Showing posts with label Insects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insects. Show all posts

How to Swat a Mosquito

Posted by BlackJack On Thursday, August 27, 2009 0 comments


Spring this year was unusually wet in the eastern half of the United States, with heavy rains falling from everywhere from Kansas and Missouri to New York City and Washington, D.C., the National Weather Service reported -- and with those rains has come a bumper crop of mosquitoes.



What's the best way to swat those pesky skeeters?


Mercilles Attackers

Posted by BlackJack On Saturday, August 15, 2009 0 comments



Spruce Bark Beetles bore stiff into trucks and feed on the cambium coating the thin circular layer establish stuck between the phloem and xylem layers of a tree trunk. But before bark beetles can successfully invade a trunk, they have to contend with the tree’s major defense mechanism, a substance commonly referred to as “pitch”.


Bark Bettle

Posted by BlackJack On 0 comments



Bark Beetles are a group of insects that make up the family scolytidae. Relatively small and cylindrical, these beetles dwell in and feed on the inner bark of trees. Bark Beetle usually burrows between the bark and the sapwood but a few species bore through the entire tree. Females lay their eggs inside the tree as well, and leave the original tree when their offspring reach the adult stage-but only the start another burrow


Termites Are Not Just Pest

Posted by BlackJack On Saturday, August 8, 2009 0 comments


Termites belong to a group of social insects that feed on cellulose, base matter as a plants, paper, and wood. Termites are of extreme ecological, biological, and economic importance. They perform a crucial role in the recycling of nutrients, habitat creation, and development of soil quality in addition to being a food source for an indeterminate number of predators.


But because termites love munching on wood, common building and furniture material, they are considered pests and are exterminated in huge numbers every year. These insects also release a substantial quantity of methane gas- 4 percent of the total methane emitted into the atmosphere. With global warming as the most pressing environment issue confront insects to many humans, moreover several people locate termite-built structure repugnant, even those that are built comfortably far from their houses.



Butterfly Wings

Posted by BlackJack On Tuesday, August 4, 2009 0 comments


Taking their from a vivid blue butterfly (Morpho sulkowskyi). They noticed that the surface micro texture of the butterfly wings repels water and the same time diffracts light that gives the wings an iridescent color.

The Japanese coating mimics the butterfly’s technique not only does it repel water, but it also comes in different colors too. They made the coating by assembling a film composed of 6 nanometer wide silica particles and several hundred micrometer wide polystyrene spheres. They then evaporated the polystyrene by heating the film, leaving the silica nanoparticles with gaps in between. They now rough surface was then coated with a commercially available water proofing compound called flouroalkylsilane and viola! A super hydrophobic coating was born. The flouroalkylsilanes waterproofing ability was further enhanced by rough surface of the film. And but tweaking the spaces between the gaps in the silica nanoparticles.


The Beetle

Posted by BlackJack On Sunday, August 2, 2009 0 comments


The Namib desert beetle is unique, because it uses its super hydrophobic exoskeleton to called water directly from the moisture in the air. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology mimicked the beetle trick by developing a coating made of silicon Nan particles. The trick in making a microscopically rough surface. The researchers did this by using polyelectrolyte multilayer eight to 20 alternating layers of silicon Nan particles and polyallylamine hydrochloride and then including the silicon to aggregate.
The super hydrophilic effects was achieved when nanoparticles in the coating attracted water droplets and forced them to form smaller contact angles with the surface. So instead of beading, they flattened and merged to form a uniform transparent sheet. By forcing water to spread in a uniform sheet, fogging is prevented, thus making the application useful fir goggles and windows.
The researchers then went one step further by combining both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions in the same surface. As a result, they came up with a surface with hydrophilic regions that get together water that other wise would not condense, in the same way that the Namib Desert beetle collect hose down to drink.


Related Posts with Thumbnails

Adb