Second man in two WEEKS dies in Vermont from rare mosquito-borne disease that causes brain swelling

A second man in Vermont has died from a rare but deadly brain infection transmitted through mosquitoes. Scott Sgorbati, who was only 49, died from Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), after spending weeks in intensive care. Only two weeks prior, 87-year-old Richard Hollis Breen died from the virus, which causes swelling of the brain.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206115/Second-man-WEEKS-dies-Vermont-rare-mosquito-borne-disease-causes-brain-swelling.html

Swede in new slimy slug slaughter: 27,000 killed

An elderly man armed with an ice-scraper in western Sweden has taken extreme measures after Spanish "killer" slugs took over his café. 76-year-old Sven Lagergren has had enough of the "killer slugs" (mördersniglar) that have taken over the gardens of his café, Gula Huset, in Brålanda, north of Gothenburg. “They’ve taken over, it's absolute madness! I’ve killed almost 28,000 this summer,” he told The Local. Using a long handled ice-scraper with a 10 centimetre wide blade, the 76-year-old firmly slices the slugs in half with one quick jab. “I don’t miss,” he said, adding that the slugs die immediately. The Spanish slug, or Arion lusitanicus as it is formally known, is foreign to traditional Swedish fauna but has been ravaging gardens across the country since first being seen in 1975.

http://www.thelocal.se/42050/20120716/

'Contract killer' ants provoke others to attack

German researchers have discovered that male members of a species of tropical ant act as "contract" killers. Scientists found that male ants daub young rivals with a chemical scent which induces a murderous rage in gangs of workers.

http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20120623-43333.html

Experts warn of deadly insect-borne disease that can cause victims' hearts to explode

A little-known life-threatening illness caused by blood sucking insects has been labelled the ‘new AIDS of the Americas’ by experts.

The parasitic illness called Chagas Disease has similarities to the early spread of HIV, according to a new study.

Similar to AIDS, Chagas is difficult to detect and it can take years for symptoms to emerge, according to experts writing in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2151815/Chagas-disease-New-AIDS-Americas-cause-victims-hearts-explode.html

Amazing footage of 30 giant Japanese hornets slaughtering 30,000 tiny honeybees to eat their young

Tens of thousands are dead, hundreds more of the dying lie writhing on the battlefield, powerless to protect their children.

These horrifying and yet fascinating scenes are the highlights of a three-hour battle between just 30 giant Japanese hornets and 30,000 European honeybees.

The video, from a National Geographic documentary called Hornets From Hell, shows a full-scale attack on the honeybees' comb in order that the hornets can get at their larvae.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2086250/30-Japanese-hornets-kill-30-000-European-honeybees-video.html

Frankenstein ants created by scientists

Scientists have bred supersoldier ants with enlarged heads and jaws by using ancient genes to trigger development.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8996395/Frankenstein-ants-created-by-scientists.html

Loudest Little Animal Calls Out Using its Genitals

From: http://www.livescience.com/14869-loudest-animal-calls-genitals.html

Zombie ants? Researchers find science-fiction like ants in Brazil

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200 giant spiders, termites feast on man | thetelegraph.com.au

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Australian bees 'mummify' their beetle enemy alive

By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

Last updated at 13:05 GMT, Thursday, 17 December 2009

A species of bee in Australia has found a gruesome way to deal with a parasitic interloper that can damage its hives.

The stingless bee 'mummifies' any hive beetle that tries to enter its domain - wrapping the live parasite in resin, wax and mud until it can move no more.

The mummified beetles eventually starve and shrivel on the spot, researchers report in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

The strategy is so successful that it halts a beetle invasion within minutes.

Entomologist Mark Greco made the discovery while investigating the behaviour of a species of Australian stingless bee.

Australia has around 2,000 bee species of which just 10 are stingless.

These stingless bees are important pollinators of crops in the country, and some have a lifecycle very similar to that of honeybees, with a queen and her colony producing one to two kilograms of uniquely flavoured honey each year.

Not a lot is known about the parasites or pathogens of Australian stingless bees.

However, "occasionally one finds native beetles or other insects embedded in the wax structures of the nest while splitting or managing the hives," says Dr Greco, who is studying for a PhD at the University of Western Sydney, Australia and the Swiss Bee Research Centre in Bern, Switzerland.

He and a team of colleagues, including honeybee expert Dr Peter Nuemann, investigated the response of the stingless bee (Trigona carbonaria) to adult small hive beetles (Aethina tumida).

Using an innovative imaging technique, which involves taking pictures of the bee colony using a CT scanner, they could observe the insects' interactions, both at the hive entrance and also within the hive.

Whenever a small hive beetle enters, it is set upon by worker bees that wrestle it and bite at its legs.

The beetles respond by adopting what the scientists call a "turtle posture", tucking in their heads and legs.

This gives the bees an opportunity to mummify their enemy, which they do by coating the invasive parasites in resin, wax and mud.

"The beetles remain in position and eventually starve and shrivel on the spot," Mr Greco told BBC Earth News.

The small hive beetle is a newcomer to Australia, thought to have been imported into the country during the 2000 Olympics.

Originally from Africa, it can devastate healthy honey bee colonies, and decimate struggling stingless bee colonies that become stressed by excessive heat.

But it does not appear to be major threat to healthy stingless bee colonies, perhaps due to the bees' defensive strategy.

The mummification process is so effective that once the bees go into action "it takes only 10 minutes for all beetle advancements to cease," says Mr Greco.

"It prevents the beetles from feeding and reproducing, thus saving the colony."

