This post originally appeared at  Gizmodo.

Every single iMessage to and from this man's iPhone—his friends call him Wiz—has been sent to us by accident. We know about his job, sex life, and address. Apple, you might want to fix this.

The story is simple: a friend's son had some trouble with his iPhone 4. Being an awesome mom, our friend took it into the Apple Store when her kid was at school. School. Not college or grad school, but I'm-under-18 school.

When she got it back, her kid's phone was in perfect working order—but it had also become a portal into another man's private life. No matter how many times we've reset the phone and entered our friend's information, every incoming and outgoing iMessage meant for Wiz shows up on her child's phone. His phone had become her son's phone—and there was an iMessage bevy of stuff you wouldn't want your child to see.

The problem of iMessages winding up on the wrong screens isn't new—we mentioned it back in December. At the time, the worry was that iPhone thieves could pry into your private communications. But that's not what's going on here—this is like a wiretap we didn't ask for—and Wiz has no idea I'm looped in on the whole thing. He texts throughout the day like usual, oblivious to the snooping. Now we see just how big of a deal this obscure "bug" is: Your entire personal life could be flung open, and you'd never know.

Take our word for it—we've gotten to know Wiz pretty well.

You probably underestimate how much of yourself you casually pour into texts each day. We know enough about this guy to stalk him, blackmail him, and harass him, using nothing more than what we've picked up. Based on only a handful of chitchat breadcrumbs and some Google work, we pinned down Wiz's home address, his Facebook profile, email address, personal information about friends, where he exercises, and—drumroll—the Apple store where he works. Yep! This Apple bug screwed an Apple employee—at the same store where our pal took her phone.

In all likelihood, Wiz's messages are being broadcast to a phone he's unaware of because he swapped his SIM card in while repairing our friend's phone—permanently tethering his textual life to a phone that isn't his. The theory that iMessages are deadbolted to SIM cards, rather than just being something you sign into a la Gmail, was bandied around by Ars Technica more than a month ago.

It's impossible that Apple isn't aware of this problem.

But as long as it's the problem of thieves and their victims, maybe it's not high enough on the shit list to correct.

But again, no wrongdoing was committed here—no lost phone or pilfered login. Just a routine trip to the Genius Bar that's turned us into unwitting eavesdroppers. Hopefully this will be enough to give apple the message. Please fix this, guys.

He booty-texts.

He works at Apple.

He wanted to kiss the legs of a coworker (bad idea!).

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Apple was in some hot water earlier when it came to light that certain apps could access users' address books without their knowledge.

Now there's a new thorn in the company's side. A weird loophole in iOS could be exploited by malicious developers in such a way that they gain access to all your photos. 

9to5Mac was the first to report the issue.

Some apps will ask the user for permission to use location, but some clever coding around this will allow an app to have its way with your photo library if you allow location functionality.

It's unclear whether or not any apps are actually doing this, but it does appear to be possible. The New York Times had an anonymous developer create an app to exploit this flaw and was able to access all the photos contained on an iPhone.

Why does this matter? If the sheer violation of privacy isn't enough for you, consider this: once your photos are uploaded to an external server, there's nothing that can be done to get them back. And if your photos contain location data in them, some creeper could put together a history of where you've been.

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If you live in America, you know it has been unusually hot. During the week of March 18, 3,550 heat records were set.

The spring heat has brought us a large new crop of unwanted visitors. High on the list is the Halyomorpha halys, better know as Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, or “stinkers” for short. If you have not yet come across these pests, you probably soon will. They are spreading across the country like wildfire.
 
These bugs are hardy sons of bitches. They are about ¾ of an inch long, and have a very hard shell. They hibernate in the winter. As a result of the early spring, they are coming out in droves. A few pics of what to look for:

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Starbucks is getting backlash from the vegan community after changing how it colors its Strawberry Frappuccino, reports Bruce Horovitz at USA Today.

It's using ground up cochineal beetles.

Gross, right? Perhaps, but the type of food coloring is government-approved and widely used throughout the food industry.

