By The Way with Tom Richards
Discussion on bugs and insects with Ryan Bridge, The Bug Man.
The Bug Man Ryan Bridge
Well, you’ve heard of 10, the tool, man. Well, we’ve got Ryan, the bug man. Good morning, Ryan. Good morning. And welcome to by the way now many people caught the social media this week. When. You brought a little friend of yours in to visit part of our morning team that’s Mitchell. It was an interesting reaction to say the least well that’s, that’s actually common, you know, it’s pretty cool.
Yeah. That’s pretty common for me. I can see, I get to do that every day. That’s the thing. So I get to see that type of that type of reaction. And then the cool part is, you know, he kind of warmed up to her a little bit and that was, that was kinda nice to have him warm up to the spider afterwards. And those who missed it on social media, what we did.
Is, we got one of Ryan’s friends and the spider has a name. It’s a tarantula, right? Her name is Penelope. And Penelope is about how big, well, she’s about six inches across and she’s full grown. She’s 22 years old and we just walked into the studio on our morning, man, Dennis. And, uh, he had an interesting reaction.
You might want to check that out on social media. I’m sure it will be up. So bottom line. Do we not understand insects and bugs, which is why we have a fear of them. That is a great question. And that’s the yes. Yes. That is exactly. You hit that one right on the, on the head. Um, most people really have a general lacking of knowledge.
It’s not necessarily a lack of respect in all cases. It’s not, you know, people, don’t, people don’t inherently hate bugs and insects. People in my opinion, people actually like insects. They just don’t know it. Cause they’re rarely taught. To like insects were taught to be afraid of bees and to, you know, whatever hate, hate all these crazy things.
Hate spiders, kill flies, and hate spiders and all these things. We’re taught that through our entire lives. Wait a minute. I was taught in boy Scouts that daddy long legs are good cause they eat mosquitoes. No, they taste like chicken too, but still, you know, however you want to look at bugs. You’ll look at bugs the way you want, but.
But the problem is, and it comes right back to what you said is that that most people just have a general lacking of knowledge about them. So we go on what we’re taught both as a, as a child, as well as from Hollywood and the things we’ll look at. What we’re taught from Hollywood alone is a terrible, terrible place to go for positivity about bugs and insects.
You showed us a black widow spider. Earlier I did. And they’re not that big. They’re not there. They’re about the size of a, maybe a marble at best, but they are poisonous. They’re venomous. Okay. What’s the difference between venomous and poison? I like to tell people the difference between venom and poison, if, and, and it can get very technical.
So I don’t like to do that with people, but yeah, especially this early on a Sunday, don’t, don’t be too technical to my little brain. Hasn’t had coffee yet. Keep it. There you go. To keep it simple. Um, Poisonous would be, for instance, if you ate it and it hurt you, that’s an example of being. Poisonous. Um, whereas if it’s venomous, it’s going to bite you, um, venomous snakes, you know, venomous spiders kind of, sort of thing.
So, um, to be poisonous, I don’t pick a big fight over that, but I try to point that out to people when I hear that. Cause I get to hear that. As well, almost everyday I get to hear about the, you know, is it poisonous? Um, cause I also have scorpions that I use in programs as well and about those programs, because yeah, we talked about how some of these ideas are pounded into our heads as kids, but you’re reaching the elementary schools and the kids now.
Right. It’s awesome. What I love my job. Man. I, I, I, I went full-time like eight years ago and up to that point, it was just hit or miss getting programs, wherever I could, birthday parties and fun things like that. Now I’m full time. So I get, like I say, I get to do this sort of thing everyday, but what I do is I actually get to go out and I get to not only outreach to youth and things like that, but I, I do all ages.
So I’m tapping into, I may, I may tap into a preschool audience. Uh, in the morning, and then I may end up with a, with a scout group in the evening. And then the next day I may go do a senior sister living home. So I get to hit all areas, all avenues. But what I do is I teach people about insects in a way that they realize they’re.
First of all, they’re not out there to hurt everybody. And the purpose of bugs and insects is not to hurt. We’re not going to talk about bed bugs yet. Even that the purpose of bugs and insects is not to hurt people. The purpose of bugs and insects is to find their niche, which nature provides them. And then pretty much feed the planet.
