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00:01My name's Mike Rowe.
00:04I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty.
00:09So what's the official name of the job?
00:10We are the Mucking Crew.
00:12Hard-working men and women who earn an honest living.
00:15It's an impossible challenge. They just go too fast.
00:18Doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
00:22So is this dirty enough for you?
00:25There it goes.
00:28Now, get ready to get dirty.
00:34Coming up on Dirty Jobs.
00:37Down in Louisiana.
00:38Gotta move fast.
00:40A little faster than I am, perhaps?
00:42Something just hit me in the head.
00:44One of your funny speed pickers threw a tail at me.
00:48And then I meet a little bug.
00:51Holy cow, it's covered with termites.
00:53With a big appetite.
00:54Well, there's the pile of little sons of guns right there.
00:56And their favorite entree?
00:57I mean, they're pests.
00:58They are.
01:00It's your house.
01:01I just think it'd be great if this actually held us.
01:03Ow.
01:04That was stupid.
01:05Good.
01:07Oh, God.
01:12Hey!
01:21Tonight's question comes from the Madel sisters.
01:24And they write— Oh heck.
01:26Why even read the question?
01:27Actually here, we'll please let them have to ask them themselves.
01:29What is it you ladies need to know?
01:31What happened to Floyd?
01:31How's Floyd doing?
01:33This is Floyd Giller, self-stuck.
01:34You pull yourself out, right?
01:35It's a little more fun this way.
01:37Yeah, it's hysterical, Floyd.
01:39Absolute right.
01:40Floyd's actually doing fine.
01:41You guys remember the mud bug?
01:43Oh, yeah.
01:43He was a real ball of laughs, wasn't he?
01:46He was real serious about his business.
01:48He actually scared me a little bit.
01:49Well, he had you there pulling the boat through the swamp when it got low.
01:53He just had you get out and pull it through.
01:55Yeah, he sure did.
01:56Well, there was a lot of stuff that aired that day.
01:59Or that we shot that day that never actually made it onto the air.
02:02So would you be interested at all in seeing some footage of not Floyd,
02:08but me going to the mud bug crawfish factory the next day to do stuff to the crawfish?
02:13Yeah, let's have some of that.
02:14That would fit in well.
02:15Does it seem interesting to you?
02:16It seems interesting.
02:18It's the kind of thing.
02:18Everything you do is interesting.
02:21Well, with that in mind, watch this.
02:24A while back down in Louisiana, I met Floyd Guillory, who took us to the Atchafalaya swamp to catch us
02:31some crawfish.
02:32Got plenty of them.
02:33A lot of the Haitians lose their suit of armor.
02:34And now, thanks to the Maidl sisters, you'll know what I know.
02:39From the crawfish, or the crawdads, or the crayfish, or the mud bugs, or whatever you want to call them,
02:44are brought to the Atchafalaya crawl from being boiled alive, having your head pulled off.
02:49The great state of Louisiana is the number one supplier of crawfish meat in the world.
02:53And although these little guys taste great, it takes more work than you'd think to get at the good stuff.
02:58I don't know where Ron got to, but this is Judith.
03:01You guys have been at it now, what, 18 years?
03:0318 years, yes.
03:03Great.
03:05How do you process it?
03:06In here.
03:06Yeah?
03:07This bag?
03:08Yes.
03:09Now, what am I putting this on?
03:10What is this device?
03:11It's a washer.
03:13All right.
03:13Crawfish go in the cleaner.
03:15Crawfish live in the muck and grime of Louisiana swamps and rivers, so a bath before the slaughter seems like
03:22a good idea.
03:22Now, you pick out all the, like, dead crawfish.
03:26The dead ones?
03:26Yes.
03:27Those are okay.
03:28Good, good, good, good.
03:29Good, good, good.
03:30How do you know if they're dead?
03:31They're not moving.
03:32Well, maybe it's just resting.
03:33No.
03:34A little nap in the afternoon.
