Bug Banter with the Xerces Society
Episodes
Walls That Speak: Inspiring Conservation Through Art
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When science and art meet they create a nexus where inspiration and education combine to create impactful outcomes. From illustrated ID guides to buil...
A Year in Invertebrate Conservation: Successes and the Road Ahead
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past year, we’ve explored a diversity of invertebrates, the threats they face, and the ways we can help support them. In this episode, we’...
Hidden in Plain Sight: Pesticide Contamination in Butterfly Host Plants
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The State of the Butterflies in the United States project demonstrated that butterfly populations across the US are dramatically declining — they fe...
Adaptations at Altitude: The Biology of Mountain Snails
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Given the name of our podcast, it is no surprise that we talk a lot about bugs, but in this episode, we are stretching our invertebrate muscles and lo...
The Secret Lives of Bumble Bees: Nesting and Overwintering
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Salmonfly Project: Anglers, Insect Conservation, and the Future of Freshwater Streams
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 freshwa...
Bitter Nectar, Toxic Pollen: Pollinators and Plant Chemicals
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Leave the Leaves or Lose the Insects
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
**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 ...
Monarchs & Pesticides: Understanding the Impact, Exploring the Solutions
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Understanding Native Bee Populations: The State of the Bees Initiative
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Living Fence: Hedgerows as Havens for Insects
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Co-host Matthew Shepherd came from Britain, a country known for its hedgerows. He grew up surrounded by hedges, sometimes many centuries old, crisscro...
State of the Butterflies in the United States: A Roadmap for Recovery
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Bug Banter Live! Building Pollinator Habitat
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most effective ways to contribute to pollinator conservation is to provide the essential components of pollinator habitat. To celebrate Pol...
Pollinator Check-Up: Bee Health and Novel Monitoring Tools
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 imp...
How Habitat Kits Are Helping Save Pollinators
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Stories from the Prairie: Life in a Resilient Ecosystem
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Prairies are an ecosystem that historically spanned the center of this continent from the Rocky Mountains to east of the Mississippi and from Texas no...
Greenroofs, Solar Arrays, And Urban Farms: Insect Conservation In Human-Dominated Ecosystems
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
For the Love of Flies: The Unsung Heroes of the Insect World
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Flies are amazing insects that play critical roles in our environment including pollination, waste disposal, pest control, and as a link in the food w...
Plastic Bands, Pesticides, and Deadly Drift: A Study on Mosquito Spray
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ab...
The Underground Heroes: Earthworms
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Social and Emotional Learning: Making Science Accessible
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More than ever, communicating scientific information effectively is critical to conservation efforts. But how exactly do we do that? To explore this ...
Protecting Bees from Pesticides: Why EPA Regulations Need to Change
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The United States Environmental Protection Agency, also known as the EPA, is tasked with regulating pesticides to protect people and the environment f...
Monarch Conservation: Tracking Migration with Rice-Sized Technology
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 myste...
Insects in the Balance: Why Monitoring Matters
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ca...
The Power of Policy: Insect Protection Through State Authority
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 federal...
The Secret Lives of San Diego Zoo Insects
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Buzzing Together: The Bumble Bee Atlas and the Power of Community Science
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Community science is critical to conservation efforts and the Bumble Bee Atlas is no exception. Volunteers across the country have contributed to the ...
Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Life's Journey from Water to the Sky
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When we see a dragonfly, we normally see adults, which are capable of impressive aerobatics and have astonishing eyesight. Yet these fearsome aerial p...
Revival of the Fender's Blue Butterfly: A Conservation Story
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Mysteries of the Moth: More Than Meets the Eye
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Moths are largely creatures of the night, which means they may not get as much publicity as their day-flying relative, butterflies. Moths are more div...
Bugs and Birds: Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
October 12th is World Migratory Bird Day, a global campaign that aims to raise awareness of migratory birds and the need for international cooperation...
Spider Sense Part 2: Unraveling the Secrets of Arachnids
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for part two of our exciting conversation on spiders with Sebastian Echeverri, Communications Specialist in Science & Digital Media for th...
Spider Sense Part 1: Unraveling the Secrets of Arachnids
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Spiders. There is a lot that people don't know about these interesting creatures. What makes them unique and what role do they play in our enviro...
Bee City and Bee Campus USA: Protecting Pollinators One Community at a Time
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An important element in the success of pollinator conservation efforts is communities of passionate people taking action. Today we will highlight one ...
