The insects used to make carmine are called cochineal, and are native to Latin America where they live on cacti. Now farmed mainly in Peru, millions of the tiny insects are harvested every year to ...

The secret behind many of these products is carmine dye—a colored extract that comes from the dried and crushed shells of female cochineal insects. Cochineal bugs are part of the Coccidae family ...

If you were asked to select five insects that have most profoundly altered humanity since Homo sapiens first fashioned tools ...

In fact, you’ve probably even tasted this color. And it all comes from an insect deeply rooted in the history of Oaxaca, Mexico: cochineal. Instead of blood, most insects and arachnids have hemolymph, ...

“When the Spaniards came to this new world they were in search of gold, silver, and cochineal and not necessarily in that ...

Working with forgotten materials, Fernando Laposse collaborates with local farmers to create refined designs that revitalize ...

But today, Peru dominates the market, and Mexico’s cochineal farms are disappearing. More from Big Business Cochineals are tiny bugs that live on prickly pear cactuses. The acid in their guts ...

It was the most expensive red across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe for over 1,000 years, until the 16th century, when the Spanish discovered the cochineal in South America, and began to use ...

Thirty other patients had negative patch test results. Carmine is a widely used pigment derived from gravid cochineal insects. Carminic acid is the source of its color. Only two previous ...

This train tour of Peru offers the chance to see everyday life from the rails.

Oh, and it's made from squashed bugs. Squashed female cochineal bugs, to be specific. They're tick-sized critters native to Mesoamerica where they suck the juice from prickly pear cactuses.

The work of Diné artist DY Begay, now on view at the National Museum of the American Indian, blends tradition and modernity ...