Beucher & Son Termite and Pest Control

Creepy New Insect Discovered at Dulles

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sat, 01 May 2010 11:28:00 +0000

America saved from invasion of new insect trying to sneak in

An insect not known to be in the U.S. tried to hitchhike in on a bunch of calla lilies coming through Dulles International Airport.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agricultural specialists were all over this ugly little guy. They spotted the bug, which looks a lot to the untrained eye like a cockroach. It tried to come in hugging the flowers coming from Kenya and the Netherlands.

For you entomologists out there -- or whoever is just plain curious about what the heck this thing is -- the whole name is: Conostethus venustus Fieber. Or we can just call him Miridae, for short.

"We know that insects in the Miridae family generally have a voracious appetite and can cause serious harm to cultivated plants in the United States," said Christopher Hess, CBP Port Director for the Port of Washington, D.C. "The introduction of this insect pest could have a profound impact on American agricultural industries."

Good catch, CBP agricultural specialists. Keep this pest out of our lives.

They issued an Emergency Action Notification that required the flowers to be fumigated or destroyed. The flower exporter gave the order to kill the flowers by steam sterilization. Pretty serious business for a pretty serious pest.

And a bit of amazing trivia: Every day, CBP agricultural personnel inspect tens of thousands of human passengers and air and sea cargoes. They seize 4,291 banned meat, plants or animal products -- including 454 insect pests -- one of which was our ugly, hitchhiking little guy.

A Blustery Day at Treasure Island Beach, Florida

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:02:00 +0000

My son Brandon wanted to go to the beach, since nothing else was jumping, we went. The wind was whipping pretty hard at times and normally I would not go on a day like this but like I said nothing was happening. I brought the camera along to take some pic's for this blog. The pic's are not that good since I had to snap quick pics due to the beach sand endlessly pummeling us. Hope you enjoy! ~ Jim Beucher

This Seagull, as known around here as a "Sky-Rat" was eating a dead horseshoe crab - yuck!

The wind was harsh enough to keep these little guys hunkered down.

ok, I saved the last for the best......

WTF?

Hope you enjoyed our little day off adventure - Seeya!

THE GREEN THUMB FESTIVAL 2010 - Pictures of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:40:00 +0000

I went to the Green Thumb Fest as I do every year. I found it to be as enjoyable as each and every other year. The prices this year appeared to be better and people were buying as if there was a plant shortage.

If fact, it appeared to me to have been the busiest year that I can remember. So many people had their arms and wagons full of beautiful, healthy plants. I wondered why so many people were there this year and buying so much and then it dawned on me. There was such tremendous cold damage to a massive amount of plants this year and they needed to be replaced, and what better place to go!

So here are some pictures of my little adventure at the Green Thumb Fest, I hope you went and if not, go next year!

This guy was taking a quick nap

A holding area for people to claim their plants

And after a long day of plants and pictures......

Slàinte !

24th Annual Green Thumb Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:28:00 +0000

Don't Forget the Green Thumb Fest this Weekend!

I never miss one ~ Jim Beucher

April 24 & 25, 2010 - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Walter Fuller Park, 7891 26th Avenue N., St. Petersburg, FL, 33710
Children's Plant Fair
Walter Fuller Community Center
9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday

Garden Club of St. Petersburg Flower Show
Walter Fuller Community Center

9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday
9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Sunday

Join in the fun and excitement of celebrating Arbor Day and Earth Day at this annual city festival. Now in its 24th year, the Green Thumb Festival features environmental and horticultural exhibits, vendors (with every kind of plant imaginable), the Garden Club of St. Petersburg Flower Show, a grow and share program, a diagnostic clinic (bring soil and water samples), a recycling rally, free mulch, plant auction, more than 2,000 trees for sale for $3, free Butterfly plants (500 each day), tool sharpening booth, entertainment, children's programs, other environmental programs and exhibits, and a food court! Mark your calendar so you don't miss this annual event: April 24-25, 2010.

St. Augustine and the Black Vomit

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:43:00 +0000

In the summer of 1821 following the transfer of East Florida to the United States, Spanish subjects who preferred living under Spanish rule were evacuating their belongs to Cuba.
Americans from further north were inundating the city. Among the vessels used to evacuate the Spanish and their goods were the schooners Florida and Alexander.

In the late summer, the two ships returned to St. Augustine.

After the Schooner Florida crossed the bar, clothing was brought ashore to be cleaned by a laundress.

Shortly thereafter, the laundress, her husband, five children, and two boarders came down with the Yellow Fever, the “Black Vomit.” Four died.

Shortly thereafter, the Schooner Alexander crossed the bar. It was more startling, the ship’s entire crew was dead. The schooner was brought in by two Spanish sailors who were passengers. The crew had died from the Black Vomit.

Soon the two Spaniards caught the malady.

The clothing and other items on board were ordered burned and the ship fumigated. With regard to one item, however, a mattress, the order was disobeyed. The mattress was thrown overboard, where it soon drifted ashore to be recovered. The finder of the mattress soon came down with the dreaded disease.

Yellow Fever causes, among other things, hemorrhaging of the stomach. The blood is then vomited up, resulting in its common name of “Black Vomit.” The disease was fatal about 80% of the time. Death occurred within three or four days from the onset of symptoms.

Soon, St. Augustine was suffering from an epidemic, primarily affecting the Americans who had recently moved to the City. It was believed that the natives had developed immunity to the disease. The only treatment for the disease was blood letting. However, it generally was not effective.

The Huguenot Cemetery just outside the City Gates was formed for Yellow Fever victims, Protestants, and others who were not permitted to be buried in consecrated grounds. With the advent of the first frost in the fall, the epidemic waned.

Following the transfer of Florida to the United States, Florida had two territorial capitals, St. Augustine and Pensacola which had served as the Spanish colonial capitals of East and West Florida respectively. In 1822, it was Pensacola’s turn to host the territorial legislative council.

A yellow fever epidemic broke out in the capital city and the council was forced to adjourn their meetings to Cantonment north of Pensacola.

The devastation caused by yellow fever is indicated by the fate of Saint Joseph, Florida. Saint Joseph had been the site of Florida’s first constitutional convention. In 1841, it had a population of 6,000. The following year, Yellow Fever appeared. In one year, the population fell to 600. The town was abandoned.

At the same time during the latter stages of the Second Seminole War, yellow fever appeared again in St. Augustine. Among those who caught the fever was the military’s post sutler, William Alexander Carter (1818-1881). Carter survived but left Florida and returned to his native Virginia. As a result of friendships made in St. Augustine, he later became post sutler for Fort Bridger, Wyoming.

Yet again in 1877, Yellow Fever swept the state. The cause was generally unknown. Thus, in August of 1888 when yet another epidemic hit Jacksonville, various bizarre preventive remedies were suggested. One popular belief was that the disease was caused by a miasma which arose out of swamps. Another was that it was an airborne disease and that the germs could be killed by concussions. St. Augustine to help control the Jacksonville epidemic sent cannon to Jacksonville to “concuss” the deadly airborne germs.

It was also believed that the disease was highly contagious. Those suffering from symptoms were immediately quarantined. One unfortunate guest at a Jacksonville hotel suspected to have the dreaded disease was removed from the hotel and sent to the City’s “pest house,” and accused of endangering the entire state.

