Stunning photos...

Photo GalleryAnimal Magic: Survival Instincts. A wonderful selection of recent news images from the BBC, National Geographic etc. that reveal the endless wonders of the animal kingdom. See Photos at TimeCapybara Pest Control, Suppliers of General Pest Control advice, products and servic...

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When Giant Bugs The Size Of Seagulls Ruled The Air

When Giant Bugs The Size Of Seagulls Ruled The Air 300 million years ago huge predatory dragonflies & other massive bugs buzzed in the air. It had been thought that the bugs became so large because they benefitted from the oxygen rich atmosphere but recent studies suggest the opposite may be true & that the young larvae had to grow large to avoid being poisoned by excess oxygen. This Carboniferous period was characterized by vast lowland swamp forests that led to oxygen levels of about 30%, almost 50% higher than today. One way to minimize...

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Single Cells Came Together To Feed

Single Cells Came Together To Feed The transition from single celled, to multicellular life, is a vital step in evolution. It can occur in two main ways: either single cells merge as some slime moulds do, to form a larger body or single cells can multiply but remain united as a colony. Recent research suggests that the reason why single cells find benefit in sticking together may be because groups of cells can forage for nutrients more efficiently than a single cell. Each cell secretes an enzyme to break down sugars & then absorbs the smaller...

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House Mice Mate With Related Species To Pick Up Poison Resistance

House Mice Mate With Related Species To Pick Up Poison Resistance The European house mouse has become increasingly resistant to the poisons we use against them. It has been found that rodents have evolved this resistance with 10 different mutations in the gene that makes them suseptible to poison. Of those 10 mutations, while 6 are the rodent's own adaptations, 4 have been acquired by a cloe relative, the Algerian mouse found in northern Africa, Spain, Portugal & southern France. Although the two species separated 1.5 to 3 million years...

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Male Wasps Fight To The Death Over Females

Male Wasps Fight To The Death Over Females Males of the Melittobia wasp will fight whenever they can. This parasitoid wasp lays its eggs in the offspring of other insects such as caterpillars. Males are relatively few, accounting for only 5% of the brood. They are also blind & flightless so need to grab every advantage in order to secure a female in their only chance to mate. As soon as they emerge males set about each other with their scythe-like mandibles. Losers are killed & even the winners are often badly injured. Read More at...

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Rats Diet To Avoid Poison

Rats Diet To Avoid Poison Food is scarce for woodrats living in America's southwestern deserts. Of those plants that are available for food many are poisonous. Studies by the University of Utah have shown that the rats are able to control their eating to minimise the effects of these poisons. By eating a variety of plants, eating small meals with long gaps between & by drinking more water the rats can avoid excessive doses of toxins. Read More at Physorg.com For all you rat pest problems visit our web store, www.capy.co.uk...

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Spot the lizard... Answer...

Peeka a boo... I see y...

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Spot the lizard...

A bit of Thursday fun... Answer posted tomorr...

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Scientists create spermless mosquitoes in an effort to curb malaria.

Scientists create spermless mosquitoes in an effort to curb malaria. By turning off the gene zpg, essential for normal sperm development, researchers from Imperial College London managed to sterilise the male mosquitoes whilst leaving them still attractive to females & robust enough compete in the vigorous mating that the species take part in. Females mate once in a lifetime & it hoped they can be fooled into mating with a sterile male & lay unfertilized eggs in a bid to reduce the size of mosquito populations. Read More at Nat...

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First Footage Of Two Ant Queens Working Together

First Footage Of Two Ant Queens Working Together A BBC film crew have captured a rare moment of co-operation as two queens build the foundation of a new colony of honeypot ants, Myrmecocystus mimicus. A mating swarm occurs after summer storms when the queens can more easily dig in the rain softened soil. Subsequently the queens raise an army of workers, afterwhich the weakest queen is usually ousted. The camera team from BBC Natural World spent 150 days in the Arizona deserts of USA. Read More at BBC Nat...

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Research Reinforces Cycle Of Violence In Boobies

Research Reinforces Cycle Of Violence In Boobies Scientists studying a colony of Nasca boobies on the Galapagos Islands have found that young chicks abused by older birds are more likely to grow up to become abusers themselves. The birds live in dense colonies, leading to bouts of violence as mature birds attack lone chicks while the parents are away feeding. Over three breeding seasons found a strong correlation was discovered between the frequency that chicks were attacked by non-breeding adults, and the frequency that they themselves attacked...

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10 Most Beautiful Swamps On Earth

10 Most Beautiful Swamps On Earth A wonderful photo gallery of these intriguing biosystems from Brazil, USA, Africa, Seychelles, Asia & The Phillipines.biosytems osystems and beauty, and are often nature reserves for Photo Gallery at Environmental Graffiti...

