WEBVTT - Amazing Infestations! 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.400 Yeah, welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:16.320 stuff Works dot com. Hey guys, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.840 This is Alison adam Elk, the science editor how stuff 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.520 Works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, science rider 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.279 how stuff Works dot Com. And today we're going to 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:28.200 be trading some amazing infestation stories. Have you had any 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:33.320 infestations at your house before? I wouldn't necessarily call them infestations, 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:38.640 but sure we've had various vermin and pess invader home. Yeah, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:40.960 like what, Well, I did live in New York for 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.000 a while, so I've dealt with my fair shirt. No, 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.519 I've never had rats. What's New York? It's it's everywhere 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:51.400 right well, of course, but especially on garbage night, the 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:53.640 night that you know, people set out there. You'd have 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.600 to you'd be walking across the sidewalk, you know, on 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:58.920 your way to whatever it is you're doing in the city, 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.200 and the rats would come out there, you know, crawl 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.480 out from the little alleys to to get to the 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.760 garbage that was by the curb on the sidewalk. It's delightful. 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.600 It was terrible. It was quite terrible. What about you 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.199 infestation stories? Well, rats, this is kind of this brings 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.920 up an interesting story. I grew up. I spent a 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.880 lot of my growing up in the country, if you will, uh, 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.280 more of a country mountain, a country setting. So so 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.000 I was used to squirrels, right And then, uh, you know, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.680 a few years back, moved down to Atlanta, and uh, 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.800 I was. I had to drop off my my girlfriend 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.440 at the time now wife for a photo assignment and 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.039 uh and this was like downtown Atlanta, and I pulled 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.080 the car into It's one of these little parking lots. 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:42.160 It's kind of halfway stuck between this play you know, 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.080 kind of an urban contested space, you know. And it's 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.240 near a Marta track, which for your non Atlanteans is 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.120 the public transportation down here. And uh, I I heard 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.160 something rummaging around over and I'm like, oh, squirrels. So 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.160 I go over to look at the squirrels. And why 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.360 would you do that? Well, because I was new to 0:01:58.360 --> 0:01:59.840 the city. I'm just not used to being around a 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:01.200 rat so much. So I'm like, oh, I'll see what 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:02.960 the squirrels are up to. And what do I see 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.440 when I get over there? Martyr rat eating a diaper. 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.400 So that was that was kind of a traumatic welcome 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:13.919 to the city moment. Luckily, we've not dealt with infestations 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.160 of rats, but we have had some squirrels in the attic, 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.000 which we dealt with with some sort of pepper sprinkles. Yeah. 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.280 You know, a friend of mine UM actually thought she 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.640 had an infestation of flying squirrels in her attic, which 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.680 I thought it was pretty hilarious. Um, but it turned 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.240 out that she was a little deluded, and there are 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.239 rats instead my flying squirrels. We don't have flying squirrels. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.560 I think she just could tolerate the idea of flying 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:41.200 squirrel if you're gonna, you know, go into fantasy land 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.240 with it. I'm not sure. I'm not sure, but I 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.320 think she did get rid of him. So today we're 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:50.160 going to talk about some more historic gnarly infestations. Um. Well, 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:51.880 and you know, some of them are pretty recent. So 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.040 these are these are really hellish infestations in some cases 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:01.480 some pretty severe examples that make our dealings with squirrels, 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.920 martyr rats, and flying squirrels UM seem rather one day. 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.120 And yeah, and yes, so I'm gonna kick off with 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:14.760 the first one. Yes, caterpillars in northern libraria. This just yeah, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:20.639 last year January two thousand nine, UM thousands of librarian 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:26.400 villagers UM fled uh like wasted farms, overrun homes, UM 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:31.760 and like when pushed towards towards the border because there 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.440 were just squirming masses of these black, hairy caterpillars just 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.840 eating everything. They were even like falling into wells, fouling 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.320 up the water supply, and not just their their bodies, 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.240 but like their their feces, like caterpillar feces was poisoning 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.880 the wells and waterways. So it's just like you know, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.520 like scorched earth thanks to this caterpillar infestations. So do 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.480 they try to stop them, Well, they're they're pretty they're 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.000 pretty tough to stop. We're talking like forty six villages 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.160 were hit by these. They had eight teams, you know, 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.120 trying to clean clean up the areas and all and uh. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.000 But but the key would be to hunt down um 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.400 the winged adult moth that go off and spread even 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.600 more of this, the wing moths that that spread the 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.040 problem even for even farther. They travel by night, they 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.960 breed rapidly, and they also get really high up in 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.240 the tree canopies and makes it harder to hit him 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:25.880 with pesticide, so it was just a foul situation for 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:30.080 everybody involved. It sounds like a crazy caterpillar. Yeah, so 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:31.839 you know, why don't we stick with the bug world 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.000 and I'll talk about termites here here in Georgia, we 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.680 are quite quite familiar with termites. In fact um, when 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.640 you buy a new house you need to have a 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.520 termite bond, which kind of freaked me out because I 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.080 bought my first house in Georgia and I remember thinking 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.680 about this a lot and like scanning all the foundation 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.599 walls for the tunnels and whatever. Um. But it seems 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:54.560 like pretty much every house down in the South has 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:56.760 had termite damage at some point or another, as long 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.360 as it's old enough. So termites are ubiquity us. They're 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.360 found all over the place. They're found in China, they're 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.080 found in the continental United States, are also even found 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:09.320 in you know, places like South Africa or Hawaii. Um, 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.120 and termites, what do they like to eat? They like 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.680 to eat wood. But we we know that from the cartoons. 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.719 There was some cartoon Affrica, it was Mickey or or 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.160 Bugs Bunny where they have the situation where it's like 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.360 they're fighting the termines end up building like a maybe 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:23.800 it was Tom and Jerry where they build like a 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:25.880 metal house. That sounds like more Tom and Jerry, I 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:30.320 would think, not Mickey. So anyway, so termites build these 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.640 huge underground nests. They can be as big as like 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.520 three hundred feet, and they make these nests out of 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:38.400 kind of their own homegrown concrete. It's like dirt and 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.320 plant matter and fee season salve, all that good stuff. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:43.359 So they build this home base and then they spread 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.880 out and they start mentioned on anything from you know, 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.920 a tree to a high rise. And then once a 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.719 year they take to the skies and they established more colonies. 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.600 So humans have built a lot of civilization from would 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.320 you guys know this, and termites have happily threatened to 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.880 bring a lot of that civilization crashing down UM. Most 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.240 notably and pretty interestingly, in two thousand five, we had 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.400 a hurricane comtunity. You guys all remember that, h Well, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.600 in fact, term it's might have been implicated in the 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.480 hurricane UM and that's because they had apparently ravage sections 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.520 of the flood barriers UM to the point of weakness. 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.960 And this isn't a new behavior. In fact, the termites 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.400 had already feasted on Chinese levies like in the early 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.560 nineteen fifties. So it's a bigger deal than you might think. 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:27.880 It's affecting more than your house. It's affecting you know, 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.960 structural thing infrastructure. Yeah. So yeah, those are two examples 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.920 of some pretty sucky insects. Really, um so let's move 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:36.880 on to what we generally think of is a less 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:41.280 sucky insect. That would be the honeybee. Um. You know, 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.080 nice clean civilization going on there and produces delicious honey, right, 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:48.920 you know, and we like to cultivate them and uh 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.039 have them grow their own honey and then steal it 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.680 from them and uh and sell it in little bear 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:59.960 shaped jars for some ungodly reason. So the Brazilian guvern 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.400 Aska genetesis by the name of doctor Warwick Care to 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.400 breed a new kind of honeybee that would thrive down 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.200 there and be really effective. What does doctor care come 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.120 up with? Well, it's it's like something out of a 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.480 like a mad science movie or string. Yeah, Like I 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.280 would imagine gold Bloom playing you will either gold Blin 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.000 would pay play the doctor or who would play like 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.800 the you know, the mathematician who's like you can't breathe 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.680 these two bees because they're kind of you know, he 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.800 would be really manic and awesome about it. But anyway, 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.680 so care across the African honeybee with a European honeybee, 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:37.360 all right, to create the Africanized honeybee, which we of 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.720 course know now as the killer be. So ended up 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.320 being a really effective be but also just like a 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.679 really aggressive expansionist be. How fast we're talking, we're talking 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.920 two hundred miles per year, which you know for bees. 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.200 I mean, these guys are small, um and by the 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.280 ninety nineties they've conquered all of South and Central America 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:02.560 and we're busy establishing their hives in the southern United States. Uh, 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:04.840 that's the kind of thing made a lot of killer bees. 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:06.960 I think, I think we're a big trend with the 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.480 news programs for a while, but I don't. I don't 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.280 think I was old enough to really appreciate them at 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.720 the time or to be fearful. But it's not just 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.760 you know, a senseless moniker. These these guys can be 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.080 deadly because they're they're far more defensive and just in 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.120 far more aggressive. You know, a guy will be out 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.840 on his tractor or something, and they'll they'll react to 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.440 the sound and just like in mass you know, go 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.760 and um and swarm him. Swarms. We're talking thousands in 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:37.200 a swarm, like tens of thousands, thirty thousand killer bees 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.760 in a swarm, um just coming after anything that's close 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:42.679 enough to you know, make a kind of make a 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.040 loud noise or or whatever that's kind of freak them out. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:48.320 You know. The real tragedy here. There's not just people 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.240 that are affected by this, but but other be and 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.920 honey bee colonies that just get wiped out in the 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.200 wake of the killer bees because they're that effective and 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.160 they just grow through an area and bam there then, 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.920 so let's just bury those bees and wander over to 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.840 a new species, the thread crab, the crimson crab over 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.560 on Christmas Island, the Christmas Island red crab. Yes, indeed, 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.680 Christmas Island, for those of you guys not aware of it, 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.200 is an Australian island in the Indian Ocean and for 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.120 residents of Christmas island's kind of a festive sounding place. 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.640 There's a song about it, Like to spend Christmas on 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.080 Christmas all right, right, I had forgotten about that. Well, 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.760 their holiday season kicks off not necessarily with that song, 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.280 but with an invasion of dred and twenty million red 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.200 crabs each November, and these crabs come running pell mill 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.560 through cities and towns, determined to get it on crab 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:47.079 style essentially. So it's not always the case. Usually the 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.559 land crabs are hanging out in the rainforest just looking 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.200 for food. But every year they have to they have 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.240 to reproduce, right, so they make this arduous trek to 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.800 the beach to lay and fertilize some eggs. And as 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.120 they go, they flood the streets. They march into your homes, 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.320 they wander into closets and maybe hang out under your bed, 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.800 and basically nowhere is safe for a few days. So 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:10.719 that that really doesn't sound too fun to me. I 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.720 can't imagine like crunching through crabs. You're walking down the street. Yeah, 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:18.160 and then once the once the babies are born, right, 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.000 So that's the first wave, is when the the adults 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.000 come out to lay their eggs. But then you have 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.319 the babies being born, so you have all these eggs 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.280 finally hatching, and you have round two. So all the 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.520 adult crabs have since gone back to the forest, but 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.240 all the babies are are coming out, and they invade 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.040 from the sea, they come from the tides, and I mean, 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:40.120 it's just like this really massive crab larva. It's you know, 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.760 it's it's maybe not so attractive to somebody like me, 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.680 but it is a wonder of nature, no doubt. The 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.200 cats just go nuts for it because it's just, you know, 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.760 constant batting at crabs for days. You always have to 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:54.880 work in a cat reference to Well, I actually saw 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.160 a video that like the second waves coming through and 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.480 it just looks like it's like moving sand or like 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.040 an like a flood of lentils or something, you know, 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.880 And then there's there's this cat just going completely crazy 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.680 swatting at this this stream of crabs. Well, and just 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.080 to give you an idea of the scope, each female 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.320 produces about a hundred thousand babies, so the second wave 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.800 is even more massive. And then the newborns will eventually 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.400 go back to the forest um as their parents do. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.480 But basically they blank at their roads and towns for 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.920 for days. It's um. It's interesting too. I read that 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.040 UM that numbers have actually been down in recent years, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.920 and they're blaming this on an invasive species called they 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:36.840 and I'm not making this up. The yellow crazy aunt 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:41.760 yellow crazy and uh. And you know, we often get 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.360 bit out of shape over the over invasive species, generally 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.800 with good reason because we're generally the cause of an 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.840 invasive species. Um. But they say that if you look 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.280 at the history books, you don't see as you don't 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:56.640 see mention of this massive red crab tide on Christmas 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.839 Island and that's be And they think it's because a 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.599 read of rat called McLear's rat when extinct there in 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.520 en three So I used to keep the population. Yeah, 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.640 they think that this is this rat kept the population 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.080 in check for the long for the longest, and then 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.920 when when that rat went extinct, bam, population explosion. And 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.960 now we have an invasive species that's come in and 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:22.600 kind of put things back into balance. Perhaps, uh, time 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.600 will tell. So let's move on to something else, something 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:31.959 a little more furry and disgusting. Perhaps, how about mice. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.480 I actually saw a mouse in the house about maybe 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.000 it was a year ago. But we got those little 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.200 plug in things that may or may not work. They 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:45.920 make a little noise, they make no is it like 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:47.880 a restorable you know, it's like a little like a 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.199 little speaker you plug in and it supposedly makes a 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.880 high pitched noise that only affects rodents. Um. But I've 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:56.800 read some things where people are saying, hey, these don't work. 