Sam Fielding
I've been flipping over rocks to see what's underneath since I was a kid, and I never really grew out of it. Project Insect is where I write up whatever I learn chasing down the bugs in my own backyard, usually because I went looking for a straight answer online and couldn't find one. If it has six legs, odds are I find it way more interesting than I should.
Recent guides
Natural Pest ControlRead article →Peppermint Oil for Garden Plants: Protecting Plants from PestsIf you are seeing leaf damage, sticky residue, or pests clustering on your favorite plants, peppermint oil for garden plants is one of the milder tools you can reach for while you
Bees & WaspsRead article →Top 10 Facts About Hornets: Stings, Nests, and ColoniesTop 10 Facts About Hornets starts with a correction: only one true hornet lives in the United States, and the insect most people call a "hornet" in their own backyard usually isn't
Flies & MosquitoesRead article →What Is the Life Cycle of Fruit Flies? Egg to Adult in 8 DaysWhat Is the Life Cycle of Fruit Flies? Drosophila melanogaster moves from egg to breeding adult in as little as 8 days at 25°C, one of the fastest life cycles of any insect. That s
ButterfliesRead article →Top 10 Facts About Swallowtail Butterflies: Tails, MimicryTop 10 Facts About Swallowtail Butterflies starts with the family itself: Papilionidae holds roughly 560 species worldwide , found on every continent except Antarctica. Their hindw
BeetlesRead article →How Do Dung Beetles Contribute to the Ecosystem?How do dung beetles contribute to the ecosystem? Mostly by moving other animals' waste underground fast enough that its nutrients, water, and hitchhiking seeds get put to use inste
Grasshoppers, Crickets & LocustsRead article →How Do Locusts Contribute to the Ecosystem? Frass, Prey, SoilHow do locusts contribute to the ecosystem, given that a single swarm can strip a field bare in hours? Outside of plague years, locust species spend most of their lives in a solita
LadybugsRead article →Where Do Ladybugs Live? Aphid-Rich Habitats ExplainedWhere do ladybugs live? Mostly wherever aphids are: gardens, crop fields, forest edges, and grasslands, since Coccinellidae (the beetle family ladybugs belong to) track their prey
Behavior & Pest ControlRead article →How Temperature Affects Insect Activity Levels in Every SeasonHow temperature affects insect activity levels comes down to one basic fact: insects are ectotherms, so their body temperature tracks the air around them instead of staying fixed l
Habitats & EcologyRead article →Understanding Microhabitats: From Leaf Litter to Rock CrevicesUnderstanding microhabitats starts with looking at the few square inches most people walk past: the underside of a leaf, a crack in a rock, three inches of decaying log. These smal
Anatomy & IdentificationRead article →Understanding Insect Muscles: Stretch-Activated FlightUnderstanding insect muscles starts with a split most people never learn in school: insects run on two distinct kinds of muscle fiber, synchronous and asynchronous, and the second
Culture & MythologyRead article →The Significance of Butterflies in Global MythologiesThe Significance of Butterflies in Global Mythologies comes down to one biological fact: a caterpillar liquefies inside its chrysalis and reassembles into a winged adult. No other
FirefliesRead article →How to Identify Fireflies by Flash Pattern and ColorHow to identify fireflies starts with knowing what you're looking at: fireflies, or lightning bugs, are beetles in the family Lampyridae, not true flies or true bugs. More than 2,0