In 2009 the world’s macrophotographers- both amateur and professional- continued to capture breathtaking images of the arthropod microscape. I’ve been bookmarking insect photos from around the web that catch my eye, and after spending some time this week reviewing the candidates I’ve (Alex Wild) selected nine favorites. Wow. These are the images from fellow photographers that most captured my imagination over the past year. Click here to check them out:
by Lindsey Collom – Dec. 29, 2009 04:36 PM The Arizona Republic Pinal County is just east of Maricopa County, Phoenix
Pinal County health officials have issued a rabies advisory following separate animal attacks on two men near Oracle and San Manuel. Both men have been treated to prevent a potential rabies infection.
Authorities say an Oracle man was attacked by a bobcat while walking his dog Dec. 23. Two days later, a dead bobcat was found in a neighbor’s yard. State lab officials determined the animal had rabies, according to a statement of the Pinal County Public Health Services.
”While it isn’t possible to prove this was the same bobcat, it is likely that it is,” said Tom Schryer, public health director for Pinal County. “The man who was attacked described the bobcat’s behavior as unusual. Soon after an infected animal starts exhibiting unusual, erratic behavior due to the rabies infection, it dies.”
Another man was exposed to a rabid skunk near San Manuel.
Eleven animals submitted to the state lab by Pinal County have tested positive for the disease this year. Among the animals were the bobcat, seven bats and three skunks.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rabies is a viral disease that infects the central nervous system.
Initial symptoms can include a fever or headache and may give way to neurological symptoms, like insomnia, partial paralysis or hallucinations. Death usually occurs within days after symptoms appear.
Pinal County Public Health recommends taking precautions:
• Keep people and pets away from wild animals. Do not pick up, touch, or feed wild or unfamiliar animals, especially sick or wounded ones. If someone has been bitten or scratched, or has had contact with the animal, report it immediately to animal control or health officials.
• Vaccinate all dogs and cats against rabies. Pets should be kept in a fenced yard.
• Take precautions when camping, hunting or fishing. Avoid sleeping on the open ground without the protection of a closed tent or camper. Keep pets on a leash and do not allow them to wander.
For more information, contact the Pinal County Public Health Services District at 520-866-7138 or the Arizona Department of Health Services at 602-364-4562.
We know that real monsters walk, slither, and crawl among us, and each year we learn more about the amazing creatures from Earth’s past and present. We look at ten of the more monstrous names we added this decade.
This list contain “A Rat as BIG as a Cow”, also that “Mammal Eating Plant”, Bomber Worms and the one I love is the Scorpion 8.2 meters which I think is 26 feet.
Bring in the new year by helping raise money to build safe playgrounds for our children.
Follow this link http://arizona.kudzu.com/hgtv.do and leave a friendly review for Probest Pest Management and/or any of your other favorite local businesses and for every review you write Kudzu will donate a dollar to KaBOOM!, a non-profit organization dedicated to building safe playgrounds for kids across America! Hurry, this wonderful opportunity ends on Jan 31, 2010. If you have any questions we will be happy to answer them for you at 480-931-9328
Top Story Service Technician Helps Save Toddler’s Life 12/22/2009 A BIG WAY TO GO TO RALPH HAIRE from ProBest Pest Management.
Ralph Haire, a service technician from Atlantic Pest Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla., assisted in efforts to resuscitate a toddler who had stopped breathing. Wallace Kamens, operations manager, Atlantic Pest Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla., submitted to Pest Control technology (PCT) the following article, which tells the story of Ralph Haire, a service technician of 23 years who assisted in efforts to resuscitate a toddler who had stopped breathing. — Ralph Haire is just your neighborhood pest control guy. He’s been at it for 23 years, and enjoys his work. Meeting people and helping control their pest problems gives him deep satisfaction and purpose. His customers favorably respond to his “attention to detail” by regularly calling the office, or mailing in “Thank you” letters. They rave about the way he listens to them, recommends good solutions to their problems, and professionally handles his responsibilities. Yes, Ralph Haire is just your neighborhood pest control guy, but with an above average heart. Especially one fateful day in November. Ralph was finishing up his route on Collins Road in Jacksonville, Fla., when suddenly he turned around a bend and witnessed something unexpected; a hysterical woman with her lifeless toddler cradled in her arms. She was frantically waving down his vehicle from behind her light blue coupe alongside the road. Ralph immediately pulled in and hurried to her aid. Her 16-month-old son had suddenly stopped breathing, and his mom was distraught and confused as what to do next. Ralph instantly suggested she place the infant on the trunk of her car while he dialed 911 for the desperate mom. A few minutes later some Navy personnel from the nearby base stopped and, having paramedic training, proceeded to administer CPR to the infant. They shouted the need for a throat depressor of some kind to remove the boy’s tongue from his windpipe. Ralph shot to his vehicle and grabbed his trusty back-scratcher, and handed it to the men helping the boy. A few minutes later the boy was miraculously breathing again, and soon afterward was in the ambulance on his way to Orange Park Memorial hospital. As the swirls of dust settled to the ground, Ralph gave a glance upward, got back into his vehicle, and continued on his way. Another day in the life of your neighborhood pest control guy, and a hero in the eyes of a child who years from now will hear the story of a man who sacrificed a scratch for a friend.
