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One of Madonna's New York neighbors says the superstar's loud music and frequent dance sessions are causing a commotion. Karen George, of Manhattan, lives above Madonna in a building on Central Park. She said in a lawsuit filed Friday against the building's co-op board that the Material Girl is using her apartment as a rehearsal studio, forcing neighbors to endure "blaring music, stomping and shaking walls," for up to three hours each day.

Massachusetts residents say they are under siege from this year's large crop of acorns as the hard nuts have been falling from trees like rain. Greg Roberson and Neil McIsaac of Brookline, Mass., said they routinely encounter the nuts as they fall from area oak trees, creating safety hazards while in the air and once on the ground, The Boston Globe reported Saturday. "Every time I hear one, I think it's a kid throwing a rock at me," Roberson said. "They're falling everywhere." "I've nearly broken my neck several times," McIsaac offered. "There are tons of them."

Spider Bugs the Pope in Prague [See URL Video] A spider appeared on Pope Benedict's robes as he addressed politicians and diplomats in Prague on Saturday, disappearing and appearing again.

San Diego, California, has a problem with spiders. These aren’t the cute David Bowie kind or the useful silk-making kind, these are the invasive, super-poisonous kind. Originally from South Africa, the brown widow spider, also called the gray widow, brown button spider, or the geometric button spider has spread like wildfire throughout the United States and has recently found the city of San Diego to their liking. Not only are they running the local spider population out of town, they’re also pretty much running everything and everyone out of town as their population swells out of control. While the brown...

Experts say the insects are from Asia and first appeared in Allentown, Pennsylvania back in 1996. They then spread throughout our area and beyond. There are no known predators, so the bugs continue to creep into homes through cracks and crevices. Experts say while last year was bad, this year will be worse. "I thought I heard something rattling in the baseboard and there were hundreds in one window," Wade added. Residents say they are under attack inside and outside of their home. "I was battling them out of the way," Milhaupt said. Milhaupt says she snags them with tissue,...

Frank Gwozdz says coyotes have made a meal out of his livestock so often in the past several months that the farmer is thinking of leaving agriculture. “They are wiping me out,’’ Gwozdz said ...from his 110-acre farm in Dartmouth in Southeastern Massachusetts. In the past several months, Gwozdz said, coyotes have killed two cows, four calves, 14 goats, two lambs, two sheep, and numerous geese, ducks, and chickens. “They are getting bolder and bolder,’’ Gwozdz said of the coyotes... Gwozdz said he and his family have tried to deter the animals, sometimes by standing guard into the early morning...

Entomologists at the University of California, Riverside working on fruit flies in the lab have discovered a novel class of compounds that could pave the way for developing inexpensive and safe mosquito repellents for combating West Nile virus and other deadly tropical diseases. When fruit flies undergo stress, they emit carbon dioxide (CO2) that serves as a warning to other fruit flies that danger or predators could be nearby. The fruit flies are able to detect the CO2 and escape because their antennae are equipped with specialized neurons that are sensitive to the gas. But fruits and other important food...

A carnivorous pitcher plant that eats rats and insects has been discovered in the Philippines and named after Sir David Attenborough. The plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is believed to be the largest meat-eating shrub, dissolving rats with acid-like enzymes. The team of botanists, led by British experts Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson, found the plant on Mount Victoria in the Philippines. They were inspired to search for the plant after word that it is existed came from two Christian missionaries who described seeing a large carnivorous pitcher in 2000 after they climbed the mountain. Mr...

SYDNEY -- Thousands of camels in Australia's remote Outback could be killed by marksmen in helicopters under a government proposal aimed at cutting down the population of the havoc-wreaking creatures. First introduced into Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert, there are now about 1 million camels roaming the country, with the population doubling every nine years. They compete with sheep and cattle for food, trample vegetation and invade remote settlements in search of water, scaring residents as they tear apart bathrooms and rip up water pipes. Last month, the federal government set aside 19...