03:36A little snooze in the Louisiana sun.
03:38No.
03:38No, they're dead.
03:39Okay.
03:39Like, this guy doesn't look good.
03:41That's right.
03:41That one's dead.
03:43Okay.
03:44The fish ensures that only the freshest meat will be cooked.
03:48Not dead.
03:50Not dead.
03:51Gonna be dead.
03:52You know they're still alive.
03:54Dead.
03:55No.
03:56No.
03:56Alive.
03:57Alive and angry.
03:58Boy, he's a big one.
03:59Look at him.
04:01They look like lobsters, don't they?
04:03They do.
04:04Ah, turtle.
04:06Oh, what do we do with him?
04:08Oh.
04:12Looks kind of pale.
04:14Maybe he knows what's coming.
04:16Probably.
04:16Good.
04:20Once the basket's full of healthy, energetic crawfish, it's a short ride over to the 300-degree
04:26cooker.
04:27That'll slow him down.
04:28It'll slow him down quite a lot, actually.
04:30This one or this one?
04:31That way.
04:32Any one.
04:32Doesn't matter, right?
04:33Boiling water, boiling water.
04:34That's right.
04:35Okay, down.
04:35Down.
04:38Down?
04:39Yes.
04:40I feel like we should say something.
04:43Like what?
04:43I don't know.
04:46They were good crawfish.
04:47They were.
04:48They had a good life.
04:49They did.
04:50They hung out in the bayou.
04:51They made friends.
04:53But their time was up.
04:55And now, they're going on to a greater reward.
04:58Exactly.
04:59All right, guys.
05:03So long.
05:05I think word has gone out in the community that there is trouble in the pot.
05:13The crawfish will cook for maybe 10 minutes until they reach 180 degrees.
05:17As they cook, fat from their tails foams up like a crawfish version of chicken stock,
05:23making the batch even tastier.
05:25Air on.
05:26Around the king back, the crawfish aren't the only ones approaching 180 degrees.
05:31It gets hot in here, Judith.
05:33Yep.
05:34Time to head for some fresh air.
05:36After the crawfish have been steamed and dumped, they're collected.
05:40They get picked.
05:43This is the picking room, packed with a posse of professional pickers, including Judith.
05:49It seems to pop up everywhere.
05:51All right.
05:51So I got a, this is a laundry bag, isn't it?
05:54No.
05:55A bushel basket?
05:56That's a seafood basket.
05:57A seafood basket.
05:58All right, we just dump them out here?
05:59Dump it here.
05:59All of them?
06:00All of them.
06:02Seems like a lot.
06:04It is.
06:04You going to peel all of that?
06:06I'm going to certainly pretend to.
06:08Okay.
06:09I got a lot of questions.
06:11First and foremost, how exactly do you get the meat out?
06:14Okay.
06:17Grab the head like this and the tail, and then you break it away with the tail?
06:20Yeah.
06:21Oh.
06:22All right.
06:22The line didn't come out, so you have to pull this out.
06:26Why is that?
06:27Because you don't eat it.
06:29What is it?
06:31Dirt, mostly.
06:32Yeah?
06:33It's waste.
06:33River dirt.
06:34Waste.
06:35Exactly.
06:36It's okay.
06:36It's okay?
06:37This is one of those shows you can say poop on.
06:39Okay, it's poop.
06:39We actually like it.
06:41Poo or no poo, there's a truckload of crawfish in front of me that need to be disassembled.
06:46Well, this is fairly straightforward.
06:49Oh, I cut them in half, though.
06:50That's right.
06:51That's a mistake.
06:51Yeah.
06:52We can save half of them, right?
06:53Yeah.
06:54The rest of the scale?
06:55That's not even worth saving.
06:56No.
06:57Who could have thought that pulling the butt out of a crustacean could be that difficult?
07:01No, man.
07:02Is there such thing as too small?
07:03No, you peel them all.
