bugs

Have you ever heard of snow fleas?

I've never gone a summer without some sort of flying insect annoying me in my house. This time, I'm prepared.

The insects are reportedly being spotted in Montana. Common in Central America and the US South, they've been slowly moving north and can harbor a dangerous disease.

Ah, my Montana friends. Do I have a story for you, and you're NOT going to like it. It has everything to do with people moving to Montana from California, Texas, and Florida. But it's not the people who are the problem - it's what they're bringing with them to Montana.

The shrill mating call of the cicada is impossible to miss along the Yellowstone River. The loudest bug in the world is harmless to humans and pets; only the male creates the ear-piercing sound.

They took a little longer to get here this year, but now they're out in full force. Here are some ways to curb the mosquito problems at your house.

The hordes of black and red bugs are harmless. They're just trying to get into your house before winter. Here's a non-toxic solution.

Continuing our unofficial "Stop Being Afraid of Insects" series, here are 16 pictures of ladybugs. Granted, most people aren't afraid of ladybugs, but they've probably never seen that video of a ladybug taking off in super-slow motion. Or had a house infested with them. They can be pretty disturbing when they're part of a throbbing ladybug mass. But not like this. This is adorable. Read

Listen, don't read this while you're eating. Come back when you've finished though. It's just that reading about parboiling insects might have a negative effect on your appetite. See, the 17-year cicadas have already started to emerge from the ground, and there are going to be billions of them. BILLIONS. So, you may as well eat some, right?

Generally, when we think of beetles we imagine something black and vaguely menacing, slowly crawling towards our foot. GAH! It turns out, not all beetles are that way.

So, I'm walking into work the other day and I saw this on the ground in the parking lot.  It's scared the #@! out of me as I almost stepped right on it.   At first, I thought it was "Gonna Get Me"!

Generally speaking, we think of moths as the unsettling, night-flying creepster cousin of the butterfly. But *look* at this Emperor Gum Moth! It is at least as cute as a candid shot of a dog. At least. So we scrounged up some more pictures of moths cute enough that we probably wouldn't scream if they made their way into our apartment and started flying into the overhead light...