Inside the Killing Jar

Seriously...

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.1 • 885 Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2018

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The work of the entomologist very often involves the killing of insects in large numbers. This happens in the search for new species in the exploration of the planet's biodiversity and in ecological investigations to monitor the health of wild insect populations and the impact we are having on the environment. But the methods of entomologists have come under criticism.

Last August presenter and entomologist Adam Hart was involved in a citizen science project aimed at surveying the abundance and distribution of the various species of social wasp around the country. The survey entailed members of the public setting up wasp traps in their gardens for a week and then sending the dead insects to the lab running the project. Many people took part but the study also generated negative newspaper coverage and stinging criticism on social media.

The reaction got Adam Hart thinking: can his profession really defend the death of thousands and sometimes millions of insects for the sake of science, especially when there's so much concern around insect conservation? How do entomologists feel about killing their subjects, and might the insects themselves feel something akin to pain and suffering themselves?

Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.
0:05.0	The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.
0:09.0	And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.0	The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.5	The IRA inmates who found a way.
0:14.5	I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path
0:19.5	through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.
0:25.0	The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.
0:28.5	Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC sounds.
0:34.0	This is the BBC. Sorry to interrupt your scheduled listening experience.
0:48.0	My name is Haley Campbell and I'm the host of UnPopped, a new podcast that digs deep into pop culture.
0:55.0	Search for us and subscribe via your usual podcast, Supplier. There's a tiny museum back home in Brighton that I used to go to a lot as a kid. I remember wandering through the exhibitions, peering into the dusty glass cabinets. It was really creepy but fascinating.
1:22.0	Full of insects pinned to displayboards, animals stuffed and on show.
1:28.0	There's so much to discover.
1:37.0	But can we justify killing creepy crawleys in the name of science? This is really serious, you know, insects are vitally important. They make up the bulk of life on earth. They do all sorts of things that we can't do without like pollinating, being food for most birds and bats and so on. So if that study hadn't taken place, we'd be sitting here with no idea quite what a crisis was looming.
1:59.0	That's Dave Galson from the University of Sussex. He thinks it's defendable, but not everyone agrees.
2:07.2	I'm Riana Dillon and entomologist Adam Hart brings us our story.
2:17.0	This is inside us our story. This is inside the killing jar. So in here I've got a jar, this is called a killing jar, it's got it labeled killing jar.
2:24.0	At the bottom of it I've got Plastroparice.
2:27.0	That's because it absorbs the liquid that I put in there while it turns into a gas.
2:32.0	This is our killing fluid here. I only need a tiny drop of this in there
2:36.2	and this is sealed, it's airtight. It's quite small the killing jar because obviously I want to kill these
	...

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