Residents of Jacksonville started fleeing northward. The New York Times, August 11, 1888, reported from Atlanta that trains were heavily loaded from persons attempting to get away from the stricken localities. Atlanta was reported “full of refugees from Jacksonville.”

To prevent spread of the contagion the federal government set up stations in Waycross where mail from the south was fumigated.

The Surgeon General telegraphed the Presidents of the Boards of Health in Tampa and Jacksonville authorizing the burning of infected bedding and clothing. Orders were given for additional fumigation stations in Norfolk, Dupont, Georgia, Chattahoochee, and Fernandina. As the panic spread, a proposal was made by Florida Senator Wilkinson Call for the destruction of any house deem infected.

Refugees were barred from entering various cities to the north. In Charleston, passengers and fright from the steamship Seminole from Jacksonville were barred by policemen from landing. The ship sailed for New York with its Charleston passengers and freight. Persons coming from Jacksonville and places to its south were barred from entering Wilmington, North Carolina. Red Cross workers coming to Jacksonville to relieve the suffering of the inhabitants were forced to leap from their moving train when the engineer refused to stop. It was, of course, all needless.

As early as 1829, a naval surgeon with the Royal Navy, Robert McKinnal on the HMS Sybille established that the disease and clothing and effects were not directly contagious. Dr. McKinnal to prevent panic amongst the crew, on deck and in sight of the entire crew, drank a glassful of the black vomit.

As early as 1881, American trained Cuban physician Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay established that the disease was spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. He was ridiculed and it was not until after the end of the Spanish-American War and the establishment of the Yellow Fever Commission that his findings were given any credence.

The Commission placed soldiers in a screened room filled with “infected” clothing, bedding, etc. and did not come down with the disease, whilst soldiers with clean clothing, bedding, etc. in a room that was not screened came down with the disease. Each of the soldiers volunteering to expose themselves to the potentially deadly disease was given a $100.00 gold coin. Two members of the Commission itself died from the disease.

During the war, itself, casualties from the disease far exceeded those from Spanish bullets. Nine hundred sixty-eight American soldiers were killed in combat. Over 5,000 died from disease.

In Cuba, American troops coming down with the disease were given the conventional treatment of quarantine. To prevent the disease from spreading, troops suffering from fever were divided into “well” and “sick” camps. Those who came down with the fever were not permitted to return to the United States but were, instead, hospitalized at Siboney.

Indeed, the situation with regard to Yellow Fever in Cuba, even before the destruction of the Spanish Fleet on 3 July 1898, was such that Gen. Miles determined that he could use none of the troops in Cuba in the subsequent Puerto Rico campaign and that entirely fresh troops from Tampa would be utilized.

The last yellow fever epidemic in Florida was in 1905. The state sanitary engineer began in 1906 a campaign for mosquito control. Dr. Finlay was vindicated. Although, Walter Reed gave credit in his writings to Dr. Finlay, it is Dr. Reed that it usually given credit for the discovery that the black vomit was spread by the mosquito. Reed received honorary degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan. Although, Dr. Finlay was nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize, it was never awarded. He is instead remembered on a Cuban postage stamp and by a statue in Panama.

Most coastal counties of Florida where yellow fever and malaria were once rampant now have mosquito control districts such as the Anastasia Mosquito Control District in St. Johns County

Whats that hole for? ~ cute~

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:32:00 +0000

As we ( My son and I) pulled up to perfrom a simple subterranean termite spot treatment, we notice a nicely cut square hole in the customers wooden fence.

We had alittle time before the job so we spent our time trying to figure out what that hole was for. Could it be for a garden hose to go through? We had no idea and every suggestion became more and more bizarre until we basically gave up on why there was a hole in this fence.

Seconds after our surrender, this happened......

The hole was made so the family dog could greet people as they walked by!

Once ubiquitous, Florida's brown lizards scarce after cold winter

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:05:00 +0000

The native: A male green anole inflates its throat to attract a female, which may be tough since winter took a toll on the lizards. Because the brown Cuban anole was hit harder, some say the green anole should come back in larger numbers.

Joyce Dunn moved to the Tampa Bay area in 1971, when Carolina anoles, those small, svelte green lizards, ruled the land.

"We didn't have those ugly brown ones," the Brandon resident said, referring to the brown Cuban anole. "They took over and seems like that's all you see anymore."

Used to, anyway.

Dunn, 72, said she was stunned to find thawing lizards on her sidewalks, grass and garden hose after a string of frigid days and nights this winter.

"They weren't all dried up. Just lifeless. I've never seen anything like it," she said.

Throughout the bay area, many have noticed a distinct lack of lizards this spring.

They once were ubiquitous, scurrying around, stalking insects, the males doing pushups and flaunting their orange dewlaps — those flaps of skin under their jaws designed to intimidate competitors or attract mates.

"No doubt the freeze has knocked them way back," said Peter Meylan, a natural sciences professor at Eckerd College. "The few that made it are just lucky. They probably found a warm spot in a garden hose or a potted plant that may have been covered with a blanket."

According to the National Weather Service, this has been the coldest start to any year in St. Petersburg since record-keeping began in 1914, in central Pasco (where record keeping began in 1895) and in Brooksville (1892), and the second coldest in Tampa (1890). The combined average temperature for the first three months of 2010 was 6 to 8 degrees below normal.

For the Cuban anole, a tropical invader that has largely displaced the native green anole, it's Armageddon.

The invader: The invasive brown Cuban anole sometimes eats the green anole.

The chilly weather didn't allow them to bask in the warm sun, leading to a depression in their metabolic systems, said Bill Kern, associate professor of entomology and nematology at the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.

"They did not have to physically freeze to be killed. We suspect that many that died after the cold spell were killed by opportunistic infections and weakened immune systems."

Whether green or brown, anoles do consume many different types of insects and spiders. They are dinner for snakes and birds. Cats and dogs think of them as play toys.

But Kern points out that the lack of brown anoles does not mean Florida will be overrun by insects or that birds and snakes will go hungry. Fortunately or not, Florida has no shortage of creepy, crawly creatures that keep in check all the other things that creep and crawl.

The brown anoles first made it to the Florida Keys in the 1880s from the Bahamas and Cuba, but didn't establish a strong toehold until the 1940s at seaports and urban areas, such as Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. They weren't a major presence in Pasco County until 30 years later, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Web site.

Females usually lay one or two eggs per clutch. They are prolific, though, and can lay a new clutch every 14 days if the food supply is adequate. Eggs are normally laid April through July, so babies, hatching four to six weeks later, appear May through August or September, said Kern, who recently spotted a pregnant brown anole with a swollen belly.

Cuban anoles are fast and athletic and can outcompete the green anoles — sometimes eating the smaller ones.

Though they are scarce right now, the browns will make their way back, but it may take some time to reach their former numbers, Kern said.

"The good news is, the cold weather was bad for invasive exotics," Kern said. "Some think that since the brown anoles took such a big hit, we may see the native green anoles showing up in better numbers."

Fast facts

The competitors

Green anoles

Description: A Florida native, the females have a light stripe down their backs. When two males battle for territory or a female, the winner turns bright green and the loser turns brown.

