Connected on 2011-02-28 10:00:00
from Montgomery, Texas, United States
- 2:33 pm
- Bugscope TeamTest
- 8:53 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- Bugscope Teamchanged backlash correction again; see if it helps or causes problems
- 8:58 am
- Bugscope Teamjust a few more minutes and we will start setup
- Bugscope Teamvacuum is very close
- 9:04 am
- 9:10 am
- 9:16 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning! Welcome back to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamwe are making the presets for your session today
- TeacherGood Moring! Just wanted to make sure we are on the same time zone starting at 10am correct?
- Bugscope Teamyes it is like 9:18 here.
- Bugscope Teamthat's correct
- TeacherThank you again for this wonderful opportunity. The kids love it!
- Bugscope Teamhey this is fun for us too!
- 9:21 am
- 9:27 am
- 9:32 am
- 9:39 am
- Bugscope TeamMs Reyes we may have an interruption of our ability to chat from about 10:15 to 10:30. There will be a tour coming throuh that we will have to help with, a bit
- Bugscope Teamtime like this where i wish i had an ipad
- TeacherThanks for letting me know. My class will be here at 10:05am till 11:55am. We have lunch from 11:55am-12:25pm. We will be doing Bug Scope from 10am-1pm correct?
- 9:45 am
- Bugscope Teami thought it was until 12 looking at the calendar, but maybe im wrong
- Bugscope Teamwe had it scheduled for 10 to 12, but I think we can run 'til 1.
- Bugscope Teamprivate chat does not work on IE8...
- Bugscope Teamthere's no firefox on that computer?
- Bugscope Teambut it would be cool if we had an iPad for things like this
- Bugscope Teamof course I wouldn't think of that. I'll go check in a minute.
- TeacherThanks :)
- 10:00 am
- Bugscope Teambbl
- Bugscope TeamAlex you can log in as your ownself, if you'd like
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the presets we made for Ms Reyes' classes
- Bugscope TeamI want to get a standup desk.
- Bugscope Teampresets look great
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of those Cephalodes ants with the flat top head
- Bugscope TeamCate made the stub and the presets
- Bugscope Teamcate, you here?
- 10:06 am
- TeacherHello! We are ready!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamthis is an ant head
- Bugscope Teamcheck out the cool compound eyes on either side of the head
- Bugscope Teamthis is a parasitic wasp, now -- sorry Alex I just changed it
- Bugscope Teamwasps, ants, and bees all belong to Hymenoptera -- they are closely related
- Bugscope TeamNew Caney you can choose from any of the presets on the screen to the left -- just click on one that you'd like when you feel like it
- TeacherWhy do their eyes look like stereo speakers?
Bugscope Teamwell, the compound eye is made up of hundreds of individual facets called ommtidia, each one has a lens in it
- Bugscope Teamthose are some cool looking stereo speaker eyes
- 10:11 am
- Bugscope Teamthey need to be streamlined to fit the shape of the head
- TeacherHow much does your SEM microscope cost?
Bugscope TeamI believe it was $750,000 back in 1998
- Bugscope Teamand they curve around the head so that the wasp has the best peripheral vision it can -- so it can see all around its head
- TeacherHow much would one cost today?
Bugscope Teamit might possiblye cheaper, but likely it would be close to the same
- Bugscope Teamoops that should've said possibly be cheaper
- Bugscope Teamthere are hundreds and thousands of species of tiny parasitic wasps like this -- one for every kind of caterpillar and larva, practically
- TeacherHow did you make the slides?
Bugscope Teamthese are not slides, they are live images from an electron micropscope, and you are controlling that scope live over the internet. when you change the magnification, or move the image, the scope actually makes that change live in real time.
- Bugscope Teamthe other day we had a parasitic wasp in the 'scope with a specialty of attacking cockroaches and laying its eggs in them
- TeacherAwesome!
- Bugscope Teamyes as Alex says you are driving an expensive piece of equipment from your school
- 10:17 am
- Bugscope Teamwhat Cate did to make today's sample was to stick all of the specimens down on doublestick carbon tape, on a 1.75-in.-diameter stub, and then she coated them with gold-palladium
- TeacherHow long does it take you to make the images?
Bugscope Teamwe aren't making the images, the bugs are on a sample inside the scope, and you are controlling the scope to see different parts of the sample. there is no manipulation of images on our part, you are seeing exactly what a researcher would see if they were using the scope
- TeacherHow come a wasp doesn't die after it stings you?
