Inner Nature: Wasps, ants and bees

By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times Summer. A time to kick back, relax and read, or listen to podcasts. I enjoy podcasts, especially science podcasts. Two of my favorites are The Infinite Monkey Cage from the BBC and Ologies with Alie Ward. Both are erudite but also light-hearted and don’t take themselves too seriously – which is one of the failings of politicians, economists and some scientists,...

Inner Nature: Rock honeybee encounter in Chennai, India

By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times I am currently in India. My father lives in Chennai, a city on the southeast Bay of Bengal coast, in a flat (apartment) in a tower block. Recently a swarm of honeybees showed up and settled on a large waterpipe that ran above a public stairwell. Anxious that passersby would get stung, a decision was made by the maintenance crew to call in pest control. A previous...

Local Boy Scout works to help bee colonies

Chase Yeomans (right) a Boy Scout in Troop 22 in Unionville built a Pollinator Habitat Enhancement to help support local bee populations. Chase Yeomans, a Life Scout in Troop 22 of Unionville, has built a Pollinator Habitat Enhancement at the Laurels Preserve in Coatesville. This enhancement addresses the national concern about the tremendous decrease of pollinators in the United States. Since 2006,...

Mosquito spraying: why doesn’t the county want to talk about it?

County needs to answer questions about spraying program By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times The Kennett Township web site has two running headers at the top: “Monarch Butterfly population decline” and “Mosquito Spraying by Chester County Health Department 8/19/2015.” Could these two occurrences be connected, as with bee colonies and insect-eating bird populations being...