Vegans say they're mad because it's presented as a drink that vegans can consume. Daelyn Fortney of the vegan website This Dish Is Veg has started a petition on Change.org to protest Starbucks' use of the coloring.

It's a strange dilemma for Starbucks. The brand is trying to get rid of artificial ingredients, but instead of receiving praise for it, it's getting slammed.

But is Starbucks going about this the wrong way?

Michael Jacobson, executive director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, gave USA Today the logical solution: 

"Strawberry Frappuccino should be colored with strawberries."

NOW SEE: 12 Ways To Get Fired From Starbucks >

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Starbucks is coming under fire from vegans for using ground-up bugs to color its Frappuccinos, but the use of cochineal insects is actually quite common in the food industry.

In fact, cochineal dye has been around for centuries, although that probably doesn't decrease the gross-out factor a whole lot.

So, how do they turn these insects into the food coloring you see every day? It's quite a process.

The cochineal insect is native to Mexico and South America, and contrary to the popular nomenclature, they're not technically beetles. They're tiny and live on cactus plants — usually the prickly pear cactus

Female insects eat the red cactus berries, which concentrates the color in their bodies. See all the red residue left by this squished bug?

So how do you harvest them? There are two methods — traditional and controlled. In both, the insects must be protected from predators and the elements. Each cycle lasts about three months

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After a ton of backlash, Starbucks has decided to stop using crushed cochineal beetles to color its Strawberry Frappuccinos.

Although the company originally thought it was a brilliant idea to use an "all-natural" ingredient to flavor its drinks, vegans across America protested on Change.org since they couldn't consume the drink.

Now Starbucks is swapping out the bugs for an ingredient called lycopene. A company spokesperson tells us that it's a "plant-based alternative" and offered this statement from corporate: 

After careful consideration, we will be replacing cochineal extract with lycopene – a natural, tomato-based extract – in the strawberry sauce (base) used in our Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino blended beverage and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. Likewise, we are transitioning away from the use of cochineal extract in our food offerings which currently contain it (Raspberry Swirl Cake, Birthday Cake Pop, Raspberry Swirl Cake, Mini Donut with pink icing, and Red Velvet Whoopie Pie).

Now read about the ground-up insects Starbucks used to put in your Frappuccino >

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Millipedes got their name from the the Latin roots mille ("thousand") and pes ("foot"). This leads the masses to believe they have thousands of legs.

But the average millipede actually has about 400 legs. In 2006, scientists unearthed the most leggy millipede of all time, with 750, in California.

No known species has more than 1,000. And despite all those digits, they're slow-moving.

We came across this trivia and thought you should know about it.

Here's a picture of a millipede's face:

A full-body shot:

SEE ALSO: What You Need To Know About The Ground-Up Bugs Starbucks Puts In Drinks >

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A new fly discovered in Thailand is the world's smallest. It is five times smaller than a fruit fly and tinier than a grain of salt (0.4 millimeters) in length — half the size of the smallest "no see-ums." It probably also feeds on tiny ants, likely decapitating them and using their head casings as its home.

"It's so small you can barely see it with the naked eye on a microscope slide. It's smaller than a flake of pepper," said Brian Brown, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who identified the fly as a new species. "The housefly looks like a Godzilla fly beside it."

The tiny finding is detailed in the July 2012 issue of the journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

Thailand's Tiny Fly

The type specimen, a female, was picked up by the Thailand Inventory Group for Entomological Research in Kaeng Krachan National Park. The fly is the first of its kind discovered in Asia. [Microscopic Monsters: Gallery of Amazing Bugs]

It has smoky gray wings and the female they discovered has an egg-depositing organ that is pointed to make it easy to lay eggs inside another insect, as a parasitic fly would. While it's not the smallest insect (that title belongs a species of fairy wasp, coming in at 0.14 millimeters in length, about the size of a human egg cell), it is the world's smallest fly.

"When you get really small like that, the environment changes," Brown said. "The viscosity of air starts to become a problem and wind currents are major events. It's amazing how small something can be and still have all of its organs. This is a new frontier, and publishing this tiny fly is basically a challenge to other people to find something smaller," he said.

