Arthro-Pod EP 79: What Goes Up Must Come Down- Insect Populations

As Extension professionals, the Arthro-Pod gang often gets asked questions about where a certain insect has disappeared to. It's a tough question to answer because there are so many factors that can impact insect populations. Today we're going to try and unpack some of those factors and talk about why you might be noticing fewer cicadas or why there was suddenly an explosion of butterflies in your area. Tune in!

Photo of Japanese beetle cluster by Jim Kalisch; UNL Entomology 

Show notes you can read through

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.2274

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2017.2841

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/285/5430/1068

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5560498/

https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/dynamics-of-predation-13229468/

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @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

Arthro-Pod EP 78: Insecticide Resistance with Caleb Hubbard

On today's episode of Arthro-Pod, the gang meets with Caleb Hubbard of the University of California Riverside. Caleb is a veterinary entomologist that works with house flies that can cause issues with dairy farms. These flies can be tough to control but also complicate things by becoming resistant to the insecticides we use against them. 

Tune in to learn about what insecticide resistance is, how it develops, and how researchers try to figure out ways to study it. Also, we learn a recipe for maggot food that sounds pretty yummy. 

Show notes

Some papers to review if you would like

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lGnORKON1Jut-j-XHwgVS9NcggcBjuN/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YRi1g1_TsaXl_bNn4m6kXYrIyUFFV089/view?usp=sharing

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

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

Get the show through Apple Podcasts!

Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

We're also on Stitcher!

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

Arthro-Pod EP 77: All About Galls with Denise Montelongo

Hey everyone, Michael here. I'm excited to share an interview I recorded with Denise Montelongo about gall wasps and her work on them at Penn State. We talked about what a gall is, what kind of organisms make galls, cynipid gall wasps, and a whole lot more.

You can follow Denise's work through the Frost Museum on Twitter @FrostMuseum and the web; you can also sign up for the Museum's newsletter.

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

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

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We're also on Stitcher!

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

Arthro-Pod EP 76: What Bugs Bug the Entomologists?

Usually, the Arthro-Pod crew is all about tying to convince people that insects are cool and to be appreciated. However, they are only human and even they have some insects that they have convoluted pasts with. Some of them they may have come around on but others... well maybe it's best they stay separated! Tune in to hear each host's story!

Show Notes

EARWIGS

https://entomologytoday.org/2019/06/25/european-earwig-fruit-pest-potential-ally-or-both/

Video about wing folding for earwigs: https://youtu.be/Q4NiF3w101Q

Scientific paper about earwig wing folding: https://bio.biologists.org/content/5/5/638?rss=1

Deep look about what earwigs (maratime earwgs, which are cousins of European earwigs) use their forceps for: https://youtu.be/HuOnqWpIL9E

How to tell the temperature with a cricket
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-cricket-temperature/

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

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

Get the show through Apple Podcasts!

Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

We're also on Stitcher!

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

Arthro-Pod EP 75: The Rise and Fall of DDT Part 2

Welcome back to Arthro-Pod! Today is part two of our deep dive into the history of DDT, a long and convoluted story that has lots of effects on us today. This portion of the story is about the long fall that DDT had, beginning with the publication of "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson and ending with the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. We talk about the way people viewed Rachel Carson and her work, what the problem is with believing in a "silver bullet", and how DDT may have helped politicize environmentalism. 

Show notes
Learn more about Rachel Carson and her work at https://www.rachelcarson.org

This is also a good look at current perspectives on her and her work
https://slate.com/technology/2012/09/silent-spring-turns-50-biographer-william-souder-clears-up-myths-about-rachel-carson.html

If you enjoyed the show, the majority of the research for it came from David Kinkela's book "DDT and The American Century". It's highly recommended if you want to see more of the primary sources and the inspiration for a lot of our discussion.

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469609775/ddt-and-the-american-century/

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

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

Get the show through Apple Podcasts!

Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

We're also on Stitcher!

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

Arthro-Pod Special Edition: What the heck is a "murder hornet"?

