Are Insects a Good Biocontrol Agent?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Insects are what half of all species of living animals on earth, something like that? There's about a million described species. Lea was working on this project with the glassy winged sharpshooter. They're not native to Southern California but love to hang out on citrus and grapes. But also they spread this bacterium which causes diseases such as Sweet gum dieback or phony peach disease.

ANNOUNCEMENT: SMOLOGIES NOW HAS ITS OWN FEED! SUBSCRIBE FOR NEW EPISODES EVERY THURSDAY.

Subscribe to Smologies: https://pod.link/1746567248

We're back with another shorter, cleaner, edition of an Ologies classic. Today it's all the way back from 2018: INSECTS, just straight up buuuugs. Quite likely Alie's favorite subject ever with an ologist who quite likely also dramatically shifted her life. That would be Lila Higgins, with passion more powerful than a Goliath Beetle's "especially large slicey mandibles." We cover a lot of ground, from dinosaur bugs to why wasps are so problematic, and even why it's totally fine to kiss a cockroach.

Lila Higgins' book, 'Wild LA: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around Los Angeles':

A donation went to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Community Science Program

More Smologies episodes

Full length Entomology (INSECTS) with Lila Higgins + links here

Sponsors of Ologies

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, masks, totes!

Follow @Ologies on Twitter and Instagram

Follow @AlieWard on Twitter and Instagram

Sound editing by Steven Ray Morris, Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, and Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media

Extra help from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly Dwyer, Emily White, & Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm