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PODCAST

Nature Snippets

This podcast is devoted to celebrating the natural world. Topics include discussions of specific organisms, natural phenomena, and actions to protect the natural world and our fellow travelers. As an aquatic ecologist, I often focus on life in freshwater. Many episodes will be based upon writings published in the last several years on biodiversity and the natural history of diverse organisms including invertebrates. The new cover art was designed by Lauren McCabe and is based on a calligrapha

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All Episodes

00:10:58

Cellar Spiders: Leggy Pest Control in Your Home or Mine

Nature Snippets ·

2025/05/23

Possibly the most common non-human resident in the average home is the long-bodied cellar spider. These innocuous beasties provide non-toxic, round-the-clock pest control for just the price of a small place to live. And although there are those who'd be less than thrilled by these little guests, they keep actual pest populations in check. This episode discusses how you can document the guests in your home and share them for posterity and science.The episode art is modified from a photo uploaded

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00:16:23

Water Pennies: Flat as a Pancake

Nature Snippets ·

2025/04/16

I recorded this back in January and am finally getting around to launching it today. This episode features a fascinating little beetle larva that clings to rocks in rivers and in wave-washed lake shores. Water penny beetle larvae were first mis-described as isopods and later the error was fixed. You can find them on river rocks where they graze on periphyton. The episode art is from photos taken by then UVM student Erin Hayes Pontius when she worked in the lab at St. Michael's College. It shows

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00:10:21

Snowflake Declan?

Nature Snippets ·

2025/03/05

The winter season ha provided some wonderful snowflakes. IN this episode I discuss a Vermonter know as "Snowflake Bentley". Wilson Bentley attached a bellows camera to a microscope and made some of the first snowflake photographs ..... thousands of them. And while he made scientific studies of snowflakes, I'm just having fun, and you can too.Episode art is a photo I took using a Nikon Dipahot inverted microscope from the 1980s.Upcoming bug talks:March 7 & 9 in the Flower Show in Essex Vermont:

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00:36:13

The Amazing Bug Road SHow

Nature Snippets ·

2024/10/30

Of late, I'm more frequently called upon to talk about bugs than ever. But to reduce the chances of rendering my audience comatose, I use live insects and hands-on demos to keep things moving. You can also!! This episode describes how to get aquatic insects at almost any time of year using inexpensive improvised gear found in a dollar store, or more durable equipment if you intend to make a habit of this sort of thing. To see a recent talk go here: tinyurl.com/3htf29tv And to read about it,

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00:13:47

LIfe, death, black flies, and independent bookstores

Nature Snippets ·

2024/09/13

Freshwater ecologists often group invertebrates based on how they eat. Black fly larvae filter particles out of the water and in one case, they managed to help put a murder behind bars. This time around I'll be chatting about these incredible little organisms that improve water quality and are food chain links between incredibly small morsels and the fish we love to catch.I'll also be sending some love out to those incredible curators and lovers of books that run independent book stores. On

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00:14:00

Nets, boots, macroinvertebrates, action: and an...

Nature Snippets ·

2024/06/25

Macroinvertebrates, or the invertebrates we can see, are sentinels of clean water monitored by professional biologists. They can also be a gateway drug for budding scientists young and young at heart. This episode describes inexpensive equipment for catch-and-release studies of macroinvertebrates in ponds and streams. This video takes you through the same approaches. Episode art is clipped from an image uploaded to Wikimedia commons by John Rostron. Driving directions from Danville if you'd

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00:11:51

Brainwashed by Worms and 2 Event Announcements

Nature Snippets ·

2024/06/15

Imagine a worm that enters the body of a different species, and then takes over its brain, altering its behavior to the benefit of the work and to the detriment of the host. Such is the story of the horsehair worm.Following this episode I'll announce 2 events. The first is on Wednesday June 19 at 7:00 PM in Beardsley Zoo but also live on Zoom: registration is required: https://connecticutsbeardsleyzoo-bloom.kindful.com/e/june-evening-lecture-2024. I'll be co presenting with Aimee Turcotte

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00:13:07

Cloudy With a Chance of Flies. And first book event...

Nature Snippets ·

2024/05/28

In warmer weather, have you ever encountered a cloud of flies buzzing up and down near a water body? Chances are that you have encountered a swarm of midges. This episode gets into the biology of these amazingly diverse little insects. I am also pleased to announce my first book event at Phoenix Books in Burlington Vermont at 7:00PM on Thursday June 6th 2024. Finally, I reveal some secrets of the podcast recording process in my back yard shed.The episode art is a photograph of a male adult midge

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00:10:09

Carpet beetles, skin beetles, and hide beetles, oh my!

Nature Snippets ·

2024/04/27

It is entirely likely that you share your dwelling with some generally innocuous beetles that subsist in corners on dried crumbs, cat hair, or other dried organic materials. But, it can sometimes happen that these beetles reach numbers that can threaten wool carpets or fur coats....or worse still, these insects may consume your insect collection. This episode discusses these fellow travelers.The episode art pictures a varied carpet beetle, one of many species in the family Dermestidae that we

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00:10:51

Spotted Lanternflies with audio repaired

Nature Snippets ·

2024/04/06

I'm learning new audio editing software and left a silent minute at the beginning......all fixed and thank you for your patience. What sucks the juice out of many plants, leaves a sticky mess that promotes mold growth, and will lay its eggs ANYWHERE. The answer is the spotted lanternfly, a beautiful insect that hails from East Asia and is spreading from an introduction site near Allentown Pennsylvania. Although it is pretty, it can be destructive in its home away from home. The episode art this

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00:09:44

Upside-Down Aquatics

Nature Snippets ·

2024/03/21

Scuba divers pump compressed air into or out of jackets to hang neutrally buoyant in the water column. Few insects can manage the same feat and must hang onto to plants or expend energy swimming. But one insect can shunt oxygen in and out of an air bubble to "float" anywhere between the water surface and the pond floor. This same insect turns camouflage on it's head to adapt to its unusual back-stroke approach to swimming. Backswimmers do all of this and are also well equipped with a

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00:20:55

Turning stones: how one guy wrote a book

Nature Snippets ·

2024/03/08

A friend and radio broadcaster in my home town asked me to record something about the process of writing and publishing a book. I suspect that each book develops on a unique trajectory, and mine seems certainly to be unique. It's my first book and so I claim limited expertise on the topic. There were pitfalls, and one major one, but it was nothing I could have avoided. So this podcast is certainly not a how-to, but more of a how-I-did. And when you write your book, I'm sure it will be in a

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00:08:10

Ice out and climate change

Nature Snippets ·

2024/02/23

We have dramatically changed our climate. It's easy to consider that the change is slight. After all, who can remember what our climate was like back in the 70s? Back when it was "normal"? But consider this, roughly 60% of the US population had not even been born until the 1980s. So, our childhood recollections of "normal" weather occurred when climate change was already well underway. Scientists call this phenomenon the "shifting baseline" - what we each consider

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00:10:30

Ladybird? Ladybug? Fly Away Home

Nature Snippets ·

2024/02/09

Ladybugs, Ladybirds, or Lady beetles are familiar to all in art and in reality. These little munchers of aphids and other garden insects are common in many habitats. If the supply of soft-bodied insects on your cabbages dwindles, the adults will fly off to other plants in your garden and elsewhere. Because lady beetles have been collected and sold for as biological control agents, species have been moved from place to place and even between continents. This episode covers such topics and also

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00:07:22

Springs in winter

Nature Snippets ·

2024/01/26

In colder winters than we are currently experiencing in Vermont, small streams wear thick layers of ice. In the winter of 1997 I attempted to sample some streams year round. I was thwarted by ice so thick that a felling axe made little impression. But spring-fed streams with an endless supply of water at a constant temperature shrug off any ice that may form. These unique flowing-water habitats lack the minute bits of organic material that feed insects in other streams. And so many species simply

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00:08:41

Green Long-Jawed Spiders

Nature Snippets ·

2024/01/12

With snow on the ground, you might not expect to find many invertebrates about, but there are some exceptions. Long-jawed spiders are among the most common invertebrates found clamoring about for food on Vermont's snow crusts. They come in two common colors and my bias is that the green ones are spectacular. So, grab your phone and perhaps a clip-on macro lens to get up close and personal with these amazing creatures making a living by eating snow fleas.The episode art this week is from

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00:11:50

Calligrapha beetles support the matriarchy. And a new...

Nature Snippets ·

2023/12/27

Calligraphy beetles have beautiful patterns that appear to be inked onto their elytra with a fine-tipped black pen. Their larvae specialize on particular plant species before dropping into the soil to pupate. I find them fascinating, and so when my daughters pointed out that my podcast lacked a proper logo, I suggested the willow calligrapha for inspiration. Lauren, my youngest is an artist and in short order she produced a new logo for the podcast. To see more of Lauren's art please visit her

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00:13:51

Isopods, woodlice, sowbugs, or rollie polies?...

Nature Snippets ·

2023/12/05

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - Shakespeare said it best. The subject of this week's episode has many names just in English, but whatever you choose to call them, they are important in processing leaves and decaying wood in the environment. Isopods are ubiquitous crustaceans that you doubtlessly have seen at home, in the woods, in a pond, or in weeds washed up on a beach somewhere. I dig a little into their biology here discuss a few of their very many names. I also

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00:14:08

Tree rings: time travel in the forest

Nature Snippets ·

2023/11/15

If you have seen a freshly felled tree, you may well have noticed the rings in the cross section that mark the passage of the years. But felling trees just as an historical exercise seems extreme and so my students and I cored some trees on campus and nearby to explore succession, competition, and the deep history of organisms far older than ourselves. The pine trees we cored stood in what we now call "Colchester Vermont" when Thomas Edison's first viable light bulbs shed light on the

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00:14:24

Let's go Fishing

Nature Snippets ·

2023/10/07

Why do we fish and should we fish at all? When I fish, it is usually for recreation or education. I encourage others to fish because I believe that familiarity with the fascinating organisms in the natural world fosters appreciation for the environment. When a person catches a fish in a nondescript pond, dots are connected. A previously boring water body becomes a habitat. Certainly it was habitat before anyone caught a fish, but an appreciation for the pond as habitat is built. And when we

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