Colin Purrington
@colinpurrington.bsky.social
📤 2552
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Nature pics and science. Swarthmore, PA, USA.
https://colinpurrington.com
New blog post with pics of the four wasp species that emerged this spring from a fall collection of eastern redbud seeds.
#hymenotpera
#wasps
colinpurrington.com/2026/06/wasp...
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Wasps emerging from eastern redbud seeds
Last fall I collected several hundred redbud seeds and crammed them into gel caps so that I could document the wasps that emerged in the spring. This is a continuation of my 2025 post that described s...
https://colinpurrington.com/2026/06/wasps-emerging-from-eastern-redbud-seeds/
about 24 hours ago
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If anyone is looking for the perfect housewarming gift.
#mosquitoes
#bti
10 days ago
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iNaturalist
14 days ago
Next time you're outside, look a little closer at the forest floor, or even a patch of dirt. There's almost always a chance you'll find something wonderfully weird-looking (that's a compliment) — like this Chlorovibrissea melanochlora.
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Your Local Epidemiologist
17 days ago
1/ Five cases of New World screwworm have now been confirmed in the U.S., Texas has declared an emergency, and Canada immediately restricted livestock imports. Most people had never heard of screwworm until last week (or maybe just now). That's because we eradicated it from the U.S. in 1966.🧵
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Are there any competitors to Mosquito Dunks in the United States? Seems like lower prices might encourage more people to make mosquito-killing buckets.
#mosquitoes
#bti
18 days ago
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The nearly 2 million bug zappers sold in the United States each year cause the needless deaths of billions of innocent insects. We need to get the word out that they don't control mosquitoes. Please share this list with your neighbors.
#mosquitoes
#insects
colinpurrington.com/2026/06/10-r...
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10 reasons why you shouldn't buy a bug zapper
Although scientists have known for decades that bug zappers do not control mosquitoes, gullible Americans buy 1.75 million of them every year. To help get the word out I thought I'd create a more exha...
https://colinpurrington.com/2026/06/10-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-buy-a-bug-zapper/
20 days ago
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NullPointer 🍄
20 days ago
Carmine red slime mold fluffballs. Arcyria denudata.
#slimemold
#myxomycetes
#fungifriends
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The Wirecutter team at the New York Time did a deep dive into bug zappers. Not only do they fail to control mosquitoes they kill tens of thousands of innocent insects. Plus can splatter germs a surprising distance.
#mosquitoes
www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/b...
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Do Bug Zappers Work? Yeah—About As Well As Any Other Indiscriminate Wildlife Slaughter.
Bug zappers kill the wrong bugs—to control bugs without a spray repellent, use a spatial repellent or a fan instead.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/do-bug-zappers-work/
21 days ago
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Spartan Mosquito, Tougher Than Tom, and Aion Products storefronts all down right now due to Shopify outage. Gullible Americans probably looking for back-up scams to buy.
23 days ago
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Tom Astle
24 days ago
Resting butterfly - Hayden's Ringlet, Coenonympha haydenii (Montana). These aren't flashy butterflies, but I love the textures and the eyespots.
#Bugsky
🐙🌿📷
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If anyone needs a handout on using Mosquito Dunks to make mosquito traps, I added a 2-page PDF to my blog post on the topic. Would be a perfect insert for buckets that you gift to your neighbors.
#mosquitoes
colinpurrington.com/2024/08/bti-...
24 days ago
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Bengi Kendrick
25 days ago
Just saw an iNat observation that would have been the cause of demonic reports 100s of years ago. Someone was digging up some weeds from their yard and thought their shovel hit a rock. But then it moved. A snapping turtle had buried itself in their yard and didnt appreciate being awoken by a shovel.
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Cormac MacFhionnlaoich
25 days ago
Map Lichens (Rhizocarpon geographicum), each with their own territory and boundaries, on this piece of hillside stone. County Donegal, Ireland.