Bugscope Teamit does not have large barbs on its stinger that keep it stuck in your skin, like a bee does
- Bugscope Teamthe samples you are looking at are in a vacuum chamber, and we are beaming electrons at them to get the images we see
- Bugscope TeamI just clicked on one of the little ants...
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the katydids you sent
- TeacherWe got this sample from the Museum of Natural Science in Houston,TX
- TeacherWhere do these bugs come from?
- TeacherWhy are these bugs pink?
Bugscope Teamthe bugs are pink on your computer? on ours they are black and white, should be black and white
- 10:22 am
- TeacherThe images are black and white we were going by the name
- Bugscope Teamthe images are black and white, that's because this microscope doesn't use color to gather the image, and since color is a function of light, and we aren't using light, there is no color
- Bugscope Teamthis microscope uses electrons to gather the image, it shoots electrons at the bugs, and those electrons cause other electrons to bounce off the bugs, and those bouncing electrons are collected inside the scope, and the intensity of those electrons are used to gather an image
- Bugscope Teamthis one for some reason had a transparent head, and inside you could see that it was pink
- TeacherHow many legs do they have?
Bugscope Teamwell, all insects have 6 legs. so if you see a bug that has more than 6 legs, then it is not an insect
- TeacherCool fact!
- TeacherDo we know what has the most legs?
Bugscope Teamhmm, good question, i don't know, checking google now...
- Bugscope Teamticks, for example, go through a stage -- a juvenile stage -- in which they have 6 legs. when they become adults they get 8 legs
- Bugscope Teamthere is a millipede that is said to have 177 pairs of legs
- Bugscope TeamIllacme plenipes, a milipede found in the state of California only, has 750 legs!!!!
- Bugscope Teamwe have not seen one, though
- Bugscope Team*got the milipede answer from answers.com
- Bugscope Teamwow
- Bugscope Teamha so I was only halfway to the answer
- 10:28 am
- TeacherHow big are the eyes on this bug?
Bugscope Teamif you move to the eye you can measure it against the micron bar
- Bugscope Teamthis was the smaller of the two katydids you sent
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see that it is about 2 mm long!
- Bugscope Teamjust the one compound eye...
- TeacherIs this bug deadly?
Bugscope TeamI think it is deadly only to plants
- TeacherIf it bites you can it die?
Bugscope Teamit might be painful, but these insects do not carry venom
- TeacherSometimes when you step on a bug what is the green stuff you see?
Bugscope Teamthat is insect blood, called hemolymph, and it is usually clear, but it gets mixed with what is in the gut, for example
- Bugscope Teaminsects have an open circulatory system -- they do not have veins and arteries inside them like we do
- TeacherWhere can you find these bugs?
Bugscope Teamkatydid's can often be found on leaves in most climates in North America and similar climats in the world. They feed on plate matter so that's why you'll see them haning out and chowing down on leaves
- 10:35 am
- TeacherAbout how big do they get?
Bugscope Teamwell, they vary in side, but they don't get huge, because they need to be able to hang out on leaves, and so if they are too big they would fall off and not be able to feed well
- TeacherCan they fly?
Bugscope Teamwell, i'm not sure, but i don't see any reference to them flying. they are closely related to grasshopper, so i think they do more jumping rather than flying. but i'm not sure.
- TeacherHow much does the gold palladium cost to make these images?
Bugscope Teamit is very expensive, the machine that creates the vacuum needed to coat the sample, the actual gases used, it can be very expensive
- Teachercan we see an ant please?
Bugscope Teamsure, i just cliked on the mail ant. also, you have control of the scope, so you are welcome to click on any preset at any time
- 10:41 am
- Teachercan the queen ant walk?
Bugscope Teamyes, the queen ant can walk, but i think a lot of the time she is sitting still inside the hive, yelling orders to all the worker males, who pretty much have to do everything she says or else risk getting in big trouble. it's a nice life for the queen!
- Bugscope Teami'm sorry, my chat cleared out, can you please ask your question again?
- Bugscope Teami'm not seeing any chat at all...
- Teachertesting?
- TeacherHow big does the queen ant get and why does it hurt when ants bite us?
Bugscope Teamthe queen ant, depending on the species, may get to a couple of inches long
- 10:46 am
- Bugscope Teamkatydids can fly, as adults, if they wish
- Bugscope Teamand the price of the gold-pallasium we use, because it is such an ultrathin coat, is less than $20, but the sources themselves are expensive
- Bugscope Teami'm back, had a problem with chat for a sec, but it's working again
- TeacherWhy does it hurt when ants bite us?
