Insects for Fun!

These violins can walk? (Violin Beetles)

This week we're taking a look at Violin Beetles which are a really unique and underrated insect found exclusively in the tropics of Southeast Asia. 
 
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Music from Shingo Sekiguchi! 

Sea Monkeys! What the heck are they anyway?

This week we look at the origin story of Sea Monkeys along with interesting facts about Brine Shrimp.
 
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Music from Lofi Girl with featured artists: HM Surf, Purrple Cat, Mell-ø, and Sleepermane

This one’s a stinker! (Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs)

This week we are talking about the invasive and widely spread brown marmorated stink bug; why there are so many of them and why you don't want them around. 
 
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Music from Lofi Girl with featured artists: HM Surf, Purrple Cat, and Blue Wednesday 
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome to Episode 64 of Insects for fun! The weekly podcast on all things creepy crawly with a focus on insects. Today we’re going to talk about stink bugs because my god there are tons of them right now. 
 
In the fall when weather is starting to cool down a very smelly bug starts to make more and more of an appearance, but today we’re focusing on a specific stink bug called that the Brown marmorated stink bug. This bug is native to China, Japan, and other Asian countries but made its way into the United States in 1998. The state of introduction was Pennsylvania but this smelly bug can now be found throughout many states both east coast and west. Coincidentally it was also introduced into Europe in 1998, but I believe this came after the American introduction. For the European listeners you guys can find these in Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and much more recently the United Kingdom (gasp). They’re going to take over the world I’m sure except for Antarctica because well… who can actually stand to tolerate that wasteland. Now where you live might also have native stink bugs, so how can you tell the difference? The brown marmorated is a marbled deep brown in color. This is actually where the term marmorated comes from, and these ones have white bands on their antennae as well as a black and white stripes along the sides of their abdomen.
 
And yes this is indeed a true bug like all stink bugs and belongs to the family pentatomidae which is in reference to its pentagonal shape. The marmorated stink bug doesn’t only appear in fall though its life cycle begins in spring, but it takes a little while to reach their final form. For example they go through 5 instars or molts and each one takes a week or so to complete. They aren’t anything special to look at either, making them all the more unwanted by most everyone. They’re relatively small too, only reaching about 1.7cm or a little over half an inch, but their smell is incredibly strong, and is often compared with rotting vegetables. I mean if you’ve ever made one angry then I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. But why is it that we only seem to really notice them in the fall if they’re around all summer? These little dudes do not like cold weather, and as a result are actively trying to enter places that can shield them from the cold like your house for example. Or in my case the school that I currently work at because these things are everywhere, and the best part is that my school literally leaves windows open with no screens. They’re straight up asking for stink bugs and then freak out when they enter the school. But this episode isn’t about the dumb things that happen at my school. So now we know these bugs love the indoors when it gets cold, and are really smelly when threatened or scared, but are they bad for us? 
 
Fortunately for you, this stink bug will not bite you, and isn’t harmful to you or your pets! Sure if your dog or cat eats one they might throw up later or get an upset stomach but the bugs are not poisonous or venomous so don’t go rushing them to the vet. Unless something is really wrong, but I haven’t heard of any deathly allergies to stink bugs. I did learn though that people who have an allergy to cockroaches will likely have adverse reactions to the brown marmorated stink bug, and these bugs can release a pheromone to let other stink bugs know they found a good place to hibernate for the winter leading to thousands of stink bugs in your home. One Maryland household had 26,000 individuals which is totally crazy!
 
On the bright side of things, if they do make their way into your home, garage or shed etc, they aren’t going to cause damage by eating your furniture etc. They won’t even reproduce in your home or eat your food. They really just want to get away from the cold, but of course I don’t blame anyone for not wanting them around. And generally you don’t want these bugs around. In fact New Zealand is actively trying to make sure they don’t enter the island and for good reasons! Jamie I’m counting on you (idk if he still listens to this.. Hope he does!) At any rate these stink bugs are generalists feeding on 100s of plants, and when they feed on plants they cause wilting, bruising, and even less fruit production in hardwood trees. They’ll even feed on the fruits themselves causing lots of losses for farmers! They’re an absolute pain to deal with because a single female can lay up to 500 eggs in batches of 20 to 30 under leaves of host plants. It’s also difficult to find them sometimes, especially on grape farms where they can hide in clusters of grapes. They actually affect the taste of wine too if they get poured into the mix, and this is a result of one of the chemicals they release when stressed called E-2-decenal. This compound is responsible for their stinky smell and is also found in cilantro and most of us know how controversial that plant is. 
 
Something else that was more recently discovered about these annoying little guys is that they leave an invisible footprint on the farms they’re found on. For example researchers at Rutgers University found that traces of brown marmorated stink bugs were in the water that farmers were using to wash their produce. One of the farms they found it in didn’t even have a visible infestation, but on the last day of their surveys a juvenile was discovered in a trap. They were wondering if finding traces of the stink bugs with no visual evidence could be a warning that an infestation is coming. 
 
Now if you’re in an area that has these smelly little monsters around you probably want to know how to get rid of them or prevent them from your home. You might even wanna know regardless to prepare yourself for when they do finally show up, and that part of the show starts now. 
 
Your best line of defense starts before you’ve even seen the enemy. Make sure your living situation doesn’t have cracks or crevices leading to the outside. They’re pretty flexible despite their looks and can fit into slits that are around 4mm in height and holes that are 8mm in diameter, and yes those were statistical findings and we can thank the people at Virginia Tech for figuring those out for us. Also try and keep your outdoor lighting to a minimum if you live in an area with stink bugs. They happen to be attracted to lights at night so you’re basically giving them a welcome home sign. Earlier I said they don’t care about your food, and this is generally the case, but if you leave fruit out in bowls then that might also be attracting them so just keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Also if you’re a household that enjoys using firewood and keeps a stack of it around outside, that could also be a prime location for stink bugs to hide. It’s recommended to keep piles of wood like that at least 20ft away from your house and that’s usually a good idea regardless because as we learned in the carpenter bee episode those make good little hotels for bees too. 
 
