Changes in Cyprus’ landscape often happen gradually. A plant that once appeared healthy begins to weaken. A familiar patch of countryside looks slightly different from one year to the next. By the ...

In Chebika, as in other rural areas in central Tunisia, many farmers' fields of prickly pear have been spoiled by the cochineal, which swept through North Africa 10 ...

In the midst of a food allergy epidemic, it is important to be aware of all of the possible allergens that people eat, knowingly or unknowingly. Even in the Western world, we each unwittingly eat ...

Have you ever heard of cochineal? And I am not referring to the upscale restaurant in Marfa, Texas, but to the small, scale insect native to our area. This insect lives on nopal, prickly pear, Opuntia ...

Tuna found in the desert? OK, fair enough: that’s tuna, as in the Spanish for prickly pear, the fruit of the nopal. Ken Factor and I have spotted an ancient cactus tree growing close to the veranda ...

After cochineals die, their legacy lives on in the brilliant red hue produced by their hemolymph! The cochineal is a tiny insect deeply rooted in the history of Oaxaca, Mexico. Female cochineals spend ...