GGA Blog

Chagas Disease Is Being Compared To HIV West Nile virus, Zika and lyme disease are certainly not the only insect-borne diseases that are commonly spread throughout the United States. Chagas disease, which is not as well known as the above three diseases, but still just as common, comes with symptoms that experts say are similar to the symptoms associated with the early stages of HIV. Chagas disease is a parasitic disease, and much like HIV, it is possible for victims to contract the disease and not show any symptoms for a long while afterwards. The disease is hard to detect like HIV

Winston Churchill Tried To Resurrect An Extinct Butterfly Species We have all heard of the legendary British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He presided over a nation while it was immersed in the most unimaginable horrors of war. However, Churchill was a peculiar man, as he was not always immersed in the business of international politics; instead Churchill was concerned with butterflies

Velvet Worms Kill Their Insect Prey In An Interesting Way There are many creatures within the animal kingdom that kill their prey in brutally creative ways. Velvet worms offer up a great example of such a predator. These worms live among leaf litter, underneath stones and logs. Sometimes velvet worms can even be found dwelling within termite nests. Velvet worms may seem uninteresting at first, but once you learn how they capture and kill their insect and arachnid prey, you will understand why these worms are admired for the inventive manner in which they kill their arthropod prey. Once the velvet worm catches its prey it will spew a liquid slime

Are Termites Attracted To Wooden Garden Mulch? Nobody wants to make their home a haven for termites, but many gardeners are attracted to the idea of using decorative wooden mulch in order to spruce up their gardens. Of course, wooden mulch is not used solely for gardens. Mulch can also be used to obscure unsightly concrete that borders the bottoms of many houses. Since garden mulch is nothing more than wood chips, it is understandable that some homeowners avoid laying wood chips so as to keep termites away from their homes. If termites find their way into the mulch located within many backyards, then what is to stop them from infesting the nearest homes? Even shallow piles of mulch provide for moist environments that are well suited to the survival needs of many insects, and not just termites. If you were to stick your hand within a mulch pile, you would undoubtedly encounter some types of insects. Most of these insects are probably not pests. It has long been rumored that garden mulch does attract termites. However, this rumor is largely a myth

Are Horse Flies Dangerous To Humans? Horseflies are insects that belong to the order known as Tabanidae, and the genus referred to as Tabanus.

You May Have Seen Garden Centipedes In Your House Before Centipedes are awful looking creatures. I cannot imagine anybody wanting to hold a centipede. Some people like to handle insects, like grasshoppers and dragonflies. Some people have pet spiders, but centipedes are universally hated. You have certainly encountered a centipede skittering across the floor in your home at some point. Centipedes often move at high speeds, so squashing them can be a challenge, and messy if you succeed. One of the most common types of centipede in America is the garden centipede. These centipedes obviously prefer to hang out in gardens

How Spiders And Insects Cause Vehicle Accidents Have you ever freaked out over the presence of a spider or insect while driving your car? If you have, then hopefully your fear did not result in a crash. It may not be hard to believe that spiders and insects can cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles as the result of a jump scare. However, there are many lesser known causes

Which Occupations Carry The Highest Risks Of Insect And Spider Related Death? Some occupations come with serious health-hazards, or an increased risk of on-the-job death. The obvious examples include miners, pilots and law enforcement officers, and you could think of more examples with no problem. However, which occupations put individuals at the highest risk of being killed by insects? Some of you are probably thinking that there does not exist any occupations that put workers at risk of being killed by insects. We have all heard the experts claim that spiders and insects very rarely kill human beings. This claim may be somewhat true, but spiders and insects do, indeed take the lives of people that are on the job. As it turns out, farmers, construction workers and landscape workers are all occupations that see the most insect and spider related deaths. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, arachnids, mites and various insects contributed

Spiders Hiding in Your Fruit A lot of the fruit we buy at our local grocery stores actually travel a long way to get to us. Sometimes a few stowaways get included in the shipments of fruit we get from places like South America and the United Kingdom. While these hitchhikers might scare the daylights out of us when one happens to come with our bananas or bunch of grapes, experts say that for the most part these little surprises are nothing to get too worried about. Of course, most humans do tend to flip out when they find a spider clinging to their banana