Welcome bug lovers to our latest episode! Asa vast swath of the eastern US prepares for the "double brood" emergence of the various Magiccicada species, we here at Arthro-Pod got to meet up with engineer, entomologist, and author Alie Kratzer to talk about her new book, "The Cicadas of North America". See below for pre-ordering information.  We talk all about how cool these bugs are, the inspiration for the book, and just how exactly Alie was able to draw all those wonderful cicada illustrations. Tune in to learn more! Alie Kratzer Show notes Check out Alie's company Owlfly Tr ..read more

  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 "spicy" so if you listen with kids, prepare for some biological talk! Crickets preparing to mate after the exchange of a nuptial gifts (Photo by Biz Turnell, via https://entomologytod ..read more

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 oriental roach, for space. Due to a variety of factors, the Turkestan roach seems to be spreading and is also being noticed by people in the western US. All of that adds up to an interesting podcast ..read more

  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 academy that seems like AI may have a profound impact on. The gang tries to slice through the hype and share their feelings as well as some reporting on artificial intelligence. Tune in to hear m ..read more

 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 evidence that is true. We're all predisposed to interpret certain signals as being caused by an insect or mite trying to crawl on us or bite us and unfortunately, sometimes this can further mani ..read more

  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'll tune in and that you'll join us again next year.  Mormon crickets are just one newsworthy insect from 2023 Show notes  Worm rain https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N35P ..read more

 Welcome back bug lovers and ho ho ho, happy holidays! On today's show we're diving into Christmas trees! When these trees are being grown, there are some pests that might make their way onto the leaves and twigs, so we're talking about their biology and management. However, most of our calls that involve trees are in regard to insects that have been accidentally brought inside with live trees that are now walking all over the presents so we touch on that too. Finally, Jonathan fished up some folklore revolving around arthropods and Christmas. Tune in to hear all about it! A non-tr ..read more

Hello bug lovers! Recently, there has been a lot of clamor about the discovery of bed bug issues in Paris, France. It's been interesting to watch a resurgence in questions and concerns with bed bugs pop up because of this and to hear people pondering what this means for events such as Paris Fashion Week and the 2024 Olympics. In this episode, Jody and Jonathan sit down to talk bed bug facts, discuss why this news has panicked so many people, and the every day adversity of dealing with bed bugs.  Bonjour bed bugs! Show Notes:  Resources about Bed Bugs  https://lancast ..read more

  Hello bug lovers! Today, we're proud to publish a podcast recorded, edited, and produced by our friends at the podcast Bugs Need Heroes!! We met with them on their show back a little while back and had a blast talking about cockroaches, super heroes, and -most importantly- Danny Devito. They were kind enough to provide the audio to the show so we could also post it to our podcast feed. You should absolutely check out their show, https://www.bugsneedheroes.com/home, where you can hear Kelly, Amanda, and Derek build buggy super heroes out of all out favorite multi-legged friends.&nb ..read more

  Welcome to spooky season bug lovers! To celebrate, the Arthro-Pod crew sat down and watched the 1986 film, "The Fly" starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis and directed by the master of body horror, David Cronenberg. A word of warning, this one might not be suitable for all ages as we do talk about some graphic horror movie tropes and other sensitive topics.  Tune in though if you would like to hear a discussion on the entomological aspects of "The Fly" and why the idea of becoming an insect terrifies us so much. We also touch on scientific ethics and other themes incubating withi ..read more