Habitat: All of Florida and as far north as Tennessee. Generally a tree dweller, it will escape predators by running up.

Brown anoles

Description: Gray, black, brown and sometimes speckled. Females have a diamond pattern on their backs.

Habitat: A ground dweller, they are present in most of Florida and the Keys; not cold-tolerant.

What's up with the pushups?

Both brown and green males do pushups as a threat display.

Tails on your tile?

Both brown and green anoles can cast off their tails at will when threatened. The tail piece continues to twitch, attracting the attention of a predator as the anole flees. The tail will grow back.

Source: www.audubon.org

'I was stung by 1,500 bees and I feel great': MS sufferer's pioneering therapy

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:47:00 +0000

Bee stings have been credited with helping a multiple sclerosis patient regain her quality of life.

Sami Chugg, 45, says she was bedridden before turning to the unusual treatment which sees bees being held up to the sufferer's back to sting the area around the spine.

Now she is now back on her feet with a much improved quality of life.

Alternative therapy: Sami Chugg from Bristol suffers from multiple sclerosis but has been successfully treated with 1500 bee stings

The 45-year-old was diagnosed with MS 12 years ago and says she was numb and unable to move until she tried a treatment known as Bee Venom Therapy or Apitherapy.

The treatment involves holding a live bee in a pair of tweezers and deliberately stinging an area of skin on the patient's body.

Proponents of the method believe the venom in the sting helps ease the pain of MS symptoms and also stimulates the body to fight back.

Miss Chugg says she was stung around 1,500 in eighteen months, and feels much better for it.

She said: 'Most people would be terrified by the prospect of being stung by a bee.

'But when you have a condition like MS, that involves the numbing of the body, any kind of sensation is welcome - even if it's from a bee sting.'

She continued: 'You use a pair of tweezers and get hold of a single bee.

'Then you gradually de-sensitise your body to the sting by injecting it in and out of your skin a few times.

'You have to be very careful, in case your body is prone to anaphylactic shock – which can be fatal. You can't just walk in there and encourage the bees to sting you randomly.'

She added: 'Sadly bees are killed by stinging, so you certainly only want to do this for a very good cause. But the relief it gave me was tremendous.'

Researchers claim that certain compounds in bee venom reduce inflammation and pain and a combination of all its ingredients helps the body to release natural healing compounds.

The alternative treatment remains unproven by evidence-based medicine but it has been used to treat other wasting diseases and arthritis.

The therapy begins gradually as the body needs to be desensitised to the stings, but eventually multiple bees are used at one time and are left in the skin for up to 20 minutes.

Miss Chugg, who was treated twice a week, said: 'There are three locations we used for the stings.

'Above the shoulders, the middle back, and then the lumbar area. It's all centred around your spine. It's changed my life and my approach to life.'

She now campaigns for the 'Safe Land for Bees' project, which aims to raise awareness of the decline in bee populations.

She said: 'I became very concerned. I owed bees an awful lot and I felt they were a vital part of our ecosystem.

'Life without them would be unimaginable, because the work they do as pollinators basically keeps our environment ticking over.'

More than 85,000 Britons have MS, a condition in which immune cells attack the protective myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord.

Initially, the body can repair the damage, but over time the nerves become scarred and stop transmitting signals.

The bee sting treatment is based on the theory of 'counter irritation' - a new pain firing up the body's immune system to produce a response which dampens the effects of an existing condition.

The exact composition of bee venom is not known. It is a chemical cocktail containing enzymes and proteins.

Experts have warned the treatment is potentially dangerous with the risk of anaphylactic shock, which can be fatal.

And a spokesman for the MS Society has previously said U.S. trials on purified bee venom extract had not found any lasting effect.

He said MS was a disease with a variable course. Some patients had fewer symptoms than others or even none at times, making it difficult to tell whether therapy was working.

Plant Growth Aided by Insect-Feeding Animals

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:25:00 +0000

Add insect-feeding birds, bats and lizards to the front lines of the battle against global climate change.

Summarizing the results of more than 100 experiments conducted on four continents, UC Irvine ecologist Kailen A. Mooney and colleagues found that these insect-gobbling animals increase plant growth by reducing the abundance of plant-feeding insects and the damage they do to the plant life that helps mitigate global warming.

An Eastern Bluebird consumes a meal of leaf-eating caterpillar. (Credit: Photo by Mike Onyon)

Our efforts solidify the importance of birds, bats, lizards and other similar animals to ecosystem health, and underscores the importance of conserving these species in the face of global change," said Mooney, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology.

The results come at a time when the importance of birds and other insectivores as plant protectors has come into doubt, Mooney added. Studies on bird, bat and lizard diets show they devour both plant-feeding insects and the spiders and other insect predators that eat plant feeders.

Recognizing these complex feeding relationships, Mooney said it had become unclear whether animals like birds reduce plant-feeding insect populations, or whether they might in fact be protecting them from spiders and the like.

"It has long been hypothesized that birds and other insect-feeding animals may protect plants by keeping plant-feeding insects in check in accordance with the adage, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' " Mooney said. "Our study provides the most comprehensive support of this hypothesis to date. It shows that despite feeding on predatory insects, birds, bats and lizards still act as plant protectors by having net negative effects on plant-feeding insects."

Study results appear in early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of April 5.

Daniel S. Gruner of the University of Maryland; Nicholas A Barber of the University of Missouri, St. Louis; Sunshine A. Van Bael of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; Stacy M. Philpott of the University of Toledo; and Russell Greenberg of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington, D.C., contributed to this study.

Pesky flies keep Asian mosquitoes in check

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:25:00 +0000

A Florida midge munches down Asian tiger mosquitoes more so than native ones, researchers say, maybe because the foreign larvae wiggles more in the water.

Whatever the reason, the result is fewer of the more aggressive mosquito and the nasty human diseases it harbors.

A midge larva, right, snacks on an Asian tiger mosquito larva. Researchers say this helps keep the foreign mosquito, which carries viral diseases, in check. (University of Florida

"It is positive because this invasive mosquito is much more dangerous from a public health standpoint," said Phil Lounibos, an entomologist with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in Vero Beach.

He and Steven Juliano, an entomologist at Illinois State University, published their findings in the journal Oecologia.

Asian tiger mosquitoes spread dengue, which causes high fever, bladder problems, headaches, eye pain, extreme dizziness and loss of appetite.

They also spread Chikungunya, another viral

disease marked by joint pain that can last weeks, months or even years.

The Asian tiger mosquito gained a stronger foothold in Florida and elsewhere in the 1980s, when the United States began importing large numbers of used tires from Asia. Its eggs and larvae traveled here in the water inside the tires.

Entomologists expected the more aggressive Asian pest to drive the native mosquito to near extinction. That probably wouldn't matter to most Floridians, but it is important to scientists and others committed to importance of biodiversity.

Nature's defense

Given the midge's merits, mosquito controllers should try to spare the fly, the researchers said, lest they lose one of their best defenses against the Asian tiger mosquito.

"What we're observing is how a native, rather obscure midge can provide a natural biocontrol," Lounibos said.

