Category Kids Queries

Beginning in 2006, beekeepers across the United States reported alarming losses of their hives. Honeybees were fleeing their queens and colonies, never to return. The phenomenon – called colony collapse disorder – continued to spread, and by 2013 beekeepers were reporting average losses of 45 percent of their hives. Honeybees are vital pollinators for everything from apples to almonds, avocados to onions (not to mention the source of all honey), and bee researchers are scrambling to figure out what’s causing the disappearing act. Current suspects include parasites, viruses, and pesticides, and many believe it’s combination of all three.

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They’re the product of a lab experiment gone wrong! This highly aggressive breed of honeybee escaped from a Brazilian lab in 1957, and they have been heading north ever since. They’ll pursue any threat until it drops – and then continue stinging and stinging and stinging! A swarm chasing a Texas man nailed him more than a thousand times! Known to scientists as Africanized bees, they were dubbed “killer bees” by the media.

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Almost anywhere. Eighty percent of people on Earth include insects as a regular part of their diet. That means you’ll find bugs on the menus in every continent – even North America. The Insectarium, a museum infested with insects (kept safely in displays) in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., serves an assortment of buggy treats, including “Chocolate Chirp Cookies” baked with dry-roasted crickets. Or you can search online for Larvets, an extra-crunchy snack festively packaged in three tasty-sounding varieties: barbecue, cheddar cheese, and Mexican spice. The secret ingredient: farm-raised insect larvae from Hotlix, makers of “original candy that bugs.” Other crunchy Hotlix treats include Scorpion Suckers and Cricket Lick-Its.

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Because you’re probably already eating them. Farms, food-delivery trucks, and food-packaging plants are hardly bug-free environments. Insects cling to the food and crawl through the machinery. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration puts a limit on how many insect parts (and rat hairs and other nasty stuff) can end up in your apple sauce, frozen broccoli, canned mushrooms, ketchup, and other packaged foods, but those itty-bitty bug bites add up. You eat about two pounds (.9 kg) of shredded insect every year. It’s ground into everything during the food-production and packaging processes.

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In many parts of world, insects are just another food group. And why not? Bugs are rich in protein and vitamins. They require fewer resources to raise than cows, pigs, and chickens. Unlike bottom-feeding shrimp, which we pop in our mouths without a second thought, many bugs live on a wholesome diet of grass, leaves, and flowers. Bugs also devour farmers’ crops, so eating pest insects helps protect our veggies.

Many insect species have less than 5 grams of fat per serving. Insect farming can be a more sustainable practice because insects don’t need much space, can live under all sorts of conditions and easy to feed. People describe the taste of insects as nutty with a similar flavor to shrimp and chicken. Grasshoppers, ant eggs, and wasps are considered a delicacy in several countries.

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Because they’re arthropods – the same animal group that includes insects and arachnids. If it has at least six legs, a segmented body, and wears its skeleton like a suit of armor, it’s an arthropod!

Hermit crabs are perhaps the most entertaining creatures in a tide pool. They scuttle quickly about on the bottom of pools and tidal flats scavenging for food. When danger approaches, they withdraw into their shells, blocking the entrance with their thick claws. Hermit crabs are also harmless–if you pick one up and hold still for a bit, they will move out of their shell to explore your hand.

These crabs, who look like tiny lobsters, inhabit discarded snail shells. Their soft, twisted abdomen has been converted into a hook that reaches into an empty snail shell. It then carries the protective shell on its back.

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