Bugscope Teamsome of them spray you with formic acid, which stings
- Bugscope Teamoops I spelled palladium wrong, back there...
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a wasp
- Bugscope TeamI have the same thing, Alex, not seeing the chat...
- Bugscope TeamI will log out and come use another confuser
- TeacherWhy are wasps hairy?
Bugscope TeamGREAT question. those hairs are used to sense their environment. since bugs have an exoskeleton which cannot feel anything, they have these hairs (called setae) which stick through the exoskeleton to nerves underneath, and that's how the feel things.
- 10:52 am
- Bugscope Teamoh no!]
- Bugscope Teamnot sure if chat is working
- Bugscope Teamwe are sorry - - we cannot see chat now!
- TeacherWhy do wasps sting people?
Bugscope Teamprimarily out of defense when they are threatened
- TeacherIs it true that wasps and bees can still sting when they are dead?
- Bugscope Teamyes the wasps do not want you to bother them
- Bugscope Teambut sometimes wasps sting insects to paralyze them and then lay eggs inside their bodies
- TeacherIs it true that wasps are attracted to the color red?
Bugscope Teamactually wasps are said not to be able to see the color red
- Bugscope Teambut that does not mean they won't attack something that is red -- they may see it as gray, for example
- Bugscope Teamthere are so many species of wasps that it is likely some of them can see red, as well
- TeacherScot you make it sound so interesting
- 10:57 am
- Bugscope Teamwasps and bees are said to be more attracted to the colors white and yellow, so it may be that something red is an outlier, does not belong, and they attack it
- Bugscope Teamcool, a palp!
- Bugscope Teamthe reason they are attracted to white and yellow is because those are the colors, often, of flowers
- Bugscope Teamthis is a ladybug palp, one of the accessory mouthparts
- TeacherWhat is a palyp?
- GuestHello?
- Bugscope Teamhi chas!
- Teacherlookd like teeth! Hello CHAS!
- Bugscope Teamthere are usually two sets of palps, which insects use to taste (those little things we see are much like tastebuds) and to manipulate their food into their mouths
- Bugscope TeamChas it is working now, again. Alex sort of primed it by using IE6.
- Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down you can see where you are on the face of the ladybug
- Bugscope Teaminsects have an exoskeleton, so they actually have a kind of shell, like if you were wearing armor
- TeacherAre those holes in its skin! Looks creepy
Bugscope Teamwell, this is the center of the palp, but remember, bugs don't have skin, they have an exoskeleton, and all the feeling they do is with those hairs. this palp is used to taste food, to make sure it is edible and what not
- Bugscope Teamtheir skeleton is on the outside, and there are no bones on the inside like we have
- TeacherIt is true that every dot on the lady bug is its age?
Bugscope Teamnot really -- dots are just dots and do not show the age of the ladybug
- Bugscope Teamif you go down still further you will get an idea of how magnified this really is
- 11:02 am
- Bugscope Teamso Yes like Alex said -- insects and similar arthropods have setae that are attached to nerves on the inside of the exoskeleton that help them sense their surroundings
- TeacherWhat colors do lady bugs come in and are they good luck?
Bugscope Teamusually just reds and some yellows. I think they are good luck if you have aphids eating your plants, because ladybugs love to eat aphids!
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see that we are looking at part of the head of ladybug -- its jaws are to the upper left
- TeacherWhat is an aphid?
Bugscope Teaman aphid is a tiny soft-bodied insect that infests plants and leaves and sucks juices out of them
- Bugscope Teamants sometimes protect aphids, 'farming' them so the aphids will give them honeydew from their cornicles
- Bugscope Teamthe cornicles are things that look like a dual exhaust on a car, but they are on an aphid
- TeacherWhy are they called fruit flies?
Bugscope Teamwell, they like to feed on decaying fruit, so you'll often see them hanging out on a peach or something like that
- TeacherAre those hairs comming out that we see?
Bugscope Teamyes those are bristles, or hairs, or setae, and they help the fruit fly sense wind speed and direction
- 11:08 am
- TeacherWhy do fruit flies stick to the ceiling?
Bugscope Teamif you look at their claws you can see that they have tiny sticky hairs near their claws that help them stick to the ceiling, where no one can smack them
Bugscope Teamlots of insects have the ability to stick to walls and ceilings, they have special pads on their feet which either have some stickiness on them, or use a small force called the van de walls force which helps them to stick to things
- Bugscope Teamsome of the tiny setae between the ommatidia are broken off
- Bugscope Teamthe individual facets of the compound eye are called ommatidia
- TeacherIs it true that where ever the fruit fly lands it poops or throws up?
