its body weight in one sitting. 90% of the dragon's attacks on prey result in a kill. Their venomous saliva stops blood from clotting so victims bleed to death. Yet even with all this going for it there are only about 4,000 of them left and are therefore deemed 'vulnerable'

Read More & See Slide Show at BBC Nature

We can't deal with animals such as these... but for the usual pest control problems such as rodents and UK household insects like fleas and bed bugs, London Pest Services and Capybara Pest Control is your number 1 place. 

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London Gets An F For Air Pollution

The City of London now ranks among the unhealthiest European cities for air pollution. 17 cities were judged on the action they had taken to reduce deadly particles from diesel vehicles.   Only Düsseldorf, Milan and Rome  were judged to be worse than London in a recent air quality study. London was deemed to have taken backward steps by halving the congestion charge zone, cut back on plans for new hybrid buses and increasing public transport fares. Bad air quality in Europe causes nearly 500,000 premature deaths a year, and costs up to €790bn a year to address.  “The government and the mayor of London can no longer ignore the biggest public health crisis since the great smog of 1952," said James Grugeon, chief executive of Environmental Protection UK. 

Read More at The Guardian

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#Hummingbirds: A Sing In The Tail

During courtship display a male hummingbird can climb up to 40 metres before dive bombing passed the female at maximum possibel speeds. At the lowest point of the dive he rapidly spreads and then closes his tail feathers. The spread makes the tail feathers flutter and produce a distinctive sound that is specific to each species. The size, shape, mass and rigidity of the hummingbird's feathers, determine the tone of each species' particular sound.

Read More & Watch Video at Physorg.com 

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Simply fascinating #nature...

6 Things Animals Do Just Like Us.

Dolphins, crows, primates and parrots name their babies as they have been observed using unique calls to get the attention of specific members in the group. Whales sing pop songs. Humpback males sing a hit song that can spread half way round the globe until an innovator in the population starts to sing a new song which catches on and becomes the new hit.  Female chimps play with dolls. They take sticks, logs or vines and cradle and cuddle them like babies, even putting them to bed. Bengal finches are sticklers for good grammar. Researchers found the birds got very irate when a jumbled recording of their songs was played back to them. Chimps use on third-party mediators to resolve disputes.  When two male chimps argue  a female will step in and use mutual grooming to bring the two back together. Some monkeys & primates can be taught to understand and use 'money', even to the extent of using it to buy sexual favours.

Read More at Cracked.com

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Wakehurst Place Launches Native #Plant Project.

Kew Garden's Millennium Seed Bank has launched a project to create seed stocks to help restore native plants to the UK. Initially the project will concentrate on plants from lowland meadows and semi-natural grassland as 98% of such habitats have vanished in England and Wales since the 1930s.  Seeds from plants like devil's bit scabious, cuckoo flower, green field-speedwell and harebell, can then be harvested and grown on by seed companies for conservation groups and landowners. 

Read More at The Guardian

See Picture Gallery at The Guardian

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Photos: #Babies On The Brink

Some very cute pictures of baby elephants, pied tamarins, Tasmanian devils, aye ayes,  lion cubs, pandas and more. This lovely slide show also illustrates some of the breeding programs and efforts to safeguard some of the world's most endangered species. 

View Slide Show at BBC Nature

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TED Talk - Jessica Green: Are we filtering the wrong microbes?

In this five minute talk, ecologist Jessica Green suggests  that although the mechanical ventilation used in hospitals to filter the air, does get rid of many types of microbes, it may be eliminating the wrong kinds. In fact the ones left in the hospital are much more likely to be pathogens. 

Watch Video at TED.com

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Satellite Tracks Cuckoos' 5,000km Journey

The migration routes of 5 British Cuckoos have been tracked by Scientists using tiny satellite-tracking tags. The bird's 5,000km journey began from East Anglia and all 5 have now reached Africa & 4 of the birds crossed the Sahara desert, one of the major sources of mortality for many migrants. The birds were distributed across 3,000km of the continent, from Morocco to Chad. It is thought that the birds would continue to fly a further 1-2,000km. Cuckoos are one of several migrant species declining in Britain so the team are keen to discover what environments the birds rely on and where they stop off to feed on their long migration.