I’ve got a really weird one now for you. Fragrant Dryer sheets. Apparently stink bugs are not a fan of these so if you wipe down your windows and door screens etc with dryer sheets you can repel up to 80% of unwanted stink bugs. (That’s pretty neat!) 
But some of you might be saying “But I already have them in my home! What do I do now?” 
 
I’m going to share some tips and trips but first a disclaimer. I’m not a professional in pest management. If you have a lot of stink bugs or ANYTHING in your home do yourself a favor and get a professional in there. If you don’t have a serious problem and just want tips to help keep your space free of them then these tips are for you. 
 
Flick them into plastic bottles to contain their stench and pheromones 
Don’t squash them or use hard pesticides in your home, you’ll likely make the problem worse. 
Okay this one is pretty good, get yourself a shot vac and fill the canister with soapy water. Then just go ham and suck all the stink bugs up. It’s not recommended you use a regular vacuum because the smell is incredibly pungent and can stain the lining of a regular vacuum. 
 
We’ve talked a lot about what these stink bugs eat and how we can get rid of them but are there any animals that willingly eat these? The answer is yes! The majority of these are other arthropods though like spiders, and predatory insects, and the life stage at which these are most consumed would be eggs. Katydids, Crickets, Slugs, Ladybugs, even other stink bugs will all happily feed on marmorated stink bug eggs, but there is one predatory that takes the cake by far, and that would be the samurai wasp  Trissolcus japonicus which is native to Japan. This parasitoid wasp is responsible for over 50% of egg mortality in an egg mass, and they also prioritize the brown marmorated stink bug over other bugs. The funny part is it wasn’t introduced purposefully into the states but managed to get here anyway and now people in the U.S. are like dang, can we buy these in bulk? (I’ll take 20! Spongebob quote) It’s also now found in Europe and Chile, and it seems to follow the marmorated stink bugs wherever they go. The best part is that they even overwinter which means that they can survive colder climates! As for purchasing these, they are not widely available like other parasitoids but maybe someday they will be. 
 
That wraps up today’s episode! As always if you enjoy the show please rate it and review if you can as that is the number 1 way to grow our community other than word of mouth. If you want more content or just wat to support the show you can find it at Patreon.com/Insects for Fun 
 
If you have a listener request you can send it to Insectsfordummies@gmail.com and of course be sure to check out the instagram and or fb page for photos and possibly videos. I made a Tiktok account for this which has close to 900 followers now so I’ll probably add videos on IG reels or something as well. There is also the YT channel! 
 
Anyway Thanks for listening and you’ll hear from me again next week.

Are insects Crustaceans? Are Lobsters just Roaches of the sea?

This week we are literally diving into the topic of crustaceans and how they're related to insects, but that's not all. Let's also take a closer look at lobsters and learn some interesting history. 
 
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Music from Lofi Girl with featured artists: HM Surf, and Purrple Cat
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome to episode 63 of Insects for fun! Only today we’re not talking about insects exclusively. This is a bridge episode which is going to link us into all further episodes relating to crustaceans because there’s a lot and I don’t want to have to keep explaining their relationship every time. SO! Here we go (underwater bubbles) 
 
Remember that episode I did talking about how not all insects are bugs but all bugs are insects? Well here’s a new one for ya. All insects are actually crustaceans, but not all crustaceans aren’t insects (HUH) and no, spiders, scorpions, millipedes, centipedes, and horseshoe crabs are not crustaceans which means that yes, lobsters, shrimp and crabs are more closely related to insects than arachnids, and those other creepy crawly arthropods. Let’s go back in time to where it all began which would be the Cambrian period. At this time the earth did have land masses but Pangea was not a thing, and these land masses were very very bare. Almost all life was still in the ocean and it was here that Crustaceans first came into existence.
So what do Crustaceans and Insects have in common then? Well, for starters they both rely on an exoskeleton made of chitin, and they both start out as an egg and go through a series of molts to reach their adult stage. They also both have compound eyes and antennae! Yeah that’s right, even crabs have antennae, and crazier still is that crustaceans actually have two pairs of antennae unlike insects which only have one. But the similarities go deeper than this, and by that I’m referring to their insides. Both of them share the same proteins for transporting oxygen, and they’re circulatory systems are also controlled by the same peptides. I think it’s safe to say that yes. Insects are indeed crustaceans, and when we eat shrimp, crab and lobster, we’re basically just eating big ocean bugs. 
 
But are Lobsters really just roaches of the sea? How did that myth even start in the first place? Believe it or not there was a time when Lobsters were actually referred to as the poor man’s chicken or even cockroaches of the sea in the United States. Back in the 1600 and 1700s the full potential of a lobster's taste had yet to be unlocked and people really didn’t know how delicious they could be. As a result piles and piles of lobsters would wash up on the shores and people didn’t know what to do with them because they certainly weren’t going to eat them. But the reason lobsters began to really pique people’s interest started with the transportation system. As more and more railroads were being built, and more and more passengers were riding trains for longer periods of time; food had to be made available and what better than to offer cheap and common Lobster! More and more people began eating lobster and became curious about the methods one could cook it, and now here we are. Lobster is considered a delicacy and fetches a high price. 
 
So now that we have the knowledge of what a crustacean is, and the history of lobsters in the states. Let’s look at what exactly a Lobster is, and come to a conclusion as to whether they’re indeed overpriced cockroaches or not. 
 
Not all lobsters are the same, and many crustaceans which have lobster in the name are not true lobsters. Today we are looking specifically at clawed lobsters in the family Nephropidae of which there are around 54! Not too many which is kind of surprising, and I think there must be more as well considering they all say we know more about our solar system than we do about the oceans on earth. These clawed lobsters have 10 legs but only 8 are used for walking. The front three pairs all have claws, so yeah the big claws we crack open and eat are just one pair of 3 legs! 
 
