Lifestyles of the Rich Attract a Wealth of Insects
New research finds that the homes in the wealthiest neighborhoods have more diverse creepy-crawlies living indoors than homes in poorer ZIP codes. It's not entirely clear why affluence also equals diverse arthropods (the group including insects, spiders, millipedes and centipedes), but landscaping in wealthy neighborhoods seems to play a large role, said study researcher Misha Leong, a postdoctoral researcher in entomology at the California Academy of Sciences. Leong and her colleagues used data from an exhaustive biological survey of 50 homes in and around Raleigh, North Carolina, to quantify indoor arthropods.