I’m on the radio!

Best of all, I am joined on this episode of Skeptically Speaking by anthropologist Greg Laden, who talks about entomophagy (bug eating).

My part of the interview starts with a discussion of using a pseudonym online, and why I think scientists need them. Then we have a fun chat about treehoppers, bees, and fake mosquito repellent devices.  Bonus moment of embarrassment:  I try to be relevant to a Canadian audience by comparing native pollinators to Wayne Gretzky.

Enjoy!

Direct link to the show

Here are links to my posts about some of the topics from this episode:

• Xerces Society Pollinator Resource Center
• Hoppers, Hats, and Homology
• Shellac: It’s a bug AND a feature!
• Cochineal: It’s a bug AND a feature!
• Are there roaches in your coffee and chocolate?

Ben the Overly Literal Dermestid Beetle

And he’s got a bone to pick!

I can’t believe I am just now finding out about this.

Today’s topic: “_____gate”.  You can’t just go around making prefixes and suffixes out of any syllables you like. There have to be rules for this sort of thing!

Surf around some of Ben’s some other videos–your productivity is at an end.

Waspthulu discovered in Indonesia

Click to enbiggen. WOW.

News of an amazing new species found in Indonesia!

“The jaw-dropping, shiny black wasp appears to be the “Komodo dragon” of the wasp family.

It’s huge. The male measures about two-and-a-half-inches long, Kimsey said. “Its jaws are so large that they wrap up either side of the head when closed. When the jaws are open they are actually longer than the male’s front legs. I don’t know how it can walk. The females are smaller but still larger than other members of their subfamily, Larrinae.”

I’m not so sure about the Komodo Dragon part, but I’d go for “Waspadon”, or maybe “Hymenoptosaurus”.

These wasps are in a group commonly known as digger wasps or sand wasps, and typically are predators.  The biology of this species is still not known well.  Taxonomic entomologists tend to pin first, ask questions later.

To be fair, untangling the life history of an insect is an incredibly complex task.  Lots of an insect’s life happens in places very inaccessible to humans. Treetops of a rainforest. Underground. Inside the body of another insect.  It can take decades to begin to understand where and how insects make a living.

I can’t wait to find out what this thing eats, and what those freaky jaws on the male are for!  Usually when you have sexual dimorphism in a species (males and females have very different appearances), that means it’s somehow involved in mating displays, or conflict over mating. Perhaps these jaws are the equivalent of deer antlers, or beetle horns.

Unfortunately, finding out more about this species will not be easy:

“Sulawesi, a large Indonesian island located between Borneo and New Guinea, is known not only for its endemic biodiversity, but its rainforest and its proximity to the equator.  Development threatens plant and animal life.… The terrain was steep, slippery and overall, physically challenging, Lynn Kimsey said. “This part of Sulawesi gets about 400 inches of rain a year,” she said. “We were told that Sulawesi has a dry and rainy season. But the only difference we could see between the dry and rainy season is that during the dry season, it rains only in the afternoon.

Kimsey is a collaborator of a five-year $4 million grant awarded to UC Davis scientists in 2008 to study the biodiversity of fungi, bacteria, plants, insects and vertebrates on Sulawesi, all considered threatened by logging operations and mining developments. Much of the mountain was logged two decades ago and now there are plans for an open pit nickel mine, Kimsey said.”

Pit mining has a dismal record for being environmentally friendly–one major pit mine in Indonesia dumps its tailings directly into the ocean.  It’s entirely possible that we will never know more about this species than the few specimens collected.

The grant funding this research is looking, in part, for species of medicinal and commercial value in the Sulawesi rainforest before it’s plowed up. I think we should care about this wasp not because it has utilitarian value to us, but because it is another example of the amazing evolutionary history and diversity of life on earth.  I don’t know how to save that area, and make it possible for the people living there to thrive as well as wasps. But I can hope.

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
–Charles Darwin

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BTW, Thanks to Twitter and FB folk for the suggestions of alternate wasp names!  Wade, Clyde, and Ben.

Bad Beetle Karma

I realized after my interview last weekend that I had never actually covered Japanese Beetle Bags on my blog!  That omission must be remedied!

I’m sure you’ve seen them–they are for sale all over.   The sad truth is that they don’t work.