07:05You peel them all, big and small.
07:06How many crawfish can your best peeler do in a day?
07:10That little girl over there does 55 pounds in one day.
07:13She's pretty quick.
07:14Yeah, she's quick.
07:16We're watching you.
07:18I think I made her blush.
07:19I think so, too.
07:20I hardly ever make anybody blush anymore.
07:23Something about my line of work.
07:25Hey, that's a lot of picking.
07:26Ever tempting when you're here on the line just to pop one in your mouth as you go along?
07:34What's this yellow stuff?
07:36We call it fat.
07:38I crawfish pancreas, but not yours.
07:40Not mine, though.
07:41You don't want to eat mine.
07:42No.
07:42I'll tell you, what you really want to avoid is my liver.
07:50You sure you don't want this?
07:52You can have it.
07:54A little bit of poo between friends.
08:01Mud bug peeler.
08:03It's a dirty job.
08:06Well, after I get the crab out of the crayfish, I come over here and say hi to Bertha.
08:09Hi, Bertha.
08:09Hi, Mike.
08:10How you doing?
08:10Okay, and you?
08:11I'm good.
08:11Look what I did.
08:12Pretty impressive.
08:13That's nice.
08:13Very good.
08:14You like that?
08:15That's your first day?
08:16It's my first day on the line.
08:17What's your job here?
08:18What do you do?
08:19I'm a packer.
08:20Okay.
08:21So we're in the beginning stages of the packing process.
08:23This is the first beginning step.
08:26Okay.
08:26What do I do?
08:28Everything the pickers pick has to be precisely weighed previous to packing.
08:32140.
08:34Well, hold on a minute.
08:35Let's weigh it.
08:35Look at that.
08:36Uh-oh.
08:368.13.
08:37Oh.
08:38No, okay.
08:39Right?
08:40Hey, Bertha, let me weigh them real quick.
08:42Do you mind?
08:42Sure.
08:42I just want to be a part of the team here.
08:44Of course.
08:44This looks about like a 1-3-1 to me.
08:492-4-6.
08:52Bertha, this is a big one here.
08:533.17.
08:553.41.
08:56Yeah, man.
08:57Meat is then packed into consumer-friendly one-pound bags.
09:01Okay.
09:01Next, the bag is sealed up with some kind of a sealer thing.
09:06Okay, so you're putting the crawfish in the, uh, this is what, a vacuum pack?
09:09A vacuum pack machine.
09:10All right.
09:10And you pull down the...
09:12Pull it just like this?
09:14It's sucking the air out, huh?
09:15You can let it go.
09:16Oh, I can let it go.
09:19You have to hear the whooshing sound.
09:22Is that the whooshing sound there?
09:23Yes, sir.
09:23It sounded like a whoosh to me.
09:25It sure did.
09:26And then it seals it.
09:29Look at that.
09:29It's magic.
09:31After a quick mash-down to get the most bags in a box, the meat's ready for market.
09:34Now, that's some crawfish meat you can be proud.
09:37Of course, it goes into a box first, and then it gets shipped.
09:39It all gets very complicated.
09:43Now, you might think that after having your guts squeezed out and your head popped off,
09:47you'd be unable to contribute in a meaningful way to polite society.
09:50Well, think again.
09:52These crawfish, or what's left of them, are in the process of being transformed into fertilizer.
09:58Soon, they'll be put into bags and spread across Louisiana farmland.
10:02A fine and noble destiny.
10:07Coming up.
10:07We're working.
10:08Adventure out to an isolated island off the coast of Georgia.
10:13To meet a dirty little bug.
10:15Termites.
10:16They are disgusting.
10:18That causes big trouble in your house.
10:20They're all through this place, then.
10:21Yes, it appears so.
10:23But does good things in your backyard.
10:27Oh, it's an excellent snack, too.
10:35Well, I'm no weatherman, but I'd put it at about, I don't know, maybe 110 degrees, something like that.