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:58.400 I don't know. All I know is that the cat 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.199 didn't care there was a mouse in the house, so 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.880 we had to do something else about it. Oh, you 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.440 don't have a mouse or cat. No, no, She'll bring 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.600 in the occasional chipmunk. That's it. But these problems are 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.559 nothing compared to what they get in Australia, where they 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:13.600 and and again you really have to see a video 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.600 of this to to get the full impression. But they 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.679 have these uh these regular just floods of mice, Yes, 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.560 the great mice plagues of Australia. Like imagine opening a 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:29.240 barn door and the barn just vomiting out, just blankets 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.680 of blankets of mice, just stirring and squeaking in every direction. 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.360 You can't even step anywhere because they're like little bodies 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.600 underneath foot, underneath your feet the whole time, like a 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.240 living carpet. Uh. These these occur roughly every three years 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.880 in Australia. Uh. They running through the grain growing regions 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.640 and causing get this upwards of a hundred and fifty 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.760 million dollars. Absolutely, and they'll they'll go like kind of 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:56.920 like the crabs. They just flow through anything they can 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.160 get into, except uh, you know, their their mice. They're 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.760 a little better at getting into things like the red 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.000 crabs of Christmas Island. These these things reproduce like crazy. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.439 They can breed six weeks after birth and a single 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.280 pair of mice can produce five hundred offspring in just 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:17.120 twenty one weeks. Uh, basically we're talking a thousand mice 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.880 for every two point five acres of land. So I 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:21.880 mean they pull out all the stops to fight these things. 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.440 We're talking chemicals, even flamethrowers. You can find you know, 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:29.000 no joke, You can find videos of this Australian farmers 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:33.000 coming out with the flamethrower hosing them down, and I 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.680 mean it's like something out of you know, generally you 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:40.040 don't only keep flamethrowers around for alien infestations, but but 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.600 they use them on mice. So oh wait, wait, there's 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.840 one more thing. Get this another just astounding factor. One 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.800 Australian village reportedly killed five hundred and forty four tons 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.480 of mice in just five months. Just think of like 0:14:55.520 --> 0:15:01.440 the sheer volume disgusting like mouse tonnage. There, that's a 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:03.840 lot of noss tonnage. But I'm sorry, we need really 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.600 need to move on to other disgusting furry things like rats. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.400 They're larger brethren. So we can't get through this podcast 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:14.800 without mentioning the rat king of medieval Germanic folklore. And Robert, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:16.600 I know you love the rat king. I don't really 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.960 know why. It's just it's I mean, it's it's germatic, 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:24.840 it's medieval, it's it's linked to plague. It's right. So 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.360 a rat king was basically you have several rats that 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.760 are joined by tangled and broken tails. It's like if 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:32.480 you put like when you keep yarn in a drawer 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:34.200 and then you open it up and then all the 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.120 yarn is tangled, except in this case there's like fecal 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.360 matter and grime holding blood holding it all together. Okay, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.640 that's disgusting. So rat rat kings are basically fictional, but 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:51.040 the folklore when that cryptosological anyway. I mean there's some 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.120 people that make heavy they actually have specimens that are 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.800 probably fake, but still they have specimens of these like 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.640 these horrible dead rats kind of like mummified and tangled together. 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.040 Moving on, moving on. The According to folklore, if you 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:05.600 saw one of these rat kings, and that meant you 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.160 had a pretty bad rat problem on your hands, and 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.320 probably plague, which would probably be a good guess. If 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.000 you had enough rats where they can't even like congreg 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.440 gate in the same area without getting intertwined, you probably 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.680 would have some some sort of hideous diseases on hand, right, Yeah, So, 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:22.600 so you have some serious bubonic plague going back in 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.760 medieval times and today rats as we know haven't gone anywhere. 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.960 They're stuck around to keep spreading disease and mess with 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.960 our urban infrastructure and pretty much everything else. Clearly, we 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.840 have a pretty successful species on your hands. Even with 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.520 sanitation and pest control, we just keep on having rat 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.640 infestations and I'm sure they're not going to go anywhere. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.000 So one of the most interesting infestations, um actually occurred 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.960 at the Paris suit back in two thousand four. Um 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.440 So employees of the zoo went on strike. And why 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.640 did they go on strike? Well, because there are swarms 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:58.440 of rats, uh Parisian rats. The storms of Parisian rats 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:03.120 where they're key complaint and so the Paris Do said okay, Um, 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.680 so they had to have the animals transferred to other 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.520 zoos temporary because the the animals of the zoo were endangered. 