The Magic School Bus set me up for a lifetime of disappointment. In this excellent kids’ book and TV series, students set off on wild field trips in a bus that could transform into a spaceship or a submarine or . . . it could also shrink! In the real world, I can use binoculars […]
Insects
Small Wonders: No Touchy!
I spoke to someone recently who said that the most unpleasant feeling in the world is itchiness. Many of their fellow humans might agree; a 2011 study at the Emory University School of Medicine compared the impacts of chronic pain and chronic pruritus (itchiness) on quality of life, and found that the average itchy patient […]
Small Wonders: Spittlebugs, Aphids, and Leafhoppers
I remember feeling a unique joy anytime I encountered spittlebugs as a kid. These are the teeny insects that leave surprise wet spots on your shins as you walk through tall grass. Sap-suckers like spittlebugs are everywhere, but most are much more inconspicuous. There are tens of thousands of species of insects all over the […]
Visit Our “Monarchs & Maine” Outreach Table at August Festivals
As Maine Audubon ramps up its activities and outreach in both DownEast/Eastern and Western Maine, we look for ways to share content and resources with the communities there. One great mechanism for doing this is by participating in popular summer festivals that occur and draw hundreds of people each year. Given that it is August […]
Maine Audubon Celebrates Passage of Neonicotinoid Pesticide Legislation
Maine Audubon is pleased to announce the passage of LD 1323, Resolve: Directing the Board of Pesticides Control to Evaluate the Impacts of Neonicotinoids on Pollinators, Humans and the Environment in the Maine Legislature. The bill requires the state to further evaluate impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides (“neonics”) on pollinators and people. LD 1323 secured bipartisan […]
Small Wonders: Eastern Carpenter Bees
Small Wonders is a monthly column by Field Naturalist Stacia Brezinski that’s rooted in the notion that everything is incredible if we look closely enough. One of the first things I learned when I started at Maine Audubon last month was that staff will work outside as soon as it’s above forty-five degrees. I might […]
Three Insects Added to Maine Species of Special Concern List – Have You Seen Them?
Maine’s Department of Inland Fish & Wildlife (DIFW) recently completed an update of its Species of Special Concern list, and added three rare and unusual insects known as flower flies. The state maintains a list of Species of Special Concern, which it defines as “any species of fish or wildlife that does not meet the […]
How to help monarchs this season
As we enter peak monarch butterfly season, here is the latest on the status of these majestic and vulnerable insects. Monarch butterflies migrate north in a relay race, with three to four generations successively laying eggs and passing the baton to their offspring. In Maine, you will start to see the final generation in late […]
Weighing in on insect populations
Insects are possibly the most overlooked and undervalued animals on the planet. Without them, our entire ecosystem would not survive. So we were concerned, a few years ago, to hear that insect populations are in decline, possibly even crashing. According to one study, 40 percent of the world’s insect species are in danger of extinction. […]