Up Next
Back to Show
Deep Look
This Mite-y Beetle Buries the Dead to Start a Family
Season 11
Episode 12
Insects called burying beetles haul mouse carcasses down into the dirt and prep them to feed their future offspring. Also known as carrion beetles, they have some stiff competition … and some help from tiny traveling mites.
Support Provided By
4:20
As they gorge, oblique streaktail hoverflies help keep orange trees safe from disease.
3:37
Why is that yellowjacket crashing your BBQ? She’s gathering food for the nest’s larvae.
5:04
Explore the parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) and ways to help monarch butterflies.
4:14
Floating colonies of red fire ants are a risk for people wading through floodwater.
3:57
These voracious predators cruise belly up below the surface of a pond or gentle stream.
4:55
Barn owls turn mice, gophers and voles into balls of fur and bones known as pellets.
4:02
It’s called nectar robbing: Bees get nectar, but don’t pollinate the plants in exchange.
3:49
Giant water bugs pack one of the most painful bites of any insect, but they're great dads.
4:33
The spotted wing drosophila may look like a common fruit fly, but it’s so much worse.
5:13
Those precious silk garments in your closet were made by the caterpillars of a fuzzy moth.
3:58
Barnacles might look like jagged little rocks, but they have a surprisingly wild sex life.
4:36
Honeypot ants stuff members of their own colony until they look like tiny water balloons.