Agricultural pest insects

It’s spring. Trees have leaves again. The birds are chirping. And insects are crawling back out of hell from their winter slumber, including the invasive spotted lanternfly.Simone Giertz on Project Failures | Gizmodo Talks Jessica Ware, an entomologist and an associate curator in the division of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, confirmed to Earther that the Northeast is going to see a lot of the spotty insects this summer. It was introduced into the U.S. from China in 2012 and has quickly…

Dead spotted lanternflies on a tree at Inwood Hill Park on September 26, 2022 in New York City.Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images)You’ve heard the pleas from scientists: Squash these bugs without mercy. Entomologists and agriculture experts have been begging the public to help stop the spread of the ultra-destructive spotted lanternfly for several years now, but despite our best efforts, the invasive insect is now a familiar sight in 14 states,where it’s killing trees and crops and generally creeping people out.…

I, for one, welcome our new moth overlords. (Entomologists disagree.)Washington State entomologists are asking people to be on the lookout for a potentially problematic newcomer to the state: the Atlas moth. Fortunately, the insects are pretty hard to miss, with their nearly 10-inch wingspans and distinctive diamond markings. “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” Sven Spichiger, an entomologist at the state’s agricultural department, said in a WSDA press release (titled “Have you seen this huge…

Halyomorpha halys, the brown marmorated stink bug.Photo: Edwin Remsburg/VW Pics via Getty Images (Getty Images)Insects are cool (if you look past all the legs). They break down dead things by eating them and pollinate plants so that we can grow enough crops to feed the world. Conservation encourages us to protect wildlife, especially bugs that are now looking down the barrel of an insect apocalypse.But... sometimes you have to kill a few bugs to protect entire ecosystems. Specifically, invasive insects, which humans have…

A spotted lanternfly at a vineyard in Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 2019. Photo: Matt Rourke (AP)Have you seen a black and white bug flying around? Does it have vivid red back wings? Is it covered in polka dots that would make Cruella de Vil envious? If so, you’ve seen a spotted lanternfly, and a zillion of its friends are probably in your area, too. Scientists across several East Coast states are begging the public to kill these flashy bugs on sight, as 2022 shapes up to be a boom year for the destructive…

It’s a bird, it’s a plane—no wait, it’s a migrating moth... being followed by a plane?For the first time, scientists have continually tracked an insect over more than 50 miles of a long-distance migration flight. The resulting observations and data reveal that at least one species of moth is capable of charting a surprisingly straight path. As small as these insects are, they seem to have a robust “internal compass” system that even allows them to navigate around tricky winds and geography, according to the new study…