Current mosquito-spraying methods kill some order of midges, the researchers said, but the extent is unknown.

They suggest more study of how predator-prey relationships help control such pests, as a possible alternative to spraying.

"I'm not saying that spraying for the native mosquitoes or other pest control efforts aren't necessary," Juliano said in a media release. "But it's important to understand that there is a balance, and that you can't tweak one aspect of nature without affecting many others.

"We owe it to ourselves to try to understand that balance."

DIY Rat Control? Check your traps often or this happens.....

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:39:00 +0000

DIY Rodent Control..Is it for you?

A new customer told me that he checked the rat traps all the time and kept them fresh so he would catch other rat's that entered his attic. The problem is, he still had rat's!

"Looks like its been awhile since he checked his traps, lol"

If your going to Do It Yourself, check your traps or let a professional do it!

Common House Ants Form Supercolonies, Prosper in Urban Settings

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:15:00 +0000

(Mar. 31, 2010) — One of the most common house ant species might have been built for living in some of the smallest spaces in a forest, but the ants have found ways to take advantage of the comforts of city living.

Grzegorz Buczkowski discovered odorous house ants living in supercolonies, creating complex networks entomologists have never seen with the species before now. (Credit: Purdue Agricultural Communication photo/Tom Campbell)

Grzegorz Buczkowski, a Purdue University research assistant professor of entomology, found that odorous house ant colonies become larger and more complex as they move from forest to city and act somewhat like an invasive species. The ants live about 50 to a colony with one queen in forest settings but explode into supercolonies with more than 6 million workers and 50,000 queens in urban areas.

"This is a native species that's doing this," said Buczkowski, whose results are published in the early online version of the journal Biological Invasions. "Native ants are not supposed to become invasive. We don't know of any other native ants that are outcompeting other species of native ants like these."

Odorous house ants live in hollow acorn shells in the forest. They're called odorous because they have a coconut- or rum-like smell when crushed. They're considered one of the most common house ants.

In semi-natural areas that are a cross of forest and urban areas, such as a park, Buczkowski said he observed colonies of about 500 workers with a single queen. He said it's possible that as the ants get closer to urban areas they have easier access to food, shelter and other resources.

"In the forest, they have to compete for food and nesting sites," Buczkowski said. "In the cities, they don't have that competition. People give them a place to nest, a place to eat."

Buczkowski observed the ants in three different settings on and around the Purdue campus. He said it might be expected that if the odorous house ants were able to multiply into complex colonies, other ants would do the same.

But Buczkowski found no evidence that other ants had adapted to new environments and evolved into larger groups as the odorous house ants have. He said it's possible that odorous house ants are better adapted to city environments than other ant species or that they had somehow outcompeted or dominated other species.

"This raises a lot of questions we'd like to answer," he said.

Buczkowski said understanding why the supercolonies form could lead to better control of the pests in homes, as well as ensuring that they don't outcompete beneficial species.

Future studies on odorous house ants will include studying the ant's genetics and trying to understand the effects of urbanization of odorous house ants.

Mother Birds Know Best -- Even Before Birth

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:40:00 +0000

(Mar. 27, 2010) — Mother birds communicate with their developing chicks before they even hatch by leaving them messages in the egg, new research by a team from the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, has found.

By changing conditions within the egg, canary mothers leave a message for their developing chicks about the life they will face after birth. In response, nestlings adjust the development of their begging behaviour.

If chicks get a message that they will be reared by generous parents then they beg more vigorously for food after hatching. But chicks that are destined to be raised by meaner parents end up being much less demanding.

By attending to messages in the egg, nestlings gain weight more rapidly because they match their demands to the parents' supply of food, and can avoid either begging too little or wasting effort on unrewarded begging.

The Cambridge team made the discovery using fostering experiments, exchanging eggs between canaries' nests so that the chicks grew up in an environment that they were not expecting.

"This work changes our understanding of the pre-natal environment in birds," says Dr Rebecca Kilner of the University of Cambridge, who led the research.

"We've known for about twenty years that maternal substances in the egg can influence how chicks develop, but the common assumption is that they are a means by which mothers manipulate their offspring in a way that suits the mother more than the chick.

"What we've shown is the reverse: these substances are actually there to suit the chick. If we muck up the message in the egg experimentally, it is the chick that is penalised directly rather than the mother."

Pulling Power Points the Way to World's Strongest Insect -- A Dung Beetle

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:56:00 +0000

(Mar. 24, 2010) — Following months of gruelling tests and trials, scientists now reveal the World's strongest insect to be a species of dung beetle called Onthophagus taurus.

In an experiment to find out why animals vary so much in strength and endurance, Dr Rob Knell from Queen Mary, University of London and Professor Leigh Simmons from the University of Western Australia found the strongest beetle could pull an astonishing 1,141 times its own body weight -- the equivalent of a 70kg person lifting 80 tonnes (the same as six full double-decker buses).

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the scientists also found these insect athletes need to pay just as much attention to their diet as human athletes. Even the strongest beetles were reduced to feeble weaklings when put on a poor diet for a few days.

"Insects are well known for being able to perform amazing feats of strength," explained Dr Knell from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, "and it's all on account of their curious sex lives. Female beetles of this species dig tunnels under a dung pat, where males mate with them. If a male enters a tunnel that is already occupied by a rival, they fight by locking horns and try to push each other out." Knell and Simmons tested the beetles' ability to resist a rival by measuring how much weight was needed to pull him out of his hole.

"Interestingly, some male dung beetles don't fight over females," said Dr Knell. "They are smaller, weaker and don't have horns like the larger males. Even when we fed them up they didn't grow stronger, so we know it's not because they have a poorer diet.

"They did, however, develop substantially bigger testicles for their body size. This suggests they sneak behind the back of the other male, waiting until he's looking the other way for a chance to mate with the female. Instead of growing super strength to fight for a female, they grow lots more sperm to increase their chances of fertilising her eggs and fathering the next generation."

Termites are Swarming! Here is a very basic look at what to expect.

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:09:00 +0000

As I impatiently sat waiting for the traffic light to turn green, I noticed a cloud of swarming subterranean termites “flutter” by and not much longer, the telephones were ringing off the hook with people screaming in panic,” Termites!”

It’s that time off year folks to start checking the window sills for the wings and bodies of subterranean termites. Those nasty little cellulose eaters are out in force.

Things to look for:

Subterranean Termite Swarmers: When the subterranean colonies of termites become large enough, it will contain swarmers. The swarmers are the future kings and queens of the next subterranean termite colony.

Once they have left their "homes" they attempt to locate a new place to live. They locate a mate, shed their wings and then "get busy".

What you may see is quite a few "fluttering" insects, usually black in color with milky white wings or you just may see the wings in your windowsills. Termites will head for a light source.

Mud Tubes: Subterranean termites for many reasons, travel through mud tubes such as the one pictured to the left.

If you nudge it alittle, it will easily break open and live subterranean termites will usually spill out.

What does a subterranean termite look like? Next picture.....

Subterranean Termites: Here is a picture of the subterrameam termite "soldiers", notice the large mandibles on these guys!
The workers are slighty smaller and without those huge chompers.

In comparison, they look like grains of rice with legs.