Uh, they are one of the more important components in ecosystem. So all the birds, all the fish, all the plants, all the animal, everybody needs, even humans need insects to survive. Somehow some capacity we are connected. Two insects and we need insects. People don’t make that connection. They don’t recognize the fact that they’re that important to the preservation of the planet at the same time, they also realize they don’t realize that that.
Insects are not out there to hurt us. Cause we’re only told and we’re promoted on the spiders and the mosquitoes and the bedbugs and the, all these bad things that are out there. And yet people love butterflies and they realized butterflies aren’t going to hurt them. Well, that’s one reason they love butterflies.
They also love ladybugs and they, they, they realized lady bugs. Aren’t gonna hurt them, but they hate cockroaches. Well, guess what? Cockroaches. Aren’t going to hurt you. Cockroaches can not hurt you. Yeah, they just can’t. They’re not, uh, they’re not one of those insects. They’re not gross and dirty and disgusting.
She’s wondering, she remembers growing up in not a pleasant interaction. It we’ll get that out of here. It’s a cockroach and that is normal. That’s very normal for that. I don’t judge people on this. Don’t get me wrong. Not saying we have cockroaches in our house. Sure. No, I’m not. It does. They do give you a seven out of 10 homes in this country have cockroaches.
And they’re not all that big they’re there. Most of them are so tiny. You don’t even know they’re there just because you have cockroaches doesn’t mean you have a million of them in your houses infested. You might only have 10 or 12 of them. Um, and the other catches, we bring them into our homes. That’s a funny thing about cockroaches though.
The number one place to get cockroaches and bring them back into your home is from the grocery store. Okay, so you will have a cockroach and Keith Richards around for the long time in the world. Right? I I’d I’d venture to say they’re both going to be competing to take over the planet someday. Yeah.
That’s, that’s pretty serious. Ryan bridge. The bug man is our guest today, by the way, what’s the big difference between an insect and a bug. That is a great question. I L cause cause there can be debate, you know, people can debate me on that if they really want to and, and I’ll let them win. I’m like this calls me a pest isn’t does that fall into that category?
It might. I don’t know. I don’t know. Well, so I know your wife knows you’re way better than I do. So, you know, go, go with her to beat her on that one. Um, the bugs and insects. I like to claim things like centipedes and spiders and. Insects as bugs, but centipedes and spiders are not insects. So I can’t claim the mills.
I can’t claim them as insects. The distinct differences between insects and everything else, whether we’re talking about bugs or everything, the distinct differences, you have six legs. You have three main body parts, head thorax, abdomen. And then you have antenna. That’s what makes up an insects.
Hey, look, you can take a spider with eight legs and you can pull two of its legs. That’s not going to make it an insect. It doesn’t work that way. So, but now six legs, three main body parts to antenna. That’s what makes an insect and insect. So ducks dogs, spiders, centipedes. All these other, they’re not insects.
That’s, that’s what breaks it down. There are other things out there with exoskeletons there, like millipedes have antenna. So it’s not a hardcore role, but six legs, three and or three main body parts. And two antenna. Those three components will make up every insect. So we were talking about how you can see things and touch things.
When you do demonstrations, however, This last year has been different. So you do offer virtual as well. Say 2020 was a, was a mindblower for everybody. I think, um, it forced folks like me who are, you know, that my job is to go to your location and bring my program to your birthday party or your per year, your daycare, your preschool, your elementary school, you know, whatever your life sciences class at HACC, for instance, I’ve done a few of those, um, But when everything goes virtual now, instead of bringing it to you there, now I get to bring everybody to me, which is kind of a weird thing, but you offer that, but I do absolutely the F it’s gone virtual, um, and it’s gone virtual big.
I, I, I still like do an in-person better. I like being able to stand face to face. I love being able to, to get that person in-person reaction, but of course we just aren’t there yet. And now the coolest part about the virtuals now I’m worldwide. So, so this, this forced me to take the platform and build on it and create the virtual platforms, which kind of everybody, I think, sorta in some way we’ve evolved.
Yeah. We now know what zoom means, who knew about zoom a year ago? I know a thing about zoom. I didn’t know a thing about Google meet. I didn’t know a thing about any of these platforms. Um, I knew Skype, I’d done a couple Skype platform, you know, Skype platform programs, um, you know, different places around the world, but, but that.