Now here’s where it starts to get quite familiar… the body of a lobster contains three segments. The head, thorax, and abdomen, but with most crustaceans, the head and thorax are fused into something called a cephalothorax! Lobsters also contain large compound eyes, and get this, three pairs of antennae… yeah! The two really long ones we see are used for feeling the ground and the others are for picking up chemicals scents in the water. Some of you might be wondering what the smaller leg things are under the tail of a lobster, and those are called pleopods or swimmerets and they help with swimming!
In general clawed lobsters are on the larger side between 25 - 50cm or 10 and 20inches, I mean I’m sure many of us have seen one form of them before, but it does vary depending on where the species lives. For example deep sea lobsters will naturally be smaller in comparison to a big ol red maine lobster for example. The lobster in Japan are also on the smaller side, but I find that most things other than insects tend to be smaller over here.
 
And speaking of where they live… these lobsters can be found in all the oceans on sandy floors, rocky bottoms, muddy floors, as close as the shoreline to out past the continental shelf into the deep with larger lobsters being further out. Lobsters usually get around by walking along the floor but they can be pretty speedy when they need to! A lobster's escape involves flicking the tail and pushing itself backwards with a max speed recorded at 11mph. They don’t just use their legs for walking though. They actually taste with the front walking legs. They also chew with their stomach, not their mouth. They’ve got something called a gastric mill which is basically a food compactor in their stomach that grinds down everything. Now of course a lobster can’t just swallow things whole the way birds often do, and that’s where the large claws come in. These guys usually break open and rip apart their meal to get it into smaller bite size chunks before getting further crushed in the stomach. The claws can use up to 100 pounds of pressure and are the go to cracking open and eating crabs, clams, mussels and sometimes… even other lobsters. 
 
Now let’s take a look at the longevity of a lobster because rumors are that these creatures are insanely resilient, just like a roach, and it is also rumored that lobsters are biologically immortal! Let’s take a look at the facts. Humans and other animals are designed to degrade because as our cells divide and continue to be born again, a small piece of them doesn’t come back until eventually the cells just simply stop dividing. This small tip at the end of our cell's coding is called a telomere. If we’re to think of this in fishing terms it would be like never being able to replace the line on your rod, and you don’t have a swivel, so you need to cut your line a tiny bit every time you change lures and that line is only getting shorter until you simply can’t fish anymore. Now lobsters on the other hand do have a swivel which means they can keep swapping out lures without having to take any line away and this swivel is an enzyme called telemorase. So yeah. Lobsters are in fact biologically immortal. They actually get more fertile with age, so then why do lobsters die? Unfortunately Lobsters have to keep shedding their skin as they age and grow, and to do this they require more energy and calories, so instead of dying from old age, lobsters actually die from exhaustion. At a certain point they simply cannot get enough calories to replace their shells and that’s the end of it. So in our earlier example the  fishing rod of a lobster gets more and more thick until eventually you can’t even lift it anymore to go fishing. They can also regenerate limbs, but it’s going to take some time. For example a one pound lobster will need about 5 years to regrow one of its larger claws. And yes lobsters feel pain! I don’t care what chefs say or anyone in the food industry. They have sensitive hairs all over their body and an incredibly complex nervous system. There is so much misleading information made publicly available by people who really don’t have a clue. For example I read on a Maine Lobster Company website that insects and lobsters don’t have brains so they don’t feel pain. (dumb dumb dumb dumb) 
 
Earlier we got into the history of lobsters as a food source, but did you know that lobsters actually get grades? There are three grades given to a lobster upon its catch and those are either new shell, hard shell or old shell and the price for each one increases with hardness. The reason is that harder lobsters can be shipped further away, but the meat is coarser. New shell lobsters are incredibly fragile and cannot be transported far. The meat is tender and more sweet when compared with harder shelled lobsters. Here’s a fun fact, lobster shells can be used to make golf balls! They look the same, but only have 70% of the power. 
 
Okay it’s time for conclusions on whether lobsters are actually roaches of the sea (drum roll) It’s a no! They share similarities for sure, but they are not close enough on the family tree or even through appearance to be considered. There are definitely sea roaches though but that’s for another episode… 
 
That wraps up today’s topic! If you enjoyed the episode or enjoy the podcast make sure to give a rating and review if you can so more people can find the show! If you want bonus episodes on topics relating to insect news and other noteworthy discoveries you can find those along with vlogs at Patreon.com/insects for fun. If you have a listener submission you can send to me via IG at insect(number 4)fun or through a fb message OR send me an email at insectsfordummies@gmail.com. 
 
Thanks again for listening and you’ll hear from me next week. 

Insect Horror Stories: 2

This is another bonus episode covering spooky tales from people on the internet as well as the news! 
 
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The most misunderstood centipede! (House centipede)

This week we are looking into one of the most feared centipedes and it is purely based on its looks! Another reason why we can't judge a book by its cover.. The house centipede is an amazing hunter of all things we really don't want in our homes. 
 
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Music from Lofi Girl featuring:  Sebastian Kamae, Sleepermqne, and HM Surf
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome to episode 62 of insects for fun! The weekly entomology podcast covering all things insect and arthropod! Oo that’s new… yup I have now opened the floodgates for all arthropods, and today we will be looking at just one of many oddballs commonly called a house centipede. 
 
House centipedes are a group of arthropods in the order scutigeromorpha which happens to be one of many centipedes, but these ones don’t resemble a centipede at all, and they actually look and share more similarities with insects such as full compound eyes, and long jointed legs. Compound eyes means that they can detect movement at incredible speeds, but their vision is actually super blurry. Imagine looking at a wall of monitors and each monitor is showing the same image. It’s super easy to notice when something is moving but you can forget about having a nice big clean image. And speaking of clean images.. the house centipede is definitely not a sight for the faint of heart, especially for those who are scared of creepy crawlies. Their bodies are only between 1 and 1.5 inches in length and slender, but they have 15 pairs of legs which are long and surround the entire body making them appear much larger. The hind legs are actually longer than the forelegs so they can overlap while running without getting tangled and females have two extremely long legs at the very back of their bodies which act as secondary antennae. Honestly if you’ve seen one before you’ll never forget how it looks because they’re really wild. They also happen to be incredibly fast, reaching speeds of 0.4 meters per second or 1.3 feet which is pretty good, and they can traverse almost any surface. There are 25 genera which means there are at least 25 species, but I honestly can’t say how many there are. The most well known species is Scutigera coleoptrata with Scutigera in reference to bear a shield and the Coleoptrata part is like coleoptera which is the order for Beetles because these centipedes have a thorax that’s kind of similar. 
 
