Show Title: The Wonderful World of Insects
Producer: Linda Kubitz
Time: 27:40
Show begins here:
>>>TODAY ON IMPACT...EXPLORING THE WORLD OF INSECTS.
---(There are so many insects and so many fascinating things going on with them that even if the insects that we come out to see don't cooperate, there are always lots of other lessons to be learned. So they're just great teaching tools. And they're free.)---
>>>THIS IS IMPACT, A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
>>>ANTS, ROACHES, AND FLEAS ARE SOME OF THE ORDINARY TYPES OF INSECTS THAT PEOPLE COME INTO CONTACT WITH IN THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES. BUT THERE'S MUCH MORE TO THE WORLD OF INSECTS THAN WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL NUISANCE PESTS. IN FACT, INSECTS AFFECT OUR LIVES IN MORE WAYS THAN MOST PEOPLE REALIZE.
---(get set...go!)---
>>>WHERE WOULD A WATERMELON EATING CONTEST BE WITHOUT THE WATERMELONS... OR WHAT WOULD MORNING BREAKFAST BE LIKE FOR THE CANTALOUPE-LOVER BE WITHOUT THE CANTALOUPE. THE ANSWER IS EASY. IT WOULDN'T BE THE SAME WITHOUT THESE CROPS. MAYBE THE BEST QUESTION OF ALL IS WHERE WOULD THESE CROPS BE WITHOUT BEES.
---(buzzing)---
>>>DR. DON HALL-UF ENTOMOLOGIST: There are some crops that are completely dependent on insects for pollination, some that are partially dependent, and examples would be watermelons and cantaloupes--those would be examples, citrus, apples, actually most of our vegetables and fruits are either partially or fully dependent on insect pollination. And because many times there are not enough naturally occurring insects to achieve maximum pollination farmers are dependent on beekeepers to bring colonies of bees into the fields or groves or orchards to achieve pollination.
>>>BEES ALSO PROVIDE OTHER VALUABLE PRODUCTS AS WELL.
>>>DR. GLEN HALL-UF HONEY BEE GENETICIST: The value of honey across the United States is about $150 million. Whereas the value of crops dependent on honey bee pollination has been estimated between 9-19 billion dollars. It's been estimated maybe about 3 billion dollars worth of crops in Florida are dependent on honey bee pollination. But as you can see it's the actual value of honey production in the entire United States for example, 1/3 of the value of the almond crop in California which is totally dependent on honey bee pollination and certainly has a lesser value than some of the crops even here in Florida.
>>>VARIOUS INSECTS ARE ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR POLLINATING OTHER PLANTS BESIDES CROPS. YOUR GARDEN IS A GOOD EXAMPLE.
---(music)---
>>>HALL: Actually most of the plants that have showy flowers are insect pollinated. A few of them are pollinated by hummingbirds and other animals, but the vast majority of plants that have showy flowers are pollinated by insects. Well we're all aware of all the damage they do to crops and things like that and as pests in our homes, but I think the important thing about insects is that the ones that are destructive are actually only a very small percentage of the insects. Most insects are actually beneficial in some way or another. For example, they produce some products for us, honey, silk.
>>>INSECT SERVE ANOTHER IMPORTANT FUNCTION IN YOUR GARDEN.
>>>HALL: Insects are very important as predators of other insects, and actually we have created certain insect pests by using insecticides indiscriminately historically, and we've killed the natural enemies allowing certain insects that weren't particularly harmful pests before to become pests because their natural enemies are no longer there. So that's a very important aspect of insect biology is the study of predators in agricultural systems.
---(O.K., here's a newly emerged Damsel Fly right next to the old exoskeleton and you can see it's wings have become expanded but they're still pretty soft so it won't be able to fly for awhile yet.)---
>>>DR. DON HALL, A UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ENTOMOLOGIST HAS BEEN EXPLORING THE EXCITING WORLD OF INSECTS FOR YEARS. NOW, HIS GOAL TO SHARE HIS FASCINATION WITH INSECTS WITH PEOPLE OF ALL AGES. BUT INSTEAD JUST BRINGING THE INSECTS INTO THE CLASSROOM FOR THE STUDENTS TO STUDY, HE TAKES THE STUDENTS TO THE INSECTS.
