Tagged: Insects

Three popular pesticides will soon be illegal in the European Union, where officials hope the change helps restore populations of honey bees, vital to crop production, to healthy levels. The new ban will be enacted in December.

"I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem and contribute over €22 billion ($28.8 billion) annually to European agriculture, are protected," said EU Health and Consumer Commissioner Tonio Borg.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Minnesota's Mall of America is home to some 500 stores, a theme park and now some 72,000 ladybugs. Third graders released them inside the shopping center this week. Ladybugs protect the mall's 30,000 plants by eating aphids. Some mall-goers worried the bugs might descend on the food court, but a spokesman says the mall has released the ladybugs for years, and there's been no ladybug takeover yet. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is: The Cicada Index.

Every 17 years, these nasty, loud, little insects known as Brood 2 cicadas emerge in staggering numbers - as many as on billion per square mile from the Carolinas to Connecticut.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

They have a grinding song. They have an endless appetite for vegetation, and most people along the East Coast dread their arrival. But savvy investors know better.