But where did these things even come from? And where can you find them now? Well, house centipedes actually originated in the mediterranean, but are now commonly found throughout the world, and because they live in homes and close to humans it’s pretty easy for them to travel. That being said house centipedes didn’t just randomly appear in our homes.They started out in the wild like the roaches from last episode, and these guys prefer to live in damp, cool, and dark places like under logs, tree bark, rocks etc. They’re a nocturnal group and are rarely seen in daylight. I personally almost never see them in the wild, but I have encountered them in buildings. Actually the first time I saw one was in 4th grade at school. I had no idea what it was but it was so crazy looking to me that I really wanted a closer look. These things are incredibly fast though as I mentioned, and I had no such luck. 
Another feature to house centipedes which adds to their swiftness would be tracheal lungs. With these the centipede can breathe while it’s on the run! 
 
Okay so now we know where they started and where they dwell in nature, but why our homes? Well! You’ll be happy to know that these critters don’t care about your food, books, or furniture etc. The house centipede is a predator and prefers live food, which it has no problem catching by the way, and because of this you usually only encounter them in your home if you’ve got another problem… like roaches, bed bugs, silverfish etc. Having these guys around in your home is actually quite helpful and they can’t hurt us at all. Think of them as a creepy roomba for arthropod pests, but with a Turbo mod. Some people fear that the creatures can bite you and are venomous to us. But have no fear! They can’t do damage to us, and honestly they don’t want to either. House centipedes are shy, and even when handled won’t be aggressive towards you. That being said they do actually contain venom which is only potent enough for small arthropods like roaches. They can’t really bite either… These centipedes have two modified forelegs called forcipules, and they’re used to slow down prey that has been captured by their other legs. One article I read states that the centipedes wrangle their prey like cowboys using their legs as lassos to corral and catch their victims. She also mentioned that she handles them all the time for her research and has never once been attacked. You know actually something funny I’ve noticed is that the majority of my listeners are women! Are you surprised? I really do think men are more afraid to be honest, and a study done in 2019 found that out of 2,000 Americans surveyed a larger percentage of men claimed to be very afraid of insects. I'm pretty sure I haven’t said that before on the show but if I did, sorry. It’s actually hard to keep track of all the small pieces of information I’ve written and said when it’s just me doing this!
 
Anyway, house centipedes move around the world by hiding in furniture like rugs or even couches? But please don’t go tearing into your couch looking for something because there is a very good chance you don’t even have them in your home to begin with. Now speaking of beginnings, house centipedes start their life as an egg, and go through a series of molts just like insects! They have 10 molts to be exact, and for the first 5 they grow new legs! The first instar of a house centipede only has 4 and the next molt has 6 with the other 4 molts adding two new ones each time and here’s the crazy part. They can live up to 7 years! Yeah, that’s extremely long for something that is so similar to an insect, and it takes them 3 years to reach sexual maturity. Now I saw something online stating that they prefer winter outdoors but I feel like whoever wrote that probably lived in a tropical climate where summers are unbearable. I mean even Florida to me in the summer is pretty unbearable and I’d much rather be indoors with air conditioning. If you live in a colder climate like New England then you can be sure they’re spending those winters indoors. Especially because they can’t tolerate colder temperatures. It’s a surprise at all that they made it up past Mexico, but I guess being fast and nocturnal has allowed them to stay out of harm's way in close quarters to people. Which brings me to my final point. If you do indeed have this in your home, and you see them quite frequently that means you have a much bigger problem. To remove house centipedes you need to first remove their food, and like I said if they’re around that means you have enough of an actual pest problem which lured them there, and that’s not an easy task. As always regardless of the pest insect, if it’s a lot then you’re better off getting a professional as opposed to turning your home into a home alone film against insects. 

Insect Horror Stories: 1

This is a special episode to celebrate Halloween! Within the episode is a collection of scary and creepy tales written by the users who experienced them and narrated by me. Hope you guys enjoy it! 
 
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Why we hate Cockroaches and why it’s justified!

This week we look at some cockroaches and go into some facts about why they actually aren't great to have around. AND of course, a little myth-busting as well. 
 
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Music provided by Lofi Girl with featured artist: Brillion, Softy, Squeeda, No one's perfect.
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome back everyone to episode 61 of insects for fun! The weekly entomology podcast hosted by your not so local entomologist. Before we dive in, if you’re a fan of the podcast, make sure to rate it and leave a review if you can on whatever platform you listen! It’s real easy to do and the impact is incredible! We are almost at 50 ratings on Spotify and 20 ratings and reviews on apple which are the only ones I can really check to be honest, but the current goal is to get those numbers to 100! And if I’m being real, we could have done that a long time ago based on followers alone (sfx)
 
It’s spooky season and this week we are going to talk about roaches because why not! They’re totally spooky to many including myself, and there is a lot of information out there that most people just have no idea about. So this episode we are going to tackle all things roach and get to the bottom as to what’s scary about them and what isn’t! 
 
Cockroaches belong to the order Blattodea of which there are 4,600 species! Yeah, that’s a lot, and they’re all pretty different. In fact humans only really come into contact without about 30 of those and if you happen to be a US citizen it’s much less, but simply telling you this isn’t gonna change how you feel so we’re gonna move along. Now when it comes to the roaches that we most often see and deal with, those would be the German roach and the brown banded roach. These are the only two domestic roaches, which means they live exclusively in our living quarters and they’ve actually been living with us since we were living in caves. Now fortunately or unfortunately, they are also on the smaller side so they don’t really make big flashy appearances. I’ll be putting the pictures up on the instagram page so you guys can see them. 
 
