In life, the little things do matter. A parasite that attaches itself to your skin or clothing is certainly one of those little things that will make a big impression on your priority list. Because body lice, scabies, and ticks take time and patience to evict, prevention is the best medicine. In this article, we …
Organic gardening is popular today, and for good reason: It works wonderfully! Organic gardeners shun the use of synthetic chemicals to keep their yards free from potential hazards. But the real success of organic gardens lies in the methods used to keep plants growing vigorously, without a heavy reliance on sprays. Organic gardening cuts right …
The basics of composting are simple. Most people know they can compost fruit and vegetable peels, leaves, and grass clippings. But what about that tea bag you used this morning? Or the fur that collects in the brush when you groom your cat? The following list is meant to get you thinking about your compost …
75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn’t Read More »
From sourdough starters to homemade pizza doughs, baking today is at an all-time high. And many of our favorite baking recipes call for classic, familiar ingredients like salt, sugar and flour. But there’s one staple that can intimidate even the most seasoned baker: yeast. This single-celled microorganism is integral to the baking process, particularly when …
Yeast Is the Magic Microbe That Makes Bread Rise Read More »
The basics of composting are simple. Most people know they can compost fruit and vegetable peels, leaves, and grass clippings. But what about that tea bag you used this morning? Or the fur that collects in the brush when you groom your cat? The following list is meant to get you thinking about your compost …
75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn’t Read More »
These are the talented people on the HowStuffWorks website team who currently contribute articles to or edit for HowStuffWorks.com. If you have comments on an author’s article, you can submit your comments via e-mail. We look forward to hearing from you! Nicole Antonio, Editorial Director Nicole Antonio studied poetry and screenwriting at the University of …
Bees are not doing well — since the mid-2000s, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been taking out the world’s most famous agricultural plant pollinator, all over the world. Bees pollinate one-third of the plants we eat, from oranges to almonds (a $168 billion service, by the way) and their rapid disappearance is worrying farmers worldwide. …
If one man’s trash is truly another man’s treasure, then there are about 250 million tons of waste produced by Americans alone each year that are just waiting to be turned into riches [source: EPA: Waste]. It’s not necessarily the cents and dollars type of wealth, but rather assets that can improve the environment. As …
You can’t tell what kind of extravagant beauty a creature will become when they’re just a baby. Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of “The Ugly Duckling” proves this is officially A Thing. The elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor) might be the ugly duckling of our time — of all times. An adult elephant hawk moth is …
The Elephant Hawk Moth Is the ‘Ugly Duckling’ of Moths Read More »
Woodlice. Potato bugs. Pill bugs. Roly polies. They look like a shrimp crossed with an armadillo and they seem to have a different name everywhere they’re found. In fact, the scientific name for these little armor-plated, armadillo-like creatures is Armadillidium vulgare. With 12 known species of roly-poly bugs found in the United State alone, these …
Lobsters are odd creatures. Despite their strange, even grotesque appearance and their nickname as the “cockroaches of the sea,” lobsters are a tasty delicacy enjoyed by humans around the world. But lobsters are also quite sophisticated critters. A lobster’s two claws can come in several different forms (crusher and cutter, two crushers or two cutters). …
Sandals, seashells and anchor magnets. These are the goodies we expect to find at beach town souvenir stores. During the 1970s, another mainstay joined the usual lineup: live hermit crabs. Baby turtles were once the pet of choice for small children across the United States. But in the Decade of Disco, their popularity took a …
Hermit Crabs: Tiny Crustaceans Living in Nature’s Mobile Homes Read More »
Every organism on this planet causes problems for somebody — it’s one of the main complications associated with being. Wolves cause problems for elk, English ivy causes problems for trees, humans cause problems for literally everybody else on Earth. It’s just the way of things! The Colorado potato bug (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), or potato beetle, is …
The Potato Bug Is a Super Pest That’s Hard to Control Read More »
You can’t tell what kind of extravagant beauty a creature will become when they’re just a baby. Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of “The Ugly Duckling” proves this is officially A Thing. The elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor) might be the ugly duckling of our time — of all times. An adult elephant hawk moth is …
The Elephant Hawk Moth Is the ‘Ugly Duckling’ of Moths Read More »
You can’t tell what kind of extravagant beauty a creature will become when they’re just a baby. Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of “The Ugly Duckling” proves this is officially A Thing. The elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor) might be the ugly duckling of our time — of all times. An adult elephant hawk moth is …
The Elephant Hawk Moth Is the ‘Ugly Duckling’ of Moths Read More »
There are some ingredients made to go together: peanut butter and jelly, bagels and cream cheese, whiskey and ice cubes. And then there are those combinations that raise eyebrows from the outside looking in – like mushrooms and coffee. Yup, you read that right … mushroom coffee. Despite the strange taste that may leave in …