Check out our spookiest stories, if you dare
We've rounded up our most goosebump-inducing stories about bats, spiders, snakes and bugs — and the people who devote their lives to understanding them.
1) Daenerys Targaryen may be the mother of dragons, but UF doctoral student Brittany Campbell is the mother of bed bugs. Campbell has reared the country's first colony of tropical bed bugs, which can help her and other scientists determine how to stop their spread. Full story.
2) The moon rises over the tranquil beach of a Gulf Coast island. Then the snakes come out. There's not much about these fish-eating beach snakes that makes sense, but this researcher tries to understand them. Read more.
3) Male jumping spiders try to mate with just about any female spider, even the wrong species. But a bad date doesn't just end in rejection. When things go poorly, she eats him. Full story.
4) Crowds love watching 350,000 bats fly out of UF's bat village each night. They were less enthused when the bats lived in the track stadium and strafed sports fans with urine. Here's how UF found a happy home for its bug-eating neighbors. Full story.
5) Can we interest you in a close-up of a Tailless Whip Scorpion or a pollen-dotted moth proboscis? Entomology doctoral student Lary Reeves hopes his Instagram inspires you to give nature's less-beloved creatures another look. Read more.