Can I Bug You?

With Valentine's this month, naturally, we're focused on kissing bugs. These insects feed on your blood, poop on you, and then potentially, infect you with a pathogen that will make you really sick. Christiane Weirauch, UCR entomology professor, and kissing bug expert, is our guest.

Five years ago, news breathlessly reported the arrival of gigantic, invasive murder hornets in the USA. This month, the same news triumphantly declared them eradicated. How much of a threat were they in the first place? What did the media get right, and what did they miss in this story? Tune in and find out.

After you've taken the stockings down and put away your roast beast feast, who's still celebrating? Roaches, that's who. Jun-Yin Lum, a UCR doctoral candidate in urban entomology, joins us to talk kitchen pests and how to beat them.

Peruvian authorities recently stopped a man with 300 tarantulas and other bugs strapped to his body. What are the ethics of starting your own bug collection? What are the laws? Tune in and find out.

There are *at least* 60,000 known species of them, and depending on how you slice it, you could say that one out of every 15 species ON EARTH is a weevil. Why then are so many people so in the dark about what they are, and what they're after? This episode of the podcast is here to remedy that lack of info, with special gues Dr. Bob Anderson of the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Some insects - we're looking at you, butterflies - are beloved but aren't as helpful as we'd like to think. Others are the stuff of pure nightmares, but actually protect you in ways you don't realize. The truth about whether something is friend or foe is often nuanced.

University of Kansas Professor Chip Taylor joins us on the podcast to talk monarchs. Not like Charles, but the butterflies migrating through California right now. People think they're endangered, but perhaps... they're not. People think they only live in the U.S. but perhaps... they don't. People plant exotic milkweeds in their yards to help them, but is that really necessary? Tune in and find out!

Why are some bugs considered so cute that children want to keep them, while others are the literal stuff of nightmares? Dr. Doug Yanega shares his three rules for differentiating between the cuddly and the creepy.

Did you know most honeybees you find in the wild in California are actually the famous, so-called "killer bees"? Oh, but you protest, they didn't kill you. Quite right. These bees, while defensive, probably don't deserve the name. Find out more about where these bees came from and how they might help farmers solve the crisis of honeybee colony collapse.

You've seen humans push themselves to their limits this summer in Paris. But what about the records for insects? Who holds the title for fastest flyer or runner? Highest jumper? Listen in to find out who - or what, rather - gets these awards!