---(This is the nymph of one of our large dragonfly called the club-tailed dragonfly and this nymph normally lives at the bottom of rivers in the sand and sometimes partially bury thICSelves in the sand even and unlike most of the dragonfly nymphs which are kind of elongated... this one's more oval in shape.)---
>>>HALL: This is a field course which is somewhat unusual. There aren't that many field courses offered at the university, and I teach the course because I think it's important for students to get out and see organisms, live organisms in their environment, and doing what they do, under natural conditions. When we bring them into the laboratory, sometimes they don't act naturally, and also a lot of the insects and other animals that we have in the laboratory are dead, preserved or on pins, and they're just not as exciting as when they're alive, carrying out their various fascinating behaviors.
>>>IN THIS CASE, THE OUTDOOR CLASSROOM IS THE SANTA FE RIVER NEAR GAINESVILLE AND THE STUDENTS USE SCREENS, NETS, AND JARS INSTEAD OF BOOKS, PENCILS, AND PAPER. WITH THE HELP OF DR. HALL, THE STUDENTS GET A CHANCE TO EXPLORE A SIDE OF NATURE THAT'S SELDOM EVER SEEN.
---(What they're trying to do... normally they cling to rocks and there are no rocks in there so they cling to the nearest thing to them... thing? And usually, it's another Helgermite.)---
>>>BRIAN MASER-UF STUDENT: I enjoy collecting all the new bugs. I used to play with them at the pool when I was a little kid. And now as you can see on my first day of collecting I've gotten about 20, whole bunch, about 4 dragonflies, and, you know, luckily the professor gave me a beetle here for my collection, and I'll see what happens as the day goes on. I should get a whole bunch more and it's just it's fun, you know, watch them walk around and they all try to eat each other and it's about that.
>>>LAURA BRIDGWATER-UF GRADUATE STUDENT: I think insects are really interesting. There were more of them on the plants then there were on the rocks. So it was kind of neat to find them. You find all the babies, which I think as a teacher is probably what I would bring my kids out here to teach them that this is where a lot of them are born, and then they become air-born afterwards. Bugs are fascinating from being in the standpoint of being in the classroom, because after taking this class I think I'll pick a bug a month, and we'll do that for the whole year.
>>>BRIAN CHAMBERLAIN-UF WILDLIFE ECOLOGY STUDENT: I know most of us probably view insects as pests, no matter what, you know, and until one really gets out there and instead of just talking about, you know, how they don't like insects, to actually go out there and to watch them, to watch their behavior and what they eat and how they impact our lives in an indirect way , to me I guess they're very important. I will call them pests probably in some cases but in other cases I will say that they're--can't do without them.
>>>IN ORDER TO COLLECT THE NECESSARY SAMPLES, THE STUDENTS MUST WADE WAIST DEEP IN THE RIVER AND THEN USE SCREENS TO CATCH THE UNSUSPECTING AQUATIC INSECTS OFF GUARD.
>>>HALL: I wanted to bring them to a river where there is flowing water so they can contrast the adaptations of these insects for living in flowing water as opposed to the adaptations of the insects that live in non-flowing water and so we stressed the ways that these insects are shaped to cope with the flowing water so they don't get washed away and methods of hanging on to rocks and things like that. And also we've looked at their gills and other breathing structures of aquatic insects and so we have a number of examples of insects with extensive gill system like the hellgrammite. The Dobson Fly larva that we saw today which is a good example of an insect that breaths with gills.
