Darwin’s finches threatened by invasive nest maggots in the Galapagos Islands
Contents of a Darwin’s finch nest: dead nestlings with larval feeding wounds surrounded by parasitic larvae of the introduced fly Philornis downsi. As mentioned in another entry on this blog a few weeks ago, 2010 has been declared International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations. Continuing this theme, here is a guest entry by…
Luxury insect hotels
Today is the last day of National Insect Week in the UK. Now that England are out of the World Cup we might all be spending a bit more time in our gardens! So I thought I’d finish the week by letting you know how you can get involved in helping conserve our creepy crawlies…
Entomotherapy: Revolting Recipes or Marvellous Medicine?
During our daily job of searching through journals for articles to add to CAB Abstracts database we came across an article all about entomotherapy (use of insects for medicinal purposes) in tribal communities in Arunachal Pradesh, India. So I’d like to add entomotherapy to the long list of benefits of insects in my blog on…
Celebrating insects
This week is National Insect Week in the UK. With over 900,000 different species, insects comprise over 70% of all known species and inhabit all habitats apart from deep ocean, so it’s hardly surprising they get a whole National Week rather than a mere day! Those of you who find insects a daily irritant may…
Roasted grasshopper with a sprinkling of termites
Chances are if you’re European you don’t make a habit of eating insects. When you have eaten them it was probably by mistake, maybe whilst enjoying a summer bike ride or a run. After a few seconds of coughing and spluttering and feeling personally affronted at the insect flying into your mouth without warning you…
Don’t kill birds with kindness
With my son starting to show an interest in feeding our garden birds, I was interested to read two reports this month reminding us to do so with care. Researchers from the Scottish Agricultural College have highlighted the fact that Salmonella can build up on feeders or drinkers, with the potential to kill birds already…
Can music feed our love of food?
Many people like a little music while they dine, but does music have the potential to improve the meal itself? A delve into the CAB Direct database shows that there have been many studies on the impact of playing music to animals, but little consistency in the results, other than a general negative response to…
Raisin questions.
Recently I read in an abstract in the CAB Abstracts Database that “Dog poisoning caused by grape or raisin consumption has been increasing recently. The first cases of poisoning were documented around 1989, several tens cases have been registered yearly in the world since 2003”. The author writing in a Czech veterinary journal is correct…
Farm visits, brother in tow
As a mother of two young boys, I have been following the coverage of the 'petting farm' E. coli outbreak with particular interest. As of 22 September, 74 cases of infection with E. coli O157 have been linked to Godstone Farm in Surrey. Having visited two similar attractions this summer, I am now reflecting on…
A prickly encounter
We first noticed the prickly visitor to our garden one evening. It appeared on our patio, but quickly dashed under cover of the plants once spotted. Much to the delight of my eldest son, Mrs (or Mr?) Tiggy-Winkle was on the patio again early morning at breakfast – shouldn't a hedgehog be asleep by now…