Insectarium

For Your Consideration: The Incredible… Roach!

You need roaches in your life. No, not the few pest species you might recognize scurrying on the floor, but some of their amazing, underrated cousins. Cockroaches are surprisingly diverse (there are even beautiful ones!), and crucial contributors to ecosystems worldwide. Entomologist and pest control specialist Megan Wilson, Ph.D., helps us change our perspective on these six-legged frenemies.

For Your Consideration: The Incredible… Roach!

10m 53s

  • How Ants Make Our Cities Healthier: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Ants Make Our Cities Healthier

    S1 E7 - 11m 4s

    There are incredible miniature civilizations booming within our concrete jungles: ants! We don’t often think of urban areas as having “ecologies” but Amy Savage, Ph.D. studies the amazing diversity of ants making it work and how their newfound love of our cast-off carbs is making our cities greener.

  • Why Bumble Bees Are the Fuzzy Heroes We Need: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why Bumble Bees Are the Fuzzy Heroes We Need

    S1 E6 - 11m 4s

    If the insect world has a fuzzy, charismatic cutie, it’s surely the humble bumble bee. While insect populations are declining around the globe, bumble bees face unique threats that make them particularly vulnerable. Surveying projects across the U.S. are combining the forces of researchers and community scientists to help protect these critical native pollinators.

  • Butterfly Effect: Can Monarchs Avoid Extinction?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Butterfly Effect: Can Monarchs Avoid Extinction?

    S1 E5 - 11m 20s

    Why are monarch butterflies disappearing? You may know them for their amazing migration, but over the past few decades, monarch butterflies have been part of a vanishing act that has scientists worried. Conservation biologists Ashley Fisher and Isis Howard show us what it takes to track monarch butterflies at an overwintering spot as they try to figure out what’s behind the population plunge.

WETA Passport

Stream tens of thousands of hours of your PBS and local favorites with WETA Passport whenever and wherever you want. Catch up on a single episode or binge-watch full seasons before they air on TV.