Why are cockroaches so yucky?

But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids

Vermont Public

Nature, Language, Kids & Family, Science

4.4 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

That’s a question a lot of people have, honestly. But a kid named Rosie was bold enough to ask us to investigate why. So, in the latest episode, we dig in on why cockroaches get such a bad rap and why you might want to reconsider if you’re not a fan.

Only two percent of the world’s cockroaches are considered pests. Those are the ones that can live in houses and potentially make us sick. But the vast majority of cockroaches don’t bother humans at all! Some, like the social cockroach species known as termites, work to decompose organic material and are hugely important to our environment. So where do people learn negative attitudes toward insects? We dig deep into insects with Jessica Ware, an entomologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History. She’s also the host of the PBS digital series Insectarium. Answers to your questions about cockroaches, termites, dragonflies, praying mantises and more!

Download our learning guides: PDF | Google Slide

Transcript

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0:00.0	The This is, but why, a podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont Public.
0:24.3	I'm Jane Lindel.
0:26.1	On this show, we take questions from Curious Kids, just like you, all over the world, and we find
0:31.8	cool people who can help us with the answers.
0:35.1	A few weeks ago we left Vermont where we usually make the show
0:38.8	to have an adventure in the biggest city in the US, New York City. And where did we go once we got there?
0:45.4	Well we made a beeline to one of our favorite museums, the American Museum of Natural
0:51.4	History.
0:52.9	When we got there, we headed downstairs
0:54.9	to a new part of the museum that we'd never seen before,
0:57.9	and it's only been open for about a year.
1:00.5	The insectarium.
1:02.2	So the goal for the insectarium was like this is the 21st century.
1:05.0	We want to actually kind of capture everything about insects.
1:09.0	So this, you know, 27 orders and there's a million and a half to describe species so how do you
1:14.0	capture everything about insects? That's Jessica Ware. She's an entomologist that's a
1:19.2	scientist who studies insects and she works at the Museum of Natural History as an entomologist and a
1:25.2	curator, someone who helps oversee museum collections.
1:29.7	How cool is that?
1:30.7	She gets to work behind the scenes at an amazing museum and be an insect
1:35.2	scientist. She's also the host of the PBS digital series Insectarium. There was so
1:42.2	much to see in this part of the museum. So Jessica showed us around for a little while before we got down to your questions.
	...

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