10:41We're in Georgia.
10:42We're headed over to Sapelo Island to do something with termites.
10:45That's all I know.
10:46I didn't ask a lot.
10:48But today, that's the boat that's going to get us there.
10:52It's called the Spartana, I believe.
10:56Yeah.
10:58And I don't know where Barsky is.
11:00I don't know where the camera guys are.
11:02There's Jones in his bag.
11:07So, basically, I got this little camera, and I got an audio guy who doesn't want to talk to me.
11:12It's going to be that kind of day.
11:14Finally, the rest of the crew showed up, and we set out toward Sapelo.
11:19Technically, we haven't started filming behind the scenes something.
11:24But practically, we're working.
11:29Our captain tells me it's a seven-mile trip to Sapelo Island.
11:33It takes about 20 minutes to get there.
11:36Nice boat.
11:38The island is owned by the state of Georgia, and is home to a research facility run by the University
11:43of Georgia.
11:47The current population of the island is estimated to be like this.
11:51No.
11:52I'm supposed to.
11:54Many of the residents here are friendly.
11:56We all tell stories.
11:57They tell you about the story about the woman who walked away from me right in the middle of the
12:00story.
12:01It's a heartbreaker.
12:05Spanish moss hanging all over the place.
12:08Troy, how's it look?
12:10Beautiful.
12:11Troy seems very, very happy with his shot.
12:13I'm thrilled with that ride.
12:15It's been a big day.
12:17Planes, boats, and headed off to wherever it is we're going.
12:21My goodness, I love a good adventure.
12:22We're heading as a complex of buildings housing the University of Georgia's research facility.
12:28Over the years, scientists here say that's not all bad, because it gives researchers and a controlled environment.
12:38Wait a minute, that is not the Ritz.
12:42No, it's not the Ritz, but it does have a bell tower and a movie theater with lots and lots
12:48of little termites.
12:49So I figured it was probably time to slip into my official uniform and get to work.
12:57Like everything else around here, this theater has been renovated.
12:59It's a teaching facility today, but back in the 40s, this place was an oasis.
13:06One of the only places on the island where you can escape the heat of the day, sit back in
13:10the dark,
13:11snuggle up with your sweetheart in one of these over-wide seats and watch Bogart and Bacall up there on
13:17the big screen.
13:18Back in the 40s, Hollywood shipped the movies of the day across the country in wooden crates.
13:22What nobody knew was that there was something else in the wood besides the movies.
13:28Western termites all the way from Hollywood.
13:33So, while you were sitting here in the dark making time with your sweetheart, watching Jane Powell and Howard Keel
13:38get it on up there,
13:41Western termites were doing their thing up in the attic, slowly chewing this building into dust.
13:47One more example of Hollywood's mindless depravity, insidious reach and seemingly single-minded mission to slowly chew away at our
13:55foundation and erode the very moral fiber of our way of life.
13:59Jane Russell was hot.
14:01Yeah, she was hot, actually.
14:03But up here in the attic, above the movie theater, it's even hotter.
14:07And that's where I'm heading right now, to meet Dr. Brian Forshler from the etymology departments of the University of
14:14Georgia.
14:15Brian?
14:16Hey Mike, how you doing?
14:17I'm good, how are you?
14:19Pretty good. Warm enough for you?
14:22Well, it's a dry heat.
14:24Yeah, really.
14:25Has it ever dipped below 100 here on the island?
14:27Probably not in this attic too often.
14:29No.
14:30Brian Forshler is a, what are you?
14:32I'm a professor.
14:34And your obvious field of study is termites specifically?
14:39Yeah, quite a bit of the research we've done is on termites.
14:42I didn't mean to interrupt your work, but I'm going to all day long because I'm very curious.
14:46And with what I believe were the early onslaught of dehydration, my questions are going to be somewhat frenetic and
14:52not entirely connected.
14:53That's fine.
14:53I understand completely.