Nothing compared to what it is now. I used to work with somebody who’s called Skype, Skype pie, but th th that was a strange lady. So anyway, I see pictures of you showing huge insects. Sure. To people. What is the largest animal or insect in the world, largest insect and wait. And we got it. We got to get sort of technical with you.
There, there are, there are large insects all over the place. The first thing people need to realize is the large insects are the harmless insects. The large ones are the ones that they rely on their size in order to keep from being eaten by predators, the bigger you are, less bullies pick on you. Real simple concept.
That’s why I, so my wife is my waistline expands. Like, no, one’s going to bother me there. See, so the, the larger, these and sex are the less predators they’re going to have. The longer they’re going to survive. The goal of insects every single day is to survive one more day. That’s all they want to do. So growing big is a big, is a big deal for insects.
Um, growing small is too. Cause now if you’re tiny, then they can’t see you. So just because you’re an aunt doesn’t mean you’re going to get picked on now. It’s harder for, for predators to see you. So you probably live longer that way too. But the larger insects that I’m using, um, are going to be things like the Atlas MAs now Atlas models are one of the largest moths in the world.
Um, I can’t, I’m not allowed to legally use live ones. So I have to use preserve ones, which is no big deal because whether it’s dead or alive, it’s still a really impressive looking moth. It is one of the largest by wing mass. Um, the, the record holding largest moth in a world comes out of Malaysia and it’s, um, it’s the Hercules moth.
It’s an absolutely massive insect, huge moth. Um, awesome. Needless to say, um, we also have the heaviest insect is the giant one. The giant wetter. Um, and we have the largest beetle in the world is the Goliath beetles. And that’s a whole family of beetles, but they’re a huge, huge beetle. Um, but the size of my fist, you don’t think of insects growing well, how do they grow?
They, they, they only grow as an immature. Okay. Um, they’re, they’re insects. Aren’t growing once. They’re, there’s, there’s really no such thing as a baby beetle, uh, or a baby moth, unless you go into the immatures and you say, okay, beetle grub is a baby beetle and a moth Caterpillar, or a butterfly.
Caterpillar is a baby butterfly, baby moth. Um, and, and they grow through their instars. They grow through the metamorphosis as an immature where they eventually will pupate or. Make a Chrysalis or build a cocoon. Um, and then the adult will come out. The only purpose for 99% of the insects on the planet, their purpose is to go find mates, reproduce.
And feed the world. So what insect besides the cockroach lose the longest? That is a great question. So there are termites out there for instance, African termites can live sometimes 20 years. Um, but you’ve got spiders and they’re not an insect mind you, but you’ve got spiders, a transla Penelope can live up to 35 years.
You know, monarchs, the, the migrating monarchs can live up to two years. You know, that’s a two year cycle for them full cycle. Um, And that’s, that’s a best case scenario, nine times out of 10, they’re going to migrate South. And probably die on their way back up. So they’re not going to make it all the way back to Canada.
Again, for instance, they’re going to, they’re going to die somewhere between Mexico and, and Canada obviously. And their, their offspring will be the ones that eventually migrate northward. So you’ve got some insects out there that are living very long time, you know, it’s, it’s cool that way, but again, people don’t connect.
To the longevity of that life cycle. I think people, people think in terms of it’s a fly, it only lives 24 hours. Wouldn’t flies. Don’t all live 24 hours either. And there are some mosquitoes out there that live longer than 24 hours. It’s. Okay. And what about bees after they stink? Do they all die? No, that is a really, really good.
Cool. I actually ask you out in my, in my programs, the fact that. That honey bees are the only bee that will die when they sting you and us, because they get the Barb on the, on the stinger that literally pulls the pumps out and it literally pulls out its guts, if you will. And that will kill that honeybee.
They’re the only ones, all the rest of the bees and wasps and Hornets out there that can sting you mind. You are only gonna they’re, they’re gonna hit you and hit you and hit you until you figure it out. But the real catch to bees and wasps and ants and Hornets that are stinging us as only the females can do it.
None of the males. So some of the males in this community have to get out of the way after meeting, right? Yeah. But that’s life will end after that. There you go. But the females are the only ones that will sting that’s. So if you think about it in our lifetime, theoretically, 50% of the bees and wasps and Hornets that you encounter in your lifetime are totally harmless.