Let’s start our episode with the german roach. This small light brown roach with dark bands on its head happens to be the most common roach and is found throughout the entire world. Its place of origin however is not Germany… You see this roach started its journey in Borneo, which is a tropical island in the south china sea. They were just doing their thing within caves for thousands of years when people started storing peppercorns for spice trades in the 1600s. I think you can probably guess what happened next.. Fast Forward to today and now we have these annoying critters everywhere, but it wasn’t just the food that was necessary for their survival. Their populations actually exploded only after plumbing got introduced around the world, and they happen to love kitchens and bathrooms. A german roach can actually last for 12 days without food and water but with access to water they can live up to 42 days without food. Of course german roaches do prefer having food and they mostly stay near it in kitchens or cupboards etc. These ones, like most indoor roaches, are active at night and early morning before sunrise. You might not see them often but one way to know you have them is if you see small pepper-like droppings around. Unfortunately German roaches are on the faster side when it comes to reproducing, and a female roach can lay up to 8 oothecas in her life with each one carrying up to 48 eggs. They actually carry these around too until right before they hatch. Now I know you want to know how to get rid of them, and I will tell you of course! But before that I want to share some information about the 2nd domestic roach. 
 
The brown banded roach is another small roach that honestly looks pretty similar to the german roach, at least when it comes to males. The females have a different body shape with brown bands on the abdomen, and the nymphs also have these brown bands. These roaches used to be incredibly common but these days they aren’t so much. It’s believed that air conditions have sort of ruined housing for them by making the environment too cool because these guys prefer much warmer temperatures and are actually believed to come from Africa. They are now found across the world thanks to US troops from world war 2, but again they aren’t too common. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one, but I know for a fact I’ve seen german roaches, even here in Japan. Now unlike German roaches, the brown banded ones do not spend the majority of their time near food. In fact another name for these is furniture roach because they can be found anywhere with furniture such as living rooms, bedrooms, and even behind framed pictures on walls. The brown banded roach prefers to stay at higher elevations with their oothecas being found in the upper 3rd of wall spaces. A brown banded female can lay up to 13 of these in her life, but each one only has up to 18 eggs. Also yes, ootheca is also the term used for mantis egg cases! Turns out roaches and mantids aren’t actually that different, but I’m gonna tell you about that later. 
 
So now I’ve mentioned the two domestic roaches and here’s why you don’t actually want them in your home. Roaches are actually a source of allergen and cause asthmatic symptoms or even asthma attacks in people who are sensitive. In fact according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, roach allergens are one of the most common! Yikes… you’d never notice them either because they just kinda sit still with dust until it gets stirred up when cleaning or moving furniture etc. What’s scarier is that 78% to 98% of urban homes within America have between 900 and 330,000 roaches. Yeah that’s a very wide spread but uh having 900 being the lower number is still terrifying! The problem with urban roaches is that they are not clean like farm raised roaches, and yes people definitely farm roaches for their pets. My younger brother has bins filled with dubia roaches which get fed fruits, vegetables and protein powder. Now I personally don’t fear those at all because I know where they came from and they aren’t disease ridden, but I wouldn’t trust any roach that comes crawling out of a drain or into your house from the streets because they’re able to live in the worst of environments. In fact roaches can carry and harbor E. coli, Strep throat bacteria, Pneumonia, Salmonella etc. But I think I’ve traumatized us all enough for the time being, so let’s look at what we can do to get rid of house roaches! 
 
The first and easiest thing to do if you suspect to have or have seen roaches in your home is to clean! Make sure your floors don’t have crumbs which isn’t hard if you have a dog, keep your kitchen surfaces clean, don’t leave food in your sinks, and keep everything sealed tight. It’s also recommended to keep your indoor humidity levels low but I think most people are trying to do that anyway. Next it’s time to trap and vacuum any roaches you find, but to be honest I wouldn’t count vacuuming as the end all solution unless you filled your vacuum with bleach or alcohol because roaches are crafty creatures, and if there is a way out they will find it. 
 
Now if you happen to have roaches in your home and you’re looking for a way to lure them out and trap them then have no fear! It’s totally possible to do so. 
 
The first method would be to use Diatomaceous Earth which is a dehydrating powder created from fossilized algae. You basically wanna sprinkle this in areas with known roach activity and it will dehydrate them to death. The only downside is it's kind of messy and requires you to pick up dead roaches which could really die anywhere. 
 
If you are more interested in knowing exactly where those roaches are then it might be a good idea to set up traps. One really good method for collecting roaches would be using boric acid or even baking soda. If you go the baking soda route you wanna take some food, like diced up onions or something else that roaches will want and cover it with baking soda. You wanna leave this out in areas where you suspect there are roaches, but this of course means you need to make sure your animals won’t try eating this either. I would keep your pets safely in another room the night you do this or place the trap in an area where your animals can’t access like under your sink in a cabinet or something. 
 
Using boric acid is similar but instead you’ll want a paper plate with a lure in the center like peanut butter and then sprinkle the boric acid around the lure on the plate so the insects are guaranteed to touch it. Again I don’t recommend doing this in an open area accessible to pets like dogs or cats. Boric acid targets a roaches nervous system while baking soda makes them explode from the inside… lovely I know, but hey, that’s why I’m not in the pest control business. 
 
