Insects technology class

Come with me to explore the world of insects . . .

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There are bugs in your carpet and bugs in your hair. There are millions and billions of bugs everywhere. They will eat up your trees, They will dig up your lawn. You can squash all you can, but they'll never be gone. They will dive in your food. They will hide in your bed. You will never get rid of your bugs. So instead-- Ask them kindly not to bite. Do not wash them from your hair. Let them know you'll treat them right. Learn to love them. Show you care. You might as well-- They're everywhere.

BUGSBy Rick Walton

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Fun Facts

Venus Flytrap in action

POEM

FLIES The compound eyes of flies are large and are composed of thousands of individual lenses, up to 4000 in the case of the house fly.

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POEM

Fun Facts

POEM

Fun Facts

On to bees and wasps

Why are lightning bugs disappearing?

House Flies are hard to swat because they react to movement five times faster than humans do. Sensitive hairs on their bodies send data directly to the wings, so these flies can take off the instant motion is detected. In humans, the sensory data must usually first be processed by the brain.

Flies do not have teeth or a stinger. Their mouths

absorb food like a sponge. They can only eat liquids

but they can turn many solid foods into a liquid through

spitting or vomiting on it. Their tongues are shaped

like straws so they can suck up their food.

Female House Flies live for about 26 days;

males, about 15 days.

House flies taste with their feet, which are 10 million times more sensitive to sugar than the human tongue!

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FUN FACTS Housefly

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Fly

A fly flies by, quicker than the eye!

On two thin wings, it darts up high.

Those tiny wings can really fly!Beating 200 times a second - oh,

my!The fly goes Buzz as it flaps in

the air.The Buzz you hear are the wings

going by!So if a fly ever catches your eye

Don't ask why it buzzes - you now know why!

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When attacked, fireflies shed drops of blood in a process known as “reflex bleeding.” The blood contains chemicals that taste bitter and can be poisonous to some animals. Because of this, many animals learn to avoid eating fireflies

Firefly lights are the most efficient lights in the world—100% of the energy is emitted as light. Compare that to an incandescent bulb, which emits 10% of its energy as light and the rest as heat, or a fluorescent bulb, which emits 90% of its energy as light. Because it produces no heat, scientists refer to firefly lights as “cold lights.”

Fireflies have short lifespans

An adult firefly lives only long enough to mate and lay eggs—so they may not need to eat during their adult life stage.

Fireflies emit light mostly to attract mates, although they also communicate for other reasons as well, such as to defend territory and warn predators away.

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FUN FACTSFirefly

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Fireflies

I like to chase the fireflies,Chase them to and fro'I like to watch them dart about,Their little lamps aglow.

In the evening's twilight dimI follow them about,I often think I have one caught,And then his light goes out.

I cannot tell just where he isUntil he winks, you see,Then far away I see his light,He's played a joke on me. Grace Wilson Coplen

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It’s the saliva (spit) that thins a

person’s blood so the female

mosquito can drink it. In fact, it's the mosquito's saliva that makes the

bites itch

In one large group of mosquitoes, the mouthparts of the female are long, adapted for piercing and for sucking

blood. The male, which feeds on nectar and water, has very

simple mouthparts.

If you think you've been bitten by a mosquito,

wash the bite with soap and water. Put on some calamine lotion to help stop the itching, or an adult can find an anti-

itch cream at the drugstore for you.

Placing an ice pack on the bite may also help.

Female mosquitoes lay their eggs only in

water.

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FUN FACTSMosquito

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MosquitoesDeep in the woods at RiversideMosquitoes there are big and wideThey buzz around your ears and

headYou slap your self, til face is redAnd though you fight like in a warYou will not win and rarely score.

You run , you scream, you’re really mad

They fly they buzz they’re really glad.

Just as you finally reach the doorThey slide right in  and bite you

more.

You search , you try to hunt them down

And what do you know, there’s one you’ve found

Yeh, there he is on that white wall You smash him dead, Oh! What a

sight  I get to scrub the walls tonight

Darn mosquitoes

Back to mosquito

BEES AND WASPSWasps help farmers by eating pests that can destroy crops.

Amazzzzzzzing facts about honeybees

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Amazzzzzzzing facts about wasps

Will Global Warming Help the Honeybee Dance?

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On to grasshoppers

Honeybees are the only insects

that produce food for humans.

Honeybees are the only insects

that produce food for humans. Bees fly an average of 13-15

mph.Bees fly an average of 13-15

mph.

Amazzzzzing Facts About Honeybees

Just a single hive contains

approximately 40-45,000 bees!

Bees do not create honey; they are actually improving upon a plant product, nectar. The

honey we eat is nectar that bees have repeatedly regurgitated and dehydrated.

While foraging for nectar and pollen, bees inadvertently transfer pollen from the

male to the female components of flowers. Each year, bees pollinate 95

crops worth an estimated $10 billion in the U.S. alone. All told, insect pollinators contribute to one-third of the world's diet.

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The Bee Andrew

Downing  The music of the busy beeIs drowsy, and it comforts me;But, ah! 'tis quite another thing,When that same bee concludes to sting! Back to Bees

and WaspsBack to Bees and Wasps

Wasps are believed to

become very aggressive during the months from

August to October. . . . Watch out!!

