474,510 research outputs found

    How Cultural Perceptions and Food Preparation Affect Westerners View of Insects as Food

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    There has been a recent push to encourage westerners to introduce insects into their diets. Traditional arguments that stress environmental and nutritional benefits have been largely unsuccessful. This not because people simply find insects distasteful; what people view as an acceptable food choice is culturally dependent, and foods made from novel and unfamiliar ingredients or tools are met with apprehension. What is less known is why insects are viewed as an unacceptable food source in western society. It has been suggested that westerners disgust towards insects is that insects are perceived of as contaminants and as vectors of disease. If westerners are unwilling to eat insects, or food prepared with insects because they are viewed as unhygienic, then we should expect individuals who are less concerned with hygiene to be more willing to eat insects, or food prepared with insects. When surveyed on their hygiene and their willingness to try food prepared using insects, participants that were less concerned with personal hygiene were more willing to eat food made with insects. In order to convince people to introduce insects into their diet one must know why people are so uneager to consume insects

    Why are Americans against eating insects?

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    Some scientists are worried about food shortages in the future as the population grows, and food production is not growing fast enough to keep up (Tao and Li 2018). This has led many scientists to look at insects as potential replacements or supplements to current livestock because insects are much more efficient, cheap, and environmentally friendly to raise than traditional live stock and have more protein per mass (Hartmann and Siegrist 2017). However, the trouble is to get Americans and other Westerners to accept insects into their diet because they are the largest consumers of meat in the world, and to be able to do that we need to understand the Western aversion to eating insects. (Schuursman 2014) According to my research, the most likely factors that cause United States citizens to have an aversion to eating insects are because they see insects as pests to their crops, because insects look alien and scary to them, and, or because eating insects is not convenient, cheap, or socially accepted (Bellisle 2006). My study showed that there is a positive relationship between interest in trying insects and likelihood of buying them from the store, between not seeing insects as a pest and interest in trying insects, someone’s adventurousness and their openness to trying new foods, and the likelihood of eating insects if it was socially accepted and interest in trying insects. My results are important because they show that there are several identifiable factors that determine whether or not someone is interested in trying insects. This shows that by meeting these factors, we can get Westerners to at the very least try insects

    Factors Affecting Capture Rates of Insect Taxa by Retail Electrocutors and Eliminators in Northern Lower Michigan

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    We compare the abundance and types of insects captured at several locations, with and without a chemical attractant and in varying weather conditions using two different devices advertised to kill biting insects. Using both an insect electrocutor that uses ultraviolet light as an attractant, with and without octenol as an added attractant, and an insect eliminator that uses carbon dioxide, heat and octenol as attractants, more non-biting than biting insects were captured. Numerous harmless and beneficial insects were killed with electrocutors. Although eliminators were more target-specific, they captured fewer insects overall compared to electrocutors. The numbers and types of insects captured also varied by location and temperature conditions. More insects were killed by electrocutors located next to a lake compared to those located in an inland forested area and more were killed at lower compared to higher heights above the ground. More insects were also killed by electrocutors on warmer than on cooler nights. More non-biting insects were killed with electrocutors baited with octenol than without octenol

    Who's the pest? Imagining human–insect futures beyond antagonism

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    Joining the effort to reimagine our relationships with insects, the Wellcome Collection's ‘Who's the Pest?’ programme attempts to challenge the stigma of insects as ill-disposed ‘bugs’. The article reviews two events in the series, the workshop ‘Insects au gratin’ and the debate ‘Insects vs. humans’, and places them in the context of recent engagements with ‘pests’ in the public realm

    Insects on Elms

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    January Collecting in Central Michigan

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    Excerpt: To the uninitiated reader, searching for adult insects in mid-winter might seem a fruitless task at best. Yet as the List of Michigan Insects and Related Arthropods takes shape, L\u27off-season collecting records are urgently needed by the compilers. Many species of insects thrive when we might wish to stay indoors; the Collembola are good examples, as are the species of Chionea (Diptera: Tipulidae), a genus of wingless crane-flies. We should like to know much more about the distribution of many hardy winter insects, and only increased collecting will enable this