Whats the difference between a flying termite and a flying ant? Next picture...

Termites vs Ants

For more information, go to our website at Beucher & Son Termite and Pest Control

Religious snail mucus makes people sick

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:35:00 +0000

Devotees of a man claiming to practice a traditional African religion said they had to ingest the mucus of a Giant African Snail that sickened them.
US authorities in January raided the Miami man's home after receiving complaints.

The man has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating.

The Giant African Snail is prohibited in the US without special approval.

Experts said it devastates new ecosystems. The snail grows up to 10 inches long, can reproduce on its own and even can even eat plaster.

The man said he meant no harm, and his religion uses the snails in healing ceremonies.

Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

State & Federal Agencies Work Together To Stop Destructive Snail

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:26:00 +0000

They are asking the public for help.
Thursday March 11th, 2010

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have joined together in a cooperative effort to prevent giant African snails (GAS) from making their way into Florida and are asking the public for help.

Giant African snails are considered a serious plant pest and potential threat to public health because of their ability to destroy plants, damage ornamental plants and spread disease. Giant African snails are illegal to import into the United States without a permit, and currently no permits have been issued.

Because of vigilant federal and state inspections and public education efforts, Florida has been successful in keeping these dangerous mollusks from becoming established again in Florida. Once established, this pest can create a giant swath of destruction and an alert public can prevent that from happening.

For the last several decades, there was no known giant African snail in Florida. However, the state is no stranger to this massive mollusk. In 1966, a boy smuggled three snails into Miami as pets and his grandmother subsequently released them into her garden. Seven years later, more than 18,000 snails were found. It took almost 10 years and more than $1 million to eradicate this pest from Florida. This is the only known successful giant African snail eradication program on record.

Scientists consider the GAS to be one of the most damaging snails in the world because it is known to consume at least 500 different types of plants. The snails can also cause structural damage to buildings; they consume plaster, stucco and other calcareous materials needed to grow their shells. In large numbers, GAS can cause extensive damage.

Public health concerns also surround this and other types of snails because they can carry parasites. Because of these health concerns, it is recommended to use gloves when handling snails and to wash hands thoroughly afterward.

The giant African snail, Achatina fulica, is one of the largest land snails in the world growing up to 8 inches in length and 4.5 inches in diameter. When full grown, the shell consists of seven to nine whorls (spirals), with a long and greatly swollen body whorl. The brownish shell covers at least half the length of the snail. Each snail can live as long as nine years and contains both female and male reproductive organs. After a single mating session, each snail can produce 100 to 400 eggs. In a typical year, every mated adult lays about 1,200 eggs.

Achatina fulica is originally from East Africa and has established itself throughout the Indo-Pacific Basin, including the Hawaiian Islands. This pest has also been introduced into the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe with recent detections in Saint Lucia and Barbados.

The Cooperative Agriculture Pest Survey (CAPS), a USDA grant-funded program which is managed by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, has stepped up inspections following a recent GAS interception but no additional giant African snails were found.

Anyone who thinks they have seen a giant African snail, or may have information on illegal snail smuggling or import activity, is asked to please call the Department's toll-free helpline at 1-888-397-1517. Please do not release them or give them away. The cooperation of the public in identifying any of these pests will be greatly appreciated and will help prevent the establishment of a destructive creature.

For information on invasive snail species, visit http://www.fl-dpi.com/

Watch that "S" Car Go!

Plotting and Treachery in Ant Royal Families

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:23:00 +0000

(Mar. 11, 2010) — Social insects -- ants in particular -- are usually thought of as selfless entities willing to sacrifice everything for their comrades. However, new research suggests that ant queens are also prepared to compromise the welfare of the entire colony in order to retain the throne.

Queen ant and her retinue. (Credit: University of Copenhagen)

A team from the University of Copenhagen, led by postdoc Luke Holman of the Center for Social Evolution, describes in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, published on the 24 February 2010, that ant queens are much more devious than previously thought.

Often, an ant colony has more than one queen. Multiple queens can produce a larger initial workforce in incipient colonies, increasing the chance the colony will survive the hazardous first year. But queens do not happily cohabit forever; soon after the young workers hatch, they begin to slaughter surplus queens until only one remains.

Ant queens were found to cleverly adjust how many new workers they produce for the colony. Queens produce fewer workers when sharing the colony with other queens, especially if the colony already has many developing workers. Queens therefore seem to know when they can expect a showdown for the throne, and conserve energy accordingly.

Such strategic investment in worker production is complemented by sophisticated chemical communication by queens. Ants have been called "walking chemical factories," because they produce many different odours for tasks such as recognising friends and enemies and signalling their status and role within the colony. Olfactory cues also indicate whether a queen is healthy and fertile. The Copenhagen team found that queens which were fertile had stronger chemical signals, and were also more likely to be spared execution by workers. Workers therefore appear to be selecting the fertile queen as their ruler based on smell.

"Execution of the most selfish ant queens by workers would increase the incentive for queens to be team-players that work hard to help the colony. This rudimentary "legal system" could have helped ants to evolve their highly advanced societies, just as in humans ," says lead author Luke Holman. Co-authors of the study were Patrizia d'Ettorre (now a professor at Paris University) and Stephanie Dreier, who have studied the evolution of social insect behaviour, communication and survival strategies for several years.

Emerging Tick-Borne Disease

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:21:00 +0000

(Mar. 11, 2010) — Stories of environmental damage and their consequences always seem to take place far away and in another country, usually a tropical one with lush rainforests and poison dart frogs.

In fact, similar stories starring familiar animals are unfolding all the time in our own backyards -- including gripping tales of diseases jumping from animal hosts to people when ecosystems are disrupted.

STARI, a disease carried by lone star ticks, resembles Lyme disease in that it is characterized by a bulls-eye rash, but it is caused by a different bacterium and seems to be less virulent. (Credit: Wunderling/Creative Commons)

This time we're not talking hemorrhagic fever and the rainforest. We're talking tick-borne diseases and the Missouri Ozarks.

And the crucial environmental disruption is not the construction of roads in the rainforest, it is the explosion of white-tailed deer populations.

An interdisciplinary team at Washington University in St. Louis has been keeping a wary eye on emerging tick-borne diseases in Missouri for the past 20 years. Team members include ecologists Brian F. Allan and Jonathan M. Chase, molecular biologists Robert E. Thach and Lisa S. Goessling, and physician Gregory A. Storch.

The team recently developed a sophisticated DNA assay, described in the March 2010 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, that allows them to identify which animal hosts are transmitting pathogens to ticks.

"This new technology is going to be the key to understanding the transmission of diseases from wildlife to humans by ticks," Allan says.

Three new tick-borne diseases

Missouri has three common species of ticks. The black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) that carries Lyme disease is found here, but is far less common than in other regions of the country.

Missouri also has American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis), which carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, but again this is a less frequently encountered species.

The most common tick is Amblyomma americanum, called the lone star tick because the adult female has a white splotch on her back. It is a woodland species originally found in the southeastern United States whose range now extends northward as far as Maine.

Until recently, this tick, which is an aggressive and indiscriminate biter, was considered a nuisance species, not one that played a role in human disease.