Cormacscoast.com
walking tours
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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴
25 days ago
The Asa Gray Disjunction is the biogeographical relationship between Eastern North America & the Sino-Japanese Floristic Region of East Asia. Classic example: Liriodendron (
#Magnoliaceae)
has just 2 spp: 📷1: L. tulipifera of ENA & 📷2: L. chinense Jiao Sun CCBY4 of EA.
#Botany
🌾🧪🌱
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Come on, social media folks at NPR, just tell us in the post that the device name was BOMB. We are busy! Or at least include a “Jump to Lede” link like the recipe bloggers do.
add a skeleton here at some point
26 days ago
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Armando Rosario-Lebrón
27 days ago
Hoverfly larvae on a grass stem outside a pub in Wales. At this scale they always look rather... alien. Fear not, these are UK natives and friends, eating pests in your garden 🌿
#entomology
#bugsky
#diptera
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Before you dump out that container full of mosquito larvae make sure they are not tadpoles.
#mosquitoes
#frogs
www.reddit.com/r/MosquitoHa...
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From the MosquitoHating community on Reddit: Accidentally started a mosquito farm 😂
Explore this post and more from the MosquitoHating community
https://www.reddit.com/r/MosquitoHating/comments/1tseic7/accidentally_started_a_mosquito_farm/
26 days ago
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Colin Purrington
NPR
27 days ago
The National Transportation Safety Board temporarily pulled its docket system offline after digital images were used to reconstruct cockpit voice recordings of the pilots in a recent crash.
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The NTSB tries to keep cockpit audio recordings private. AI is making that harder
The National Transportation Safety Board temporarily pulled its docket system offline after digital images were used to reconstruct cockpit voice recordings of the pilots in a recent crash.
https://n.pr/4dVb0cU
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Ferris Jabr
27 days ago
New favorite Agapostemon sweat bee photo: Native green bee on native blue flax in our garden!
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Thomas Shahan
29 days ago
Camponotus with another ant's head still clamped to her left antenna. Second time I've seen this with this species (Camponotus pennsylvanicus?) this spring! Wild how the mandibles can still be locked so tightly even after the attacker was decapitated!
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Anthony Speca | Aspen Ecology
28 days ago
Continuing this nested thread about
#marine
#lichens
. Collemopsidium foveolatum (below) can be confused with less common C sublitorale, which also grows on shells. But perithecia of latter are emergent, not immersed. Both occur on these
#barnacles
, making difference easier to see. Ormsary, Scotland.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️
27 days ago
For
#worldsealionday
here is the single greatest wildlife photo I've ever taken: a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) inside a backlit wave! Shot at La Jolla, CA, last Friday. 🐬🦑
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Jacob Wood
27 days ago
Thrift Clearwing and Long-horned Bee at Froward Point, Devon today! I’ve been checking regularly for these species here so great to find them both today. Lots of common migrant butterflies and moths and this Robberfly, Dysmachus trigonus
#teammoth
#insect
#robberfly
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Steve Hayman 🇨🇦
about 1 month ago
Have you, like me, spent the last 26 years worrying if the Canadian Potato Museum STILL has the display of various potato diseases with potatoes in little coffins? Stop worrying. I checked today. Still there.
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Soh Kam Yung
27 days ago
A Spider Wasp (family Pompilidae) that has caught a Jumping Spider (family Salticidae), spotted at Bukit Batok Nature Park, Singapore on 12 May 2025. On iNaturalist [
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
]
#iNaturalist
#Nature
#Photography
#Singapore
#Insects
#Wasps
#Hymenoptera
#Spiders
#Araneae
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Steve Wells
28 days ago
In the last week or so Western Giant Ichneumonid Wasps (Megarhyssa notrtoni) have oviposited on a dying spruce tree in our yard. Today a female horntail (Xeris indecisus) is ovipositing on the same tree, with a couple male horntails hanging around. The ichneumons parasitize the horntail larvae.