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15 Incredible Photographs Of Bird's Nests

15 Incredible Photographs Of Bird's Nests Sharon Beals takes amazing images of nests. Each one is a work of art. Photo Gallery at Environmental Graff...

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The Double Beating Heart Of The Tarantula

The Double Beating Heart Of The Tarantula An MRI scan of a live tarantula by researchers at Society for Experimental Biology has revealed a distinct type of double beat contraction in the spider's heart Read More at Technogical Rev...

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The Wasp Whisperer

The Wasp Whisperer A fascinating insight into the work of Seirian Sumner. Her studies of the paper wasp Polistes canadensis & leaf-cutter ants in Panama have "illuminated a behavior that hadn’t been understood and opened a new realm of questions about the biology of social insects.” Read More at The Scient...

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Bees In The City

Bees In The City It's the latest trend in eco living. More and more people in our towns and cities are setting up hives on rooftops, in gardens, allotments and parks. The British Beekeeping Association has doubled its membership in just three years to 20,000, while some of our most famous landmarks including Buckingham Palace, Tate Modern, Fortnum & Mason are hosting hives. Read More at The Guard...

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Warm Spring Brings Swarms Of Aphids To Towns

Warm Spring Brings Swarms Of Aphids To Towns Record numbers of greenfly & blackfly are being reported across the country. It is thought the cold winter caused the demise of many of the aphids natural predators. There then followed a very warm spring causing the populations to soar. Competition for food is driving these swarms more & more into our towns & cities. It doesn't end there. The warm spring is also responsible for increased incidents of wasps & it is predicted that the general increase in insect numbers will result in...

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Even Ants Do It!

Even Ants Do It! It has long been believed that the fungus farming ant Mycocepurus smithii reproduced asexually, producing clones of itself, but new research suggests some populations at least do have sex. Analyses of DNA showed that queens in 4 out of 35 colonies have different genetic make up from their worker offspring. Further investigations revealed the queens had storage organs filled with sperm that had genetic markers matching those of the workers but absent in the queen, indicating the workers were produced sexually, though there has been...

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Fungi Killed Global Forests 250 Million Years Ago & Could Do Again

Fungi Killed Global Forests 250 Million Years Ago & Could Do Again A group of fungi Rhizoctonia, that today attack and kill plants, may have been responsible for the demise of the world's forests during the Permian extinction, the largest extinction of life on Earth when the world's continents were part of the supercontinent of Pangea. This was triggered by huge volcanic eruptions throwing vast amounts of gas & dust into the atmosphere causing global climate change. It is suggested that today’s changing climate could lead to increased...

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Falcons Come To Town

Falcons Come To Town Once a rare sight for birdwatchers, peregrine falcons are now increasingly living & nesting in our cities. Nests have been seen at London's Tate Modern, Manchester's Arndale centre and Durham and Chichester Cathedrals. As top avian predator, able to reach speeds of over 200mph, the falcon's main prey are pigeons. There are now approximately 1,500 pairs across the country, 24 of which live in London. Read More at The Independ...

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Moths Are On The Increase

Moths Are On The Increase Infestations of the common clothes moth, Tineola bisselliella have risen sharply in the past six months. That we have more clothes now & these are not laundered as often or as thouroughly as they were in the past, the decline in the use of mothballs & rise in room temperature due to central heating & even global warming have been blamed for the increase. The larvae can live for upto 2 years. Read More at The Independent For all you clothes moth pest problem visit our web store, www.capy.co.uk...

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Mice Help Research Into Depression

Mice Help Research Into DepressionIn certain areas of the brain new neurons are produced throughout our lives. New research at the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that in mice at least these neurons help to buffer the effects of stress, anxiety & depression. When production of new neurons was stopped their ability to recover from stress was impaired & they exhibited behaviour linked to depression, becoming more fearful, more likely to despair & less likely to experience pleasure. Read More at Not Exactly Rocket Sc...

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Salmonella Superbug On The Rise

Salmonella Superbug On The Rise A strain of Salmonella resistant to the most powerful antibiotics has been found in the UK, France and Denmark. The S. Kentucky "superbug" variant of salmonella emerged in Africa & may have developed due to the use of antibiotics in chicken and turkey farming. The Health Protection Agency have said "Care should be taken with hand and food hygiene particularly while travelling” There are increased calls for a reduction in use of antibiotics both in farming & medicine. Read More at The Independ...

