Results tagged “Bugs”

Scientists are concerned that fireflies may be disappearing. With the help of volunteers around the country, they hope to collect information about where and when fireflies are appearing this year. Ask your parents if you can help count fireflies. Visit Ready, Set, Glow! to learn how to observe fireflies in your backyard. You can also learn some firefly jokes and do some activities.

Visit Ready, Set, Glow! from the National Children's Museum.

Ask your parents, then register for the Museum of Science, Boston's Firefly Watch and share your observations.

Check out bug photos on National Geographic Kids.


To celebrate the launch of the National Children's Museum's Ready, Set, Glow! project, families join Museum of Science Boston educator Don Salvatore, holding a firefly fishing pole, for a firefly night walk.


Photograph courtesy the National Children's Museum

Photograph by Polka Dot Images via Photolibrary


Gross but true: Maggots help wounds to heal faster. Some hospitals use maggots to help difficult wounds like ulcers and burns to heal. The maggots eat dead tissue around the wound that can prevent healing and cause infection. Doctors know it works, but how? A new study suggests that maggots secrete a special fluid that helps them to eat the dead tissue. What does this mean? In the future, doctors may be able to harness the bacteria-busting power of maggots without having to put the creepy-crawlies on people. David Pritchard, a researcher working on the project at the University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy in the U.K., says that putting the liquid in a gel or ointment is the most likely way the liquid will be used. Such a treatment would probably be just as effective as using the maggots.

Read more about the study on National Geographic News.

Read about plants that eat flies on National Geographic Kids.