Moving along to the non domestic roaches comes the most well known roach and that would be the American Cockroach. These are called peridomestic because they live around humans but don’t rely on them, but they don’t actually come from America. I don’t know who’s naming these things but they clearly don’t care about geography. American roaches actually come from Africa and were introduced into America via ships in the 1600s similar to the German Roaches. These ones usually invade our homes through pipes, or cracks in infrastructure. I’ve actually seen terrifying videos where swarms of American roaches come running out kitchen sinks. That’s definitely not normal though and it probably means there was a massive sewage break or flood nearby which was making them all flee the underground. Either way it's clearly a bad sign and you can expect something terrible. The american roaches are actually less likely to be in your home than they are in restaurants or other service industry places and the reason is simply that there is more accessible food around. When I worked at Gyu Kaku in Hawaii which is a Japanese chain for all-you-can eat meats, I would always see American roaches in the kitchen looking for scraps on the floor in dark corners or underneath storage bins while cleaning. You really can’t escape them in urban areas. That being said I should also mention that roaches in general do not like light so if you’re scared of seeing one or don’t want to risk having them near you at night you can simply leave a light on. It’s a waste of electricity but hey, it’ll give you some peace of mind I guess. Actually here’s a fun fact for you, the name cockroach comes from the spanish word for them “cucaracha” which was derived from the latin word blatta meaning insect that shuns the light!
 
So earlier I mentioned that roaches and mantids aren’t all that different and here’s why. The ancestors of roaches roamed the earth around 320 million years ago, placing them in the Carboniferous period. This time period is characterized by having swamps with large ferns, Fern trees, horsetail trees, fish, amphibians, and giant arthropods. The ancestor to cockroaches was actually 3 feet in length and that wasn’t anything extraordinary either. Now it just so happens that this ancestral roach also happens to be the common ancestor to Mantids and Termites as well. In fact all three of them are in the same super order Dictyoptera and mantids separated from roaches around 127 million years ago in the cretaceous period when a new proto-roach evolved with raptorial arms. Termites separated around this time as well. So yeah, you can thank cockroaches for the mantids and termites. And really, not all cockroaches are bad. There are plenty of cool ones out there as well like the madagascar hissing roaches, sky blue roaches in Guyana and Emerald roaches in Vietnam. I know for a fact that Hissing roaches and emerald roaches are sold and kept as pets with the emerald roaches fetching a high price, but I’m not sure about the sky blue ones. 
 
Now Let’s get into the myths and facts regarding cockroaches because I think a lot of us have heard quite a few. 
 
One of the most commonly spread rumors is that roaches can live without their heads, and this is actually true! To an extent, if a roach loses its head it can still walk around and breathe, but it’s not going to live a normal life. It’s going to starve to death because it now has no way of eating or drinking. 
 
Another big myth is that roaches will release their babies if you step on them. This is not a given scenario at all, and if you do step on a pregnant one, you can be sure those eggs are now scrambled. HOWEVER if you only crush the upper half of the roach and an ootheca comes out then those might still be viable (bleck) 
 
Here’s a fun one, Cockroaches can survive microwaves! And uh yeah they can! Actually cockroaches don’t go through nearly as many cell divisions as we do, and because the rate at which they do is slower, they can withstand up to 125% more radiation than other animals. Can they survive a nuclear bomb? No… but they’ll last longer than we would in the aftermath. 
 
Okay here’s a good one, Roaches only live in dirty homes. This is false! You can have a home that is spotless and still have roaches living in it. They’ll even resort to eating bar soap if you have nothing else available. 
This wraps up today’s topic, but we’re not quite finished! I’m going to share with you a piece of this month's bonus episode available on Patreon because it really is a different flavor from the mainline content, and I go into much broader topics. Here’s a clip. 
There’s plenty more where that came from on Patreon.com/insects for fun. As always thank you for listening, and if you enjoyed the episode please make sure to rate and review the podcast. It’s easy to do and it really helps grow the show. 
 

The North American moon moth! (Actias Luna)

This week we look at a very special giant silkmoth that comes from North America (Luna moths). The species is incredibly iconic, and there are many different meanings for it across various cultures. The best part is you can also raise them relatively easily as a pet! 
 
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Music provided by Lofi Girl with featured artist: Brillion. 
 
Transcription: 
 
Welcome back to episode 60 of Insects for fun! I wonder what we should do for episode 100… I’ve also been thinking of adding other arthropods into the mix. What do y'all think? Let me know in the comments section either on IG, FB or in your podcast player. Also when this episode is released I’ll be on a flight back to Japan from the states, so I’m currently writing this weeks in advance. Recently we have had some moon viewing stuff going on in Japan, and I figure what better time than to talk about one of my favorite moths, the Luna moth. 
 
Lunas are in the giant silkmoth family Saturniidae and the genus is Actias. There are actually quite a few species of moon moths in this genus, but not all of them are green like the well known luna. Fortunately in Japan the two different species we have are quite similar to the luna, and I’ll be trying my hand at raising one of them next summer. 
 
Actias luna have large and gorgeous pastel green wings with big fluffy white bodies, and one eye mark per wing. The wingspan can reach 5 inches across and also have long tails which only further adds to their celestial appearance. The name Luna is actually in reference to the roman moon goddess Luna, but this was not always their name! The initial name for these was actually plumata caudata which translates to feather tail, and these moths were the first American giant silk moths to be documented in literature. The name was later changed by Linnaeus in 1758. There are actually quite a few giant silk moths with mythological names like Polyphemus, Prometheus and Atlas for example, but the majority of them are brown or a variation of it. The Luna moth can only be found in North America, and not even the entire continent either. These moths chose a side and thankfully for me it was the east! You can find lunas from Canada down to Florida but they stay east of the great plains, and in Canada they’re found from southern Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia. I’ll never forget the first time I saw one, and thankfully finding them doesn’t seem to be all that difficult if you know where to go. 
 
Luna moths are quite partial to forested areas but what kind of plants they eat is dependent on their geographical location. For example the caterpillars we have in Vermont love eating Birch, but I’ve also been successful at raising them on black walnut as well. Other common hosts include Butternut, Sumac, Sweetgum in the south, Alder, Beech, wild cherry and even persimmon. The time of year to find adult moths also varies heavily by location as well and this is because warmer weather allows them to have multiple breeding seasons unlike the northern populations. In Northern Vermont we have one generation a year and our Lunas start coming out of their cocoons in late May. In the south it’s not uncommon to have 2 or three generations in a year depending on the state. Massachusetts for example is right under VT but can have a partial 2nd generation. 
 
