Killer Bees

Killer bees are also called africanized bees. Honey bees and killer bees have some physical differences between them. Killer bees are dangerous because they attack in large numbers. They react to disturbances 10 times faster than the european honey bee. It will also chase people a quarter of a mile. They have killed 1,000 people. It is weird to think that bees have the ability to kill people if they sting them enough. I never liked bees and wasps in the first place but this just makes me even more scared of them now. Especially if they chase you a quarter of a mile and react that quickly even though thats just killer bees it still freaks me out. I will not be going around any kind of bees anytime soon just to be safe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee

Bug Chicks Video

The first video we ever had to watch for class was a Bug Chicks video. It was super goofy but very insightful. It taught me a lot i didnt know in a small amount of time and the goofiness kept me watching even though it was so cheesy.
These are all the notes i took during the video and the things i learned. It was really crazy to think there are still roughly 20 million species of insects that haven't been described. Also that some things arent actually true insects.

(Arthropod- jointed legs or feet.

 3 body parts.

 2 pairs of wings.

 6 legs.

 1 pair of antennae.

 Incomplete metamorphosis 

Eggs-> larva-> adult

Instar(shed exoskeleton)

 Eggs->larva->pupa->adult

 Thysanura- live in human associated habitats, like moisture, bristle tail, also silver, eat bookbinding, leaf litter, decomposing things.

 Durmaptera- Skin winged, eat organic matter, found in warm climates, find under rock

 Orthopetra- straight winged, jumpers/runners, mostly found in households, eat plant material.

 Isoptera- eat wood, equal wings, found in wood

 Insects body temperature fluctuates depending on outside temperature (ectotherm)

 1 million describe species.

 Roughly 20 million undescribed species.)

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

entomology.unl.edu

One day in class our teacher brought in cockroaches. They were Madagascar hissing cockroaches.It was freaking to hear them make the hissing noise they make that they are known for. Our teacher let us hold them if we wanted and he walked around with them. I didn't hold one because I dislike cockroaches a lot so i didnt want to. But the person next to me did hold one. So Lillian the person next to me decided to put it straight in my face trying to freak me out and then kept trying to freak me out when she saw how scared I got. Her cockroach would not stay still but i blame her for the because she dropped it on its back so thats probably why it kept trying to get away from her. I mean if i was in that cockroaches place and i had already gotten dropped i would be trying to get away too. It was an interesting day in class but it was still freaky.

Ruffner Mountain

We went on a class trip to ruffner mountain it was a cool experience. The views there were really pretty. We started by walking around the parking lot looking at things that caught our eye and that looked like they didnt belong. Then we went to a different entrance to begin our hike. We went hiking just looking around at everything and went into a tiny cave that was slippery trying to get down in it. The paths we took we pretty wet and the rocks were slippery so we had to be careful not to trip and fall. I was very careful watching where i was going so i wouldnt fall. No one did fall which was good. The cave was cool even though it was pretty small and damp and i had water dripping on me. I would for sure go back and hike it again and take more time to look at everything because we had to make sure we were good on time so we couldnt take much time looking at things.

Pinning Moths

One day in class we got to pin moths. It was very interesting because i didn't realize how much time it took to pin them. I thought it was just gonna be easy and all you had to do was stick a pin through the middle and you are done. That was not the case. You have to stab it with a pin, then put it on a board. You have to make sure you have to make sure you have the right size board for the body to fit in or it wont work. Also if it is too dry you can risk break the wings off when you have to spread them apart which i didn't know you would have to do that either. You have to find one that is a good mix between dry of soft because it makes it helpful when it comes to spreading out the wings. The first one i didnt mess up too bad but i didnt kind break one of the wings a little but after that i made sure to be a lot more careful and all the rest went pretty well.

Final Thoughts

en.wikipedia.org

My thoughts on insects has changed a bit. I would say i'm not as scared of them once i got to learn more about them but i'm still always gonna be scared when i have a wasp or fire ant near me. This class brought to light to me how insects help us and how many people eat insects in their culture. Insects aren't as scary as everyone makes them out to be and they don't try to hurt you. If you don't bother them they wont bother you. Its cool how someones perspective can change once they figure out more about things. Especially when is comes to insects.

Entomophagy

www.globalenvision.org

Whenever I think of people eating insects I always think of Fear Factor or different countries. Fear Factor always freaked me out because I couldn't imagine having to eat bugs and some of the people on their don't mind it. I remember one episode where the contestants had to bowl and all the pins they didn't knock over that's the amount of cockroaches they had to eat. Some people struggled a lot because they were still alive and some didn't seem to have a problem with it.  It was freaky to find out that 100 grams of chocolate can contain 60 insect fragments in it. Different parts of the world sell insects regularly. In South America movie theaters sell roasted ants as a snack instead of popcorn. I would guess though I would maybe try and insect depending on what it was and where I was especially if I was in a different country and it was kinda of a custom for them to eat certain things. I would be kinda scared though to try them just because it is something different and I'm not used to.

yesboleh.blogspot.com