Wasps are believed to

become very aggressive during the months from

August to October. . . . Watch out!!

An interesting thing about wasps is that when these insects die, they release a smell (called a pheromone). This smell warns other wasps of lurking danger and is an indicator that help is needed.

An interesting thing about wasps is that when these insects die, they release a smell (called a pheromone). This smell warns other wasps of lurking danger and is an indicator that help is needed.

Amazzzzzing Facts About Wasps

The queen wasp is the only

breeding female.Wasps, being omnivorous animals, eat a mixture of plants and other animals.

As many as 10,000 wasps are believed to inhabit one nest.

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Plain Murder

I saw a wasp upon a wall

And did not like his face at all:

And so the creature had no time

To wonder whether he liked mine.

A.G. Prys-Jones

It seems to refer to the squashing of a

wasp before it can sting the author.

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GRASSHOPPERS

A Grasshopper is an amazing insect that can leap 20 times the length of its own body. If you or I could do that, we would be able to jump almost 40 yards!

Fun Facts Poem

On to dragonflies

When a grasshopper is picked up, they "spit" a brown liquid which is known by most kids and adults as "tobacco juice".

The grasshoppers greatest enemies include various kinds of flies that lay their

eggs in or near grasshopper eggs. After the fly eggs hatch, the newborn flies eat

the grasshopper eggs. Some flies will even lay their eggs on the grasshopper's body, even while the grasshopper is flying. The newborn flies then eat the grasshopper.

Another dangerous enemy of the grasshopper is the shoe. The shoe comes

in various shapes and sizes, but all are equally dangerous to the grasshopper.

Grasshoppers can destroy entire crops of alfalfa, clover, cotton, corn and other grains, causing millions of dollars in crop damages every year.

They live in fields, meadows, and just about anywhere they can find generous amounts of leaves to eat.

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FUN FACTSGrasshopper

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PlaceolderThe Grasshopper – by Conrad AikenGrasshoppergrasshopperall day longwe hear your scrapingsummer songlikerustyfiddlesinthegrassas throughthe meadowpathwe passsuch funny legssuch funny feetand how we wonderwhat you eatmaybe a single blink of dewsipped from a clover leaf would dothen high in aironce more you springto fall in grass againand sing.

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Dragonflies Fossil records date the dragonfly back 300 million years.

Fun Facts

Interesting . . . .

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Metamorphosis

Dragonflies do not harm people. They do not bite and they do not sting. Dragonflies have a life span of

anywhere from about six months to several years. Most of the dragonfly life span is spent in the water as a nymph. During this period, which can last up to a couple of years, it sheds its skin many times. Finally it crawls onto land to break out of its skin as a full fledged dragonfly.

The largest dragonfly recorded from fossil records had a wing span of about two and one-half feet.

Dragonflies are known as beneficial insects because they eat so many harmful

insects such as mosquitoes, gnats, ants

termites and even butterflies, spiders and

other dragonflies.

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FUN FACTS Dragonfly

Dragonflies can fly like a helicopter, moving in all directions, forward, backward, up and down. They can also hover.

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The Dragon Fly.

In the bottom of an old pond lived some grubs. They could not understand why none of their group came back after crawling up the stems of the lilies to the top of the water. They promised each other that the next one who was called to make the upward climb would return and tell what happened to her. Soon, one of them felt an urgent impulse to seek the surface. She rested on top of a lily pad and went through a glorious transformation that made her a dragonfly with beautiful wings. In vain she tried to keep her promise - flying back and forth over the pond. She peered down at her loved ones below. Then she realized, even if they could see her they would not recognize such a radiant creature as one of their number.

. . . just a story; but something to think about . . .

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Down here in the pond, I’ve waited for months…years,

Remained a nymph.

At last the season has come for me to

Grow wings, to shed the shell of childhood.

Onward and upward!

Now I’m ready to emerge

From my watery world, to

Look to the future…the blue sky above, to leave all my

Yesterdays behind.

Here is a poem from an unpublished collection, Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics:

by Elaine Magliaro

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Yahoo kids. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kids.yahoo.com/animals/insects

Facts about fireflies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.firefly.org/facts-about-fireflies.html

Azure gardens. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://azuregardens.tripod.com/beefacts.html

Pbs. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/buzz.html

Interesting and amazing facts about wasps. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/facts-about-wasps-7317.html

Everything about. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/flies/mosquito/index.shtml

Kids health. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/kid/ill_injure/bugs/mosquito.html

Rick walton. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/kid/ill_injure/bugs/mosquito.html

Wasp site. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.waspsite.info/poem.php

Pest control. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.allplatinumpestcontrol.com/Grasshopper.html

Shelf elf: read, write, rave. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://shelfelf.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/poetry-the-grasshopper/

Green nature. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://greennature.com/article2583.html

Magliaro, E. (2010, June 4). Dragonfly: an original acrostic [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://wildrosereader.blogspot.com/2010/06/dragonfly-original-acrostic.html

Bibliography

Discovery channel. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/life-venus-flytrap-catches-flies.html

Firefly. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.firefly.org/why-are-fireflies-disappearing.html

You tube dragonfly metamorphosis. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyIF7eX6qmo