Then in 1986 a physician noticed bacterial clusters called morulae in a blood smear from a critically ill man that looked like those formed by bacteria in the genus Ehrlichia (named for the German microbiologist Paul Ehrlich). At the time Ehrlichia were thought to cause disease only in animals.

The bacterium was later identified as a new species, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, and the disease was named human ehrlichiosis. In 1993 E. chaffeensis DNA was found in lone star ticks collected from several states.

Ehrlichiosis typically begins with vague symptoms that mimic those of other bacterial illnesses. In a few patients, however, it progresses rapidly to affect the liver, and may cause death unless treated with antibiotics.

In 1999, a second Ehrlichia species was identified as an agent of human disease. The DNA of the newly identified bacterium was also found in lone star ticks.

Gregory A. Storch, M.D., the Ruth L. Siteman Professor of Pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, led the team that identified the second Ehrlichia species. The discovery was described in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999.

Blood samples from patients in the St. Louis area who might have a tick-borne disease are still sent to Storch's lab for analysis.

But the erhlichioses weren't the only emerging diseases the tick was carrying. In the 1980s, reports had started to trickle in from Missouri, North Carolina and Maryland of an illness accompanied by a bulls-eye rash. Called STARI, for southern tick-associated rash illness, it resembled Lyme disease but didn't seem to be as severe.

The lone star tick was also incriminated in these cases. STARI is thought to be caused by a bacterium named Borrelia lonestari, after its tick vector.

The question

"The question," says Thach, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and of biochemistry and molecular biophysics in the School of Medicine, "is where do infectious diseases come from?"

"Most seem to come from nature -- they exist in other animals -- and then make the leap from animals to people, Thach says."

Assuming this model applies to the lone star tick diseases, what is their animal reservoir and why are they jumping?

Lone star ticks need blood meals to power their metamorphoses (they go through three stages: larva, nymph and adult) and egg laying.

They sometimes bite coyotes, foxes and other animals, but their favorite hosts are wild turkey and white-tailed deer.

Especially white-tailed deer, which seem to be playing a major role in maintaining large lone star tick populations and setting the stage for tick diseases to jump to people.

Suspicion grows

Fieldwork conducted by Allan, Ph.D., a post-doctoral research fellow at Washington University's Tyson Research Center in the oak-history forests that grace the rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks, was reinforcing the team's suspicions about deer.

In forests managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation and by the Nature Conservancy, Allan was looking at the effect on tick numbers of management practices such as selective logging and prescribed burns.

Allan's results show that management practices sometimes have counterintuitive effects on tick numbers. For example, he reported in the Journal of Medical Entomology in September 2009 that prescribed burns increase tick numbers and human risk of exposure to lone star tick diseases.

To make sense of this counterintuitive result all you need to do is follow the deer. A prescribed burn leads to a flush of new plant growth. Deer, which are selective browsers, are attracted by the tender greenery. They flood into the burn sites, and drop blood-sated ticks as they browse.

Getting blood from a tick

Although deer were looking shady, the case against them was still largely circumstantial. Could the scientists get definitive evidence?

Allan found a way. He read about an assay that had been developed in Jeremy Gray's lab at University College Dublin to identify animal reservoirs of Lyme disease. ("There are twice as many cases of Lyme disease in Western Europe as there are in the United States," says Thach, "and there is a lot of Lyme research being done there.")

Allan asked Thach whether his lab would be willing to develop a similar assay for the lone star tick diseases.

"With my colleague Lisa Goessling," Thach says, "we developed the technique here and used it to analyze the ticks Brian brought in from the woods."

"The technology for identifying mosquito blood meals has existed for some time," Allan says, "because they take many blood meals over a short period of time, so the blood is usually still fresh when you capture them. And they keep coming back for another meal, so it's very easy to capture them.

It's much harder to get blood from a tick, which usually takes only one blood meal per life stage," Allan continues. "By the time we capture the tick eight months to a year may have elapsed. The tick has had a long time to digest that blood, so there may be only a tiny amount of DNA left -- if there's any."

The team does two assays on the tick DNA: one to identify pathogenic bacteria and the other to identify the animal that provided the blood and with it the bacteria.

Analyzing DNA in the blood

The first step in the assay is to pulverize the ticks to release the DNA, which is then amplified using a procedure called the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. This provides enough DNA for identification.

Following amplification is a step called reverse line blot hybridization. Probes, which are short sequences of DNA unique to a bacterium or to a host animal, are deposited in lines on a membrane. The membrane is then rotated, and the products of the PCR step -- tagged with a chemiluminescent (light-generating) dye -- are laid down in lines perpendicular to the probe lines.

Wherever two lines cross, DNA from the tick sample mixes with probes for either bacterial or animal DNA. If the two match, the molecules will bond, or hybridize. When the membrane is later washed, tick-sample DNA that has not hybridized washes off. DNA that has hybridized sticks and shows up as a chemiluminescent spot on the membrane. Reading the spots, tells the scientists which bacteria the tick was carrying and which animal provided its last blood meal.

Assay results showed that most of the nymphal lone star ticks infected with E. chaffeensis fed upon a white-tailed deer in the larval life stage. "So deer are definitely a primary reservoir for this bacterium," says Thach. "But we also found some kind of squirrel -- which we have more recently identified as the common gray squirrel -- and what appears to be some kind of rabbit."

In general, the results suggest deer are probably "weakly competent reservoirs" for the tick diseases, meaning that ticks that bit deer stood only a small chance of picking up one of the pathogens. On the other hand, deer have huge "reservoir potential," because there are so many of them.

The bottom line: a sprinkling of deer is ok; crowds of deer are a problem.

Too many deer

Are the bacteria that cause the new tick-borne diseases truly new or have they existed for a long time in wildlife reservoirs like the white-tailed deer without causing human disease?

"We don't know the answer," says Allan, " but my guess is these tick-borne diseases are probably being unleashed by human-mediated environmental change."

By human-mediated environmental change he means deer protection, the human behaviors that have led to an explosion in white-tailed deer populations.

"Some state agencies plant food plots for deer, we've created deer forage in the form of crop fields and suburban plantings, and we've taken away almost all of their predators -- except cars," Allan says.

To be sure, white-tailed deer were once nearly eliminated from the state. In 1925 there were thought to be only 395, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. The hunting season was closed that year and again from 1938 through 1944, and deer were re-located to help reestablish them in the state.

In 2009, Lonnie Hanson of the Missouri Department of Conservation estimated the herd at 1.4 million. Nationwide the pattern is similar. Nobody is sure how many deer there are, but estimates range from 8 to 30 million, levels everyone agrees are excessive.

"If you had to point to one factor that led to the emergence of tick-borne diseases in the eastern United States, it would have to be these unnaturally large populations of deer," Allan says.

What it's like to be a Florida python hunter

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:38:00 +0000

Greg Graziani thinks Burmese pythons are "fascinating animals" that shouldn't be in the wilds of South Florida.

"They're beautiful animals," Graziani said of the non-poisonous snakes that can grow to 14 feet or longer. "If I could take them all to Southeast Asia, I would, but I can't foot that bill."

Graziani is one of about 15 people who have been issued licenses to capture or kill the giant constrictors in Florida. The National Park Service - which administers the Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, both near Miami, wants the non-native reptiles eradicated from its lands. So do the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and the South Florida Water Management District.