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The maker of the Spartan Mosquito Pro Tech, AC2T, Inc., is violating a settlement agreement that ended sales of the device after December 2025. I've alerted the presiding judge and the EPA but both have declined to act. The scam is selling briskly on Amazon.
#epa
#pesticides
#mississippi
#mosquitoes
28 days ago
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Part of the world's most expensive wallpaper, "Views of the American War of Independence," by Zuber & Cie (France). It takes the company an entire year to complete and uses 2,300 hand-carved wood blocks, most nearly 200-years-old. Fraunces Tavern Museum, NYC.
#250th
#revolution
#history
#art
28 days ago
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"The whiskey is heavily scented with woodsy, citrus notes – it smells like something you’d spray in the corners of a wardrobe to ward off moths." The distinctive ingredient, nootkatone, is an EPA-registered mosquito repellent.
#mosquitoes
#whiskey
#philadelphia
[gift link]
share.inquirer.com/gUs8Xr
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High proof, low buzz: This new whiskey doubles as a mosquito repellant
Spray your cocktails with Skeeter's, a nootkatone-flavored whiskey, to keep mosquitoes at bay.
https://share.inquirer.com/gUs8Xr
28 days ago
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Lizardmobile
30 days ago
Look what I found in the woods in my yard! This is Monotropa uniflora, aka "ghost pipes." They are parasitic plants, with no chlorophyll of their own, that feed from fungal networks in the soil. The fungi, in turn, are connected to nearby tree roots, which provide sugars.
#nativeplants
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Arthropod Abbey (Abigail Hayes)
about 1 month ago
Aaah!!!! 🥳 I have always wanted to find a warty leaf beetle in person!!!! Checking another off my bugket list!
#bugsky
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Two of the 11 duck decoys found in 1924 inside Lovelock Cave (Nevada), sealed up approximately 2400 years ago by an earthquake. The one on the right resembles a canvasback (Aythya valisineria). Museum of the American Indian (Manhattan location).
#ducks
#archaeology
29 days ago
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Here's how I deal with mosquitoes in my Pennsylvania yard. I also have some opinions on what you shouldn't do.
#mosquitoes
colinpurrington.com/fighting-mos...
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Tips for killing and repelling mosquitoes
None of the suggestions below will eliminate mosquitoes from your yard but they will all help. 1. Eliminate stagnant water If you purge your yard of all objects that can accumulate water, femal...
https://colinpurrington.com/fighting-mosquitoes/
29 days ago
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If you have a neighbor who is considering fogging their yard with pyrethroids, please send this to them.
#mosquitoes
colinpurrington.com/2018/09/buzz...
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Effects of mosquito sprays on humans, pets, and wildlife
Mosquito Authority, Mosquito Joe, Mosquito Platoon, Mosquito Shield, Mosquito Squad, TruGreen are often very reluctant to reveal what insecticides they use and sometimes imply that the chemicals are s...
https://colinpurrington.com/2018/09/buzz-on-mosquito-sprays/
29 days ago
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Soh Kam Yung
29 days ago
A Whip Spider (genus Ariamnes) spotted at Ulu Sembawang Park Connector, Singapore on 27 May 2026. An unusual spider with an extremely long abdomen. The oval object on the web is its egg sac. On iNaturalist [
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
].
#iNaturalist
#Nature
#Singapore
#Spiders
#Araneae
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Just a reminder that the Tougher Than Tom Mosquito TNT is a scam. After a month the container will be filled with rotting carcasses of flies, beetles, moths, ants, and spiders. And it will STINK. I've never seen a mosquito even come close to the container.
#mosquitoes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxAo...
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Tougher Than Tom Mosquito TNT
YouTube video by Colin Purrington
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxAonrSWikA
29 days ago
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Donna Rainey
about 1 month ago
I was really happy to see & capture this lovely courtship of these Cryptic wood white
#butterflies
on a roadside verge.
