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Short Stuff: Roly Poly...Bugs? · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerri's here too, and it's short Stuff
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Cute Cute Little Bug edition.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: That's right, we're talking about pill bugs or potato bugs
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: or wood lice what or for our English friends, chicky pigs,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: penny sows or cheesy bugs.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I have no idea what we're talking about, Chuck, we're.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Talking about here in the American South, at least police.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, roly police.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Is that what you call them?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I've always called them. It's funny. I
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: was trying to look up a map of their range
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: in the United States, and all I could find was
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: dialect maps of what people called them around the United States.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So I have no idea what their actual range is,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: but I can tell you in the South everybody calls
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: them roly polies.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Well, if they call them something, that probably means they
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: have them, right, Yeah.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: For sure, I mean we have them. I've seen them before.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: With that kind of shows you the range I got.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: If it's named.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Boy Chuck, I think I'm getting dumber by the month.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: But you never know. They might be like, Hey, they
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: don't exist in Washington State, but we still call them grungers.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we like to say the word chigi picks.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: But we're talking about the little round uh well not
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: round round if they're threatened, we'll get to that. But
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: the little thing that you probably think is an insect
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: that looks like a little uh prawn or an armadillo
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: with legs. And in fact, the scientific name is Armadillium
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: arma no arma dilidium bulgary. Very nice, geez uh.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: That's shortened it to chigi picks.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's a roly bully.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And actually, strangely enough, even though, like I said,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I've seen them with my own two eyes in Georgia.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: They are from the Mediterranean initially, but they spread all
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: over the world. You can find them all over the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: place because they were basically carried over through the plant trade.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: International plant trade.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: That's right. You want some plants, they're going to come
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: with some well, they're going to come with insects. But
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: I keep saying insect they're not insects. Should we go
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: ahead and spoil what these things are?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. It's one of the facts of the short stuff.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: You take it.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank you. So they're not insects, chuck, they're not mammals,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: they're not birds, they're crustaceans.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mentioned shrimp.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Cousins to crabs and lobsters and shrimp.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And there are twelve species in the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: United States alone, it says northern and central parts of
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the country. But maybe they don't dwell in like the
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: deep deserts. Who knows, but I know I see them
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: all over the place here. They're the only crustacean that
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: has adapted to live entirely on land, and they breathe
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: through gills, which is remarkable.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So the fact that they have adapted to live
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: on land, the only crustaceans that did. That's another fact
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of the podcast. Just amazing stuff, right, But technically it's
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a sub fact of the fact that their crustaceans. I guess.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Another fact of the podcast, though, is there's a word
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: for them turning into roly Polyi's a tight little ball,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: which uh, which well, I guess marine biologists have have
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: determined was an evolutionary response to predators or to keep
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: their gills moist. They curl up into low ball, hence
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the name roly poly. But there's a term for that,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and I think you should tell everybody what that is?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Hmm, all right, it is conglobation.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now I had I said it, I would have
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: said conglobulation, but that's not correct. It's the better way
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: to say it, but it's just not right.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you love adding things.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Conglobation, fancying up a word.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: That's Josh Clark, the Josh Clark way for sure. So
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of remarkable things here. We're gonna check
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: off a couple of them and then take a ke.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: But one of them is they do not urinate. They
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: have a very high tolerance for ammonia, so they don't urinate.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: They excreete waste through the shells. They eat all kinds
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: of things in the garden, but one thing that they
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: eat is their own poopoo, which is a practice called
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: self car profigy caprofhagy. Self caprofagy, didn't I Yeah, they're
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: poop eaters.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they eat their own poop. And it's like, yeah,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: it's gross, but it also makes sense because you don't
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: necessarily get all the nutrients out of your pea, so
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: if you eat your poop, you have another shot at
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: extracting more of the nutrients that were left over.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like you missed something. Try again.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a piece of shrimp in there.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Ironically, they can drink from their mouth or they can
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: drink from their hind And they have a little tube
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: shaped structure in the back and so it doesn't matter
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: if the parties in the front ear in their ear.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: They can still get their drink on.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: That's funny. Did jo I came up with is that
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: they could use them both at the same time and
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: share a milkshake with themselves.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Oh that's even better.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Well I think they're equally good.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Well I just thought of mine. It's not as good.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Well, mine's written down so technical years is better because
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: it's off the cup.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Well, you just made yours up to You just wrote
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: it down, true, dad, unless did you work shop it
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: over a couple of days.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've me so tired of hearing that joke.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You're like, which one you mean? Shut up?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Should I say milkshake or shit?
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Right? How about one more factoid and then we'll take
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: a break.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, they're crustaceans, but they also have a marsupial
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: pouch essentially.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those mamas carry their little eggs around for two
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: to three months in their marsupium they hatch, and then
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: sometimes even those little young'ins will go back in that
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: pouch and say, Mama, I still want to stick around
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: for a little while until I'm ready.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Hey, mama, like Elvis. Uh Okay, now it's time for
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: a break, because the facts are coming so fast and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: hard that I'm crying tears out of my eyes right now.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Joy, all right, we'll be right back. All right, We're
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: back with some more amazing facts. These little guys are arthropods,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: so they're gonna molt. And if you ever see a
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: little cheesy wog what do they call them in England, cheesy.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Wig, chiggy pigs.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Chicky pigs, chugs, cheesy bug. And if you find one
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: that's like, hey, that thing looks funny, looks like it's
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: got half a shell, it's because their shells are in
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: two pieces. There's a front and the back. They drop
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: that back when first, so you may see one missing
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: its back, and you just got to be just leave
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: that little little fellow alone.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah he's porky pigan it, yeah, exactly. There's some other
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: things you should know about him. Another reason to leave
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: them alone, and even to invite them into your garden.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: As you'll see, they don't sting, they don't bite, they
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: don't carry diseases, and not only do they not mess
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: up your plants, they actually help your garden grow even
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: better because these guys are soil maniacs.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're champions of your composting efforts because they get
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: in there. They have what's called a detritivorous diet. Is
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: that how you'd say it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I would say detritativit forest diet.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: That it means that they basically take anything that's from
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: a decomposting plant or if there's a dead animal or
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: other poop. They can absorb all those nutrients, poop it
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: out themselves, and they're just little composting machines, which is
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: pretty amazing. But to me, one of the most amazing
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: facts is that they're into heavy metal.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like big time.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Like Crocus, Sabbath, Dio, Docin Maiden, White Lion. Ohoo, God,
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: what if we just named metal bands for the next
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: six minutes?
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Quite right? Oh man, bang your head.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: That's hair metal.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: It's still metal, all right. It's their most metal of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: hair metal. I would say, quite right, it is, at
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: least some of their songs.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I like quite right.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're great.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: That's good stuff.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Uh what about Testament, the other Christian metal band.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I don't think I knew about them. Yeah, there's Testament
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: that sounds familiar, though.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure they were Christian. They talked a lot
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: about Christianity.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Did they rock hard for Jesus?
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Oh? Do they rock super hard? They were like the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: kind where you could be like, not at all religious,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: but I still like Testament. Yeah, kind of like My
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Boys and Striper Queen's Reke. They were weird, but they
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: were still metal all right.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: So they love heavy metal. They love all those bands
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: except for White Lion. But what we really mean is
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: they are They have a very unique ability to eat
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: zinc and lead and copper and any other kind of
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: like awful heavy metal that might be out in the
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: wild and crystallize it in their bodies and thrive in
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: these heavily polluted awful areas. They crystallize it in their
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: guts and can remediate it essentially.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you crystallize something, you're essentially encasing it in
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: glass and it becomes inert as far as I can tell,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if they poop it out afterward
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: and it's inert because it's been encased. But how whatever
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: they're doing, they're they're they're Yeah, they're remediating. Essentially super
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: fun sights of heavy met if you just got a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: handful of them and said I'll see you in fifty years.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. So, like you mentioned, they're great for your garden.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: They may I mean that the damage that they might
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: be do is pretty minimal. They might try and drink
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: and get moisture from your plants and things, but they're
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: not the kind of land crustacean that's just gonna eat
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: through all of your garden vegetables.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Right, there are no land crabs.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: No, not on land crab at all.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: You got anything else about roly polies?
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: No, this is a short and sweet.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad that we did a pretty good psa
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: to everybody. Know, leave the roly polies alone and short
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production
• 10:45
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• 10:46
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• 10:50
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