Thousands of camels will be shot from helicopters and turned into burgers in a bid to halt their trail of havoc across Australia. Marksmen plan to gun the animals down amid concern the thirsty dromedaries are barging into people's homes and ripping up their bathrooms looking for water. Government officials plan to wipe out 650,000 of the feral population in the remote Outback area of the country. The creatures were first introduced to Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert. There are now about one million camels roaming the country. They compete with sheep and...

(CBS) You’re trying your best to enjoy an evening cookout, but a constant swarm of mosquitoes follows you from grill to poolside. The threat? A pierce to your skin, leaving behind an itchy red welt and possibly even a serious illness. As you swat madly at the pests, you notice that others seem completely unfazed. Could it be that mosquitoes prefer to bite some people over others? The short answer is yes. Mosquitoes do exhibit blood-sucking preferences, say the experts. "One in 10 people are highly attractive to mosquitoes," reports Jerry Butler, PhD, professor emeritus at the University of Florida....

FORT IRWIN, Calif. -- Bureau of Land Management officials say as many as 100 wild burros will be rounded up in the Mojave Desert next month and put up for adoption because they keep invading the Fort Irwin Army base. [snip]

- Big Hollywood - http://bighollywood.breitbart.com - Cockroaches in the Hospital on Your Chest Posted By Victoria Jackson On July 17, 2009 @ 5:03 am In Featured Story, Politics | 155 Comments Since I turn 50 next month, I’m focused on my Bucket List. There are only 2 things left I haven’t accomplished. 1) I’ve always wanted to be “an airhead on a sitcom.” Of all the roles I’ve played, many of which I wasn’t suited for, strangely, this one has eluded me. 2) Attend a weekly Bible study. So, I am now in a Bible study group on Wednesdays and...

MUCH LIKE THEIR MYTHICAL NAMESAKES VAMPIRE BATS MUST FEAST ON FRESH BLOOD EVERY 2-3 DAYS OR DIE OF STARVATION. THEY SEEK OUT WARM-BLOODED MAMMALS THRIVING OFF DOMESTIC LIVESTOCK LIVING IN THE TROPICAL REGIONS OF SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA. MOST VICTIMS NEVER FEEL A THING AND THE BITE ITSELF IS SUPERFICIAL. BUT INCREASINGLY BATS ARE TARGETING HUMANS AND THE ENCOUNTERS ARE TURNING DEADLY. THE BATS ARE BLAMED FOR RABIES OUTBREAKS IN PERU AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GRANTEE DANIEL STREICKER IS RESEARCHING THE ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES AND EXTENT OF THE DISEASE. "Vampire bats are kind of the perfect storm of different ecological characteristics. On...

PETA: Murder boys but not flies! Posted: June 20, 2009 By Humberto Fontova "Human beings often don't think before they act," laments PETA while explaining their reaction to President Obama's unthinking fly "execution." "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals." Close on the heels of their consciousness-raising campaign for fly compassion, PETA has launched a vegetarian campaign using Che Guevara's 24 year-old granddaughter, Lydia, dolled up in commie beret and topless, though strategically covered by twin bandoliers of carrots. "Join the Vegetarian Revolution!" reads the campaign's slogan, which will debut in Argentina (no...

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House. PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside. "We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals." During an interview for CNBC at the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: It's even made the UK Telegraph, ladies and gentlemen. "Barack Obama Swats Fly During CNBC Interview." US President Obama swatted and killed a fly during an interview with CNBC and then they go on to describe, wow, after killing the fly, Obama said, "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got the sucker." "As Obama started to respond to a question from the interviewer he became distracted by a fly buzzing around his head and started to laugh." We have audio on this. This is how it happened last night on CNBC, chief Washington correspondent John Harwood...

VIDEO:Click here to watch Obama kill a fly!