Feeding On Ants

The researchers named the new fly Euryplatea nanaknihali. It comes from a group of 4,000 hump-backed flies called phorid flies. One genus of the fly, Pseudacteon, is known for its anti-ant behaviors, which include decapitation. They usually range from 0.04 inches to 0.12 inches (1 millimeter to 3 millimeters) in length, so they can only prey on larger ants.

The flies lay their eggs in the body of the ant; the eggs develop and migrate to the ant's head where they feed on the huge muscles used to open and close the ant's mouthparts. They eventually devour the ant's brain as well, causing it to wander aimlessly for two weeks. The head then falls off after the fly larva dissolve the membrane that keeps it attached.

The fly then takes up residence in the decapitated ant head for another two weeks, before hatching out as a full-grown adult. In this case, researchers think the fly parasitizes tiny acrobat ants, whose heads are about as large as the fly itself and grow to about 0.16 inches (4 millimeters) long.

They haven't been able to see this in action, but think it's likely in the newfound fly since the fly's closest relative decapitates ants in Equatorial Guinea.

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You can go to MoMA or The Louvre, but sometimes you'll find great art where you wouldn't expect to find much of anything.

Such is the case in Western Siberia, where scientists hoping to create an eco-tourism route stumbled across a giant mosquito sculpture on a gas company's property in Noyabrsk, Russia.

The sculpture is by Valery Chaliy, who built it on a property in Noyabrsk, Russia owned by gas firm Gazprom — one of the five largest energy producers in Russia

Noyabrsk, Russia lies in the oil fields of Western Siberia. The town has a population of 100,000. It was founded as a work settlement in the 1970s.

Source: The Huffington Post

The mosquito is about 16 feet tall at its apex, according to the photographer

Source: Live Journal

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With a name like the assassin bug, you can be sure this is one tough insect.

As it turns out though, the assassin bug doesn’t just kill and eat its victims—it also wears their exoskeletons as part of its suit of armor.

In a way, this Malaysian bug is probably the closest thing the insect world has to a deranged serial killer.

But the assassin doesn’t just glue its trophies to its back in an attempt to show off the number of kills it has made.

The bodies actually provide the creature with a suit of easily removed armor that is meant to intimidate larger insects that might otherwise consider the assassin bug a tasty treat. Better still, if another bug does try to attack, the bodies will peel off, leaving the predator with nothing but a bunch of already-eaten insect cadavers.

See more pictures of the assassin bug.

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Naples may be famous for serenades such as “O Sole Mio” and “Santa Lucia,” but “La Cucaracha” may be more apt this summer.

An infestation of oversized, red cockroaches — bugs up to three inches long — is alarming local residents in some neighborhoods of the southern Italian seaport.

"They come crawling out of the drains," one exasperated resident told Italy's TM News.

"What about the children?” another man asked the TV news agency. “If these roaches land on a baby, what do you do?"

More from GlobalPost: Will December 21, 2012 be the end of the world?

Unusually hot weather and poor sanitation have been blamed for the infestation.

Some Italian reports have accused public spending cuts introduced as the country struggles to cut its budget deficit to meet euro-zone debt targets. However, Naples' sanitation problems go back well before the euro crisis. The city has been periodically swamped by piles of trash for years, many believe because of chaotic planning and the suspected involvement of criminal groups.

The current problem may become worse. "Trying to remove them this time of year is almost impossible," hygiene specialist Maria Triassi was quoted as saying by the Il Messaggero newspaper.

"The problem could be solved with proper maintenance of drains throughout the year and especially by destroying the eggs when they’re laid in September,” she added. “But that's not being done."

Streets crawling with scary critters is the last thing the city authorities want just as the summer tourist season is reaching full swing.

They already have their work cut out for them trying to promote Naples as a romantic World Heritage listed town with a Mediterranean shoreline and views of Mount Vesuvius. Most news reports describe its poverty, rampant organized crime and uncollected trash.

Mayor Luigi De Magistris has fumed at Italian media reports he accuses of exaggerating the cockroach problem.