From left, Greg Graziani (licensed to kill or capture pythons in South Florida), Florida Fish and Wildlife (FWC)Commissioner Ron Bergeron, Shawn Heflick (another permit holder), and FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto.Photo by Patricia C. Behnke/Courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission

Biologists fear that the giant snakes will decimate native animals, including protected species of wading birds. [Read conservation biologist Stuart Pimm's blog post: Pythons in Florida Everglades: Is the Snake Invasion Only Beginning?]

"I hate that we have to euthanize them, but they don't belong there, and what are we going to do?" Graziani said.

The Burmese python's native habitat includes China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Nepal. But they've also become a favorite of American snake collectors, especially in South Florida, where the climate is similar to Southeast Asia.

Graziani made weekly trips during last summer from his home in Venus, Florida to hunt pythons. He caught "three or four" during these trips, and plans to resume hunting them this year.

The best time to hunt the pythons is between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. during a moonless night, but Graziani doesn't plunge into the thick vegetation seeking the snakes. The cold-blooded animals are attracted to the warmth of roads that have baked in the sun all day, he said.

"They're ambush predators," Graziani said. "Night time is when they're going to move. The worst time to hunt is during a full moon. There are no reptiles or frogs on roads during the full moon. I assume that's because they know all other predators are out there because they can see so well."

Shawn Helfick, a licensed python-hunter, measures a Burmese python.Photo by Patricia C. Behnke/Courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission

Graziani doesn't carry a lot of equipment with him during a hunt, but he has equipped his truck with high-powered spotlights. And there's no special technique for capturing the pythons. When he sees one, he simply grabs it by the tail and waits for it to start striking at him.

"I let it strike five to seven times," he said. "Each strike became more labored. I wait for it to tire itself out."

When the snake tires, Graziani grabs it behind the head and puts it into a large, lockable plastic container. He was bitten once by an eight-and-a-half foot python that his son captured. He said the bite wasn't especially painful, but one of the python's small, needlelike teeth did break off in one of his knuckles.

"We expect a defensive bite. It wants to hit you and get away," Graziani said. "When that happens, it's like 80 or 100 hypodermic needles puncturing your flesh and coming out."

Graziani said the bite healed without becoming infected.

Burmese python caught in Everglades National Park. More than 1,200 Burmese pythons have been found in the Florida Everglades.Photo courtesy NPS

Graziani euthanizes the snakes captured on Florida Fish and Wildlife lands by severing the brain from the spinal cord. Snakes that are taken on National Park Service lands are turned over to the Park Service, which euthanizes them.

George Horne, deputy executive director of the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach, said that more than 1,200 pythons have been found in a relatively small area in the Florida Everglades. And there's been a dramatic increase in the number of pythons found in the past year, Horne said.

Some of the pythons were released into the wild by people who became disenchanted with their pets, Graziani said. But most of them escaped into the wilds when powerful Hurricane Andrew tore into Homestead--just south of Miami--in 1992, he said. At least 1,000 pythons escaped when the hurricane destroyed a dealer's containment area near Homestead, he said.

Estimates of the number of pythons in South Florida vary widely, from a few thousand to as many as 150,000. Graziani thinks the number probably is between 3,000 and 5,000.

Horne said the snake-hunting permits were first issued about three years ago as part of the South Florida Water Management District's effort to restore the Florida Everglades.

"One of the key things with the Everglades restoration, one of the measures of success, was that we had to be able to increase the bird population," Horne said. The increasing python population could make it impossible for the bird population to increase, he said.

"We could have pristine water quality, and it could be lifeless except for these large predators," Horne said.

Willie Drye is the author of "Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935," published by National Geographic, and a regular contributor to National Geographic News. He has also written for the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, the Tampa Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel.

Drye is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Visit his blog: "Drye Goods."

Big Python

Bigger Python

Python eating a hog

Colt Python

Monty Python

Month long Florida Python-Hunt Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:01:00 +0000

Open Season On Invasive Species of Snakes and Other Reptiles in the Everglades

Shawn Heflick, left, shows a Burmese python to hunters during a news conference, Feb. 22, 2010 in the Florida Everglades. (AP)

From Monday until April 17, anyone with a hunting license who pays for the $26 permit can take them on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida.

Florida officials have taken a more aggressive stance against the invasive species in the past year, creating the python hunting season and issuing broader permits to experts to kill as many as possible.

The state has even held workshops for those inexperienced with pythons on how to identify, stalk and capture the reptiles.

Pythons Invade The Everglades

In addition to Burmese, Indian and African rock pythons, hunters can also take green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards.

As for the dead snakes, local tanners say they will pay $5 to $10 per foot.

"It's definitely a hot item. Hermes, Gucci, Prada, all the top manufacturers use python skins," said Brian Wood of All American Gator in Hallandale Beach told CBS News 4 in Miami. "And we have it right in our backyard."

Hunters must report each kill to the wildlife commission.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Viper Venom: Too Far to Go In the Pursuit Against Wrinkles?

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:11:00 +0000

It was a slow day for bug news, so I thought that you may find this interesting... ~ J Beucher

by BellaSugar Australia

Granted, I don't like wrinkles. Show me a woman who does. But then again, show me a woman (except Terri Irwin) who likes snakes. I'll forgive you for being a little confused by where I'm going with this, but let me bring you up to speed: the latest wonder potion being dubbed Botox in a bottle is Rodial Glamoxy™ Snake Serum (approx $252).

WTF, right? Well it's not as strange as it seems. OK, it is. The serum contains syn-ake; a neuropeptide that imitates the effect that the Temple Viper's venom has upon its victim. Thankfully, not death. Just a lifted face, frozen muscles and fine lines and wrinkles that are suitable plumped.

Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Katie Holmes are said to be big fans, and pre-launch demand in the UK topped the 100,000 people mark. What's gotten them all so excited? Presumably the research that shows in just 90 seconds, wrinkles are less noticeable. According to Rodial President, Maria Hatzistefanis, the non-invasive Botox alternative is unmatched in the marketplace. What do you think? Tempted to try it for yourself?

Of course you can always try this! ! ~ Jim Beucher

Brown Recluse Spider Is Sometimes to Blame When Anemia Strikes

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:39:00 +0000

(Feb. 28, 2010) — As spring approaches and people return to outdoor activities, caution should be taken in areas of the country that are home to Loxosceles reclusa, also called the brown recluse spider. A new study from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital found that when patients present with sudden anemia, but the cause is elusive, the brown recluse spider should be part of the differential diagnosis, at least in parts of the nation where the spider is regularly found.

In a recent issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, St. Jude hematologists reported on six previously healthy adolescents hospitalized for treatment of acute, symptomatic anemia. The illnesses were linked to red blood cell destruction known as hemolytic anemia that was eventually traced to brown recluse spider bites. All six patients fully recovered, but four needed blood transfusions and three spent time in the intensive care unit.

Only three of the six patients recalled recent spider bites, and Jenny McDade, D.O., an assistant member in the St. Jude Hematology department, said the other wounds were only found after head-to-toe skin checks. McDade, the study's lead author, said one bite was hidden by a bra strap and initially went unnoticed.

