Genetic Weapons

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/business/energy-environment/genetic-weapon-against-insects-raises-hope-and-fear-in-farming.html?ref=insects&_r=0

Insects infesting our crops has always been a major problem. They eat and destroy the crops and killing them off is a tricky process. Some pesticides infect the crop and are bad for us, while others kill off insects that are beneficial for the crops. But scientists think they have found a way that is best for both worlds. They believe they have found a compound to only kill off the harmful insects. This chemical would turn off a gene in the insect, causing it to dies. Like illustrated below:

Genetically modified corn is planted with the gene in it. The worm eats the corn with the gene, which then in turn kills the worm.


 But this weapon is still in its early stages. No one is sure of what it can do, or how it will effect us or the plants. So it is probably best not to jump the gun and wait until more research is done on this chemical before we start to spray our plants with it. Something like this needs to be studied for years, because if there is no immediate effect, down the road it may cause hug problems. Just like with kudzu. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now it is taking over, and is near to impossible to kill. We should wait it out before we do anything too rash. Our current chemicals are getting the job done. So until we have a 100% fool proof solution, my vote is lets wait this one out. I don't want any mutant bugs taking over the world.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are probably some of the nasties little bugs in my opinion. Sleeping in your bed and biting you. Thats just terrible. I don't like anything in my bed but me, I need all the space I can get. These little creatures are similar to ticks, mosquitos, and vampires in that they suck your blood. Luckily you don't turn into a bed bug when they get you. This world would be a scary place.
Yet these little buggers are as dumb as a doorknob. They can't see, so they just wander around trying to find the heat of your body, then suck your blood. This same tactic is used when looking for a mate. They just waddle around and sometimes get lucky (no pun intended). And that leads me to the best topic, I couldn't talk about bed bugs without talking about how they mate, that'd just be wrong.
To put it in the scientific way, bed bugs use "traumatic insemination." Just by the name it sounds terrible, not even close to how we do it. The male just jamming his penis into the females body, this can't be fun for either party. I have to assume this is where the old saying, "no pain, no gain" came from. It only makes sense. Thank the lord I'm not a bed bug, and that I have not contracted those little pests from living in New Men's.

http://www.psmicrographs.co.uk/_assets/uploads/bedbugs-mating-80012821-l.jpg

Dragonfly Style

Probably one of the weirdest things I have learned about bugs is how dragonflies mate. They do it dragonfly style. Which is probably one of the only ways to describe it. The male taking complete dominance over the female, and grabbing her by the neck. Connecting together in a circle, and bam, they've done it. Then he doesn't let her go until she has dropped the eggs off. The funny part is I have seen this hundreds of times and never thought anything of it. I would just think they were playing or got stuck together. But no. They were mating right in front of my juvenile eyes, maybe if I saw the heart like in the picture below, I would have put two and two together.  Just think about that, if us humans did that it would be considered being very rough, or possibly rape.

http://wallpaperswide.com/mobarakabadvillage_ir___dragonfly_mating-wallpapers.html

Without a doubt insects mating is very different from humans in how they do it, you could watch them mate and most likely you won't even know what they are doing unless you have taken this class or are an insect expert.

Entomophagy

In my opinion having a few bug legs in my chocolate or other food doesn't bother me at all. It won't kill me and its such a small amount. I mean sometimes there's poop in our meat, we just cook it off and then eat it. Plus I eat Taco Bell all the time, and thats the lowest of the low meat, if you can even consider it meat. So a few bug parts doesn't bother me in the slightest. Chocolate is chocolate and it tastes amazing.

http://images1.friendseat.com/2013/05/Chocolate-Bar.jpg

As for eating bugs on purpose, I am all for it. I think it would be great. As long as they're dead and cooked. People in every other country do it, so why shouldn't we? They're cheap and they have protein. There's nothing wrong with them other than people have been trained to thing they're nasty and creepy crawly. If I was able to get a bag of fried grasshoppers, I would munch on them all day. Half of it would be just out of spite to gross people out. But in all honesty it sounds amazing to me and I would have no problem eating some bugs. So come on America, grow up and lets start eating some bugs like the rest of the world!

http://blurbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fried-grasshopper.jpg

Misconceptions

All through my life I believed that cockroaches could withstand anything. But why wouldn't I? That's what I had always been told, and trained to believe. Yet I was way off. After reading The Earwig's Tail I have finally been corrected. It turns out all the movies and all the people that told me about this were wrong. Cockroaches can't actually withstand large amounts of radiation. So if an atomic bomb did go off, they may actually die off with us, and there will be nothing at all left on this planet. Not even mutant cockroaches like we thought there would be.
According to MythBusters cockroaches would be able to survive a nuclear explosion. In an experiment they did, only ten percent of cockroaches died at the same radiation level of a nuclear bomb. They say this happens because of their simple body composition. But if the blast was ten times a normal nuclear bomb, they would die off. So this myth is true and false I guess. It would depend on how radioactive the bomb was to determine if the cockroaches could live. Hopefully we will never find out if this is true with an actual real world test. I'm not looking forward to that at all.

http://i.stack.imgur.com/ukUXZm.jpg

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/mythbusters-database/cockroaches-survive-nuclear-explosion.htm

Interesting Insects

If I had to pick my favorite insect from Evans, without a doubt it would be fireflies. When it talks about the patterns and different colors they make it seems unreal. I would love to be able to experience one of these shows one night and see for myself how amazing it really is. Just thinking about how all of the fireflies light up all together blows my mind. Such a small insect, with such a small brain, yet they can put on an amazing show. It makes you wonder how they are capable of doing that. It also makes you wonder how long they've been doing this. For hundreds of years? For millions of years?

It is also unreal how some scientist actually took the time to track each species of fireflies and see how they have patterns in how they light up. They had to have lots of extra time on their hands, and there is no way I would have the attention span to sit there and analyze that.
But probably the craziest fact about fireflies is that they are carnivores. Their larva eat snails and worms to survive. Then some adult males copy a female's flashing pattern, to attract males, then eat them. Yet they don't eat any other insects, they just eat each other. Without a doubt these are weird yet amazing little bugs.



http://www.firefly.org/facts-about-fireflies.html


http://i.imgur.com/aAJSR.jpg

Being a Cold Bug

Being cold is something I dread all the time. I absolutely hate it with all of my being, and live for the warmth of summer. So I choose to hibernate in my room and never leave. It's the easiest thing possible. Therefore, if I were a bug and had to be outside all winter, I would want to be in the stage of an egg. This way I wouldn't be capable of knowing how cold it is outside, and just be able to chill in my egg casing underground, all warm and cozy. Then as spring comes, with the flowers I would emerge my beautiful self, and start my life right. Being in a cocoon like the praying mantis we found wouldn't be terrible either, but you are still around the elements of the cold. This would not be fun to me in any way at all. Yet it would be a step above freezing my body, and sleeping under a leaf. Who would choose that? I guess Walt Disney. But he doesn't count.
Then again maybe changing the composition of your body, adding alcohol, would give you a nice buzz and keep you a little warmer. Yet you would have to make sure you didn't touch any water or your whole body would freeze, and that's the end of you.
Long story short, being a bug just sounds awful, and I'll choose my nice little cave in New Men's 257 for the winter.

http://images.topix.com/gallery/up-MNT92VRT4R9KTKP3.jpg