Insects

Dragonflies are fast, powerful and unbelievably aggressive, using a rudimentary form of 'trigonometry' to calculate distance and move in for the kill.

By Jesslyn Shields

It's a battle of the buzzing insects. We're talking hornets vs. wasps. How do these two differ and which one has the worst sting?

By Nathan Chandler

The sting of a tarantula hawk is so painful you are advised to lie on the ground as soon as you're stung to avoid falling.

By Jesslyn Shields

Black soldier fly larvae will eat almost anything and they taste pretty good themselves, too.

By Jesslyn Shields

These nasty pests are developing cross-resistance to multiple classes of insecticides.

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

Just like bees, wasps are pollinators that are also endangered. But you rarely hear anyone pleading to save wasps. A study finds out why wasps are despised by the public and researchers alike.

By Dave Roos

These nasty little bugs have been reported in 28 U.S. states and can cause an illness called Chagas disease.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

The world's largest bee, lost to science for 38 years, has been rediscovered on a remote island in Indonesia.

By Jesslyn Shields

There's an old saying that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Scientists have now found out why sour tastes are so repellent to flies.

By Alia Hoyt

Think a teeny tiny ant can't pack a punch? Think again. The Dracula ant can subdue its prey so fast, they never know it's coming.

By John Donovan

Justin O. Schmidt studies insect venom and has a rating system for the relative agony inflicted by the world's most painful stings. Which is the worst?

By Jesslyn Shields

Structures in some butterflies' wings are actually part of their ears.

By Jesslyn Shields

Thanks to a citizen science project in the path of totality, researchers studied bee activity and were surprised by the results.

By John Perritano

For five nights in a row, a praying mantis came to the same garden spot to hunt for fish, completely confounding scientists.

By Jesslyn Shields

Beekeeping, when you get down to it, is the art and science of removing honey from hardworking bees without them missing it. But beekeeping is about so much more than just the honey.

By Dave Roos

Being eaten from the inside out by wasps sounds like something out of a nightmare, but for some caterpillars, sadly, it's just life.

By Jesslyn Shields

It seems like flying cockroaches want to dive bomb your face. Are they aggressive? Defensive? Or maybe it's all just in your scared ape mind.

By Jesslyn Shields

Entire colonies of half a million venomous ants are one scary threat following serious flooding.

By Jesslyn Shields

Part of the fun is trying to finagle a spot at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park viewing site in late spring.

By John Donovan

The secrets to ladybugs' wing-folding could yield new designs in flying robots and even newfangled umbrellas.

By Amanda Onion

For one species of dragonfly, the hassle of dealing with aggressive suitors is worth playing possum over.

By Jesslyn Shields

And its special endowment is not the thing that intrigues scientists the most.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

In a state already teeming with pythons, tourists and Jimmy Buffett singalongs, the flesh-eating screwworm makes Florida a little more menacing.

By Jesslyn Shields

Of course they do. You're an attractive person. But what is it about you specifically that draws them in for a tasty meal?

By Laurie L. Dove

If people had exoskeletons and wings maybe they'd be around forever, too. Insects are born survivors because they have certain traits that other animals don't.

By Nicholas Gerbis