Exploring Wasps: Myths, Facts, and Fascinations
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wasps. That word alone may make you squirm. They aren’t fluffy and cute like their close relatives bees and don’t have the best reputation, but th...
Pollinators in a Changing Climate: Threats and Solutions
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all heard about climate change. It’s a rather complicated issue. One that has come up several times in this podcast as we discuss the threat...
Wings of the Rockies: Exploring Butterfly Life Histories
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Bug Banter, we are closing out our series on butterflies by exploring those found in the Rockies. From prairies to mountain tops, t...
All About Bees: Celebrating Pollinator Week
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Happy Pollinator Week! In this episode, we are joined by Kass Urban-Mead, Rich Hatfield, and Mace Vaughan for this special Q&A session on bees. Yo...
Wings of the East: Exploring Butterfly Life Histories
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Continuing with our series on butterflies, we are highlighting the butterflies east of the Rockies, which is a huge area and encompasses so many diffe...
Wings of the West: Exploring Butterfly Life Histories
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We often hear about monarch butterflies, but there are many other species of butterflies in North America. So we are kicking off a series of three pod...
Mosquitoes Matter: Untangling Myths & Mastering Management
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It was Jimmie Durante who first came up with the rhyme, “spring is sprung, the grass is riz; I wonder where them boidies is?” Of course, spring al...
Midnight Entomology: Unveiling the Secrets of Nocturnal Insects
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As humans, we often think of the world through the lens of daylight - when we are most active. But at night, an entire world of insects comes to life ...
No Mow May: A Starting Point, Not the Finish Line
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tired of mowing your law? We have good news - you don’t have to, and the bees (and fritillary butterflies) will thank you for it! Mowing your lawn l...
Floater, Sheepnose, and Cat’s Paw: Exploring the Fascinating World of Freshwater Mussels
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Bug Banter, we are going underwater to highlight an invertebrate that isn’t an insect — the freshwater mussel. These animals ma...
Buzzing Canopies: Forests' Vital Role in Supporting Pollinator Diversity
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For many of us, if we were asked to describe a place that is good for bees, I suspect that we’d talk about somewhere that is open, sunny, and full o...
Bumbling Through Nature: Exploring the Fascinating Life History and Community Science of Bumble Bees
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Spend time in a garden and you’ll probably hear the buzzing of a bumble bee. These charismatic bees pollinate many of the foods and flowers that we ...
Life in the Dark: How Artificial Light is Impacting Insects
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Light pollution. Go outside at night and you’ll notice them — lights on buildings, in gardens, along streets, glowing on the horizon. It might not...
The Magic of Fireflies: Flashing Lights, Glowing Worms, and Chemical Reactions
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fireflies. Just the word evokes for many people memories of summer evenings filled with magic and awe. From their flashy mating displays to their glow...
Surviving Winter: What Heat-loving Butterflies do during the Cold Months
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve previously talked about overwintering monarchs seeking refuge in warmer climates, but what do other butterflies do during the winter? Do they ...
Nature's Original Transformers: The Amazing Beetles
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We are all familiar with beetles. Look around your home or neighborhood and you’ll find them, but how familiar are we? What makes a beetle a beetle?...
Saving the Bees: Why Honey Bees Are Not the Answer
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
No bee is as popular as the honey bee. When we think of a bee, many of us think of this charismatic social bee that lives in large colonies, does the ...
A Monarch's Life: Migration, Survival, and Barfing Blue Jays
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last month we met with Isis Howard to talk about western monarch populations and community science. Today, we are going to talk about monarchs east of...
When a Bee is Considered a Fish: The Definitions and Complexities of Becoming an Endangered Species
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The word “endangered” is widely used when talking about rare animals in news reports, conservation campaigns, TV documentaries, and more. Sometime...
Potato Chips, Leaves, or Butterflies? The Art and Importance of Counting Western Monarchs
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are not many insects as well-known, and as well-loved, as the monarch butterfly. Monarchs are characterized by their beautiful bright colors and...
Vanishing Wings: A Call to Action
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Insects - who needs em? We do!We’ve all heard that insects are in decline. From bumble bees to monarch butterflies to fireflies, people are noticing...
Nesting in Darkness: Solitary Ground Nesting Bees
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Have you heard of solitary ground-nesting bees? Yes? No? Either way, this podcast is for you! Unlike honey bees or bumble bees that live in colonies,...
Xerces - What?
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The word Xerces often confuses people. What does it mean and where does the name Xerces come from? Join us on this short podcast to introduce the orga...