Sure, they fill up the bag-o’-death in a really satisfying way, but they also attract many, many more beetles into the area that don’t get caught.  As long ago as 1985, there was pretty clear evidence that putting the bags out actually made the damage from the beetles worse.

Beetle bags contain a combination of lures–the bright yellow color mimics flowers, there’s a feeding attractant, and also a female sex pheromone.  It is the buggy equivalent of a giant flashing neon sign advertizing a message equivalent to “FREE SEX ORGY AND ALL YOU CAN EAT BBQ WINGS + BEER”.

A lot of beetles come to the trap–but less than 25% of the beetles attracted actually go into it.

Really.

Here, look at the data.

That’s from a 2009 study that looked at the specific behavior of beetles attracted to the trap.  They concluded that it’s not a problem with trap design; it’s a problem with beetle brains.  Scarabs are notoriously poor fliers; a few will probably bean you at top speed if you stand around outside long enough in the summer.

Their braking strategy is about the same as the one I use on rollerblades–find a large object, smash into it, and hang on.

So, Japanese beetles fly into the area where the trap is and most of them miss it.  They hang around the trap–because they know that orgy must be around here somewhere–and eventually hook up and start eating. Outside the trap.

Some of them do eventually find their way into the bag later on, but the total catch is still pretty dismal.   And you just paid money to bring all these pest insects into your yard. Oops.

One recommendation that’s commonly made, since the traps do work, just not the way we want, is to buy them and give them to the neighbor you hate the most.  Then their garden will be gobbled up, and your beetles will all fly over there.

Sounds great, right? Except. Here is where the Karma comes in.

One of the reasons these beetles are so evil is they have a 1-2 punch.  No only do they eat your fruit and veg, they lay their eggs in your yard. And eat your grass from the roots.

So, if you send all your beetles over to your neighbor’s yard with the traps…they will lay thousands of eggs over there. And even more beetles will come right back when the grubs emerge from his/her yard.  Payback is a bitch.

So how can you control them? Honestly, I have had the best success with a Mason jar full of soapy water. Find a small kid and tell them you’ll give them a penny for each beetle in the jar. Problem solved.

You might also enjoy this video about Japanese Beetle Control created by the University of Maine.  Ayup!

References:

Switzer, P., Enstrom, P., & Schoenick, C. (2009). Behavioral Explanations Underlying the Lack of Trap Effectiveness for Small-Scale Management of Japanese Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Journal of Economic Entomology, 102 (3), 934-940 DOI: 10.1603/029.102.0311
Gordon, F. C., & D. A. Potter (1985). Efficiency of Japanese beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) traps in reducing defoliation of plants in the urban landscape and effect on larval density in turf. J. Econ. Entomology, 78, 774-778

Bug Girl’s Greatest Bug Hits

I thought since a bunch of new readers would be coming by today (in theory!) after my appearance on the Organic Gardener Radio show, I’d put together a collection of posts that give them a flavor of Bug Girl, and link to some of the resources I mentioned.

First, a link to the wonderful Xerces Society publications about encouraging native pollinators in your garden.  Tons of great resources to make your garden or farm pollinator-friendly, all free!

You can find information on the corpse flower we discussed here.

Shellac: it’s a Bug AND a Feature
The little insects we were discussing at the top of the show, that may be in your food, too

Will herbal lotions repel mosquitoes? 
In which I combine zombies, hamsters, Barry White, and mosquitoes in a single post. Rather proud of that one.  Alas, Garlic does not appear to repel mosquitoes, at least not consistently.  You might also be interested in a summary of the research on insect zappers, and the new CO2 devices I mentioned.

Are there roaches in your Coffee and Chocolate?
You may not want to know.

Is it illegal to Kill a preying mantis? Short answer: No.

I don’t know that those are the best, or most amusing, posts, but they are some that consistently get a lot of traffic, and seem to be representative. Check out the category “Ask an Entomologist” on the top right for even more insect goodness!

Also, while I was on the show I heard a commercial for colloidal silver. Please, don’t take that unless you want to join the Blue Man Group.  Colloidal silver is not safe or effective.

School of Ants

I love citizen science projects, and this one looks like a great project for teachers!