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Russian Zebra Mussel Invades British Waterways

Russian Zebra Mussel Invades British Waterways The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, is a species of small freshwater shellfish from southern Russia. It arrived on our shores in the 1800s on the hulls of cargo ships. They attach themselves to the steel pipeline clogging the water inlet pipes The zebra mussel costs water companies thousands a year to remove from treatment plants. In the past traps were used but now it is hoped a new powder will kill them off Read More at BBC N...

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Heat Seeking Vampire Bats!

Heat Seeking Vampire Bats! Infrared sensors are used by vampire bats to detect where the blood flows closest to their prey's skin. The Common Vampire Bat Desmodus rotundus use heat-sensitive nerves in their upper lip and nose detect blood up to 20cm under their prey's flesh to enable them to feed more efficiently. Researchers have been able to pinpoint the molecule responsible as heat-sensitive TRPV1, a protein that helps animals detect dangerously high temperatures (those over 43 degrees C), but in the bats, some TRPV1 molecules have been...

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'Killer' Shrimps Are Public Enemy Number 1

'Killer' Shrimps Are Public Enemy Number 1 Killer Shrimp Dikerogammarus villosus has been named the worst alien invader by the Environment agency. The pest heads a list that includes american signal crayfish, topmouth gudgeon & mink. Though only 30 mm long it's voracious appetite means it poses a real threat to our native shrimp & to young fish. Invasive species cost the UK about £1.7bn a year. Read More at BBC N...

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Britain's Waterways Hit By Toxic Algae

Britain's Waterways Hit By Toxic Algae The mild weather & high concentrations of phosphates from agriculture, sewage & detergents, are causing green, porridge-like harmful algal blooms. The thick scum has been reported in lakes & canals in Scotland, Wales, Norfolk, London & East Sussex. Such blooms have been known to kill wild animals, livestock and pets, and may harm people who swim in or swallow the affested water, causing neurological, digestive and skin problems and in some cases even long-term liver disease. Read More at...

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Blue Tit Is 'Eaten' By Killer Pitcher Plant!

Blue Tit Is 'Eaten' By Killer Pitcher Plant! Another post that sounds like something out of a horror movie. (I am getting in touch with my gruesome side!) The incident occurred at a garden nursery in Somerset. It is thought that the unforunate bird was attracted by the insects already caught by the plant & became trapped when it leaned too far into the pitcher. Although these plants have been known to ensnare frogs, lizards, mice and even rats, this is only the second documented case of one trapping a bird. (Maybe Capybara could consider deploying...

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Fossils of Forest Rodents Found in Bolivia

Fossils of Forest Rodents Found in Bolivia Two new rodent fossils have been discovered at a Bolivian site, called Quebrada Honda, at 12,000 feet above sea level it is among the highest reasearch sites in the Western Hemisphere. One of the new species named Mesoprocta hypsodus, is related to agoutis and acouchis & probably looked like a guinea pig with long legs while the other, Quebradahondomys potosiensis, was a spiny rat, related to guinea pigs and chinchillas. Radiometric and paleomagnetic dating techniques puts the age of the fossils...

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Living in Synurbia

Living in Synurbia Synurbic species, or synanthropes, are those animals and plants that live in the same places as us: urban foxes, garden birds, rats, pigeons etc. Recent studies suggest that such species not only live in greater densities in urban areas than they do rural ones but also adapt their behaviour to take advantage of the opportunities that city living provides. This may include changing their diet & foraging techniques, having smaller territories, nesting in buildings etc. There is even some evidence that species may be...

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Israel's 'Rock Rabbits' Are Moving In

Israel's 'Rock Rabbits' Are Moving InThe Hyraxe, or 'rock rabbit' may be cute, but it isn't a rabbit. It is however becoming a pest in Galilee. Where before the creature was happy to live in crags & cliffs, large numbers are now choosing to come into villages, making their homes in piles of rubble cleared from building sites & eating everything they can find. Many locals are calling for a cull, as Hyraxes can carry cutaneous leishmanias, a skin disease that can be transmitted to humans. Research suggests however that simply filling in...

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Contemplating My Navel

Contemplating My Navel You'd think contemplating my navel would be a fairly introspective pastime but it turns out there is a whole world in there (at least there is if you are an 'innie') Researchers at North Carolina State University have found the human belly button can be home to over 100 different organisms, including bacteria, fungi & yeasts. Samples from 391 test subjects have yielded 1400 species overall with each person having a unique mix of species, although most of us share a group of relatively few bacterial species. The team...

