Stink bugs in Mississauga?

Image: Lildobe, Wikimedia Commons

THIS BUG REALLY STINKS

Don’t accidentally step on a bug called the Halyomorpha halys. If you do, your running shoes will smell awful. When crushed, the bug emits an odour even worse than a skunk’s!

That’s probably why the bug is more commonly known as the “stink bug.”

There are more problems with the stink bug than just its odour. It also eats fruit and vegetable crops. In fact, it’s such a problem for farmers that researchers in the United States have spent nearly a million dollars to figure out what to do about it.

Until recently, the stink bug has been living – and bothering farmers – on the east coast of the U.S.

However, last week someone spotted a stink bug in the Greater Toronto Area. Square One shopping mall in Mississauga, to be exact.

A Western Ontario University student, who has been studying plants and animals that live in southern Ontario, noticed the stink bug at the mall. He said he also saw one last year around this time.

Mississauga’s pest control office says they haven’t had any other complaints about stink bugs, so it’s not likely that the bugs are going to pose a big problem any time soon in Toronto. But it’s something that farmers may want to keep an eye on.

In the meantime, people in Mississauga may want to consider this: in some parts of the world, the stink bug is considered delicious. It’s pounded together with spices, chillies and herbs and eaten as a side dish with rice. Yum.

Curriculum Connection

According to this article, workers at the pest control office in Mississauga and farmers in America and Canada dislike stink bugs because they ruin vegetable and fruit crops and they smell bad.

Retell this story from the point of view of the stink bug. Try to convince your audience that you are not a threat.

Primary
identify the point of view presented in a text and suggest some possible alternative perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).

Junior
identify the point of view presented in texts; determine whether they can agree with the view, in whole or in part; and suggest some other possible perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).
Grammar Feature
Draw students’ attention to the use of dashes in the following sentence: “Until recently, the stink bug has been living – and bothering farmers – on the east coast of the U.S.” Discuss why the dash is used in this sentence.
Extensions for Primary and Junior
Create a recipe featuring the stink bug as the main ingredient.
Craft the journey that the stink bug could have taken from the east coast of the United States to Mississauga.

Monkeys protect Commonwealth Games

Langur monkeys will help to keep other
wild animals at bay at the Games.
Photo: Julie Langford, Wikimedia Commons.

MONKEYS GUARDING THE GAMES

Langur monkeys have been put in front of some of the main venues at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India. They're there to scare off wild dogs, snakes and other wild monkeys that might endanger the athletes.

Langur monkeys are extremely intelligent, but very aggressive and territorial. That makes them perfect for fending off wild animals.

Eight of the monkeys, and their handlers, will be posted outside the boxing and the hockey complexes. Two more are on call in the event of an emergency.

The South African team found a King
Cobra like this one in their residence.
Image: Dawson, Wikimedia Commons



Snake charmers are also being used at the games, especially after a king cobra was found in the South African team's residence. Another snake was discovered in the tennis complex.

True to form, our Canadian athletes have nothing bad to say about the living conditions at the Games. Field hockey player Ken Pereira called the accommodations "fine."

Canada is sending 400 athletes, coaches and support staff to the Delhi Games, which begin on Sunday and run through Oct. 14.

Related Links
Canadian athletes to arrive at Commonwealth Games tomorrow

Curriculum Connection
1. What is this story about? Can you identify the different parts of the story (introduction, body, conclusion)?

Primary and Junior
Identify the main idea and some additional elements of texts (OME, Reading: 2.3).

2. How do the specific elements of the article (introduction, body, conclusion) work to develop the story?

Primary and Junior
Identify specific elements of texts and explain how they contribute to the meaning of the texts (OME, Reading: 1.7)

Grammatical Feature
Comma: Highlight the very different uses of a comma throughout the article.

“Langur monkeys have been put in front of some of the main venues at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.” (After each part of an address.)

“Eight of the monkeys, and their handlers, will be posted outside the boximg and the hockey complexes.” (To mark an interruption in thought.)

“True to form, our Canadian athletes have nothing bad to say about the living conditions at the Games.” (After introductory material.)

Discussion Topics
Do you think the monkeys will protect the athletes? If not, how would you solve the problem if you were put in charge? If yes, what solution would you have if the monkeys, themselves, became a problem?

"Barcode" of a beaver on CN Tower

To launch the Barcode of Life project,
the Canadian beaver's barcode was
flashed on the CN tower Saturday.
Photo: Rick Turner/iBOL

CANADA IS LEADING THE WAY IN "BARCODING" ALL ANIMALS ON EARTH

Scientists around the world are undertaking a massive project to help protect animals. And Canadians (in fact, Torontonians) are leading the way.

One day, the project will allow you to point your camera phone at an animal or a bug and a screen will pop up with the name of the species and a description of it.

It's all thanks to the "Barcode of Life" project, which is designed to protect endangered species, and track the movement of animals and bugs - and even pinpoint the sources of contaminants in food.

Every animal and insect (including humans) has DNA. DNA is a set of molecules that stores information about an individual. Everyone's DNA is unique to them. Scientists are using the DNA from animals to create "barcodes" for them, which they will then record in databases in Toronto and Guelph, Ont.

We've all seen barcodes on items - cereal, for instance - in the grocery store. Those barcodes are used by the scanner to let the grocery store know what the product is, and to track it. This barcoding project is just like that, except with animals.

Today it takes about two days and a whole lot of technology to create one barcode. But the process is getting easier and more cost effective. Scientists expect to have more than five million barcodes in the system within the next five years.

The system is already working. Recently, barcoding was used to track a mouse head that showed up in a TV dinner in Asia. They used its barcode to trace it back to a chicken farm that had exported the dinner.

Related links
International Barcode of Life website.
Wikipedia's definition of DNA.

Curriculum Connection

Primary and Junior
What do you think the information gathered from the “Barcode of Life” project will be used for?
Use stated and implied information and ideas in texts to make simple inferences and reasonable predictions (OME, Reading: 1.5).

Grammatical Feature
Parentheses: Highlight the usage of parentheses throughout the article.
“Scientists around the world are undertaking a massive project to help protect animals. And Canadians (in fact, Torontonians) are leading the way.”
“Every animal and insect (including humans) has DNA.”

Discussion Topics
The “Barcode of Life” is a project that costs a lot of money. Protecting animals is an issue that concerns everyone. So who should pay for this project? Why do you think so?

Alaskan walruses in danger

WALRUS CROWDING IN ALASKA

Walruses in Alaska are coming off the ice floes and onto the shore, in the tens of thousands.

The sea ice they normally rest on has melted. On the shores of Alaska, the walruses are now packed shoulder to shoulder, for more than a kilometre.

This is very unusual behaviour for walruses, although it has happened twice before -- last year and in 2007 -- when the Arctic sea ice was at record low levels.

The U.S. government is now doing some research to figure out if walruses should be put on the endangered species list.

In the meantime, they are changing the flight patterns of planes that fly overhead, so they don't spook the walruses. And they're watching the animals to make sure they don't crush each other in their crowded condition.

Normally at this time the females would be resting on sea ice and diving down to the sea bottom for clams and worms. But since there's not enough sea ice, they're forced to stay on shore.

Scientists don't know how long the walruses will be on the shore, but they say there should be enough food for all of them.

Photo credit: The image of these Alaskan walruses was taken by an employee at NOAA, the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.