Cannot bite. You cannot stay. Okay. Let me ask you this, Ken. You really eat insects? Oh, absolutely. I’ve eat. I know people, a lot of insects. I, you know, can you eat? I can’t, I can eat anything you want. It may not. It may not taste good, but you can eat anything you want. Um, I’ve an eighties and nineties. I spent a lot of time traveling.
I tr I went to a lot of places around the world, especially central South American to over to Asia and. You could you have, you have choices and some places they boil insects. In some places they just cook them over fire. And some places they eat them right out of the ground. Raw I’ve watched, I’ve watched people in Africa, it sounds gross or not after you’ve done it.
And you realize the taste really isn’t that bad. You’ve got to get over the fact that you’re eating an insect. That’s our biggest problem. Me, it’s not always crunchy. Sometimes it’s mushy, but I’ve watched. I watched a group of guys in Africa, for instance, dig beetle, grubs out of the ground. Um, and, and literally shine them off on their shirts, like apples and bite right into them.
Um, and these were huge beetle Grubbs. These were massive beetle grubs about the size of an Apple. And they, they fit right into like, okay, everybody’s breakfast is now turning me now. Here’s the, here’s the catch to eating insects. So again, this is something most people never delve into. They never understand.
Insects. Don’t all taste bad. Don’t don’t judge them by their looks. Alright. Insects are gonna, if you cook them over fire, for instance, insects, a lot of times they’re going to taste like wheat toast. Um, if you eat them raw, most insects eaten raw cleaned up and eaten raw are going to taste like soybeans.
Um, cicadas, there’s that huge Cicada hatch. That’s supposedly coming out of 17 years, 17 year cicadas, supposedly coming out this year. And I say, supposedly it’s gonna happen, but I don’t get real excited about it happening in my backyard yet. I miss that sound though. Yeah. Oh, it is very cool. I love it. I will travel.
Hours to go see that. And I was out almost out above Pittsburgh two years ago to go see a Cicada hatch that happened out there. Cause they, they cycled differently throughout the area. So the ones that are coming to York and all the way down into Tennessee are all going to be happening this year. Those 17 years of Cadas, that’s an, an, a really cool opportunity for people to try eating insects.
A couple of ways you can do that. You can boil them if you want to big deal that a lot of times they’re going to fall apart. When you do that. I like to roast mine on the grill. Um, and this, this gets, I can tell the way you’re looking at me. I like to roast mine on a grill, but here’s the, here’s the neat thing to it.
Do you marinate them? I, you can flavor them however you want. But the weird thing about bugs and insects, I mean, what’s this in the refrigerator. I got it. I have that. I have a bag of cicadas in the fridge almost every year. So. When you roast them though, you can salt them and put cayenne or put old Bay or whatever you want, but there’s so mild.
That’s what they’re going to taste. Like. If you dip a grasshopper in chocolate and eat it, it’s going to taste like chocolate. It’s not going to taste like a grasshopper. Um, cause grasshoppers don’t have a lot of flavor. They taste like soybeans. This acade is on the other hand when you grill them and dry them out on the grill, they taste like popcorn.
And people know that people don’t see that one coming. So when I’ve had a cookout and served Cicada, cause I’ve done it, you have, you have a cookout and you serve your guests cicadas just for, just for a novelty party, trick, serve some cicadas. It is amazing how many of those people will do it. Yeah, there’ll be apprehensive, but a few minutes later, they’re going to come back and want more.
What do you drink with a Cicada and what do you drink at most? I don’t know, whatever your, whatever your choice beverage is nowadays, I have to get into bedbugs because it affects a lot of people through no fault of their own. You got it. They travel gets in their suitcase. It comes home. And boy, do they multiply?
They are, it can be a nightmare, but they’re only doing what they want to do, but they don’t like light. Well, they’re not active. They’re more, they’re more of a nocturnal insect with, by, you know, but, but they also have to rely on their host. To be there. So how do we eliminate the feeding process for a bedbug colony of bed bugs?
You don’t eliminate the feeding process as much as you have to eliminate the colony itself, and then you have to eliminate it, eliminate the access of that colony to return. Um, bedbugs are a very, very. Difficult thing. Um, and I always feel bad. I get called not so much right now cause it covered, but I get called the schools, a couple of schools almost every year to go identify a bedbug.