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Stunning Scanning Electron Microscope Images

Stunning Scanning Electron Microscope Images I have loved microscopes ever since my Dad bought me my first one when I was about 8. It wasn't quite in the same league as the ones used to produce these amazing images for the 2011 FEI Owner Image Contest. & the winners were: First prize went to image 3: not a canyon but a microcrack in metal after bending test, coloured by Manuel Paller. My favourite is image 13: forepart of a mite, looking like an alien spacecraft, coloured by Margit Wallner won Third prize Read More ...

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Wasp Creates Ladybird Zombies

Wasp Creates Ladybird Zombies Not the title of a 1950's B movie unfortunately. The parasitic wasp Dinocampus coccinellae lays its egg inside the ladybird Coleomegilla maculata. The larva feeds on the hosts innards for 20 days before breaking through the abdomen (think John Hurt in Alien) and spinning a cocoon between the ladybird's legs. The ladybird is alive though partially paralysed throughout its ordeal, venom injected into the ladybird making it twitch, thus acting as a zombie bodyguard for the wasp. Read More In Pictu...

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MRSA Rates In England Have fallen To Their Lowest Level

MRSA Rates In England Have fallen To Their Lowest Level This is great news in the battle against superbugs. During 2003 to 2004 the number of cases peaked at around 2000 per quarter. This figure has now fallen, by more than 80% to about 300 with 25 hospital trusts reported as having been free of MRSA for year. Read M...

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Crested Rat Coats Itself With A Poison That Would Kill An Elephant

Crested Rat Coats Itself With A Poison That Would Kill An Elephant The crest along the flanks of the African crested rat is not just for ornament. It has been discovered that this ingenious rodent chews the bark of the local poison arrow tree - Acokanthera schimperi that produces a toxin called ouabain, traditionally used by hunters to kill elephants. It then slathers the toxic goop onto the special fur on its flanks. This fur acts as a wick, drawing up & storing the poison. When attacked, instead of fleeing, the rat stands its ground &...

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Avian Pox Virus In UK Garden Birds Is Spreading

Avian Pox Virus In UK Garden Birds Is Spreading The disease, first found in the UK in 2006, infecting dunnock, house sparrow, starling and the wood pigeon, is now affecting great tits. It is also spreading geographically, once confined to south-east England, it has now been detected further north and west. It can be transmitted by insects bites or direct contact between birds & via contaminated bird feeders. The virus is manifested by lesions occurring mainly around the bird's head. The public are being asked to report any sightings of birds...

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An interest Q and A for gardeners...

Keeping squirrels out of the tulip patchCiscoe Morris, Seattle Times garden writer, offers tips on keeping the squirrels away from tulip bulbs; getting powdery mildew off vegetable plants; and a plant that eats fruit flies. Ciscoe MorrisSpecial to The Seattle Times DEAN FOSDICK / AP  var ve_publisher = "SeattleTimes"; var ve_site = "SEATTLETIMES_BUSINESS_TECHNOLOGY_300X250"; var...

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Clothes Moths!

Now's the time of year where we normally take fall clothes out of storage...only to find that our sweaters now sport a constellation of small holes. Moths love nothing more than to chomp on cashmere, winnowing a collection of cardigans down to a small handful. Moths seem to be a hit-or-miss issue with most people. Some toss their woolens aside for a season without any special consideration for storage and never have an issue. Others painstakingly dry clean and pack away their cold weather clothing and find the tell-tale holes. Can you guess what...

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When using poisons, please be careful.

Children die from eating rat poison in school dinnerRashid Razaq 22 Sep 2011   Three children have died after eating a school meal contaminated with rat poison.Peru's health ministry said 89 children and five adults were affected by the food in Redondo, an Andean hamlet 300 miles north-west of Lima. The mother of one of the dead children said they showed signs...

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Rat wakes up Homeless man in New York Subway...

Transport workers blame budget cuts as even MORE rats than usual plague New York subwayEven more rats than usual are running wild on the New York subway because of budget cuts, transport workers claim. Staffing cutbacks have allowed the rat population to explode as rubbish goes uncollected and refuse storage rooms are inadequately sealed, MTA empoyees say. Members of...

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How bedbug insecticides are 'more dangerous than the bloodsucking themselves'Bedbugs don't make you sick, but the poisons used to kill them can. Dozens of Americans have fallen ill from the insecticides, and a North Carolina woman died after using 18 cans of chemical fogger to attack the tiny blood suckers, a government report revealed. Because many of the cases, including...

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Study finds bed bug pesticides making some people sick  Heat treatment is an environmentally friendly method for eradicating bed bugs and does not utilize any pesticides or chemicals. (Stephanie S. Cordle/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT) David Beasley Reuters 4:17 p.m. CDT, September 22, 2011 ATLANTA (Reuters) - Bed bugs might make you itch, but the chemicals used...

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