The caterpillars are also an incredible green, and they can get pretty big. The 5th and last molt reaches a size up to 3inches or 7.5 cm and has red dots sprinkled over its back. What’s unique to these compared to other giant silkmoths is that the entire caterpillar actually turns red right before it begins making a cocoon. At least that’s been my experience but I’ve also read that some of them turn brown or orange as well. But it's not the color or the ability to change colors that makes Luna moths interesting or the moths in the genus Actias. It’s actually the tails on their wings that have attracted a lot of attention. Some species in the genus actias have tails on their wings that reach 12cm in length, and that’s just the tail section! I can’t tell you these are the only moths with long tails on their wings but I can definitely say they are one of a handful, and the reason they have these tails is to protect them from bat attacks! Bat’s rely on echolocation to find their prey, and it's one of the reasons why they fly in close quarters to people fishing in the evening. The sounds bouncing off the water from lures being whipped draws them in which can be intimidating I gotta say, and the tails on moon moths disrupt the air waves in a way that confuses bats into missing the body of the moths entirely. In fact studies found that Brown bats are near 50% more successful at hunting lunas when their tails are missing. The tails on these moths are never straight either. At the very base of these tails the wing has a slight curve which catches air in a way that changes the source location of their sounds. For example a moth with no tails is essentially a flying target because the sound originates from the body, but a moth with the tails has its sound point from further below the main body. 
 
Some people had previously questioned whether the tails were used for attracting a mate but uh ima be real with you. These moths could not care less about what their partner looks like. Some of them are so blind that they try to mate with anything. And that brings me to my second point. The female luna moths like all saturniidae release a pheromone to lure males, and half the time aren’t even looking in the direction of where males are flying in from. The males have to initiate everything after the female starts calling, so whether or not she lays fertile eggs is dependent on the health or age of the male as well as how closely related they are. Generally speaking the moths have different times of day when they start flying based on gender which is a form of control against inbreeding. Some males won’t even recognize their siblings' pheromones. 
 
Now because luna moths are relatively famous as far as insects go, there are cultural and spiritual meanings tied to the moth. One super simple one is transformation and rebirth but that’s like a copout meaning given to any insect with relevance that has multiple life stages so we aren’t gonna focus on that. The other meanings though have more to do specifically with the luna moth like inner guidance and intuition. I don’t know much about chakras but I guess a soft green color is supposed to represent the heart chakra and is connected to our ability to connect to our inner wisdom, and instincts. The other meaning which I really like connected to these moths is divine femininity. Its gentle temperament and grace links to compassion and intuition often associated with a woman’s instincts. 
 
In some native american folklore the luna moth is associated with rebirth and spiritual guidance. Similarly in celtic mythology the luna moth is associated with the fae, and is seen as a symbol of rebirth and magic. It really does seem that throughout the world and history these moths have held a special place in the eye of those who see it. 
If you would like to raise luna moths it is totally possible to get eggs or cocoons. Especially if you live in the United States, but people can order eggs and cocoons from the US in other countries as well. You just have to be mindful of the host plants you have around. If you simply google luna moth eggs or cocoons for sale you find many different people willing to sell and ship you these insects. They’re also sometimes used in elementary schools as a fun classroom pet to showcase metamorphosis. If you want the cocoons to stay dormant during the winter it’s important that you make sure the insects came from natural conditions. The amount of light they received as a caterpillar dictates whether or not they are going to diapause or sleep during the colder months, and it’s also important that you leave the cocoons outside. They need to stay synced to the natural temperatures and humidity of their environment. Some people put them in the fridge but if you do this the container needs to be air tight because they will 100% dry out and die otherwise. They don’t require much oxygen at all while they are in this state of sleep, but if you’re concerned you can open the container and give them a slight misting before putting them back in the fridge. Too much water and they will suffocate or get moldy. Also if you live in a colder climate I definitely recommend finding a vendor who lives in a similar place. You don’t want souther cocoons coming out early on you. 
 
This concludes today’s episode on Luna moths! I may come to this topic again in the future when I have more time on my hands, but for now hopefully this is enough, thank you as always for listening and if you want to support the show you can rate it and leave a review! Or if you need more insects for fun content or want to further support me and the podcast you can head over to Patreon.com/insects for fun to get bonus episodes, ad free episodes, vlogs, and some new things I’ll be working on as well. 

Secrets of the sand trap (Antlions)

This week is a listener request for Antlions! We look into how sand traps are made and what unique tactics antlions use to keep their prey from getting away. 
 
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Music from lofi girl with featured artists: HM Surf and S N U G, 
 
Transcript: 
Welcome to episode 59 of Insects for fun! The entomology podcast hosted by me is your not so local entomologist, and today we have a new listener request from a listener named Joseph out in Hungary! So without further ado let’s dig into it (animal crossing shovel noise)
 
Antlions are a group of insects in the order Neuroptera which are net winged insects like lacewings and mantidflies and we will definitely be getting to those ones at another time. But today is all about the antlion which are a group of really interesting insects in the family myrmeleontidae of which there are around 2,000! The name antlion appears to have come from the classical era which started in the 8th century before common era, as for why they got this name the most widely believed reason is simply that they prey upon ants like a lion, at least during their larval stage. The insects can be found throughout the world but prefer living in warmer climate areas, especially dry areas like dunes, sandy pine soil barrens like the beach towns in Cape Cod, barren parking lots, basically anywhere that’s got dry or sandy soil. This is not to say they can’t tolerate rain because they can, it’s just that a very rainy area doesn’t exactly pair well with the strategies many of these guys have, and if they are in a rainy place then they choose to make their tunnels underneath cover like fallen debris, trees or or man made structures. 
 