The common, everyday act of swatting a bug is something that happens countless times a day at picnics and ball games across the country, especially during the summer, but when Barack Obama was caught on tape by CNBC's cameras doing it, the fawning liberal press couldn't contain their excitement. All three broadcast network morning shows, on Wednesday, praised the presidential kill as they were impressed by the "ninja" Obama's "precision," and "cat-like quickness."[audio available here] On NBC's "Today" show substitute-host David Gregory opened the show declaring: "You just have to appreciate the, the concentration and the precision! Just a few...

- see the video - The president proved yesterday he will not tolerate distractions from his hefty political agenda -- at least not those coming from pesky insects. President Obama addressed issues ranging from health care to financial industry reform in a lengthy interview on CNBC on Tuesday, but he was interrupted by a fly persistently buzzing around his head. "Hey! Get out of here," Mr. Obama said. After a few irritated swats, the president zeroed in on the pest and patiently waited for it to land on his hand. He gave it a quick smack and watched it fall...

Said Obama to the persistent fly: "Get out of here." But it didn't. So Obama waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked the fly dead in one try.

President Barack Obama makes short work of a pesky fly during an interview with CNBC's John Harwood.

New York City plans to trap and kill as many as 2,000 Canada geese this summer in an attempt to avoid the type of collision that caused an airliner to ditch in the Hudson River.

All gray squirrels killed at Prince Charles's estate die humanely, a spokesman for the heir to the British throne said Friday. The prince angered animal rights activists this week when he said gray squirrels, an import from North America, should be regularly culled in Britain to protect forest areas and the native red squirrel. The news that he practices what he preaches at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, his country home and organic farm, added gasoline to the flames, the UK Express reported. Charles' office refused to release details on how the squirrels meet their fate. "We don't poison them or anything...

Most drivers would be delighted if their car came with a silk-lined interior. Whether it's such an appealing prospect on the outside is another matter. This is the sight that greeted one unlucky motorist when he returned to his vehicle in Rotterdam. Under a giant silk cocoon created by an army of caterpillars, the shape of a Honda is just about visible. The car was mistaken as food by spindle ermine larvae, which had already begun to strip a nearby tree of its leaves. Spindle ermines weave silk webs to protect themselves from birds and wasps, allowing them to gorge...

(AP) — LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - A Kansas man accused of beating a gull that tried to eat his wife's ice cream is appealing a $275 fine stemming from the incident in California. The Orange County Register reported Friday that Dragan Djuric of Wichita, Kan., contested the fine levied by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

HAZLET, N.J. (AP) - The owner of a New Jersey pest control company has been charged with animal cruelty after a squirrel was found dead in a rooftop trap. Chief Buddy Amato says a professional complex hired Critter Ridder to help get rid of the squirrel. He says a trap was set Wednesday for the animal, and no one returned to check on it. Amato says the squirrel was found "cooked to death on the hot roof" Thursday afternoon. Buck faces four counts of animal cruelty, including one that cites her for not providing the squirrel with adequate food, water...

Woman Says Constant Squawking Drove Her To KillA woman said a peacock's constant squawking drove her to kill it last weekend, Honolulu television station KITV reported. Residents of the Makaha Valley Towers property said they woke up Sunday morning to a peacock screeching and a woman attacking the bird. "She took a bat and she beat it to death and she carried it out of here," witness Mike Targgart said. Targgart said he heard the commotion and ran downstairs where Honolulu police had arrived. "It was horrible to see its eye was bashed out and it had a broken leg,"...

Rats across Britain are evolving a resistance to poison that makes them almost impossible to kill, scientists have warned. Genetic mutations have produced a new breed of "super rat" with DNA that protects the vermin from standard toxins, according to Professor Robert Smith at the University of Huddersfield. Ratcatchers in Berkshire and Hampshire were the first to report that their poisons were no longer effective, which experts put down to increased immunity among the pests.

