News

If you upset one bee, what determines whether the entire hive decides to avenge her grievance? A $1.2 million grant will support UC Riverside scientists in answering questions like these about how honeybees communicate.

Lice have been found feeding on the skin and blood of free-range chickens, which are infected at much higher rates than caged flocks.

Native plants and non-native crops do not fare well in proximity to one another, attracting pests that spread diseases in both directions, according to two new UC Riverside studies.

UC Riverside scientists have discovered a highly effective, nontoxic, and less expensive way to lure hungry termites to their doom.

Researchers at UC Riverside discovered how supergenes control the origin and duplication of petite ant queens.

For those curious about insects – their behavior, love lives, the threat or lack thereof they pose to humans – there is a new podcast from UC Riverside: Can I Bug You?

One of the world’s worst pests is infesting crops all over California. There are seven active quarantines spanning the length of the state, but experts say those affecting San Bernardino and Riverside counties are especially serious.

Bluetongue virus, an incurable cattle and sheep-killing disease, is spread by tiny flies once thought to disappear in winter. New UCR research demonstrates that though they are harder to find when it’s cold, they remain active.

While honeybee workers are all the same size, that’s not true for bumblebees. Scientists aren’t sure what’s behind the wide variety in bumble body sizes, but a new UC Riverside project aims to find out.

By documenting hundreds of new nectar plants for painted ladies, scientists have renewed hope these charismatic butterflies may prove resilient to climate change.

A UC Riverside-led team discovered the exact chemical combination that causes Zika, dengue and yellow fever-spreading mosquitoes to locate and land on their victims.

UC Riverside scientists are on the hunt for a chemical that disrupts “evil” weevils’ mating and could prevent them from destroying California’s supply of avocados.

A bacterial species closely related to deadly citrus greening disease is rapidly evolving its ability to infect insect hosts, and possibly plants as well.

Several species of California bumble bees have gone missing in the first statewide census of the fuzzy pollinators in 40 years. If they can be found, a recent court ruling could help save them.

A UC Riverside genetic discovery could turn disease-carrying mosquitoes into insect Peter Pans, preventing them from ever maturing or multiplying.

Typically, bees don’t eat meat. However, a species of stingless 'vulture' bee in the tropics has evolved the ability to do so, presumably due to intense competition for nectar. UC Riverside scientists find these bees' guts resemble those of hyenas and other carrion feeders.

Bumblebees pollinate many of our favorite foods, but their own diet is being upset by climate change, according to a new UC Riverside study.

In less time than it takes to read this sentence, hummingbirds can catch a whiff of potential trouble. That’s the result of new UC Riverside research showing, contrary to popular belief, the tiny birds do have an active sense of smell.

A new UC Riverside study shows that a type of insecticide made for commercial plant nurseries is harmful to a typical bee even when applied well below the label rate.

Doug Yanega, senior scientist at UC Riverside’s Entomology Research Museum, discusses one of nature's unsolved mysteries: the 17-year life cycle of cicadas in the Eastern U.S.