Category: Insects

By: Megan Ray Nichols It’s always fun to have a ladybug land on your arm while outside — but these days, it’s more and more likely that any ladybugs landing on you or the plants in your garden are not native to North America. Over the past three decades, several ladybug species native to North […]

There is a lot to learn from bees. The survival of the hive depends on the combined efforts of the entire colony. In Conetoe (pronounced KUH-nee-tah), North Carolina Reverend Richard Joyner and his family of youth beekeepers are tending to bees and building community, one hive at a time. Reverend Joyner is the force behind […]

Pollinator Week is on its way! Celebrate the bees, bugs, bats, birds, and more that help pollinate our plants. National Pollinator Week is June 19-25. Explore the buzzing science below to find a way to contribute to pollinator science this month.  Find more projects and events on SciStarter, to do now or bookmark for later. […]

By: Ayla Fudala If you’ve ever seen bees flying around at night, there’s a good chance they’re so-called “ZomBees”—honey bees whose brains are under the control of tiny fly larvae growing inside their bodies. Yes, you read that correctly.

Wild animals get sick from parasites, fungi, and other causes just like people and pets do, but they don’t usually have doctors to help them get better. Instead, you can help them with citizen science! Below, we highlight five projects that study wildlife diseases. Find more projects on SciStarter to do now, or bookmark your […]

Going out of your way to attract mosquitoes seems like the last thing anyone would want to do, but that is exactly what the national Invasive Mosquito Project is hoping volunteers will do in the name of public health. Managed through the United States Department of Agriculture, the Invasive Mosquito Project aims to track the spread of […]

by Nohra Murad It’s that exciting time of year again: it’s National Moth Week! But not just any National Moth Week. NMW 2016 marks the fifth year that the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission has run National Moth Week (NMW), a time for citizen scientists to go out moth-ing in their community. This […]

Photo: CL Goforth Critter Tracking With spring weather upon us, many animals are on the move. Contribute your wildlife observations to advance scientific research. Learn how, below. Find projects from our pals in Ireland, Canada, the EU, and now, Australia through our brand new international partnership. Like citizen science, SciStarter is global. You can find more […]

It’s time for ghouls and goblins, candy and costumes, AND citizen science! Here are six creep crawly projects to spice up your Halloween festivities. Find 1,000 more! Happy Halloween, The SciStarter Team   Photo: NASA Send Us Your Skeletons This project needs skeletons, but don’t worry- they don’t want human ones! The Department of Fisheries […]

“I’m an aquatic entomologist, and dragonflies and damselflies are the most colorful and noticeable insects in the habitats in which I work,” says Dr. Celeste A. Searles Mazzacano, a staff scientist and Aquatic Conservation Director at the Xerces Society. In her role as the project coordinator for the Migratory Dragonfly Partnership, she continues to add […]