>>>GETTING A FIRST HAND LOOK AT INSECT ECOLOGY IS WHAT THIS COURSE IS ALL ABOUT. IT'S HOPED THESE STUDENTS WILL SHARE THEIR EXCITEMENT OVER LEARNING ABOUT INSECTS WITH OTHERS IN THE FUTURE.
>>>BRIDGWATER: Well as a teacher, that's my primary goal for being here is I will definitely use this for a year-long curriculum in my classroom, so that's my whole focus when I look at what we do, I teach first grade, I couldn't bring the kids out into the water, but I could go out into the water and bring things back in, and the kids could wade, and go deep, but I wouldn't take them out so far. So my whole focus has been how can I do this in the classroom.
>>>JONI BLAKESLEE-UF STUDENT: I've been an education specialist working with teachers having limited resources. There's something that are readily available on any school grounds, any park, any public area, any grassy, open area, so you can teach a lot about science and biology and simple concepts with things that are readily available and inexpensive.
>>>THIS INSECT FIELD COURSE ISN'T LIMITED TO SITES ALONG THE RIVER. TO FULLY APPRECIATE ALL TYPES OF INSECTS, THE STUDENTS ARE EXPOSED TO A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT INSECT ENVIRONMENTS.
>>>HALL: This course, first of all emphasizes communities of insects and ecological concepts, and also some interesting insect behaviors, and also interactions with plants. And we start out with insect communities, starting with the decomposer communities, we start with leaf litter and then move on to the dung and carrion insect communities to insects that live in rotting wood, logs, and dead trees. We look at insects in various aquatic communities, flowing water and still water communities. We look then at some plant interactions, extra floral nectaring and interactions, pollination biology as insects are involved, and we do some kind of interesting labs with predators, ant lions and tiger beetles and some other fascinating predators.
---(So these are the same species that we had before but much larger specimens.)---
>>>ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL STUDIES INVOLVES AN INSECT CALLED THE DUNG BEETLE. THE INSECT DOES PRETTY MUCH WHAT YOU WOULD EXPECT WITH A NAME LIKE THAT.
>>>HALL: Dung beetles compete for the dung. Dung is a valuable resource to them. It's full of nutrients, and they compete for it in different ways. There are some dung beetles that are what we call dung rollers, and they make balls of dung and their legs are especially adapted to making the balls and then to rolling them away. The dung rollers typically have long, curved hind legs for rolling the dung balls. So their strategy is to get small pieces of dung and roll them away to get them away from the other beetles and bury them, and then they lay their eggs--they feed on the dung, but in some cases the female will lay an egg in the dung ball after it's buried and the larvae will then develop within that ball. Other dung beetles, other species will bury the dung in tunnels directly under the dung pat, and then there are a few species that actually lay their eggs right in the dung pat. In addition to getting rid of the dung, they're also important for controlling flies--pest fly species because by burying the dung it takes away this breeding source for many of our pest species of flies. And so they're very valuable from that standpoint too.
---(And I have actually trapped these on school grounds before.)---
>>>BEFORE THESE UNUSUAL CREATURES CAN BE STUDIED, TRAPS MUST BE SET IN THE DEEP, SHADED AREA OF THE WOODS AND THE BAIT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT.
>>>HALL: Well the dung beetles and carrion beetles are particularly interesting because of their reproductive biology. They have some fascinating reproductive biologies, but also they're extremely important in ecology. A lot of times I think we don't tend to think about the decomposing insects as being important, but without them we would very rapidly have a dung problem.
>>>ALTHOUGH SOME STUDENTS WERE NEW TO THE PROCESS OF TRAPPING INSECTS, THEY CAUGHT ON QUICKLY AND LEARNED TO APPRECIATE THIS VALUABLE INSECT.
>>>VICKY VOSS-UF STUDENT: They just distribute dung. They take the dung back and then basically instead of it piling up with layers and layers and layers of dung,. they bury it so that it could fertilize the soil and grow the grasses and then feed the animals so they get more dung. And it helps run the whole ecosystem, helps cycle out the nutrients.
