Arthro-Pod

  Hello lovers of bugs, as well as bugs who are in love! In today's episode, we take a journey through the world of nuptial gifts within the arthropods and find out why sometimes it is best to wrap a gift before trying to go on a date. Tune in to learn the basics of why nuptial gifts exist and how they can help facilitate the mating process and generation of the next generation. This one is a bit...

Welcome back bug lovers! Today we venture into the world of worms, both segmented and unsegmented, to talk about jumping worms and hammerhead worms. While neither of them are arthropods, entomologists have been fielding inquiries on both over the last few years. We try to dispel some of the myths surrounding these wiggly wonders and discuss the possible negative effects they could have in the envi...

Howdy bug lovers! Scale insects are simultaneously fascinating and sort of uninteresting. They are notoriously immobile for much of their life, making them the insect of equivalent of couch potatoes. But, with that comes intriguing questions about how they live, thrive, and survive. Today, Mike is flying solo to interview Scott Schneider all about this particular group of true bugs! Tune in ! Scot...

Hello bug lovers and welcome to a roach filled Valentine's edition of Artho-Pod! Jody and Jonathan meet up with Dr. Andrew Sutherland of University of California Extension. Andrew is an urban entomologist and an area IPM advisor for UC who serves the San Francisco area. As for today's topic, the Turkestan cockroach is an intriguing invasive species that is competing with other roaches, such as the...

  Hello bug lovers and our new machine overlords and welcome to a new episode of Arthro-Pod. Today, Jody, Jon, and Mike, decide to swerve a bit out of their lane and discuss their thoughts about artificial intelligence, specifically the intersection of AI and entomology/Extension. There is a lot of clamor over what AI means for the future and what it means ethically. Extension is one area of the a...

 Hello friends, and welcome back to Arthro-Pod! Today's episode is a look at a phenomenon many entomologists will encounter, even if they aren't ready to, known as delusory parasitosis. Also referred to as delusions of infestation and Ekbom's syndrome, this situation involves a person believing that their body and home are infested with some sort of biting or stinging pest, despite there being no...

  Hello bug lovers! We hope you have had a wonderful 2023 and are looking forward to 2024. To wrap our season for the year, we wanted to do something fun and make a bit of a news round up focused on arthropods (and some adjacent critters) and see what people were saying about our creepy crawly friends. We'll go from worm rain all the way through malaria and how to kill wasps with gas! We hope you'...