Bug Banter with the Xerces Society
Join us as we explore the fascinating world of invertebrates and discover how to help these extraordinary animals.
The Xerces Society is a nationwide non-profit organization that works to conserve invertebrates and their habitats.
For more information go to xerces.org.
Episodes
53 episodes
The Secret Lives of Bumble Bees: Nesting and Overwintering
We’ve all heard the familiar buzz of a bumble bee. Their fuzzy bodies fly around looking for pollen and nectar. But where do bumble bees nest? Where do they spend the winter? And how can we support this part of their lifecycle?To talk wi...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 21
•
37:08
The Salmonfly Project: Anglers, Insect Conservation, and the Future of Freshwater Streams
Insects play a critical role in rivers, lakes, and streams, acting as a vital food source for many animals and maintaining the health of these freshwater ecosystems. A few of these insects include: mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies. The bad...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 20
•
44:30
.jpg)
Bitter Nectar, Toxic Pollen: Pollinators and Plant Chemicals
We’ve spent some time on this podcast discussing pollinators and their life histories but today we are taking a deeper dive into plant chemistry to better understand the relationship between pollinators and their floral resources.To help...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 19
•
42:32
Leave the Leaves or Lose the Insects
**Correction: The study described in this episode states that the total number of insects emerging from a square meter was 18,000. The correct number is 1,800.Leave the leaves has become something of a rallying cry and discussion topic i...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 18
•
33:52
Monarchs & Pesticides: Understanding the Impact, Exploring the Solutions
In this episode, we will be taking a closer look at the monarch butterfly, but we won’t be talking about milkweed or nectar plants, or the migration and overwintering sites – at least, not directly. No, our focus is on pesticides and monarchs. ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 17
•
43:53
Understanding Native Bee Populations: The State of the Bees Initiative
How are native bee species in the US doing in light of the major threats they are facing? What more do we need to know to protect them? There are over 3,600 species of native bees in the United States, but we only know the conservation status (...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 16
•
39:35
The Living Fence: Hedgerows as Havens for Insects
Co-host Matthew Shepherd came from Britain, a country known for its hedgerows. He grew up surrounded by hedges, sometimes many centuries old, crisscrossing the countryside. Early in Matthew's career he helped plant, maintain, and restore miles ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 15
•
31:02
.jpg)
State of the Butterflies in the United States: A Roadmap for Recovery
I’m sure it’s not surprising to hear that butterflies are in decline, but the speed at which it is happening may be. Butterflies are being lost at a rate of 1.3% per year, which means more than one-fifth have disappeared over a 20-year period. ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 14
•
47:30
Bug Banter Live! Building Pollinator Habitat
One of the most effective ways to contribute to pollinator conservation is to provide the essential components of pollinator habitat. To celebrate Pollinator Week, we invited a panel of Xerces experts to help us answer audience questions in thi...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 13
•
54:04
.jpg)
Pollinator Check-Up: Bee Health and Novel Monitoring Tools
In the face of insect decline, it is critical for us to understand pollinator health both in terms of influencing factors and how to monitor those impacts. Today we are specifically focusing on bees.To talk about some exciting research ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 12
•
41:51
How Habitat Kits Are Helping Save Pollinators
Creating habitats with native plants is one of the most impactful ways to help invertebrates. One of the programs at Xerces is helping people do just that by providing free Habitat Kits to communities in several regions of the US.Joining...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 11
•
34:43
Stories from the Prairie: Life in a Resilient Ecosystem
Prairies are an ecosystem that historically spanned the center of this continent from the Rocky Mountains to east of the Mississippi and from Texas north to Saskatchewan. Although less than 5% of that prairie remains today, it is critical habit...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 10
•
46:36
_Justin%20Meissen_flickr-CC.jpg)
Greenroofs, Solar Arrays, And Urban Farms: Insect Conservation In Human-Dominated Ecosystems
Most of the natural world has been altered by humans in some way. Ecosystems that are dominated by humans or man-made structures, such as cities, can still provide meaningful and essential habitat for insects. Today, we are going to discuss res...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 9
•
46:35
For the Love of Flies: The Unsung Heroes of the Insect World
Flies are amazing insects that play critical roles in our environment including pollination, waste disposal, pest control, and as a link in the food web. Flies are greatly diverse in colors, shape, size, and where they live. Butterflies and bee...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 8
•
45:08
_WhitneyCranshaw-Bugwood-CC.jpg)
Plastic Bands, Pesticides, and Deadly Drift: A Study on Mosquito Spray
Who doesn’t know the high-pitched whine of a nearby mosquito? We know they can be a nuisance, and in many regions, a health risk because of their ability to spread diseases. Some communities do public control campaigns, and increasingly, compan...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 7
•
39:47
The Underground Heroes: Earthworms
Earthworms. They may elicit memories of digging through the dirt, probably as a child, and picking them up to discover what they are. But what do they do other than slink around and bury themselves in the soil?To help us explore this fa...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 6
•
45:17
Social and Emotional Learning: Making Science Accessible
More than ever, communicating scientific information effectively is critical to conservation efforts. But how exactly do we do that? To explore this topic is award-winning science communicator and entomologist, Gwen Pearson. In addi...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 5
•
39:02
.jpg)
Protecting Bees from Pesticides: Why EPA Regulations Need to Change
The United States Environmental Protection Agency, also known as the EPA, is tasked with regulating pesticides to protect people and the environment from their impacts. To test these impacts, the EPA uses honey bees. This might seem reasonable,...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 4
•
42:06
Monarch Conservation: Tracking Migration with Rice-Sized Technology
The monarch butterfly is popular and currently in the news a lot. You might think that we know all there is to know about it, but there are many mysteries remaining, particularly about their migration and how they use their habitat. This may be...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 3
•
40:58
Insects in the Balance: Why Monitoring Matters
Bees, butterflies, beetles — populations of almost any group of insects you can name seem to be falling. But how do we know they are falling, how can we find out how well insects are doing? Monitoring is an essential tool for understanding the ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 2
•
42:25
%20TX_XS-AnneStine.jpg)
The Power of Policy: Insect Protection Through State Authority
In one of our first episodes we spoke with Sarina Jepsen, the director of our Endangered Species team, about what it means for a species to be federally listed, specifically through the Endangered Species Act. However, species can also be liste...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 1
•
35:50
The Secret Lives of San Diego Zoo Insects
Many of us likely have childhood memories of a zoo visit: gibbons swinging above us, lions pacing, a polar bear taking a plunge. Zoos also can play an important role in conservation, particularly for insects. One example is the work done at the...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 32
•
42:13
Buzzing Together: The Bumble Bee Atlas and the Power of Community Science
Community science is critical to conservation efforts and the Bumble Bee Atlas is no exception. Volunteers across the country have contributed to the Atlas program through bumble bee surveys, providing crucial information on bumble bee abundanc...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 31
•
31:29
Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Life's Journey from Water to the Sky
When we see a dragonfly, we normally see adults, which are capable of impressive aerobatics and have astonishing eyesight. Yet these fearsome aerial predators began life underwater, and when they undergo the transformation from nymph to adult t...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 30
•
45:20
Revival of the Fender's Blue Butterfly: A Conservation Story
We all love a success story and what better tale to tell than the one about the Fender’s blue? Once thought extinct, this butterfly was rediscovered 35 years ago, since when it has made a comeback thanks to hard work by dedicated scientists, la...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 29
•
45:40
.jpg)