Read More at BBC Nature

Posted by Astrojenny

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Five Ways Animal Societies Are Organizing

Chimpanzees wage war. They mount strategic military campaigns against neighbouring tribes to gain territory or stamp out rivals. Monkeys have complex, structured societies that involve prostitution, an economy and even labour strikes. Cleaner fish run an efficient business ridding larger fish of parasites, they advertise and will even punish fellow workers who do a poor job. Leaf cutter ants run farms, cultivating crops of fungus and protecting the crop with pesticides. Killer whales will use bait to 'fish' for seagulls, luring them down to the water by spitting chewed up fish on the surface and pass this trick onto their neighbours. Crows are excellent tool users, they even adapt tools to suit their purpose and pass the new technology on to each other.

Read More at Cracked.com WARNING: Strong Language!

Posted by Astrojenny

For all your pest control problems, please visit www.capy.co.uk and book a professional pest control technician or purchase DIY pest control products and kits.

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Antlion Colony Thrives In Norfolk

Adult antlions look like small dragonflies, their larvae are less attractive and lie in steep sided burrows waiting for prey to fall in whereupon the antlion grabs it and sucks it dry. This rare insect is now thriving in a nature reserve in Norfolk. In 2008 700 larval pits were found on the site. This year the colony has trebled in size to number 1,905 larval pits. The larvae live for two years before becoming adults and then only survive for a few weeks. The only other known colony in the UK is in Suffolk.

Read More at BBC News

Posted by Astrojenny

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Exotic Pets Put UK Wildlife At Risk

The exotic pet industry is booming in the UK, with many people looking to bring animals other than the usual cats and dogs into their homes. However conservationists are increasingly concerned that the current interest in keeping racoons, skunks and even wild cats, poses a risk to our native wildlife. If these exotic species were to escape and establish themselves in our countryside they could devastate the fragile ecosystem in the same way that mink have done. Conservationists are calling for current regulations to be tightened up with an outright ban on people being able to keep certain species.

Watch Video at BBC News

Posted by Astrojenny

For all your pest control problems, please visit www.capy.co.uk and book a professional pest control technician or purchase DIY pest control products and kits.

 

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Deepest Worm Lives Beneath A Mile Of Rock

Nematode worms are one of natures great survivors. They are found in desert, mountain, and ocean and even survived on the space shuttle Columbia after it disintegrated on reentry. A new species of nematode, the deepest known animal, has been discovered in a rock fracture a mile underground, in the Beatrix gold mine in South Africa, where no other animal has been found. It was thought only single-celled organisms could inhabit the bedrock beneath our feet but now the search is on to find other such creatures. Every new extremophile organism found, extends our knowledge of what life needs to survive, and of the possibility of life being discovered elsewhere in the universe.

Read More at Discover Magazine

Posted by Astrojenny

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7 Animals With A Design Flaw

Ever wondered why mayflies live such short lives? It's because they have no mouths! When they reach adulthood they lose their mouths and from then on they starve to death. They may have great camouflage, poisons and intelligence but octopus can only mate once in their lives and then they die. The Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish can't swim, they can only drift at the mercy of wind and waves. Tarsiers are adorably cute and they can see in the dark, rotate their heads almost 360 degrees, climb and leap up to 40 times their own body length, but if they fall to the ground they are finished, because the tarsier can't walk. The wonderful shoebill, my favourite ever bird, can't fly. Scorpions are nocturnal but being fluorescent must make it hard to hunt for food. And slavemaker ants need their slaves because they can't do anything, not even feed themselves. 

Read More at Cracked.com WARNING: Strong Language!

Posted by Astrojenny

For all your pest control problems, please visit www.capy.co.uk and book a professional pest control technician or purchase DIY pest control products and kits.

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The Maddest Sex In The Animal Kingdom

This post is most definitely adult in content! The good folks at Cracked (who else) have compiled a list of some the more bizarre mating practices in nature. Transvestite beetles that use pheromones to convince alpha males to mate with them. Male giraffes have a deeply unsavoury way of checking if a female is in season (think pregnancy testing kit.) Suicidal bees, zombie salmon, sex changing triggerfish and flexible female fruit bats.

Read More at Cracked.com WARNING: Adult Content!

Posted by Astrojenny

For all your pest control problems, please visit www.capy.co.uk and book a professional pest control technician or purchase DIY pest control products and kits.

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