Bugscope Teamheh, well, yes, but remember the little dudes are just trying to live their lives, they don't know that they are pooping on our food, they have a tough life and are just trying to live it they best way they know how
- TeacherNice way of putting it!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a mean-looking centipede
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we can see large pores on the fangs
- Teacherfor sure!
- Bugscope Teamwhen flies with sponging mouthparts eat (not all flies have those kinds of mouthparts), they spit digestive juices on their food, and their food dissolves and then they can sponge it up
Bugscope Teamyum scott, you are making me hungry for lunch!
- Teacherlooks like it has buck teeth on the bottom
Bugscope Teama buckapede
- TeacherWhy does it look like a crab?
Bugscope Teamthey look like crabs in a way but in this case they are not related to them. rolypolies, however, are crustaceans like crabs
- TeacherWhy do centipeds have a bunch of legs?
Bugscope Teamif you had a really long body and wanted to get around swiftly like that, it would be perfect!
- 11:13 am
- Bugscope Teamhaving a number of legs on their body segments also allows them to crawl into holes and still be mobile, whereas if they had only six legs and a long body they might get stuck
- Teacheron average about how many legs do they have?
Bugscope Teamwell, it varries from under 20 to over 300. an interesting note is that centipedes almost never have an even number pairs of legs, always odd...
- TeacherWhat do they eat?
Bugscope Teamthey eat insects, and when they get really big they can also eat mice and frogs, etc.
- Bugscope Teamthey paralyze their food with venom from their fangs, which we see here, and they use their other mouthparts to chew them up and and eat them
- TeacherHow long do they live?
Bugscope Teamthey can live a long time compared to other bugs, 5-6 years sometimes...
Bugscope Teamalthough part of that life time is spent in the egg stage, so that is a little misleading
- Teacherif a leg breaks off does it regenerate?
Bugscope Teamif they undergo a molting process, as many similar arthropods do, they can recover their legs after molting
- TeacherAre they poisonous?
Bugscope Teamyes they are, although little ones like this do not often bother people
- Bugscope Teamwhen they bite and inject venom it can be very painful, and for a couple of days
- Bugscope Teambut they do not kill people, from what I have read
- 11:20 am
- Bugscope Teamhow do you tell millipedes from centipedes? -- millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment, and centipedes have one pair
- TeacherNew Class they wanted to know about pink bug why is it pink?
Bugscope Teamwe think that it is pink because ate something that reflects reddish pink light
- Bugscope Teamin the Tropics, where they can get pretty big, you would rather not have one bite you
Bugscope Teami was just looking at a picture of a centipede that is as long as an entire forearm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Centipede,_Trinidad.jpg
Bugscope Teamthis link should work: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede
Bugscope Teamen.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Centipede,_Trinidad.jpg
- Bugscope Teamthe katydid's head was transparent! and we could see the pink through the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the centipede's antennae, too -- they are kind of flattened
- Bugscope Teamantennae often collect lots of smell or scent information
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the snout of the rhinoceros beetle you sent
- TeacherWhat is the bumpy stuff all over it?
Bugscope Teami think a lot of those bumps are just dirt and stuff, we call that juju
- 11:25 am
- Bugscope TeamI named this one wrong, I am sorry. It looks much like a rhinoceros beetle, but it is a weevil.
- TeacherWhy are they called a Rhinoceros Beetle?
Bugscope Teamwell, they are very big compared to other beetles, kind of like rhino's are big
- Bugscope Teamweevils are also called snout beetles because they have a long proboscis, which is what the mouthpart is called
- TeacherIt is true weevils are attracted to oatmeal?
- TeacherWhy is it called a weevil?
- Bugscope Teamthey are called weevils, apparently, because long ago it meant 'small beetle.'
- TeacherJUJU is a funny name
- Bugscope Teammy chat is gone again
- 11:31 am
- Bugscope Teamso it looked like a rhinoceros beetle, because it had a long protruding snout like a rhinoceros, but it is actually a large weevil with a long protruding snout
- Bugscope Teamsorry, i still can't see chat, not sure if this is working
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see its eyes on either side of its head -- the snout continues to the north
- Bugscope Team nothing nothing
- Bugscope Teamthis is so sad - we cannot see chat!
- Bugscope Teamwe are sorry
- Bugscope Teamwe type things and then they disappear
- Bugscope Teambizarre
- Bugscope Teamthis is a male spider
- TeacherCan you see this?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see two of its eyes, to the top
- Bugscope Teamand you can see its palps
- TeacherHow can you tell a male from a female spider?
