The secret lives of bugs

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s time again for our listener mail roundup, and this week, the theme is bugs, bugs, and more bugs. We discover what’s happening inside the chrysalis of a monarch butterfly, find out why fruit flies seem to spontaneously generate from over-ripe fruit, and ask if meat-eaters really are sweeter to mosquitoes. Plus, a cautionary tale about leaving the window screens open. What happens inside a chrysalis during metamorphosis? How does bioluminescence work? Are mosquitoes good for anything? Featuring Karen Oberhauser, Deidre Gibson, and Lyric Bartholomay. SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!). Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook. LINKS Learn more about our mosquito expert, Lyric Bartholomay, in this video about her and her work. This National Geographic article has a good overview of bioluminescence, plus some great photos. Consumer Reports details how it tests bug spray and lists some high-performing products. CREDITS Host: Nate Hegyi Reported, produced, and mixed by Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon. Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So, Nate, this summer, I was vacationing with my family at Moosehead Lake in Maine.
0:07.0	Yep. It's way up there in the woods, not very developed.
0:09.0	Like you can't throw a stone without hitting a deer or like a turtle or something.
0:14.0	Okay.
0:15.0	And this place, it's this rustic cabin.
0:17.4	My partner's grandfather built it by hand.
0:20.2	So cool to be out there.
0:21.8	You know, everybody sleeps in the same room upstairs.
0:23.7	There's no TV, you know, you're playing Scrabble.
0:26.0	Reconecting.
0:26.8	Yeah.
0:28.7	So the lake side of this cabin, you know, it's basically a bunch of huge windows so you can look out over the
0:33.4	water and see this beautiful view. But at night, you know, what that means is that
0:37.3	there are just like hundreds, maybe thousands of bugs and moths just like stuck
0:41.6	to these windows and beyond that it's just total blackness.
0:44.0	The only sound is the just the...
0:46.0	The gentle thumping against the glass.
0:49.0	Yeah, uh-huh.
0:50.0	Big moths.
0:51.0	And you get the impression that this you know you're in like a
0:54.1	fortress under siege. So one night we're playing Scrabble it's late we're
1:01.9	having drinks the kids are in bed upstairs.
	...

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