The School of Ants project is a citizen-scientist driven study of the ants that live in urban areas, particularly around homes and schools. Collection kits are available to anyone interested in participating. Teachers, students, parents, kids, junior-scientists, senior citizens and enthusiasts of all stripes are involved in collecting ants in schoolyards and backyards using a standardized protocol so that we can make detailed maps of the wildlife that lives just outside our doorsteps.

They are not accepting new applications until Sept. 1, but teachers can email and ask special-like.

Can’t wait? Here are some other insect Citizen-Science projects:

• The Lost Ladybug Project
• Firefly Watch
• Sunflower Bee Counts
• Nature’s Notebook (a project of the National Phenology Network)

BTW, don’t confuse this with a similar movie, School of Ant Rock.

Awwww….EW.

Today’s Tuesday Photo is of an adorable little skipper butterfly, courtesy of Shubhada Nikharge.  And yes, it is taking a drink from what you think it is–bird poop.  Bird droppings have a lot of nitrogen, as well as salts and other minerals that butterflies need. Think of it as a rather splatty vitamin suppliment.  Most plants don’t have high salt or nitrogen in their tissues or nectar, so butterflies seek it out from other sources.  A little factoid to enjoy with your morning coffee.

Operation Cat Drop

In the news recently: Operation Rat Drop, where tylenol-laden mice were dropped from planes over Guam. It’s not a bizarre headache remedy; the idea is to try to kill brown tree snakes (a non-native invasive species) when they eat the mice.  Acetaminophen kills snakes. Who knew?

That reminded me of a similar–but much odder–project: Operation Cat Drop. It’s an oft-told story about DDT and unintended consequences.  I was excited to see it had recently been covered in a journal!

In 1955, a malaria outbreak in Borneo was fought by spraying DDT and other pesticides. Several unintended consequences were observed after the sprays, but time and distance have muddled them quite a bit.  The basic claim is that local cats died after the sprays, and this caused an explosion of rat populations, which lead to increased human disease. The RAF then (in the more exciting versions of the story) parachuted in 14,000 cats to remote Borneo.

Some things are known and documented; one unintended consequence that did occur post-spray was that caterpillars eating the roof thatch of homes increased 50%, with associated roof damage:

 ”The WHO team sent to investigate determined that moth larvae (caterpillars) living in the thatch were able to distinguish the presence of DDT and so avoided eating thatch sprayed with the chemical, whereas their parasites, small chalcid wasps that injected their larvae into the caterpillars, were highly susceptible to DDT, causing their decline and the subsequent increase in caterpillar.”

This is a fairly classic pattern, where pesticides disproportiately affect natural enemies, or living organisms that act as natural brakes on pest insect populations.

It is also known that cats did often die after DDT sprays, and this was observed in several different countries on different occasions, including in Borneo. It would make sense that cats would eat rats and insects (and, in some versions, geckos) affected by the sprays, and the pesticide would biomagnify in their kitty bodies. That, however, does not appear to be the case;  cats’ habit of grooming themselves and ingesting residue of the pesticide was what allowed them to receive a lethal dose.

Which leaves us with the parachuting cats.  There was a rat problem in the area, and there is a record of 20 cats being dropped in Borneo by the  British RAF, along with some chickens, by parachute.  But that’s it. They weren’t in little harnesses; they were in special containers that would cushion the drop.

It’s a fascinating story of how something basic took on a life of it’s own. The paper I’ve cited below suggests that some of the story’s inflation in kitty numbers can be attributed to an expatriate Brit with a big ego that initially  started the rumors.  I don’t have access to his original document, which included little drawings of cats in individual parachutes, so I have done my best to recreate them here.

From there, the story was reproduced and  took on a life of it’s own–I’ve seen versions where all the cats landed in the sea and drowned, versions where there were 10,000 cats, and versions where high-velocity falling cats killed people when they fell on them.  All false, but far more interesting than reality.

Before anyone begins to trot out the usual “DDT will save us all” crap, I want you to read that paper and notice that it clearly lays out a whole sequence of unintended consequences from DDT sprays, including the problem of resistance from as early as in the 1950s.   This paper is a reminder that we should not be uniformly pro- or anti-DDT;  we should make pesticide decisions based on the best available, real evidence. Not propaganda.

Full Citation:
O’Shaughnessy, P. (2008). PARACHUTING CATS AND CRUSHED EGGS The Controversy Over the Use of DDT to Control Malaria American Journal of Public Health, 98 (11), 1940-1948 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.122523