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Emerald Ash Borer Network
about 1 month ago
Woodpeckers peel away the bark of ash trees to feed on emerald ash borer larvae, making “bark blonding” one of the earliest signs of infestation. Learn more about EAB biocontrol here:
www.emeraldashborer.info/biological-c...
#EABAwarenessWeek
#InvasiveSpecies
#Entomology
🧪🌍🍁
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Dr. Drew Brayshaw 🌊🪨
about 1 month ago
Happy World Bee Day! This here is an Unequal Cellophane Bee. Only 3 observations of this species in all of BC on iNaturalist (so far). These bees MAKE THEIR OWN PLASTIC. They cocoon their burrow nest cells with a biodegradable polyester lining! Humans have only been doing this since the 1850s...
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David W. Williams
about 1 month ago
Very happy to find my first ever Parasyrphus nigritarsus eggs and larvae in Green Dock Beetle egg batches yesterday during the wildlife group's trip to the Bicton area. This hoverfly predates the eggs of various leaf beetles, laying its own eggs (the smaller, white ones) within their egg batches.
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Jeff VanderMeer
about 1 month ago
As tick season ramps up, keep in mind importance of preserving any tick that attaches. In theory, a tick not engorged cannot pass on disease, but there can still be infection and for peace of mind I always send them to the Tick Report. Testing is fast and not that expensive. 1/2
www.tickreport.com
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Tickreport.com: Cost Effective Tick Testing for Tick Borne Diseases in 2 to 3 Business Days
Identify tick specimens with science laboratory DNA and RNA based testing by mail for 25 different pathogens and diseases.
https://www.tickreport.com/
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Jen Cross
about 1 month ago
This cartoonish caterpillar will pupate into a large sphinx moth. I'm guessing the disguise is to fool birds into thinking it's a snake? A very, very goofy snake. Not a snack. (Xylophanes crotonis)
#invert
El Refugio de Intag, Ecuador
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Kate Sheehan-Finn
about 1 month ago
Part of a large floor mosaic from the huge Baths Of Caracalla,
#Rome
. The black tesserae are basalt; the white are marble. Depicted is the body and tail of a sea monster ridden by Eros holding a whip in his right hand. 3rd C AD.
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
📷 my own.
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D. Allan Drummond
about 1 month ago
Aphid nearly done. Solid 925 sterling silver, pre-patina (and eyes, and honeydew) 🛠️
#sciart
#bugsky
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Joaquín Baldwin
about 1 month ago
I have found the source of all mosquitoes
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Tom Astle
about 1 month ago
Here is your Saturday Spider Mom. I like how her egg sac has a "leash" that I presume she can use to keep tabs on things. Found under a rock in the Mojave Desert last week. A small spider, less than a cm. long.
#Bugsky
🐙🌿🕷️
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Tom Astle
about 1 month ago
There were still flowers to be found in the desert last week. Left to right: Woolystar (Eriastrum sp.), Desert Calico (Loeseliastrum matthewsii), Paperbag Bush (Scutellaria mexicana), and buckwheat (Eriogonum, not sure which species). 🌿🌸
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Marshal Hedin
about 1 month ago
handsome male Habronattus americanus, from a recent trip to the far southern Sierra Nevada, on the underappreciated Kern Plateau right places, right time ... these are very common spiders
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I tested the Spartan Mosquito Pro Tech, the Aion Mosquito Barrier, and the Tougher Than Tom Mosquito TNT so that you don't have to.
#mosquitoes
colinpurrington.com/2020/08/yeas...
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Yeast-and-sugar mosquito control devices
In the United States, three companies — Spartan Mosquito, Aion Products, and Tougher Than Tom — are selling devices that claim to trap mosquitoes by luring them with carbon dioxide. I summarize the de...
https://colinpurrington.com/2020/08/yeast-based-mosquito-control-devices/?nocache=1
about 1 month ago
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Jen C Mars
about 1 month ago
Just a little spider Appx 3-5mm, I think genus Neon
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