"There is no cockroach emergency in our city," he told reporters. "I’ve traveled the world and seen mice, cockroaches, all sorts of bugs."

He blames northern Italian media of targeting Naples in a smear campaign. "The situation in Naples is under control while in some of the other major cities in this country stores are closing because of cockroaches," he said. "It bothers some people to see Naples doing well, to see the south doing well."

De Magistris is particularly upset about mentions of the insects that have crept into the foreign press.

After the French newspaper Le Monde ran a story Thursday describing the cockroaches as the "latest calamity" to hit Naples, he threatened legal action against anyone he said was unfairly harming the city’s reputation.

More from GlobalPost: Costa Concordia captain apologizes for 'banal accident'

Not everyone sees it his way.

"There are so many cockroaches that walking down certain streets is like stepping on a carpet of disgusting crunchy cookies," said Diana Pezza Borrelli, a city council member from the Green Party. "We're requesting an urgent de-roaching campaign in areas that have not yet been given sufficient attention by the public administration."

The city’s health authorities met Thursday to step up anti-pest operations, and said 50 volunteers were being recruited to help eradicate the bugs. They denied reports claiming the cockroach encroachment has led to an increase in diseases.

Several theories account for the origin of the oversized roaches. Some say they were blown over from nearby islands, others that they are a tropical variety that crept ashore from visiting ships.

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As if this summer isn't bad enough already, the unusual warmth is turning bugs extra frisky.

"We're calling it a breeding bonanza," says Missy Henriksen of the National Pest Control Association.

Across the country, as a result of record heat, pests from grasshoppers to crickets and ants to bees are arriving earlier and in greater numbers than usual, say entomologists at HomeTeam Pest Defense.

"We're seeing an increase in a lot of different pests right now," company entomologist Russ Horton says.

Pest controllers are battling grasshoppers in Texas, ants in Florida, and crickets and bees across the country, he says.

"Insects develop more rapidly with higher temperatures," says entomologist David Denlinger of Ohio State University, who adds that insects did well this past winter given the lack of intense cold.

Through June, the USA was sweating thorough its warmest year on record, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

Insects like grasshoppers and crickets can be a nuisance to homeowners, but they are "very devastating" in the agricultural world, Horton says.

As harvesting season nears, the ongoing hot, dry weather could have insects like grasshoppers feeding in greater-than-normal numbers on crops like alfalfa, tobacco and some vegetables, says Lee Townsend, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky.

"Grasshoppers should be abundant, because the bacteria and fungi that normally provide natural control are not very effective under hot, dry conditions," Townsend says.

Grasshoppers are already plentiful in New Jersey because of the hot weather, says entomologist George Hamilton of Rutgers University.

And the most annoying summer pest of all, mosquitoes, are enjoying the warmth, despite the record drought.

"Mosquitoes can breed in as little as a quarter- to half-inch of water," Henriksen says.

Texas and Florida are two spots where mosquitoes are particularly bad, Horton says, because those are two states that have been both unusually warm and rather wet this year.

Forty-seven human West Nile virus infections, which mosquitoes spread, have been reported so far this year to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One man in Texas died from the virus.

Drought can drive insects into homes: Ants, Henriksen says, will come into homes to find water. "If they're not finding it outside, they'll come inside," she says.

If the warmth stays into the fall, insects will continue to do well until the frost comes, Denlinger predicts.

And beyond that, "if we have another mild winter, we'll continue to see more pests out there," Horton says.

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Apple released Mountain Lion today and a lot of people are eager to take advantage of its new features.

But keep in mind that Mountain Lion is a brand new operating system. If you install it today, you're installing the first iteration of this big overhaul, and the first version of anything is never perfect.

Apple tests for all kinds of situations in anticipation of this, but it's not until the software is out in the wild that those nutty one-in-a-million problems present themselves.

For example, Apple had to issue an update from 10.7.3 to 10.7.4 largely due to a bug that exposed passwords in plain text, a pretty serious blunder that didn't get fixed until a few iterations later.

Thankfully, Apple has a historically excellent track record about issuing these upgrades when there are improvements and fixes that need to be made.