Public release date: 24-Dec-2009 
Earlier this year, researchers showed that they could cut the lives of disease-carrying mosquitoes in half by infecting them with a bacterium they took from fruit flies. Now, a new report in the December 24th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, suggests that their strategy might do one better: The Wolbachia bacteria also makes the mosquitoes more resistant to infection by viruses that are a growing threat to humans, including those responsible for dengue fever and Chikungunya.
Once infected with Wolbachia, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes also become less suitable as hosts for a form of malaria parasite that infects birds, said Scott O’Neill of The University of Queensland. (The mosquitoes under study aren’t natural carriers of human malaria.)
“This might be very powerful in reducing pathogen transmission by Aedes aegypti to humans, particularly for dengue and Chikungunya,” O’Neill said. “Together with the previously described life-shortening effects, the results suggest we might be able to have a major impact on disease.” That’s if it can be shown that the Wolbachia infection can invade natural mosquito populations, he added, a question his team is working on right now.
There is no vaccine or cure for dengue fever, which is a painful and debilitating disease suffered by some 50 million people worldwide every year. Dengue haemorrhagic fever, the more severe form of the disease, kills more than 40,000 people annually. Chikungunya usually isn’t fatal, but can cause symptoms similar to dengue. Human epidemics of Chikungunya have been cited in Africa, Asia and more recently in Europe, according to the CDC.
Wolbachia is already rampant in nature; the bacterium is estimated to infect up to 60 percent of all insect species. They are passed from mother insect to daughter or son through the insect egg and readily spread to high frequency in many species of mosquito. The species that are the major carriers of human disease don’t normally carry them, but that’s something O’Neill aims to change.
“We are currently conducting a series of experiments in contained outdoor greenhouse settings that are examining the ability of the Wolbachia infection to spread into natural mosquito populations,” he said. “If these prove successful, we hope to move to open field testing within the next one to two years.”
The idea would be to seed the natural mosquito population with Wolbachia by releasing mosquitoes that had been purposefully infected in the laboratory. Wolbachia bacteria have a good ‘trick’ to help ensure their spread, O’Neill explained. They are responsible for a developmental defect that makes the would-be offspring of pairings between infected male mosquitoes and uninfected females inviable. Since the bacteria is passed from mothers to their offspring, that means that infected females can actually have a reproductive advantage over uninfected ones, encouraging Wolbachia’s spread from one generation to the next.
O’Neill said his team is working on computational models to determine just how many infected mosquitoes would need to be released for the infection to take hold in the wild.
The researchers don’t yet know exactly how Wolbachia protects the insects from human disease-causing viruses. They have some evidence to suggest that the bacterial symbiont primes the insects’ immune system. Wolbachia may also outcompete the virus by limiting resources such as fatty acids inside the mosquitoes.
Even if the strategy works in a natural setting, there’s a chance the mosquitoes or the viruses could become resistant to Wolbachia’s influence over time.
” We can predict from evolutionary theory that selection will push the system in the direction of resistance, but we do not know the speed with which this might occur,” O’Neill said. “Even if it was effective for a few decades it might have a major impact on human disease.”
Thu, Dec 24 2009 at 6:29 AM EST Mothers Nature Network By Bryan Nelson New Yorkers beware! A new species of roach may have emerged from the streets of the Big Apple.
As part of a project for their high school science class, students Brenda Tan, 17, and Matt Cost, 18, may have discovered a new species of cockroach while collecting samples in a New York City supermarket.
“The cockroach is genetically modified. Species don’t differ more than 1 percent, this cockroach is 4 percent different, which suggests it is a new species of cockroach,” Stoeckle told AFP. Read the rest of the story here:
If “The Twelve Days of Christmas” seems to be wearing a little thin this year, consider a new rendition:
Here is a very cute video sung by St. Augustine Junior School Peterborough
Happy Holidays to all – this was published in Readers Digest
and is by Dan Reynolds.
National Geographic September 2009
Praying Mantis Catches Hummingbird Caught on Film
I’ve heard of birds eating spiders and spiders eating birds–but who knew that praying mantises can catch hummingbirds!
The photo here proves mantises can turn the tables on birds. It was submitted to National Geographic Magazine’s “Your Shot” feature and was picked as one of the “Daily Dozen” images featured on September 2.
I also saw this picture at Clark’s Pest Control blog
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