Um, like a student will bring one in and he’ll have it on him and it’ll somehow get detected or he’ll find it and he’ll take it to the teacher and say, I found this on me and now they think it’s a tick or, you know, cause people just don’t know. So I will get called the soul. So there, there are, there are homes out there that have bed bugs that may or may not know it.
Um, the. Catch all the bedbugs, as it takes about four months for an infestation to really take hold. So if you go to your sister’s up in New York and she has bed bugs and may or may not know it, and you come back to your house and you dump all your stuff out and go back to living your normal life. About four months later, you’re going to have bedbugs, but you’re probably not going to know it.
Until then. And they liked, they liked bedding, thus bedbugs, generally mattresses. They generally live in amongst the bed and the bedroom because their host, which would be us in this case, their host has to be there in part, we are the food where the food they’re gonna, they’re gonna, they’re going to go on us.
They’re gonna crawl on us. They’re gonna suck our blood while we’re sleeping. And we’re never gonna know it. Okay. Enough on bed bugs people this morning are tuning out in droves. If I can’t listen and eat breakfast, So let’s play some true false with Ryan bridge. The bug man. fuck man. Okay. You need that butterflies and moths can’t fly.
If you rub the scales of their wings false. The purpose of the scales on butterflies and MAs is to strengthen the wings by thickening up the wings scales on the wings are microscopic they’re. Like they’re like. Thousands thousands, millions and millions of little roof shingles. So they w they helped to waterproof and sheet off moisture, water, and do, and such.
They protect by strengthening. They also insulate the wings a little bit, keep the wings warmer. Um, but if you rubbed that color off, which people have done, um, take a paint brush and you can brush some of those scales off. They don’t die. Okay, true. False black widow females eat their meals after meeting, not every time.
So 50 50 on that one. Okay. Um, they’re get a reputation for doing that, but all spiders, all spiders. When those males have to approach the female and try and make every one of those males is apt to get eaten. It’s dangerous, like real life. Chiggers burrow under your skin and suck your blood. They do. Um, a lot of people don’t understand chiggers again, you’re talking to microscopic bug.
Um, it gets unusually gets in your ankles and on your legs because they generally, a lot of people refer to them as sand fleas and things like that because they’re, there might even be a sand flea, actual, but. I’ve always found them to be chiggers. So that said they’re going to, they burn up into ankles and legs and such, but yeah, they they’re.
They’re another one that gets on us and causes pain here in central Pennsylvania. We have to be concerned about Brown recluse spiders. Uh, I, my wife has done that yet. I want to make sure it’s not a brand reckless. But we’ve had hopping spiders. That is a great question. Look, um, first and foremost, and there will be people that will probably, and they’ve done it with me.
There are people that will argue over this fact because the doctor told them they were diagnosed with a Brown occlusion spider bite. Um, there are statistics that I’m not going to get into because I don’t know how to prove those statistics. I’ll be careful with that. All I’m going to say is a vast majority of Brown recluse spider bites.
If, especially in Pennsylvania are not Brown recluse, they might be a spider it’s even unlikely. They’re a spider bite. In most cases, they’re staph infections. Doctors are going to treat them both the exact same way. Some people are affected by venom. Differently than others. Um, bee venom, scorpion venom, spider venom.
They’re all different. It’s just a protein buildup. So, so they’re all different venoms. They all will affect us differently and each person will be affected differently. So when a Brown recluse bites you, um, by some miracle happenstance, it probably isn’t gonna do anything. Odds are nothing will happen on freak occasions, bad things happen when a Brown recluse by somebody.
But again, It can also be a staph infection. So unless you have the spider and can take it to a, a spider ologist or an entomologist or somebody who is qualified, not some doctor, but a qualified person who can look at that spider and say, yeah, this is definitely a Brown recluse. And this is the one that bit you, right.
And yes, that’s the one that hit me. Okay. You have a Brown recluse bite. There you go. You Pennsylvania there, the spiders just aren’t here. They’re not native to Pennsylvania. They’re native to the South central, mid Midwest. So they’re coming up in lumber shipments. They’re getting here in, in nursery plants and things like that, but they don’t do well with like 50 degree overnight temps.
