Hello bug lovers and welcome to our latest episode! On today's show Jody Green meets up with Hannah Davis to talk termites! The reason we are featuring those particular insects is that this week (March 12-17) is Termite Awareness Week. While this national spotlight on termites is focused on the problems they can cause, Hannah and Jody highlight the fact that not all termites are bad and some are even necessary!
Tune in if you want to learn about the wacky life cycle of a termite, how their colonies work, and why termites are considered social cockroaches!
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| Hannah using an aspirator, or "pooter", to move termites from one box to another |
Part of the discussion our termite scientists have today is centered around the recent media postings regarding termites being social cockroaches. Despite this research having been published for a while, there is a sense of interest in this topic right now:
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| The blue termite in this image was stained with Nile blue (a histological stain), then treated with an entomopathogenic fungus. The other termites grooming it are demonstrating why biocontrol with fungi does not yet work |
Hannah was kind enough to provide a link to a cool film on termite gut flagellates:
You can also find Hannah's personal website here: http://hedavis.net/
Or, connect with her over Twitter @berlinbuggirl
Or, connect with her over Twitter @berlinbuggirl
Questions? Comments?
Follow the hosts on Twitter @JLarson_UNL, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36
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This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
