Happy Halloween everyone!! And welcome to the Tiny Vampires Agoraphobia special. Every year I put together a story written from an insect’s perspective. This year is a horror story from the deadliest war in history and even though it is obviously a work of fiction, the facts are true. So even though we’re just having a little festive fun, you’ll still get your dose of insect science you come to count on from Tiny Vampires. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 31, 2021•20 min
For thousands of years Egypt, India, China, the Middle East, Europe, and the US, one after another all saw leeches as the answer to their problems. They were exercisers of demons, relievers of pain, bringers of balance, and a source of income. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 01, 2021•19 min•Ep. 45
Anyone growing up in the United States during the 1950s or 60s has memories of chasing trucks down the road as they doused the neighborhood in a mosquito-killing fog. The story of that fog is part of the broader epic of the insecticide DDT. With a cast ranging from Dr. Suess, the entire population of Naples, peregrine falcons, to a trendy shade of green. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 25, 2021•25 min•Ep. 44
Blood is vital, transporting hormones, nutrients, and oxygen, and removing waste products but for all its complexity some animals see it simply as food. While we grow up learning to protect our precious fluid from blood-suckers like vampire bats, leeches, and bed bugs they don’t have a monopoly on their gory craving. Unexpected animals from snails to birds to moths have come to join the feast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 27, 2021•23 min•Ep. 43
Join me and more than 40 of your other favorite independent podcasters at the Intelligent Speech Conference. Get 10% off your ticket price when you use the offer code Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 10, 2021•1 min
When we call mosquitoes “the deadliest animals on earth” we aren’t just talking about human deaths. Mosquitoes have played a major role in Hawaii’s infamous designation as the endangered species capital of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 02, 2021•35 min•Ep. 42
We all believe that we have the capacity to completely change ourselves, but at what cost? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 31, 2020•22 min
An entirely new perspective on the infamous black death. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 15, 2020•24 min
We’ll kick-off this Halloween special with “The Passenger” a tale of control, desire, and the monster within. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 09, 2020•17 min
Most of the time when we get sick we expect to suffer through it and end up rewarded with immunity to disease, or at least the knowledge that it won’t hit so hard if you get it a second time. A bout with the Dengue virus, also known as break-bone fever, is very different. It can actually increase the chance that a second encounter with the virus will end in hemorrhagic fever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 25, 2020•21 min•Ep. 41
The African continent was declared polio-free just a couple of days ago, which means that we are, once again, coming close to eradicating it from the globe. Yet, in 2014 children started to go limp, losing control over their arms and legs over the course of weeks, this polio-like condition is called Acute Flaccid Myelitis. Since then, there has been a larger and larger outbreak of the condition every other year, and that’s not the only strange thing about it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...
Aug 30, 2020•20 min•Ep. 40
The CDC has a catalog of 537 viruses that are transmitted by insects or their relatives around the world. This number can be overwhelming and scary but the more we learn about the world of obscure viruses the better we’re equipped to fight them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 31, 2020•15 min•Ep. 39
The symbol for medicine, a serpent wrapped around a staff, is displayed on everything from the World Health Organization logo to your doctor’s name tag, depicts the treatment of a single disease, the removal of a Guinea Worm from the patient by slowly wrapping it around a stick over the course of days. This disease is famous for another reason, it is about to be the second disease eradicated from the face of the earth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 30, 2020•18 min•Ep. 38
A truck slowly drives by your house at night with a cloud of fog coming out from behind it. It might seem creepy but that fog is effectively synthetic chrysanthemums water that is engineered to target mosquitoes based on their flight patterns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 16, 2020•22 min•Ep. 37
Bloodsuckers can be hijacked by viruses and parasites, but some ticks are lethal all on their own. The Australian Paralysis tick paralyzes 10 thousand dogs and cats a year. We didn’t know how their venom worked until some researchers squirted some mouthwash on some ticks and made a discovery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 31, 2020•24 min•Ep. 36
Author and fly researcher Dr. Erica McAlister helps bust myths about mosquitoes and other flies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 10, 2020•46 min•Ep. 35
Who needs bug spray when you have phone apps, bug zappers, barbecue grill sized rigs to keep the mosquitoes away? Mosquito control devices might hurt your bank account but their worth it...right? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 05, 2019•16 min•Ep. 34
You may have heard of mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and lice but there are other blood suckers out there, like tsetse flies, floor maggots, toe fleas, and kissing bugs. The race of the victims may have everything to do with the reason you have never heard of them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 30, 2019•23 min•Ep. 33
After a little girl was bit by a new, exotic, and dangerous insect in Delaware the media began to speculate, but after a closer look we find there is a much mundane story, that has a lot to do with insect feces. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 02, 2019•16 min•Ep. 32
The lives of organisms in an ecosystem are intimately intertwined. When an entire tropical forest is chopped down the ripple from that destruction can end with new diseases being introduced into humanity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 30, 2019•18 min•Ep. 31
Deep inside the cells of an Australian mosquito are bacteria that kill deadly viruses by starving them to death. The death of these viruses could mean life for anyone bitten by them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 01, 2019•13 min•Ep. 30
You may have joked with your friends about using a tapeworm to lose weight thinking it was a diet of the past but today people are purposely infecting themselves with worms for reasons ranging from weight loss to asthma. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 03, 2019•17 min•Ep. 29
The rumors are true, certain types of mosquitoes are more enticed to bite pregnant people than people who aren’t. It's not just a weird fact, it has dire consequences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 27, 2019•15 min•Ep. 28
Salvage logging is a way to get a silver lining out of a natural disaster like a wildfire or a hurricane, but how does it change our chances of getting Lyme disease. Learn about the connection between ticks, mice, and fallen logs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 31, 2019•16 min•Ep. 27
For an unlucky few in the American South, Northern Europe, and Australia one bite from a tick can change everything from the food they eat to the types of cancer medications they can be prescribed. These areas, known for their love of all things meat, are also the home of ticks that can cause a meat allergy so bad it can kill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 25, 2018•20 min•Ep. 26
We all know that person who never gets a single mosquito bite, while the rest of us get eaten alive. What is there secret? Or secrets? You’ll find it has a lot to do with their particular brand of body odor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 27, 2018•16 min•Ep. 25
There are giant mosquitoes that wantonly kill their prey even if they aren’t hungry, and they are going to be your new favorite insects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 31, 2018•17 min•Ep. 24
A bacteria that infects insects held some secrets until a team of researchers started looking closer at its amazing powers. Wolbachia might just be capable of saving thousands of human lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 26, 2018•23 min
Stomach bot flies live most of their lives inside the stomachs of horses. They have adapted to this harsh environment by breathing is a very strange way. Guest co-host Erin Updyke from "This Podcast Will Kill You" comes on to talk fly infestations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 29, 2018•23 min•Ep. 22
There is a vaccine for the number one vector-borne disease in the US and Europe, but only for dogs. We explore why there is no Lyme disease vaccine available for humans and how the vaccine certification process is different when you are a dog. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 09, 2018•21 min•Ep. 21
