The Rural Blog

A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.

The Rural Blog

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First animal case of New World screwworm in 10 years discovered in Florida

Cotton field project helps farmers and students learn how to outsmart bugs while saving money and time

Scientists and technical staff who inspect imported items for invasive pests have been fired from USDA

Coyotes can be friends, foe and sometimes just pests. They kill smaller vermin, but they can kill pets or livestock, too.

Helping to save the world might start with inviting bugs back; they've got a lot to offer

Disease-carrying ticks a growing problem in rural America

Climate has changed most in the West, the North and Florida; state-by-state figures may indicate local examples

N.H. and Vermont on the lookout for tick that can cause a meat allergy, a species moving north with climate change

Quick hits: 3G phones will die next year; legal battles have little impact on N.C. hog farms; Wisconsin wolf hunt halted

Lyme disease is now found in all states; meanwhile, a new tick species threatens U.S. livestock

Tick-, flea- and mosquito-borne diseases tripled since 2004

When 26,000 stinkbugs invade your home

New soybean cultivar expands growing range and season, resists soybean cyst nematodes

Effort to clear wild hogs out of creek valley in far Western Kentucky has been successful

Feds to establish seven regional climate hubs to assist and inform farmers during disasters

What's that purple stuff in the fields? The answer is one of many landscape stories worth telling

Farms and forests will suffer generally from climate change, USDA says in new reports

Dairy farmers struggled through drought, now battle armyworms; will suffer without Farm Bill

Common use of genetically modified crops leading to rise in pesticide, herbicide use

Climate change keeping pests alive through winter