Comment #2

temptustoo — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:52:58 GMT

The scientists say this is normal.... LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE !!!!

Comment #1

sully16 — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:01:20 GMT

we also have a serious honey-bee shortage, we need the bees.

Original Blog Entry: First dead birds, then dead fish ... now crickets

Jani Norman — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:18:01 GMT

First dead birds, then dead fish ... now crickets

Paralysis virus has disrupted supplies to pet shops across North America;

=============

msnbc.com news services

updated 1/12/2011 5:40:49 AM ET

PORT ALLEN, La. A virus has killed millions

of crickets raised to feed pet reptiles and

those kept in zoos.

The cricket paralysis virus has disrupted

supplies to pet shops across North America as

a handful of operators have seen millions of

their insects killed.

Some operations have gone bankrupt and

others have closed indefinitely until they can

rid their facilities of the virus.

Cricket farms started in the 1940s as a source

of fish bait, but the bulk of sales now are to

pet supply companies, reptile owners and

zoos, although people also eat some.

Most U.S. farms are in the South, but suppliers

from Pennsylvania to California also raise

crickets.

The virus had swept through European cricket

farms in 2002. It was first noticed in 2009 in

the U.S. and Canada.

The virus marks the latest in a recent series of

mass animal deaths.

Blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year's

Eve in Arkansas. In the days that followed, 2

million fish died in the Chesapeake Bay, 150

tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 crabs in

Britain and other places across the world.

However, biologists say these mass die-offs

happen all the time and usually are unrelated.

Federal records show they happen on average

every other day somewhere in North America.

In the past eight months, the U.S. Geological

Survey's National Wildlife Health Center has

logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North

America and that's probably a dramatic

==============================

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41034340/ns/us_news-environment/?gt1=43001#

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