If you have been watching the news lately, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase "murder hornet" being thrown around. There’s a lot of fear-mongering and sensationalism out there. We’re all stressed out and anything nicknamed a “murder hornet” can’t be good.
The Arthro-Pod gang is here with a special podcast episode to tell you it will be okay and there is little/no chance of you being murdered by one of these hornets. If you have a life-threatening allergy to bees/wasp venom, and even if you don’t, be aware of your surroundings and avoid disturbing hives or nests. Even the cutest, most helpful honey bee will sting you of she thinks the colony is in danger.

We are including some helpful resources here from reliable sources if you are interested in learning more about the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia. But please stop calling it the “murder hornet”. Entomologists do not and have never referred to them as such.
Bottom line: Chill don’t kill. 

Photo: Quinlyn Baine, Washington State Department of Agriculture.

Resources

SDA APHID New Pest Response Guidelines (Last update 2020)

https://cms.agr.wa.gov/WSDAKentico/Documents/PP/PestProgram/Vespa_mandarinia_NPRG_10Feb2020-(002).pdf

Washington State:

Asian Giant Hornet in the Pacific Northwest

Presentation by entomologist Chris Looney (March 2020) from Washington State Department of Ag

https://youtu.be/36TFu_W1Vio

Washington State Department of Agriculture

https://agr.wa.gov/departments/insects-pests-and-weeds/insects/hornets

WSDA - Hornet FB Page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hornets

Penn State extension publication
https://extension.psu.edu/asian-giant-hornets
Purdue Landscape Report
https://www.purduelandscapereport.org/article/murder-hornets-should-you-panic-probably-not-heres-why/ 
University of Kentucky infographic
https://kentuckypestnews.wordpress.com/2020/05/05/asian-giant-hornet-in-the-news-but-not-kentucky/

Info from North Carolina State

https://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/05/asian-giant-hornets/

University of West Virginia 

https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/media-center-blog/2020/05/05/expert-pitch-it-s-time-to-kill-the-murder-hornet-headlines

New York IPM response

http://blogs.cornell.edu/nysipm/2020/05/05/asian-giant-hornets-a-concern-for-new-york/

Interview from University of California Riverside

https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=41391&sharing=yes&fbclid=IwAR3pSd0A6l9sRfRVzEOo9911mdtMeu2ja5-V-fYEcEE2VvZutKt8W7RNJl0

Texas A&M post on giant hornets

https://citybugs.tamu.edu/2020/05/05/giant-hornets/

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @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

Arthro-Pod EP 74: The Rise and Fall of DDT Part 1

Howdy, there bug folks! Today's show is going to be the first part of a two parter on the insecticide known as DDT. The topic is a little dark, so we hope you'll take care when exposing younger listeners. We're going to cover the initial discovery of DDT, what kind of world it came to be popular in, and how DDT became forever linked to American ideas abroad. It's a complicated story with lots of twists and turns and one that is still having reverberations today. We hope you'll tune in and learn along with us!

We start by covering the beginning of widespread insecticide use in the US, which involved a lot of application of Paris green for mosquitoes. Paris green is an arsenic based insecticide which had numerous side effects for the environment and people. Here we can see a man mixing Paris green with gravel dust so it can applied to marshes and a propaganda poster advertising the benefits of Paris green. 

The Colorado potato beetle is an insect that reoccurs in the story of DDT. Issues with this insect led to the use of Paris green as an insecticide, it was one of the first pests controlled by DDT, and was of concern to the Nazi government. Here we can see propaganda posters related to the beetle and its invasion of Germany. 

DDT was released into the civilian market in 1945 and advertisements had been preparing people to buy and use it. World War Two had helped to show the homefront that there was an insecticide coming that would help cure their ills. 

You'll notice a theme of happy women and protected babies in many DDT ads from the time. 

DDT was an integral part of American success in WW2 and became a cornerstone of international efforts to deal with malaria and typhus. Unfortunately, with war raging, many of the initial tests on DDT and its effects on humans were focused on the acute symptoms. Therefore, the long term human and ecological effects were allowed to simmer. 

Show notes:
Check out the book "DDT and the American Century" for the information in the episode

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

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

Get the show through Apple Podcasts!

Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

We're also on Stitcher!

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