Note: Video included. # SEATTLE – The U.S. Customs and Border agents have detained 11 shipments of reed fencing from China that were so infested with plant pests and diseases, it could have killed crops.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists are preparing to eliminate a cluster of invasive fish known as tilapia that have been found in waters off Plaquemines Parish. Tilapia is a popular imported and farmed fish served in restaurants across the U.S. Native to Africa, the fish could devastate native species important to recreational and commercial fisheries, scientists fear. The Wildlife and Fisheries Commission declared an emergency Thursday, which will allow agents to kill tilapia in an isolated part of Plaquemines Parish. The process of poisoning the fish with heavy applications of a substance called rotenone will take about two...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US officials are on the warpath against a new plague pouncing on unsuspecting Americans from cellphones, keyboards and mattresses -- the humble bed bug now staging a comeback after two decades. The tiny blood-suckers had all but vanished over the past 20 years, but now pose "the most difficult, challenging pest problem of our generation," entomologist Mike Potter from the University of Kentucky told a conference. "In my opinion, we are not going to get out of this thing" until we "allow the pest-control industry to go to war," he warned. The two-day meeting on Tuesday and...

<p>So the Parks and Recreation department is going to use a special machine to detonate some of the 100 to 150 rodents that are tearing up the grounds.</p> <p>The machine is called the Rodenator Pro. It pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels.</p>

A group of West Side Madison residents is considering hiring a sharpshooter to kill problem urban coyotes that have become increasingly brazen in recent weeks, attacking and killing neighborhood pets and exhibiting little fear of people. Tammy Graupner, who lives in the Highlands neighborhood off Old Middleton Road and whose poodle, Puff, was killed by a coyote in February, said a number of other confrontations and sightings of coyotes have people in the area worried. Of special concern, she added, is the possibility that the escalating nature of the animals’ behavior toward pets and people could result in someone, possibly...

<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Parts of eastern Arkansas are infested with a type of fish that is threatening the ecological balance. The snakehead fish is indigenous to Southeast Asia, but the species has been found in large numbers in the Piney Creek watershed in Monroe and Lee counties.</p>

Physicists have created a laser weapon that targets mosquitoes. It is hoped that by finding an effective weapon against mosquitoes, the incidence of malaria could be reduced. Today, malaria kills about one million people every year around the world. "We'd be delighted if we destabilize the human-mosquito balance of power," says Jordin Kare, an astrophysicist who once worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the birthplace of some of the deadliest weapons known to man. More recently he worked on the mosquito laser, built from parts bought on eBay. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the...

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A quarter-century ago, American rocket scientists proposed the "Star Wars" defense system to knock Soviet missiles from the skies with laser beams. Some of the same scientists are now aiming their lasers at another airborne threat: the mosquito. In a lab in this Seattle suburb, researchers in long white coats recently stood watching a small glass box of bugs. Every few seconds, a contraption 100 feet away shot a beam that hit the buzzing mosquitoes, one by one, with a spot of red light.The insects survived this particular test, which used a non-lethal laser. But if these...

ROSENDALE, N.Y. — A mysterious and deadly bat disease discovered just two winters ago in a few New York caves has now spread to at least six northeastern states, and scientists are scrambling to find solutions before it spreads across the country. White-nose syndrome poses no health threat to people, but some scientists say that if bat populations diminish too much, the insects and crop pests they eat could flourish. Researchers recently identified the fungus that creates the illness' distinctive white smudges on the noses and wings of hibernating bats, but they don't yet know how to stop the disease...

A federal judge Thursday denied a request by the Humane Society of the United States for a stay of his order allowing three Western states to resume capturing or killing sea lions that feed on salmon at the base of Bonneville Dam. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled in November against the Humane Society, which is trying to prevent Oregon, Washington and Idaho from killing or transporting up to 425 California sea lions over five years to relieve pressure on the spring chinook salmon run. Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, called Thursday's motion a "Hail...

Liberia has declared a state of emergency over a plague of caterpillars that has destroyed plants and crops and contaminated water supplies, threatening an already fragile food situation. Tens of millions of marching caterpillars have invaded at least 80 towns and villages in central and northern Liberia, preventing some farmers from reaching their fields and causing others to flee their homes. The inch-long pests – the caterpillar life stage of the noctuid moth – have spread to neighbouring Guinea and are threatening Sierra Leone, which has set up monitoring teams along its border. ... "This is becoming a no-go area,"...