    Metapopulation Patterns of Iberian Butterflies Revealed by Fuzzy Logic

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    Metapopulation theory considers that the populations of many species are fragmented into patches connected by the migration of individuals through an interterritorial matrix. We applied fuzzy set theory and environmental favorability (F) functions to reveal the metapopulational structure of the 222 butterfly species in the Iberian Peninsula. We used the sets of contiguous grid cells with high favorability (F ≄ 0.8), to identify the favorable patches for each species. We superimposed the known occurrence data to reveal the occupied and empty favorable patches, as unoccupied patches are functional in a metapopulation dynamics analysis. We analyzed the connectivity between patches of each metapopulation by focusing on the territory of intermediate and low favorability for the species (F < 0.8). The friction that each cell opposes to the passage of individuals was computed as 1‐F. We used the r.cost function of QGIS to calculate the cost of reaching each cell from a favorable patch. The inverse of the cost was computed as connectivity. Only 126 species can be considered to have a metapopulation structure. These metapopulation structures are part of the dark biodiversity of butterflies because their identification is not evident from the observation of the occurrence data but was revealed using favorability functionsFunding for open access charge: Universidad de MĂĄlaga / CBU

    Darkling beetles (Alphitobius diaperinus) and their larvae as potential vectors for the transfer of Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella enterica serovar paratyphi B variant Java between successive broiler flocks

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    Broiler flocks often become infected with Campylobacter and Salmonella, and the exact contamination routes are still not fully understood. Insects like darkling beetles and their larvae may play a role in transfer of the pathogens between consecutive cycles. In this study, several groups of beetles and their larvae were artificially contaminated with a mixture of Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi B Variant Java and three C. jejuni strains and kept for different time intervals before they were fed to individually housed chicks. Most inoculated insects were positive for Salmonella and Campylobacter just before they were fed to the chicks. However, Campylobacter could not be isolated from insects that were kept for 1 week before they were used to mimic an empty week between rearing cycles. All broilers fed insects that were inoculated with pathogens on the day of feeding showed colonization with Campylobacter and Salmonella at levels of 50 to 100%. Transfer of both pathogens by groups of insects that were kept for 1 week before feeding to the chicks was also observed, but at lower levels. Naturally contaminated insects that were collected at a commercial broiler farm colonized broilers at low levels as well. In conclusion, the fact that Salmonella and Campylobacter can be transmitted via beetles and their larvae to flocks in successive rearing cycles indicates that there should be intensive control programs for exclusion of these insects from broiler houses

    Water vapor pressure deficit in Portugal and implications for the development of the invasive African citrus psyllid trioza erytreae

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    African citrus psyllid (Trioza erytreae (Del Guercio)) is a vector insect of the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter africanus, the putative causal agent of Huanglongbing, the most devastating citrus disease in the world. The insect was found on the island of Madeira in 1994 and in mainland Portugal in 2015. Present in the north and center of the country, it is a threat to Algarve, the main citrus-producing region. Trioza erytreae eggs and first instar nymphs are sensitive to the combination of high temperatures and low relative humidity. Daily maximum air temperature and minimum relative humidity data from 18 weather stations were used to calculate the water vapor pressure deficit (vpd) from 2004 to 2018 at various locations. Based on the mean vpd and the number of unfavorable days (vpd < 34.5 and vpd < 56 mbar) of two time periods (February to May and June to September), less favorable zones for T. erytreae were identified. The zones with thermal and water conditions like those observed in the Castelo Branco and Portalegre (Center), Beja (Alentejo), Alte, and Norinha (Algarve) stations showed climatic restrictions to the development of eggs and first instar nymphs of African citrus psyllid. Effective control measures, such as the introduction and mass release of Tamarixia dryi (Waterson), a specific parasitoid, and chemical control are necessary in favorable periods for T. erytreae development, such as in spring and in areas with limited or no climate restrictions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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