Antlions like all lacewings go through complete metamorphosis, and the larvae are predatory unlike the adults, feeding on ants as well as other small insects, but unlike a lion they don’t chase down their prey. They instead wait for their food to come to them and then take advantage of the moment. Most actually build a funnel-like sand trap and lay in wait at the very bottom. You know the giant sand monster in Star Wars? The one that jabba the hutt would throw prisoners into for fun? I think its name is sarlacc, well that crazy thing is modeled after the larva of an Antlion. OR maybe you’re a star trek fan, in that case think of ceti eel which apparently made its debut in star trek 2 the wrath of khan. 
 
The larvae burrow into the ground butt first and use their arms to fling sand and debri up and out as they form a funnel. Once the trap is made they sit and wait for ants and other insects to walk, slip or fall into their trap. They can tell something is there by feeling the vibrations in the sand using sensory hairs on their bodies which I talked about in a recent episode. These sensory hairs are pretty good and can detect movement of nearby insects that haven’t even entered the funnel trap. Once something has entered the den, the antlion larvae begin flicking sand at the target to create a small landslide, and they are very precise about this, and know exactly how much sand to flick to push their prey to the bottom. If you see videos of these online they absolutely look like sand dune monsters from a sci-fi film. But some species don’t go this far in trap creation, and prefer to stay in premade holes of trees or rocks waiting for something to walk by. Either way these insects are opportunistic feeders, and don’t go chasing down their food. To be honest I don’t think they could even if they tried based on how crazy their bodies are. Of course waiting for your food to come walking by isn’t exactly reliable, and there may be times when little to nothing comes by at all and it's for these reasons that the antlions have very slow metabolisms. They can actually go months without food which actually prolongs their lifespan. That being said, if a location really isn’t providing then the insects will move to a new location. Joseph mentions seeing this happen at the local playground he takes his son to. What’s really interesting and funny is that the larvae move backwards! They could go forward if they wanted, but it’s much easier for them to move this way because of how their body is built. In parts of the US people actually call them doodle bugs because the paths they make in soft soil look like little doodles or drawings made by someone dragging their finger around.
 
Antlions spend the most time as a larva and only pupate once they’ve reached maximum size. This will of course depend on the species but many antlion larvae max out at around ½ an inch or 1.3cm for our listeners that use the metric system. They stay in this pupa for a month's time before emerging as an adult, but the adults don’t live very long. It’s for these reasons that their lives are extended when little food is present, but the goal of an antlion is not a long life. The adults usually last less than a month with 45 days being very long lived. They do have mouths though! In fact adult antlions are another pollinator, feeding on the nectar from various flowers at night keeping our world green while the butterflies and bees are sleeping. The adults resemble a damselfly, but they have long clubbed antennae and their wings have more of a patchwork pattern which is where the order gets the name, lacewings. You probably wouldn’t encounter one though unless you have lights outside your place at night or you decide to raise one from its larval stage. 
 
But you know who has encountered them? Our friend Joseph who has managed to also raise these in captivity. He actually has a lot of experience with rearing antlions as well as studying them as a fellow insect enthusiast. Fortunately for us he has shared a lot of his knowledge with me to give to all of you listeners! Joseph used to collect antlions by first finding their trails and funnels. He mentioned that it's pretty easy to find them in areas that are covered by shade, like under slides or other structures on playgrounds. To get them out of the sand takes some careful work on the part of us, because simply digging them out with your hands is not only difficult but it could also damage them. Joseph recommends using a filter, or a small thin twig to expose them. I’ve also read online that you can use a straw to gently blow air into the funnel which can show you exactly where they are. Afterwards simply place them in a jar filled with sand. These insects are not picky about what you place them in so long as it's roomy enough. Joseph used 700ml jars, and the cool thing is these larvae will simply go about making a new funnel once moved. They really aren’t bothered by glass walls because they’re not trying to move. As for the food, he told me that these insects will in fact eat anything they possibly can, but bulkier prey items like flies etc are more packed with nutrients and make them grow faster. You can tell the larvae have created a pupae when the sand funnel loses its clean and tidy appearance. 
 
The pupae are buried within their sand pits, and are protected by a cocoon made from silk and sand mixed together. If you have one in a container at this point you will need to make sure it has something to crawl on and enough space to spread its wings. Joseph mentions that the cocoons are almost perfect spheres and are super cool to look at. He actually used a separate container specifically for these, and mentioned that if you raise more than one antlion in a jar it's very important to move the pupa out if the other is still a larva, because the larva will try to eat it… 
 
Now speaking of eating, the mouths of antlions aren’t much of a mouth at all, they’re basically slits that can’t open and close the way we eat food, so the insect must first make their prey edible. To do this the antlions inject a digestive enzyme through their large pincers, and then drink the fluids. Yum. When they finish their food it gets tossed out of the pit, and this can result in a pile of corpses. 
 
Apparently it’s not uncommon for antlions to make dense near each other, and the piles of corpses from one pit might actually help a nearby antlion that hasn’t gotten so lucky because studies show that incoming ants usually don’t fall into traps with corpses and it’s not because they aren’t interested. It’s actually the opposite! Ants will come to investigate but then wander away from the crime scene as opposed to haphazardly walking right into a den. It’s kinda cool to think that in the end the life cycles of antlions could be determined by their neighbors. 
 
Now when it comes to predators, there are different ones depending on the lifestage. Adult antlions will get eaten by birds and bats while the larvae tend to be susceptible to parasitoids, and based on findings from researchers it would appear that 3rd instar antlions are the most at risk for parasitization. It totally makes too because the larger the host is the better. Joseph also mentioned that from wild collected antlions the rate of parasitization was pretty high, basically it comes down to how young the antlion larva is when you find it. The younger the better if you want the best chance of avoiding an unwanted wasp. 
 
Thanks for listening to this episode of Insects for Fun! As always if you’re enjoying the podcast it is incredibly helpful to rate it and leave a review! If you would like to further support the show, get bonus episodes and other side content be sure to check out the show on patreon.com/insects for fun. 
Links to the IG, FB and Patreon are in the episode notes, and if you would like to send me a listener submission let me know on any of the socials or at insects for dummies@gmail.com