Arthro-Pod EP 138: Debunking Entomology Urban Legends

Welcome back bug lovers! Today, we put on our mythbusting aprons and tackle some of the various misconceptions, myths, urban legends, and internet pranks that involve insects. We're covering everything from pest control via tree fruits to the legality of mantis murder. If you have a favorite insect urban legend, sound off on Twitter and let us know it. Maybe we can do a follow up episode!

Nature's bug bombs?

Show notes

Ultrasonic pest control

https://cals.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/ultrasonicpestcontroldevices2020.html

Cockroach eggs in envelopes

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cockroach-eggs/ 

Earwig myths

https://www.popsci.com/environment/what-are-earwigs/ 

Hedge apples

https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/hedge-apples-pest-control-myth 

It's illegal to kill mantises 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kill-praying-mantis-illegal/ 

Butt spider attack 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/two-striped-telamonia-spider/ 

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36

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Arthro-Pod EP 113: Why do people want kill praying mantises?

The Arthro-Pod gang have had a weird influx of questions from people about how they can best kill Chinese mantises. There has been a lot of concern regarding how they might be invasive and their effects on native species. Join us as we dive in to a complicated topic of parsing through native, non-native, and invasive species and highlight the biology of mantises plus the ways they normally capture our attention. With Chinese mantis, why the hate? What part might anti-Asian sentiment play in the attempts to control them? All that and more in episode 113!

An adult Chinese mantis, wondering what the heck we're talking about

Photo by Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State

Show notes:

Here are some articles highlighting the controversy

https://www.brandywine.org/conservancy/blog/invasive-mantis-species 

https://www.insidescience.org/news/lessons-about-love-and-invasion-americas-foreign-mantises

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36

Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!

If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review!

Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

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