Salon.com > insects http://www.salon.com Fri, 03 May 2013 12:29:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 How neglecting bees could endanger humans http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/follow_europes_lead_in_protecting_bees/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/follow_europes_lead_in_protecting_bees/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 18:50:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13286205 If you are an almond farmer in the Central Valley of California, where 80 percent of the world’s production is grown, you had a problem earlier this spring. Chances are there weren’t enough bees to pollinate your trees. That’s because untold thousands of colonies -- almost half of the 1.6 million commercial hives that almond growers depend on -- failed to survive the winter, making this the worst season for beekeepers in anyone’s memory. And that is saying a lot, because bees have been faring increasingly poorly for years now.

Much of this recent spike in bee mortality is attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious condition where all the worker bees in a colony simply fly off as a group and never make it back to the hive. Scientists have been studying this odd phenomenon for years and they still aren’t sure why it is happening.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/follow_europes_lead_in_protecting_bees/feed/ 26 Weird news: Man dies after live cockroach, cricket, worm eating contest http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/weird_news_man_dies_after_live_cockroach_cricket_worm_eating_contest/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/weird_news_man_dies_after_live_cockroach_cricket_worm_eating_contest/#comments Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:37:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13035223 MIAMI (AP) -- As a Florida medical examiner tries to determine how 32-year-old Edward Archbold died after eating insects during a contest to win a snake, people around the country are asking: Why?

Why would anyone eat a live cockroach? Why did he die when several others in the contest ate the same bugs without incident? What inspired Archbold - who was described by the snake store owner as "the life of the party" - to shovel handfuls of crickets, worms and cockroaches into his mouth?

While eating bugs is normal in many parts of the world, the practice is taboo in the U.S. and many Western countries.

Yet people do it for the shock factor, and many do so during contests or dares; just last year, folks ate Madagascar cockroaches at a Six Flags in Illinois for a chance to win park passes. Also last year, people ate live roaches at the Exploreum Science Center in Mobile, Ala. And a few years back, at Universal Studios in Orlando, contestants in a theme park show purportedly consumed a mix of sour milk, mystery meat and bugs.

Experts point to the rise in reality TV shows and movies such as "Fear Factor" and "Jackass" as egging people on and breaking down the ick factor.

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