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:13.639 They were terrorists by these crazy hordes of rats. So 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.359 you had you know, the lions, the tigers, and the 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:19.119 bears evacuated to protect them from these you know, squeaking, 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.159 gnawing hordes. Yeah. I think that's all you all you 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.640 really have to know about the rat is that in 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:29.240 in the modern age, um, things like lions, uh, and elephants, 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:31.600 the great beasts of the jungle or are you know, 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.600 protected in cages by their human masters. Meanwhile, the rats 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.360 just run willy nilly over everything and pretty muchu all 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.840 the earth. Yeah, so that's rats. What about monkeys? Oh yeah, 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.119 then the monkeys. This one I don't know. This is 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.040 this is actually more awesome than the rat king and 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.000 that it is true. Um, And that's that if you 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.879 if you go to New Delhi, you'll find a city 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.480 overrun with wild Reese's monkeys. And I mean it's to 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.040 the point where people have have caged have caged windows, 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.120 you know, bars in the windows and doors to keep 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.479 the monkeys out of their homes because I mean, just 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.120 like on a pretty regular basis, these these monkeys are 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.840 are breaking into the homes and businesses. Uh, They're biting 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.879 and clawing for bits of food and drink, you know, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:20.359 and you know it's they're totally destructive. Um. There have 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:25.800 been situations where they've flung HIV infected blood samples in laboratories, 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:30.240 They've thrown top secret documents around, and in two thousand seven, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.560 I'm sorry, but that last one kind of cracks me up. Yeah, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.800 I mean it's like where you're keeping your top secret 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.480 documents if you know, if a monkey rampage could considerably cold, 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:40.840 could possibly you know, am I the only one think 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.359 you have Curious George right now? Like Curious George and 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.800 the top secret documents? I don't remember that one. Where's 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.600 the man in the old hat when you need him? 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.480 In two thousand seven, a senior Indian official fell to 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.720 his death from a balcony when monkeys ambushed his home. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.359 So it's like people are dying and you know, and 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:02.800 top secret documents are getting curious. Um. So yeah, they 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.320 they they're running in the streets, are running the subways, 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:07.679 and the people of New Delhi have long held the 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.400 monkey's sacred, so extermination isn't really an option. But then 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.320 people aren't you know, it's really been a struggle to 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.560 sort of pick up the other end of let's actually 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.080 like like span neoter some monkeys, you know, or you know, 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.240 do something to control the population through sterilization. Maybe maybe 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.720 they just need some yellow crazy ants. Well, interesting that 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:32.359 you mentioned that, um um. You know, for for years 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:34.320 they would have catchers that would go out there, monkey 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.639 catchers that would go out there and catch the animals 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.000 put them in cages. Um. But many home and business 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.040 owners have Actually it's it's like a monkey arms race, 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:45.840 all right. So the Reese's monkeys are running wild, Well 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.040 why don't I just get a larger monkey to protect 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.800 me from the little crazy monkeys. So you have situations 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:57.719 where people will have a black faced lander monkey and 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.000 they'll have it chained out in front of their business 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.240 to guard it. So it's kind of like an Indian pitbull. Yeah, 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.720 and it's like the yeah, and to keep the other 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.439 monkeys away, and people actually end up like walking one 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:10.760 of these guys on a leash two keep in It's 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.000 like it's just a straight up monkey arm race and 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.920 it's uh and and it's it's horrifying. What next? What's 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.240 the next step after the black faced langer? Are people 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:23.399 gonna get like guerrillas? And I mean, it's crazy, but 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.200 that's what you get with infestations. So I think we've 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.399 given you guys some pretty good examples of gnarly infestations. 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.600 And I'm assuming those are infestations that we wouldn't care for. 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:34.720 I mean, do any of you guys want a hundred 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:39.959 twenty million read crabs carousing through your streets? I'm assuming 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.360 you wouldn't, right, But I have to ask Robert, what's 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.639 your ideal infestation? Ideal infestation? Yeah, if you have to 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.000 pick one. Well, I'm I'm reminded of Mitch Hedberg's bit 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:55.399 about how um he wished that is the late great 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.520 stand up comedian, and he had this whole bit about 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.720 how he would he would totally dig a quala bear 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.880 infestation because it would be the cutest infestation ever. Um. 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.440 That being said, I hear that quala bears can be 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.280 kind of stinky. Um, So I'm thinking as adorable as 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:14.760 a kuala infestation might look, that it might smell kind 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.560 of nasty. So you're not going with bears, I'm gonna 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.200 go with I'm gonna go with the gecko. Um really yeah, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:23.119