>>>BLAKESLEE: Some of them have evolved very little over time, and I think that's fascinating how they have survived without having to adapt. Adaptations are very interesting and how things survive, but the things that survive without adapting very much over the millennium I think is something we need to learn more about.
>>>MASER: They're going to be around here a lot longer than we are, so might as well check out what's going to be on earth with you and, I don't know--they're interesting, you know, they're very different and to study them instead of study a lot of stuff about fish and other animals and other insects I might as well learn while I have the time.
---(These two are males and they have a horn coming off the head.)---
>>>EXPLORING THE WORLD OF INSECTS CAN TAKE PLACE ALMOST ANYWHERE FROM AGRICULTURAL FIELDS TO YOUR HOME GARDEN. YOU CAN EVEN FIND A WEALTH OF SIX-LEGGED ARTHROPODS ON A SCHOOL GROUND AND THAT MAKES THEM AVAILABLE TO EVEN THE YOUNGEST STUDENTS.
>>>HALL: Insects are the most fascinating group of organisms because of their variety, tremendous numbers and tremendous diversities, and because of the diversity of insects and all their complex behaviors and structures and everything, we can teach an awful lot of biological concepts using insects rather than having to depend on larger animals which we can't take into the classroom. Insects have short generation times, many of them have short life cycles so we can rear them through their entire life cycle in the laboratory, or they're plentiful enough that we can go into the field as we have with this course. And there are so many insects and so many fascinating things going on with them that--that even if the insects that we come out to see don't cooperate there are always lots of other lessons to be learned, so they're just great teaching tools. And they're free.
>>>FOR EXAMPLE, THESE ANT BEDS WERE PROVIDED BY MOTHER NATURE AT NO CHARGE TO THESE INSECT EXPLORERS.
---(So this wouldn't technically be a pheromone would it? It would be what... did anybody remember the term to that other one? Alamone. O.K.? An inter-specific... between species.)--
>>>THE BEST WAY TO LEARN ABOUT INSECT ECOLOGY IS TO LOOK BEYOND WHAT'S ON THE SURFACE. THAT'S ESPECIALLY TRUE IF YOU'RE STUDYING ANT COLONIES. EXPLORING THE VARIOUS TUNNELS IN AN ANT MOUND CAN PROVIDE VALUABLE LESSONS.
---(One of the things that I really want you to come out of this course with an appreciation for is that you don't have to be a PhD scientist to do science.)---
>>>BLAKESLEE: They're accessible, and when you take 15, 20 children out to a natural area looking for wildlife it normally doesn't happen, they hear you coming a long way off. So these are things that are readily available for teachers to use in the classroom, to teach basic concepts. They also reproduce rather quickly, so you can study how they adapt pretty easily.
>>>CHAMBERLAIN: Bugs make the world go around, and I realize that in a practical way and also in a knowledgeable way with the abundance of them and finding out how much wildlife really does depend on the bugs, and from there the food cycle, you know, that goes around, and it's just, it's amazing to me how many bugs there are really out there, and... the diversity.
---(And there may be more on there than I realize. It may be just kind of scattered out but you can see at least that they really like honey. This mound has gotten a lot more active to since we've been out here. Since the sun has come up and it's gotten hotter since the sun has come out, you can see that they're really active now. There weren't many out here when we first came here this morning.)---
---(music)---
>>>WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE DIVERSITY OF THESE TINY INSECTS, YOU REALLY NEED TO LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE. INSECTS ARE THE LARGEST CLASS IN THE ANIMAL WORLD OUTNUMBERING ALL OTHER ANIMALS. REPORTS HAVE DESCRIBED AT LEAST 800-THOUSAND SPECIES AND ENTOMOLOGISTS BELIEVE MANY MORE ARE WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED. UNFORTUNATELY, FOR SOME PEOPLE INSECTS HAVE A BAD IMAGE NO MATTER WHAT.
