The recent craze for reality TV shows such as "Survivor" and "I'm almost a celebrity please, please get me on telly" are being blamed for a sharp increase in reported cases of insect abuse.

A pregnant aphid has been found drowned in a quarry near Canterbury with a heavy weight attached to her neck.

Beetles in remote parts of Africa are suffering from such severe food shortages that they can survive only by eating other creatures excrement, claims a report into appalling levels of beetle hardship on the continent.

Seven stick-insects, five spiders, an Asian bumble-bee, an American black cockroach, eight flies, and three dung beetles are among insects that are still kept in three UK flea circuses. Many of these insects are regularly made to perform tricks and manoeuvres unrepresentative of natural behaviour. One flea circus has recently advertised for even more wild insect acts - including scorpions, fly and butterfly larvae, ants and ladybirds - for its 2006 tour.

Hundreds of lice are being rescued from children across America, it emerged today, thanks to revolutionary new lice-saving technology developed by the National Pediculosis Association.

A grisly discovery in Oxfordshire has led to a house spider being released from captivity in a glass jar on a coffee table, and homeowner Mr. J Smith being banned from all contact with spiders for 10 years.

As the holiday season approaches once again, millions of Brits are preparing to head off to warmer climes in search of sun, sea, sand, and suntans. But these tropical holidays often come at a terrible cost to the local mosquito population.

Cockroaches fleeing persecution abroad are swarming to the UK, a new study reveals. Increasing numbers of the insects are escaping repression abroad where they may be trapped, poisoned, or squashed to death and making a new start in the UK.

Aphid lovers all over the world were in mourning yesterday after it was revealed that a Norwich man sprayed insecticide on a rose bush in his garden killing hundreds of aphids in cold blood.