Episode 3- Helpers: Insects

The above image comes to us from the Nevada Department of Agriculture. It shows a "Mormon" cricket (Anabrus simplex). Click Here to look at it and learn about some of Nevada's efforts to "control" the crickets.

Episode 3 Synopsis - In this episode, Michelle and Emily jump into an investigation of the history-making power of insects. The hosts welcome guest Molly Hunter, an entomologist at the University of Arizona. Hunter explains how insects are all around us "living their best lives." The goal of the episode is for listeners to hear some examples of insects propelling humans to act in particular ways over time.

Postscript. Click here to listen to our Postscript on the sources that most inspired the stories we share in this episode.

meme via: San Jose State University Writing center

Links and Citations for Learning MORE THAN you already know!

For some gorgeous photos of insects of the west, check out this article in the High Country News. The HCN requires a subscription after you access a couple of free articles.
In addition to learning about the work Dr. Hunter does from her website linked above, you can also learn about her lab - the Hunter Laboratory here.
Of course, one should watch ants on the sidewalk, but one should also watch Antz the movie to think about the cultural power ants exert in human imagination.

One of the most tragic developments in the Mountain West has been the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) infestation in pine forests in many parts of the region. We could focus on the death of millions of acres of trees, we also should focus on the power of the tiny beetles to drive humans to action and to innovation. The spruce beetle is also significant across much of the region.
In 2009, Congress became interested in understanding more about the epidemic of beetles in the West. Click here to read the testimony of Herbert C Frost, Associate Director of Natural Resource Stewardship and Science for the National Park Service. He offered background and information to the House Natural Resources Committee's subcommittee on Water and Power which had created another subcommittee on the beetles themselves. Here we have a primary source that describes how beetles drove Congressional action in historically significant ways.
Photo from United States Forest Service of a mountain pine beetle larvae. Click here to read about efforts to curb the power of these tiny morethan human beings.
Many dead trees appear gray and red on the high-mountain slopes of Union Pass Bridger in Teton National Forest in Wyoming. Photo by W.W. Macfarlane.
A photo of blue stained pine that is being used in construction due to its unique aesthetic appearance which many find beautiful.
Photo from Sustainable Lumber Company in Missoula, Montana.
We discuss the Mormon Cricket War of 1848. To read the secondary article that inspired this section of the episode, click here. In popular memory, seagulls arrived just in time to save the settlers. This moment was commemorated by the Latter Day Saints with the Seagull Monument, erected in 1913. The monument is at the Salt Lake Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City and was created by Mahonri Young. It is considered the first monument to birds in the United States....but perhaps it should have been a monument to insects.
Photo in Creative Commons.
Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) is a fascinating bug without whom the British Red Coats would have just been the British Coats.
Photo is of cochineal on a prickly pear in Tucson, AZ.
Photo by Michelle Berry
For more information on this powerful insect, check out this site at Harvard from which this image of the cochineal bug was borrowed.
Photo by Photo by Vahe Martirosyan, CC BY 2.0
Watch a short video of what cochineal looks like when you crush it.
The Imported Red Fire Ant Congressional Hearings from the 1970s are available to read - click here if you are interested!
Click here to see a video of the bees that Emily discusses as an example of insects as a kind of technology ("nature's rugged robots" according to the video - unpack that if you will!).