>>>HALL: Many people have the idea that all bugs are bad, and that's one thing that I think we need to gain an appreciation for that only a very small percentage of insects are really destructive, and most insects are beneficial actually, either as in ecology of an area in terms of being food for other animals, just a wide range of beneficial aspects, and so the pest species are only a minute percentage and I think a lot of times we lose site of that because those--those few insects that are destructive are terribly destructive in many cases.
---(O.K. you can see they're doing better on this one. Now remember that solvent bled out away so it's not a real sharply defined circle.)---
>>>THIS IS ONE OF THOSE INSECTS THAT CAN BE VERY DESTRUCTIVE. JUST THE WORD, TERMITES, CAN SEND A CHILL DOWN THE SPINE OF A HOMEOWNER. BUT UF ENTOMOLOGISTS SAY EVEN TERMITES CAN BE INTERESTING UPON CLOSER EXAMINATION.
---(So sample a variety of logs and you will find termites and so they're readily available for those of you who are going to teach.)---
>>>A GOOD EXAMPLE OF FASCINATING INSECT BEHAVIOR IS HOW THESE TERMITES REACT TO A CERTAIN SCENT IN THE INK USED TO DRAW THIS CIRCLE ON A PIECE OF PAPER. AFTER A FEW MINUTES OF BEING PLACED AT RANDOM ON THE PAPER, THE TERMITES BEGIN TO FOLLOW THE TRAIL OF INK AND CONTINUE MOVING IN A CIRCULAR PATTERN.
---(These are subterranean termites and what have I told you about subterranean termites. They need soil. They need moisture. They're exoskeleton is very thin...not terribly waterproof. They dry out rapidly. These termites... I could turn 10-thousand of them loose in here and they would all be dead by evening probably... and certainly by morning.)--
---(music)---
>>>ALTHOUGH SOME COMMON INSECTS ARE FAIRLY EASY TO IDENTIFY, OTHERS CAN BE A BIT MORE TRICKY. EXPERTS SAY HOMEOWNERS WANT TO MAKE SURE THEY DON'T ELIMINATE HELPFUL INSECTS WHEN THEY TRY TO REMOVE HARMFUL ONES.
>>>HALL: Well that's true, in some cases the homeowner finds insects wandering and they don't know where the insects are coming from so they don't know what the root of the problem is. As an example of that, early in the spring we have a very common insect called the Eastern tent caterpillar that feeds on our native plums and black cherry, and it normally lives in tents, on the that it makes out of silk, in the crotches of the branches of the tree. But as the larvae get full grown and ready to spin a cocoon, they start to wander and so they end up crawling all over houses, and people then don't know what to do about the caterpillars. Well, my answer is don't do anything about them. First of all, they're valuable as food for birds and by that point they're not going to do any harm. In fact, I don't even recommend controlling the caterpillars because it's rare that they would ever kill a tree and, so in that sense I don't think they're that harmful. So it's valuable to know something about the caterpillars to even know whether it should be controlled or not.
>>>INSECT IDENTIFICATION CAN BE DIFFICULT IN THE BEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES FOR THE AVERAGE HOMEOWNER. BUT HELP IS AVAILABLE THANKS TO UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA EXTENSION AGENTS.
>>>GARY BRINEN-UF ALACHUA CO. EXTENSION: The University of Florida, in working on what we call IPM, or integrated pest management, which really means doing everything we can to understand the pests and prevent or control them without having to use pesticides right off the bat, has come up with little flip cards, and this is an example that's entitled Helpful or Harmful, which means is the pest helpful or harmful, is it a good one or a bad one and you can see there are pictures of a number of insects, in this case it's the eggs of a beneficial insect. So this, a gardener, or actually a commercial grower, a nurseryman, or some other grower can have with him in his pocket, take it right on out to the garden, and check whatever critters, whatever insects that he comes across, and identify them. So it's--it's a very easy to carry and useful tool for the gardener.
