Comments on: The Curious World of Bugs https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/ Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:32:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Elaine https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524094 Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:32:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524094 A fnried of mine A fnried of mine had tonic water in a bowl for her 12th birthday years ago. It was neon themed. We put it in a bowl, and painted a little model boat with black light paint. It was awesome.

]]> By: daedalus2u https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524093 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:23:11 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524093 I have a hypothesis that the origins of the custom of sacrificing the first born offspring in nomadic herding agriculturists (i.e. as described in Genesis) might be to reduce fly transmitted parasites too, living flesh eating maggots.

Animals like sheep and goats give birth pretty much all at once. Taking the first born, cutting it up, letting it sit for a while before burning it would cause it to attract the local screw worm females, they would deposit their eggs which would then be killed by being burned, depleting the population for a time while the other females in the flock gave birth.

This also has the effect of removing early birthing genes from the gene pool of the flock.

]]> By: Ian (UK) https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524092 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:24:08 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524092 to clarify: i’d never thought there was a formal scientific meaning

]]> By: Ian (UK) https://gregladen.com/blog/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524091 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:17:51 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/10/01/the-curious-world-of-bugs/#comment-524091 Excellent, fun intro, Greg. By the way, I (non-scientist) had always assumed that the term “bug” was simly an informal (usually North American) term for any sort of creepy-crawly.

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