They, I can kill them. So as soon as it gets cold or chilly, they die, they just don’t do well. Okay. True or false ultrasonic devices can help keep pests out of the kitchen. Pests in regards to what. Pest pest is a really broad term. Not me. I will go to the fighters that’s and maybe kids, if you turn it up loud enough, you can get, you can chase them out of your kitchen.
Um, ultrasonic stuff, generally doesn’t affect insects. Um, it can mess up their communication, their ability to communicate sometimes. But on a nervous scale aspect, which is what most of those ultrasonic things are, are designed to do. They play with the nervous system of rodents and fun things like that.
Uh, the ultrasonic stuff really doesn’t affect insects too hard and too badly. It’s it’s, uh, mostly, mostly going to have to be a chemical or a temperature response. That’s okay. So you’re not a doctor, neither am I, but ticks shall be removed. How rotating them are just straight up. Okay. Oh, man, I’m not going to go there.
I, I don’t know if there’s a preferred way. Um, But it’s important to know that not every tick is a deer tick either. Not every deer tick is carrying Lyme. So again, and so people get wigged out about ticks for a lot of the wrong reasons. Yeah. It’s another thing that’s coming after. You know, it wants to suck your blood because, you know, guess what you got a hundred other things out there that will do the same thing if you give them the chance.
Right. So a preferred means of removal, um, is, is deterrent and maintenance. Try not to get ticks on you long enough to let them attach, check yourself. You know, when you come off the field and then you come out from the woods, Check yourself and put, you know, change your clothes and, and, and take the, uh, take the upfront maintenance to try and deter.
And finally, daddy long legs are deadly. Absolutely not. Um, big wise tale is a daddy. Long legs are one of the most venomous, you know, animals on the, on the planet. Not even remotely close, they do have a definite, they do have a definite, um, Venom. And it’s a bad venom. The, the, the, the content of the venom, the protein makeup is a very high dosage, but daddy long legs are not deadly to people.
Um, their, their mouth parts are not even for the most part, able to bite people. Their mouth parts are rather soft. So where they’re typically going to take on soft-bodied insects, let’s talk about Ryan bridge, the bug man, and how you can get Ryan. To come to your school. Once we open up how you can get ahold of him for a virtual presentation, but I understand you have zoom Skype.
YouTube and Google meet. Sure. You’re all up and running I’m up and running man. That’s that’s what, that’s what 2020 did to me, you know, up till that point, I really didn’t have too much of anything going on. So I had my in-person programs, a little bit of Skype, but yeah. Now, now I’ve got my YouTube channel and that’s doing really well.
It’s kind of blown up right now, which is pretty cool. So it’s nice to see a lot of activity there. Cause, cause I’ve been sorta slow on putting stuff out there. Cause I kind of run out of content in the middle of winter. So gotta get creative or. Kiss somehow, keep it exciting in a wintertime. That’s tough to talk about your books.
You have a couple of books out there. Producer. I got will books, uh, out in West Chester, PA. They actually helped me to write and create children’s starter reading books, which are awesome. I mean, I, not only do I get to teach people how to read and some cases are helped to do that. Anyway, I also get to get them inspired about bugs and insects.
So some of your presentations are to be, or not to be a bug. Yup. I got bugs. There you go. And mother nature’s miracles. Yeah, I’ve got about 10 different program oriented things that are useful to all ages, all aspects. Um, I also have, you know, I have my exhibit where it’s, uh, a huge table exhibit where I can go to community fairs and different things.
I get hired every year to do that a bunch of times. Um, so it’s insect education is the. Goal, um, inspiring people, teaching people, you know, all the basic stuff. I don’t get too deep in. I don’t get real technical. I keep it very simple and very fun. That’s the catch is making insects fun and exciting. Um, and then the best part is then I’m bringing the live bugs.
And when we’re all set and done, then everybody in the room gets to hold live bugs and play with the live bugs. And that’s the catch right there, man. And you so use the, what he did with Penelope. That was super cool, man. Basically he can crawl into your life and sting you with knowledge. It’s Ryan bridge the bug, man.
Thank you for joining us by the way. That’s my pleasure, man. That’s awesome. Thanks. Get that spike. Keep that spider over there. Over there. She’s calm. She’s cold.