MELBOURNE Water and Nillumbik Council have dropped plans to blow up rabbits with explosive gas after warnings about fire dangers. A joint project using “oxygen detonation technology” to destroy warrens along the Diamond Creek, between Nillumbik Park and Diamond Creek Reserve, had been due to start on Tuesday this week, the Diamond Valley Leader reports. A public notice issued by the council had advised residents they might hear regular “muffled explosions” as far as a kilometre away.

If you've ever inadvertently stepped in geese droppings, you might want to keep reading. Connecticut, in particular lower Fairfield County, has an overpopulation of non-migratory Canada geese, producing an overpopulation of droppings -- nearly one-and-a-half to two pounds per day, per bird. More than just a hindrance, the geese droppings negatively impact the environment, environmental activists say. "We have some water quality concerns, particularly in the Norwalk River, which has a documented excess of indicator bacteria in its waters," said Alexis Cherichetti, senior environmental officer for the City of Norwalk. Dick Harris, principal investigator on a water quality report conducted...

Hundreds of birds that dropped dead on Somerset County cars, porches and snow-covered lawns, alarming residents over the weekend, were all of a rather foul breed of fowl -- the notorious European starling, which the United States Department of Agriculture killed on purpose…. Yesterday, the USDA acknowledged a few mistakes of its own in spreading the word in the area around a Princeton Township farm, where it applied a pesticide Friday to kill 3,000 to 5,000 starlings plaguing a livestock farmer. "It was raining dead birds," said Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine….

The emergency landing made by US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River can only be describe as a miracle. Everything was perfect from the pilot's ability to make a controlled landing near ferries and tour boats, to the fact that no passengers were seriously hurt. While the NTSB has yet to make a final determination of the cause of the "crash" all initial reports point to Canadian Geese flying into and damaging both engines right after take off. It is interesting that on January 22, 2004 just short of exactly five years earlier, NY's Chief Moonbat, Senator Schumer announced...

From FoxNews.com:How Birds Can Down a Jet Airplane January 16, 2009 "More than 200 people have been killed worldwide as a result of wildlife strikes with aircraft since 1988, according to Bird Strike Committee USA, and more than 5,000 bird strikes were reported by the U.S. Air Force in 2007. Bird strikes, or the collision of an aircraft with an airborne bird, tend to happen when aircraft are close to the ground, which means just before landing or after take-off, when jet engines are turning at top speeds. The incidents are serious particularly when the birds, usually gulls, raptors and...

State officials have authorized a special hunt for snow geese this spring in an attempt to control an exploding population that has damaged fields and nesting areas.    Snow geese in the Brigantine area.  Hunters will be allowed to kill an unlimited number of the geese from March 11 to April 18 under a conservation order issued by the state Division of Fish and Wildlife. The number of snow geese in North America has increased to more than 1 million in recent years — twice the ideal population, state officials said. "They have become exceptionally abundant," said Ted Nichols,...

The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted on Tuesday after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity was taken offline. (Note: A link to the full story on McColo's demise is available here.) Experts say the precipitous drop-off in spam comes from Internet providers unplugging McColo Corp., a hosting provider in Northern California that was the home base for machines responsible for coordinating the sending of roughly 75 percent of all spam each day. In an alert sent out Wednesday morning, e-mail security firm IronPort said:...

Business think tank, Direct Marketing Directions, has released their findings on the worldwide effect of ‘Do not call’ lists throughout the English-speaking world based on six months worth of research and interviews.

We have a family of ground hogs who have lived under the concrete front steps of our house, under a giant climbing rose for generations. We bought the house from Mom, and they have lived there for as long as she can remember. She is 96. We've had the front steps "mud jacked" six years ago because it was falling into the den. However, the ground hogs came back 2 years ago and started raising new families. We tried last year to get rid of them, but they came back this year. We had mom, pop, and 3 babies. The...