National Digest 092424

Bugs briefly cause library shutdown

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — A suburban Detroit library reopened Monday after someone returned more than a movie over the weekend.

The library in Royal Oak said it was closed Sunday after staff members encountered creepy crawlies when a DVD case in the drop box was opened.

A pest control company investigated and found no more insects, the library said.

"The photos we shared showed that it was a cockroach. We are clear," the library said on Facebook.

Library director Sandy Irwin offered a bit of humor from the stacks.

"I'm a librarian, not a pest control professional," Irwin told the Detroit Free Press, "but I will look up 1,000 types of bugs."

The incredible shrinking cornstalk

WYOMING, Iowa — Taking a late-summer country drive in the Midwest means venturing into the corn zone , snaking between 12-foot-tall green, leafy walls. But soon, that towering corn might become a miniature of its former self, replaced by stalks only half as tall as the green giants that have dominated fields for so long.

The short corn developed by Bayer Crop Science is being tested on about 30,000 acres in the Midwest with the promise of offering farmers a variety that can withstand powerful windstorms that could become more frequent due to climate change . The corn's smaller stature and sturdier base enable it to withstand winds of up to 50 mph.

The smaller plants also let farmers plant at greater density, so they can grow more corn on the same amount of land, increasing their profits. That is especially helpful as farmers have endured several years of low prices that are forecast to continue. The smaller stalks could also lead to less water use at a time of growing drought concerns .