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8416000/8416743.stm

Alcoholic Flies Show Human-like Desperation, Relapses

Matt Kaplan
for National Geographic News

December 11, 2009

After scientists had gotten them hooked on alcohol, fruit flies—apparently desperate for a buzz—drank even repulsive concoctions and relapsed after an enforced dry spell, a new study says.

Because humans and fruit flies share similar chemical pathways, the finding may shed light on the still hazy genetic roots of human alcoholism—and new ways to treat it, researchers say.

Common subjects of genetic experiments—due largely to their rapid reproduction rate—fruit flies have often been used to study intoxication and alcohol tolerance in previous experiments.

But the researchers behind the new study took aim at addiction, "so we could later work out the genes underlying addiction-like behaviors," said co-author Anita Devineni, a neuroscience graduate student at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Flies Crave Buzz?

The team presented flies with two types of liquid food, one containing ethanol, a type of alcohol. Access was unlimited, thoough the feeders were refilled only once each day.

The flies preferred the alcohol-spiked food, and the more they had it, it seems, the more they craved it—the flies' tipples grew more frequent over time.

To find out just how addicted the flies were, the researchers, in a second experiment, tainted the alcoholic food with chemicals known to repulse fruit flies—yet the flies drank on.

Flies were then forced to go cold turkey for three days—eons for a fly with a roughly monthlong life span.

As soon as the alcohol was offered again, though, the flies returned to drinking at the same extreme levels as before the dry spell, a behavior strikingly similar to that of human alcoholics relapsing after a dry period, the researchers say.

"We believe it is a behavior regulated by biological processes that may be similar in both flies and humans," said co-author Ulriki Heberlein, a UCSF biochemistry professor.

Next, the team hopes to identify the genes behind the relapses, potentially paving the way to drug treatments that could help human addicts step away from alcohol for good.

Findings appear in this week's issue of Current Biology.

From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091211-alcoholic-flies-buzz-drunk-relapse.html

Bees attack crash victims

A swarm of bees attacked victims and rescue workers after a van carrying the beehives crashed near the Turkish resort of Marmaris.

By James Ellingworth
Published: 10:58AM BST 29 Sep 2009



One person died and more than 20 were injured in the accident.

Emergency services and local beekeepers battled swarms of angry bees for around four hours in an attempt to free two people trapped in the wreckage and protect passers-by.

One of those trapped, Feyzullah Acar, 18, later died in hospital. Ahmet Altiparmak, the regional governor, said that it was not yet known whether he died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash or the effects of the bee stings.

Around 20 people were taken to local hospitals, most of them rescue workers injured by the bees. Altiparmak said that some were in a serious condition. One of the injured was a doctor who attended the scene despite being allergic to bee-stings.

A police officer at the scene said: "It was like an angry black buzzing cloud. You could see it for miles but worse than that were the scattered bees which spread around the area attacking everyone.

"We had to remove the victims' clothes before we could put them in the ambulance as they were swarming with bees."

The crash happened after the van struck a stationary truck on a motorway near Marmaris, which is renowned for the quality of its honey.

Local authorities put out a call for help from the local beekeeping association. Around 50 beekeepers rushed to the scene, dressing the injured in protective gear.

Local television showed rescue workers hosing down the crash site to deter the bees.

Spider Venom -- The Next Way to Treat Impotence?

By Peter West
Healthday Reporter – Fri Sep 25, 11:48 pm ET

FRIDAY, Sept. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists may have discovered a novel way to treat erectile dysfunction -- using the venom of a deadly spider.

The bite from the Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria nigriventer) causes a painful erection that can last for many hours and later lead to impotence, researchers from the United States and Brazil noted.

After isolating the toxin, the researchers radioactively labeled and injected a purified form of the toxin, Tx2-6, into rats that suffered from high blood pressure and severe erectile dysfunction. The investigators then measured the presence of the toxin in the animals' penises and used the toxin to contract and relax strips of penile tissue. Results showed improved levels of nitric oxide, which led to penile relaxation and erections.

The researchers were scheduled to present their work Sept. 24 at the American Heart Association's conference on high blood pressure research in Chicago.

"In Brazil, it's common to have accidents with poisonous animals," explained lead researcher Kenia Pedrosa Nunes, a post-doctoral fellow in physiology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and a native of Brazil. "So, we were aware of this spider's venom. The toxin was able to normalize erections [in rats]."

Brazilian wandering spiders are found throughout Central and South America. They are considered the world's most venomous spider, causing an unknown number of human deaths.

Erectile dysfunction, also known as impotence, has many causes and a growing body of treatments. According to the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC), erectile dysfunction "can be a total inability to achieve erection, an inconsistent ability to do so, or a tendency to sustain only brief erections." The condition affects as many as 30 million American men at some point in their lives.

For some, the cause is psychological, but for many others, especially older men, erectile dysfunction usually has a physical source, such as diseases including diabetes, injury or side effects of medications, according to the NKUDIC Web site.

In the late 1990s, the launch of the drug Viagra revolutionized treatment of impotence. The drugs Levitra and Cialis followed. All three medications enhance the effects of nitric oxide, a chemical that relaxes smooth muscles in the penis during sexual stimulation and allows increased blood flow.

The spider venom also works to increase nitric oxide levels but through a different mechanism, Nunes said. Scientists are a long way from using the venom as the basis of a new erectile dysfunction medication, but they are hopeful, said Nunes.

"We do need more research," she added. "I'm sure it can be a pharmacological tool that may one day be able to help patients who cannot take Viagra."

One noted researcher expressed interest in Nunes' work.

"The concept that a venom can have an effect on erection is highly plausible," said Dr. Arnold Melman, chief of urology at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "This is very interesting and exciting, but also very early."