We've only heard of a few bugs with Mountain Lion so far. Most notably, Katherine Boehret of All Things D had some trouble getting her Google Calendar to sync properly with Apple's new Calendar app. Apple told her a fix is coming.

Mountain Lion is OS X 10.8. If you don't need to be on the cutting edge right away, you won't miss out on much if you wait until OS X 10.8.1.

Click here for a screenshot tour of Mountain Lion >

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This video of the Chinese army using military flamethrowers to take down a five-foot-wide wasp's nest supposedly comes from the village of Jiangjin Tsx Wan Yuen Tsuen. The colony of wasps was unreachable (it was about 100 feet off the ground, in a camphor tree according to LiveLeak) by another other means, the report says, and had been terrorizing the local village, killing one person.

They couldn't cut down the tree, because there were homes and power lines to either side. So, "two fire fighters and three People's Liberation Army soldiers were put on anti-bee suits and chemical warfare suits." It took about ten minutes of blowtorching, but the nest fully disintegrated leaving ashes and fiery bits along the forest and "the villagers applauded and shouted happy."

(Via Gizmodo)

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From the September issue of Maxim magazine:

Though it's entirely possible a bug might crawl into your ear, chances are slim it would be able to build a secret home in your dome.  In order to make a nest, the critter would have to do a lot of coming and going, which you're bound to notice.

"Nest construction typically entails multiple trips, for both construction and provisioning," explains James Carpenter, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History. 

Essentially, it's like a visit from the in-laws: It's unpleasant, but eventually they leave or die.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Maxim, that last sentence was meant to be facetious.

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One legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year has already become apparent through a study of butterflies in Japan: Their rate of genetic mutations and deformities has increased with succeeding generations.  

"Nature in the Fukushima area has been damaged," said Joji Otaki, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, who is the senior author of the new study.

The abnormalities, which the researchers traced to the radiation released from the nuclear power plant, include infertility, deformed wings, dented eyes, aberrant spot patterns, malformed antennas and legs, and the inability to fight their way out of their cocoons. The butterflies from the sites with the most radiation in the environment have the most physical abnormalities, the researchers found.

"Insects have been considered to be highly resistant to radiation, but this butterfly was not," said Otaki.

The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, cut off power to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to meltdowns that released radionuclides including iodine-131 and cesium-134/137.The researchers combined laboratory and field studies to show the radionuclides caused the deformities and genetic defects. Butterflies netted six months after the release had more than twice as many abnormalities as insects plucked two months following the release, the team found. The rise in mutations means radiation from the accident is still affecting the butterflies' development, even though levels in the environment have declined, the study concluded. [See Photos of Fukushima's Deformed Butterflies]

"One very important implication of this study is that it demonstrates that harmful mutations can be passed from one generation to the next, and that these might actually accumulate and increase over time, leading to larger effects with each generation," said Timothy Mosseau, a professor of biology at the University of South Carolina who studies the impacts of radiation from Fukushima and from the 1986 Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine.

Mosseau, who was not involved in this study, added, "It is quite concerning to see accumulated effects occurring over relatively short time periods, less than a year, in Fukushima butterflies."

Radiated butterflies

At the time of the disaster in March 2011, pale grass blue butterflies (Zizeeria maha) were overwintering as larvae. Two months later, Otaki and his colleagues collected adult butterflies from 10 locations. They observed changes in the butterflies' eyes, wing shapes and color patterns.

The researchers had been studying the pale grass blue butterfly for more than 10 years. The insects live in the same places as people – gardens and public parks – which make them good environmental indicators, and they are sensitive to environmental changes, said Otaki.

The team also bred the collected butterflies at the university's labs in Okinawa, 1,100 miles (1,750 kilometers) from Fukushima. They noticed more-severe abnormalities in successive generations, such as forked antennas and asymmetrical wings.

Last September the team collected more adults from seven of the 10 sites and found the butterfly population included more than twice as many members with abnormalities as in May: 28.1 percent versus 12.4 percent. The September butterflies were likely fourth- or fifth-generation descendants from the larvae present in May, the authors reported.