>>>THE SUBJECTS FOR THE IDENTIFICATION CARDS RANGE FROM PROBLEM PESTS SUCH AS CINCH BUGS, WHITE GRUBS, TO A CATERPILLAR THAT ATTACKS AZALEAS.
>>>BRINEN: There are a whole series in here of some of the pest insects, like the sweet potato whitefly which is one of the worst pests in the state, in all of their forms. And cinch bugs, which are a real problem in lawn grasses, mole crickets, and then some caterpillars, like the tent or the turf caterpillar, white grubs, which are beetle larvae, and here's an interesting caterpillar that will defoliate azaleas, and it's called the azalea defoliator. So, a number of these caterpillars are also shown in here. Beet army worm, another serious pest.
>>>THE SO-CALLED "GOOD GUYS" ARE ALSO REPRESENTED.
>>>BRINEN: It starts out I think with the beneficial insects. Everything from lady beetles, lady beetles to predacious stink bugs, and there are flies, like a surfed fly that are predators on some of the harmful insects. Ground beetles, this one's easy to see. When we encounter a beetle like that on the ground, don't kill it. We know that it will attack some of the harmful insects, and actually benefit us.
>>>BESIDES PROVIDING A COLOR PHOTOGRAPH OF EACH INSECT, THE CARDS ALSO INCLUDE A DESCRIPTION OF THE HISTORY AND LIFE CYCLE.
>>>BRINEN: In the south, especially the southeast, with all the humidity and heat that we have, throughout most of the year, pests of various types really are our biggest problem. From weeds to insects, disease, and even nematodes in the soil, we have all kinds of problems. Much more than the rest of the country would have. So, the concern that everybody has, the frustration that we feel with some of these pests, and especially identifying the good ones and the bad ones and being able to leave the good ones alone, can be a real difficult thing. Because in any particular family of insect, there are good and bad. You know there are wasps and-and bees and others that look alike, flies that look alike. Most of those aren't a problem, but, you know, there are some--that--that are and they certainly look alike. A good example, really the best example would be among the beetles, where many of the beetles eat leaves, and a number of other beetles eat the bad beetles or other insects. There's a lady beetle that looks almost the same as a Mexican bean beetle, and the Mexican bean beetle chews bean leaves and other vegetables up, and the lady beetle feeds on aphids and other bad insects.
>>>UF EXTENSION AGENTS SAY IN THE INSECT WORLD, THERE ARE A LOT OF LOOK-ALIKES AND MISTAKES IN IDENTIFICATION CAN LEAD TO PROBLEMS IN THE HOME GARDEN. BRINEN HOPES THE INSECT FLASH CARDS WILL HAVE AN IMPACT ON RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL GARDENING AND GIVE HOMEOWNERS A NEW TOOL TO IMPROVE THEIR LANDSCAPES WHILE PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT AT THE SAME TIME.
>>>UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ENTOMOLOGISTS SAY LEARNING HOW TO IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM PESTS FROM INSECTS THAT ACTUALLY BENEFIT THE ENVIRONMENT IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD WORKING WITH NATURE, AND NOT AGAINST IT. THEY FEEL WHETHER YOU'RE GROWING COMMERCIAL CROPS, OR GROWING FLOWERS IN YOUR OWN GARDEN, PEST IDENTIFICATION CAN BE A VALUABLE TOOL THAT SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED BY ANYONE.
>>>FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SUBJECTS SEEN TODAY ON IMPACT, AND A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO IMPACT MAGAZINE, WRITE TO IMPACT, P.O. BOX 110190, GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, 32611-0190. OR CALL 352-392-0437. TRANSCRIPTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SIX DOLLARS. VIDEO COPIES ARE TWELVE DOLLARS. VISA AND MASTERCARD ARE ACCEPTED. AND REMEMBER TO VISIT OUR WEB PAGE FOR MORE ON UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION.
>>>IMPACT, A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. IT'S PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
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