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamwe are unable to see any chat at all, and are trying to fix the problem... sorry!
- 11:36 am
- Bugscope Teamummmm
- Bugscope Teamwe cannot see chat at all; we are sorry
- Bugscope Teami logged out and back in and now i can see chat again
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamstill not working for me
- Bugscope Teamso sad
- Bugscope Teami just refreshed, and it's still working, yay!
- Bugscope Teamyeah it is working now
- Bugscope Teamwe can see now! yay!
- TeacherCan you see our questions now?
Bugscope Teamyes, we are back!
- Bugscope Teamyayyyy!
- Bugscope Teamheh
- TeacherTesting Can you see this?
Bugscope Teamyes we can!
Bugscope Teamyes, please ask questions away we are back
- 11:41 am
- TeacherIs it true that a spiders fangs are bigger than a snake's fangs?
Bugscope Teamin some cases a spider's fangs could be larger than a snake's fangs
- TeacherHow can you tell a male from a female spider?
Bugscope Teammales often have large palps -- the round things we see in the center of the screen -- and those of a female are smaller and thinner
- Bugscope Teambut sometimes the female is far larger than the male -- they are quite different in size
- Bugscope Teamthe males have to be careful because if the female is hungry or just feeling mean she might eat the male
- Bugscope Teamactually a tarantula can be a foot in diameter too
- TeacherHow big can they get?
Bugscope Teamthere are many different kinds of spiders, but some can get easily as large as your hand
Bugscope Teamthe camel spider is the biggest and grows to be about 1 foot long and has 1 inch fangs
Bugscope TeamI'm sorry I meant the goliath birdeater tarantula for those sizes
- 11:46 am
- TeacherAre cockroaches attracted to light?
Bugscope Teamthey usually hide from light
- TeacherWhy are cockroaches so big?
Bugscope Teamcockroaches are just generally large, and it is probably in part because they can eat anything and adapt to almost any warm environment
- Bugscope TeamInsects can grow bigger when the air around them is oxygen rich. This is why prehistoric insects were huge. .
- TeacherIs it true that a cockroach can survive without its head?
Bugscope Teamthey cannot survive very long without a head; obviously, for example, they cannot eat without a head
- TeacherHow do they fit in little spaces?
Bugscope Teamthey like to hide from light. so they'll try to fit into dark corners and such
- TeacherHow come some can fly?
Bugscope Teamwhen they become adults they get wings; then they do not grow anymore
- Bugscope Teamthere's some really interesting group behavior in cockroaches, from wikipedia: In a study where 50 cockroaches were placed in a dish with three shelters with a capacity for 40 insects in each, the insects arranged themselves in two shelters with 25 insects in each, leaving the third shelter empty. When the capacity of the shelters was increased to more than 50 insects per shelter, all of the cockroaches arranged themselves in one shelter.
- Bugscope TeamIt turns out cockroaches don't follow that same oxygen rich growth concept though. They are just as big now as they were then.
- Bugscope Teamthey can also compress their bodies to fit in small spaces
- Bugscope Teammany adult insects have wings, they just don't always use them
- Bugscope Teamsome cockroaches can survive with no food or water for more than a month, they are very hearty organisms...
- 11:53 am
- TeacherWe will break for lunch from 11:55am-12:25pm. See you back at 12:25pm-1:00pm
- TeacherThank you all so very much
- Bugscope Teamokay see you later
- TeacherDo cockroaches carry diseases?
Bugscope Teamthey can carry bacteria. Often the bacteria they carry come from the spoiled/rotten food they eat. They then can transmit the diseases like salmonella or e.coli to utensils
- Bugscope Teambut cockroaches aren't like mosquitos that carry the big nasty diseases
- 12:02 pm
- 12:23 pm
- 12:33 pm
- TeacherHello we are back!
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope Teammales feed on nectar if they eat at all
- TeacherDo the males don't really eat?
- TeacherWhy do mosquitos eat human blood?
Bugscope Teamthe females only drink the blood and they use it to give them the energy needed to lay their eggs
Bugscope Teamthe female mosquitoes, when their eggs have been fertilized, are ravenous for blood because, as Cate says, blood gives them the energy they need in order to successfully lay their eggs
- Bugscope Teamcarbon dioxide is attractive to them
- TeacherWhat do the female mosquitos eat besides blood
Bugscope TeamI don't think they eat anything else. Their mouthparts are adapted for sucking blood.
- 12:38 pm
- TeacherIs it true they like certain types of blood more than others?
Bugscope Teamthey like the smell of some people more than others, apparently, but I am not sure how they decide
Bugscope Teamscientists are working on what exactly makes people more susceptible to mosquitoes then others, but they find that genetics do account for it. Something about enzymes found on the skin
- TeacherNow on to Cockroaches
- Bugscope Teamsome people just smell more tasty to mosquitoes
- TeacherWe sent a hissing cockroach did you get it?
- Bugscope Teamyes it was very large, but I put the head on
- TeacherCan cockroaches bite?
- TeacherThe hissing cockroach was from Madagascar why does it hiss?
Bugscope Teamthis is what it says on Wikipedia: This hiss takes three forms: the disturbance hiss, the female-attracting hiss, and the fighting hiss.
- 12:44 pm
- Bugscope Teamhissing cockroaches can make the disturbance hiss fairly early in their lives, and only the males make the fighting hiss, when they are fighting each other for females
- Bugscope Teamhissing cockroaches do not have wings, even as adults
- TeacherAre bedbugs a type of cockroach?
Bugscope Teambedbugs are a species of true bugs (Hemiptera), which have piercing/sucking mouthparts; they are not related to cockroaches
- 12:49 pm
- TeacherHow much is in a case? That is a lot!
- TeacherHow many eggs can cockroach lay and why are there always so many of them"
Bugscope TeamFor the american cockroach, each egg case has around 14 eggs in them and the females can produce a case in about a week. So during the warm months they can lay between 12-24 cases.
Bugscope Teamthere's so many because they are good hiders, they hide in the crevices of our homes, and prefer basements and crawl spaces
- TeacherGoing on to the WASP
- Bugscope Teamwe are looking at chemo- and mechanoreceptors on the antenna of a wasp now; the thing to the right is called a placoid sensilla
- Bugscope Teammany insects do a majority of their communication via chemical smells
- TeacherWhy do wasps sting after death?
Bugscope TeamIf they do it may be an automatic response. Insects have a lot of preprogrammed responses to things. For example, if you touch the sensory hairs on the tip of the abdomen of a roach, it will start running without thinking about it.
- TeacherCan a wasp sting kill a person?
Bugscope Teamyes, people can be allergic to the sting, and in the case of the wasp, they can sting multiple times. The thing about bee stings versus wasps stings is, when a bee stings they pump all the venom into one sting usually. The wasps can sting multiple times, but they are pumping out smaller doses than the bee each time.
- 12:55 pm
- TeacherHow many wasps are in a nest typically?
Bugscope Teamin a social wasp species -- not all of them are social -- there can be from a few hundred to a few thousand wasps in a typical nest
- Bugscope Teamoh and fire ant stings have to be looked out for as well
- TeacherHow many times can they sting before they die?
Bugscope TeamThe average person can safely tolerate 10 stings for each pound of body weight. This means that the average adult could withstand more than 1,000 stings, whereas 500 stings could kill a child. I'm not sure how many it would take for a person who is allergic, probably not many at all
- Bugscope TeamAs Cate said, they pump smaller doses of venom when they sting multiple times, but they likely regenerate the venom after eating. wasps do not die from stinging unless they get smacked
- TeacherHow long does a wasp typically live for?
Bugscope Teamthe queen can live for around a year. The other wasps live for up to a month
- 1:00 pm
- Teachercan they paralze you?
Bugscope TeamI think generally they cannot paralyze you unless you have an allergic reaction to the sting -- to the venom
- Bugscope Teama scorpion sting can paralyze the region of the sting
- TeacherWhen you first get bit by one you typically cannot feel anything can that feeling last forever?
Bugscope Teamthat would be nice, if you could not feel it, but that has not happened to me
- Bugscope Teamwhen they sting other insects, such as caterpillars, they often do paralyze them
- TeacherHow many eggs does the queen wasp lay in a day?
Bugscope TeamA very good queen honey Bee can produce around 2000 eggs per day, but a queen wasp will not be anywhere near as prolific and will lay nearer to 100 eggs per day.
- TeacherThank you all so very much for your time and fun facts. We appreciate you all and thank you for such a unique opportunity.
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- TeacherWe learned so much and thank you again for a great experience.
- Bugscope TeamWe are sorry about having difficulty with our program earlier today.
- Bugscope TeamSee you next year!
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-001
- Bugscope Teamthat is your member page
- Bugscope TeamGood Bye!