Deformities inherited

It is likely that the first generation of butterflies suffered both physical damage from radiation sickness and genetic damage from the massive exposure to radioactive isotopes after the disaster, the researchers reported. This generation passed on their genetic mutations to their offspring, who then acquired their own genetic defects from eating radioactive leaves and from exposure to low levels of radiation remaining in the environment. The cumulative effect caused successive generations to develop more serious physical abnormalities. "Note that every generation was continuously exposed," said Otaki.

Mosseau said, "This study adds to the growing evidence that low-dose radiation can lead to significant increases in mutations and deformities in wild animal populations."

The findings are consistent with previous studies in Japan and at Chernobyl, Mosseau added. "The ecological studies that we have conducted found that the entire butterfly community in Fukushima was depressed in radioactive areas, as were the birds, and that the patterns seen in Fukushima were similar to what has been observed in Chernobyl. If the plants and animals are mutating and dying, this should be cause for significant public concern."

The results were published Aug. 9 in the journal Scientific Reports.

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• In Pictures: Japan Earthquake & Tsunami
• Gallery: Dazzling Photos of Dew-Covered Insects
• Butterfly Gallery: Beautiful Wings Take Flight

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A tiny insect called the pea aphid might be one of the only animals to turn sunlight into energy like a plant.

Scientists say they've found evidence suggesting that the insect (Acyrthosiphon pisum) traps light to produce adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the cellular energy currency that powers biochemical reactions. (For animals, cells typically convert energy from food into ATP, while plants make ATP via photosynthesis.)

Aphids are already remarkable in the animal world, because they produce their own carotenoids, pigments usually produced by plants, fungi and microorganisms that can act as antioxidants when consumed by humans. Previous research found that aphids got this pigment-producing power after swapping genes with fungi, and now the new study suggests these carotenoids might be behind the aphid's apparent photosynthesis-like abilities.

Carotenoids contribute to pea aphids' body color, and a French research team from the Sophia Agrobiotech Institute found that the bugs' carotenoid production — and thus, color — varied depending on environmental conditions. Aphids in the cold produced high levels of carotenoids and were green, while optimal conditions resulted in orange aphids that made intermediate levels of carotenoids, and white aphids with almost no pigment appeared in large populations faced with limited resources.

When researchers measured the ATP levels in the three groups of aphids, they found that the green ones made significantly more ATP than white aphids. What's more, orange aphids produced more ATP when exposed to sunlight than when moved into the dark, according to the study results detailed this month in the journal Scientific Reports. The researchers also crushed the orange aphids and purified their carotenoids to show that these extracts could absorb light and create energy.

The team said further investigation was needed to confirm their results and answer why these sap-sucking animals would need to make energy from sunlight.

A few years ago, researchers reported that a green sea slug was the first animal discovered to produce chlorophyll, the primary pigment plants use to capture sunlight, after stealing genes from algae that they ate. Scientists found that these slugs could survive on sunlight, converting it into energy like plants do and eliminating the need for food.

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• Gallery: Dazzling Photos of Dew-Covered Insects
• No Creepy Crawlies Here: Gallery of the Cutest Bugs
• Image Gallery: Carnivorous Plants

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What do Dick Cheney, Lady Gaga, Bob Marley, and Hugh Hefner all have in common?

They've all been lucky enough to have a newly discovered species named after them.

From colorful fish to rabbits to innocuous wasps, here's a small sample of the animal kingdom's celebrity-dubbed denizens.

Lady Gaga the parasitoid wasp

Scientists in Thailand have dubbed a newly discovered species of parasitoid wasp (similar to the one pictured here) Aleiodes gaga, in honor of Lady Gaga. While the tribute's motivations aren't immediately clear, some suspect the researchers are just hijacking Mother Monster's popularity to attract attention to an innovative DNA barcoding technique used to validate the discovery of this wasp.

Hugh Hefner the bunny

Everyone recognizes the bunny icon made infamous by Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire, but few know that an endangered marshland rabbit (similar to our pal here) was named after the indefatigable ladies man. Hef's organization has donated charitably to researchers who are looking to ensure the survival of Sylvilagus palustri hefneri, once abundant in the southeastern United States.