"The bite is often painless, and it is frequently missed," she said, which is one reason St. Jude investigators decided to review hospital records to gauge the scope of the problem.

Although most people bitten by brown recluse spiders do not seek medical attention, the researchers noted that the spiders' venom triggers a widespread reaction in about 30 percent of children. Although the exact mechanism is not completely understood, the most common systemic reaction is hemolytic anemia. Less commonly, kidney failure and clotting problems develop. Children seem to be more likely than adults to develop systemic complications, especially anemia. In rare cases, the researchers reported the bite has been linked to multi-organ failure and death.

Several times a year, St. Jude hematologists are consulted regarding patients who develop sudden, unexplained hemolytic anemia. This study focused on patients hospitalized for severe anemia who required hematology consultation during a one-year period at a general children's hospital near the St. Jude campus in Memphis, Tenn.

Determining the cause of acute anemia is important to ensure the appropriate treatment, McDade said. For example, steroids may be used to treat some types of anemia, but are unproven when the cause is a brown recluse bite. "In the United States, the standard of care for treatment of brown recluse bites is supportive care and treatment of the wound," she said.

McDade said most Americans should not worry about this spider, which carries a violin-shaped mark on its head and a preference for a quiet life lived in dry wood piles, under rocks or in corners of dark closets or attics. The spiders are found in parts of the Midwest and southern United States and are a regional problem. Although brown recluse bites are not a widespread cause of anemia, McDade said the diagnosis should be considered in patients with unexplained anemia who live in areas the spiders call home. Other St. Jude authors are Banu Aygun, M.D., and Russell Ware, M.D., Ph.D., St. Jude Hematology department chair and senior author.

The research was supported in by the National Cancer Institute and ALSAC.

Go here to play with a spider

Does Promiscuity Prevent Extinction?

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:54:00 +0000

(Feb. 26, 2010) — Promiscuous females may be the key to a species' survival, according to new research by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool. Published February 25 in Current Biology, the study could solve the mystery of why females of most species have multiple mates, despite this being more risky for the individual.

These are Drosophila pseudoobscura mating. A new study by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool, UK, on these fruitfly suggests promiscuous females may be the key to a species' survival. (Credit: University of Exeter)

Known as 'polyandry' among scientists, the phenomenon of females having multiple mates is shared across most animal species, from insects to mammals. This study suggests that polyandry reduces the risk of populations becoming extinct because of all-female broods being born. This can sometimes occur as a result of a sex-ratio distortion (SR) chromosome, which results in all of the Y chromosome 'male' sperm being killed before fertilisation. The all-female offspring will carry the SR chromosome, which will be passed on to their sons in turn resulting in more all-female broods. Eventually there will be no males and the population will die out.

For this study, the scientists worked with the fruitfly Drosophila pseudoobscura. They gave some populations the opportunity to mate naturally, meaning that the females had multiple partners. The others were restricted to having one mate each. They bred several generations of these populations, so they could see how each fared over time.

Over fifteen generations, five of the twelve populations that had been monogamous became extinct as a result of males dying out. The SR chromosome was far less prevalent in the populations in which females had the opportunity to have multiple mates and none of these populations became extinct.

The study shows how having multiple mates can suppress the spread of the SR chromosome, making all-female broods a rarity. This is because males that carry the SR chromosome produce only half as many sperm as normal males. When a female mates with multiple males, their sperm will compete to fertilise her eggs. The few sperm produced by males carrying the SR chromosome are out-competed by the sperm from normal males, and the SR chromosome cannot spread.

Lead author Professor Nina Wedell of the University of Exeter said: "We were surprised by how quickly -- within nine generations -- a population could die out as a result of females only mating with one partner. Polyandry is such a widespread phenomenon in nature but it remains something of an enigma for scientists. This study is the first to suggest that it could actually save a population from extinction."

This study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Key Largo gets some wood rats back

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Beucher) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:20:00 +0000

Seven Key Largo wood rats -- from a kinder, gentler rodent strain than the one humans abhor -- were released into their only known home.

This is one of seven Key Largo wood rats taken to Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge. LOWRY PARK ZOO/TAMPA

Photo By CURTIS MORGAN
The seven pioneers spent the week preparing for their upcoming ordeal in North Key Largo, sampling berries and other local fare, redecorating homes with sticks, leaves and whatever else they got their little paws on, and generally getting used to life outside a cage at Disney World.

On Tuesday, scientists lifted protective enclosures to release captive-bred Key Largo wood rats into Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge -- the first test of a restocking experiment that might represent the last and best hope for an obscure rodent that ranks among Florida's rarest species.

So far, so good. Feral cats and Burmese pythons didn't immediately swallow any, and the lab rats -- products of a breeding program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo and Disney's Animal Kingdom -- showed some of the skills and instincts they'll need to survive.

For one, they've lived up to another name they sometimes go by: pack rat. They've busily added to nests -- distinctive mounds cobbled with everything from sticks to dung to the random bottle cap -- that were vacated by other members of their vanishing population.

``They've piled so much stuff over the nests it's incredible,'' said Sandra Sneckenberger, a Wildlife Service biologist.

The Service started the breeding program in 2002 as a last-resort attempt to reverse the population decline in the rat's only known home, the tangled hardwood hammocks of the largest island in the Florida Keys chain. The estimated population has dwindled to no more than 300 -- down dramatically from about 6,500 before 1984, when the rat was added to the federal endangered species list.

Though they are rats, they are a different genus than the nasty, biting carriers of disease reviled by humans, said Christy Alligood, a research specialist at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The wood rat arises from a kinder, gentler rodent strain and wants nothing to do with homes or buildings. In nature and size, they're more akin to mice -- small at just four to nine inches, docile and shy.

Though handling the seven was kept to a minimum to help acclimate them to the wild, biologists and breeding teams grew attached enough to name them, Sneckenberger said. ``They are very charismatic creatures.''

The first group of seven -- Tweak, Ralph, Roxy, Frieda, Rosie, Fern, and Garfunkle -- will be followed by seven others later this month. The rats, fitted with tiny radio collars, will be tracked for 60 days. If they survive, the hope is they'll breed.

It's not something they do all that frequently in the wild, which might partially account for the species' decline. Unlike prolific urban rats, wood rats breed only two to three times a year, producing about two ``pups'' each time, Alligood said. Otherwise, they tend to be solitary homebodies.

Getting them together in captivity proved one of the major challenges for the eight-year breeding program, she said. If they weren't in the mood, they might even attack each other. Researchers and technicians at the Animal Kingdom's Conservation Station learned to recognize the signs of a ``receptive'' wood rat, including a tell-tale, high-pitched raspy chirp.

Development, the most prevalent threat to wildlife in Florida, certainly played a role in reducing the rat's prime habitat, but its most recent rapid decline, starting around 1995, happened with much of its remaining habitat under state and federal protection.

The dire drop remains somewhat of a puzzle to scientists.

Tracking the lab rats also might help sort out threats, including diseases associated with a round-worm found in raccoon feces, as well as Key Largo's problematic population of feral cats and Burmese pythons.

Rat remains have been found in the guts ofat least two captured snakes.