Sting the tree frog

In the '90s, a species of tree frog discovered in northern Columbia, Dendropsophus stingi (similar to the variety seen here), was named after the Police frontman for his commitment to rainforest preservation. The Rainforest Fund was founded in 1989 by the "Roxanne" crooner and his wife, Trudie Styler, after they witnessed the destruction of the Amazon firsthand.

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An invading force is laying the groundwork for a coup in the United States this year, and it's going on right under our noses. The brown marmorated stink bug, an insect species from Asia that has been steadily expanding its range since it landed on the East Coast 15 years ago, will begin to sneak into the homes of unprepared Americans by the hundreds in the coming weeks, entomologists say.

And because of an unusual late-season surge in the invasive pest's numbers, scientists and crop specialists worry that the bug could make one of its strongest showings ever when it comes out of hiding in the spring.

"We've seen increases in populations over the last month or so," said Tracy Leskey, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "This is something that's different than in 2011."

Behind the invasion

In early fall, the stink bugs start to look for shelter in warm, indoor crannies, and attics are among their favorite places to set up thousands-thick overwintering settlements.  A late batch of stink bug nymphs was born last October, but the majority probably perished in the field before maturing, Leskey told Life's Little Mysteries.

This year, however, two full generations have already managed to reach maturity — likely due in part to an early spring — so more will be ready to weather the winter and start multiplying as soon as spring arrives, according to Leskey. [Image Gallery: Invasive Species]

In the United States, brown marmorated stink bugs are most prevalent in the Mid-Atlantic states. A recent national survey conducted by Hometeam Pest Defense found that 59 percent of Washington, D.C., homeowners had had problems with the bugs, making the nation's capital their densest urban stronghold. But the invasive species has now spread to 38 states, including California and Oregon, according to USDA-funded research.

Who should worry?

Beyond the unpleasant smell they release when frightened or smashed, the pests pose no threat to homeowners. But their wide-ranging appetites and their dearth of natural predators in the United States make them a costly concern to farmers.

"About anything that makes a seed or a fruit they'll eat," said Ames Herbert, an entomologist at Virginia Tech University who researches ways to protect Virginia's soy bean crop from the brown marmorated stink bug.

Herbert said crop infestations in Virginia were not as densely populated this year as they were in 2011 but that the bug has roughly doubled its range since last year, with colonies registered in about 40 of the state's 95 counties.

There are no comprehensive estimates on the economic damage caused by stink bugs, but an analysis by the U.S. Apple Association found that stink bugs cost Mid-Atlantic apple growers $37 million in 2010.

What to do?

Both Leskey and Herbert are hopeful that coordinated research and surveillance efforts will help turn the tide against the stink bug. Leskey said researchers have isolated an important stink bug pheromone, which could revolutionize trapping efforts.

She also said an Asian wasp that is one of the bug's natural predators is being tested for introduction to the United States.

Homeowners who want to avoid harboring stink bugs for the winter should make sure their homes are well-sealed, Leskey said.

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Mosquitoes can be quite the pest, especially if you are prone to getting bug bites and having swollen red marks all over your legs and arms as a result.

During our adventures on Necker Island, we got introduced to an alternative method of treating mosquito bites than after-bite ointments.

Aspivenin is a suction syringe (minus the needle) that is supposed to suck out the bug venom and help your bites disappear faster.

I decided to try it out and our videographer Robert Libetti was there to document my experiment.

Disclosure: We were flown out to Necker Island, BVI by Virgin Limited Edition, which covered our travel and lodging expenses.

The device costs $30. Based on the cover, it seems that you can treat wasp stings, spider bites and even scorpion stings. I am a bit skeptical about the effectiveness on the latter.

Depending on the size of the bite, you can choose from four different nozzles.

The gizmo belongs to Kelly Harding, a regional sales manager for UK & Europe for Virgin Limited Edition. She positions the syringe directly over the bite and pressed down.

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