14:54Good.
14:55Allow me to let you use this while you follow what I'm trying to do.
15:00Okay.
15:01The gadget he's handing me is an infrared or IR camera.
15:05Yes.
15:06It senses temperature differences in the wood.
15:08And what I'm going to do is I'm going to squirt some cool air into some of these knockout holes
15:13or gallery points that the termites use.
15:16Line going up the beam now.
15:19Unmistakable.
15:19And that's delineating how far up that termite gallery goes in that board.
15:25And you reckon this is their, well, their toilet.
15:28Well, yeah.
15:29They call them knockout holes.
15:31If you look down here, there's, you can see some of the small pellets.
15:35And on the ground all over in this building, you'll see these pellets.
15:39That's termite poop?
15:40Yeah.
15:41It's like small grains of sand.
15:44Dry wood termites are like the kangaroo rats of the termite world.
15:47They get all the water that they require to exist from the food that they're feeding on and the atmosphere
15:55from the air.
15:55So they don't have, they don't need freestanding water to survive.
15:59And as part of their physiology, they squeeze every single drop of water out of their feces to conserve water.
16:07How do they go with the process of squeezing the moisture out of their poo?
16:10Muscles in their rectum.
16:12So they say, oh, oh, okay.
16:14So the squeezing and the moisture extraction is accomplished inside of the soft body.
16:19Exactly.
16:19They don't poo it out and then find a way to...
16:22No.
16:23No, they keep it inside.
16:24So they're trying to conserve moisture.
16:26Using the IR camera, I can help Professor Forshler map the pathways of the termites in the attic.
16:33And this data will help in developing new techniques for eradicating the little pests altogether.
16:40In another part of the attic, more termite damage and more termite poo.
16:45Down here is a couple of boards.
16:48The one on the left is obviously infested.
16:51You see the piles of poo.
16:52Right.
16:52What's interesting about these is that they're coming out of the board from below.
16:56That's generated by termites coming up through the board?
16:59They're pushing the, you know, the debris up from below.
17:04The debris.
17:04You see the difference in the debris.
17:05Yeah.
17:05Let's call it debris.
17:06The detritus.
17:07The term for it in entomology is called frass.
17:10Frass?
17:11Yes.
17:11That's the polite way of saying insect poo.
17:14Frass.
17:15Frass.
17:15So the root word is ass.
17:17That's the word.
17:19From?
17:19I didn't say that.
17:20From the Latin.
17:21Yes.
17:22I think it's Greek actually, but frass hole.
17:26That'd be the frass hole down there.
17:28Those are several frass holes in that board.
17:32coming up.
17:33I learn when you need to kick some termite fran to bring out the big guns.
17:39Wow.
17:40There are some galleries there.
17:41Big time.
17:48So this is the resistograph piece of equipment that we use to look at the structural integrity
17:55of a piece of wood.
17:56It's a really handy, heavy drill that's connected to a resistance meter.
18:04And it records the resistance that the drill runs into while drilling through something.
18:12So what I've done is, it's come out the other end.
18:16It sure has.
18:16That's correct.
18:17Pointed right toward my arm.
18:18Close enough.
18:20If we had a drop that went all the way down to the bottom, we would have run into probably
18:25a termite gallery.
18:26We don't know the extent of the infestation as far as height in this attic.
18:31There's a copula with a bell and a wind vane on the top.
18:37Mm-hmm.
18:37And if you would take that resistograph up there and see if you see any evidence of termites.
18:46Uh-huh.
18:46And if not, come back down with a resistograph reading indicating that it's the lumber sound
18:51up there.
18:54Now, like they say, half the fun is getting there, right?
18:57Exactly.
19:00The attic is usually the best place to check for termites because the wood is exposed.
19:05Lots of nails sticking out, too.
19:07Be careful.
19:08I just think it'd be great if this actually...
19:10That's exactly what I'm saying.
19:12At this point, it might be tired.
19:18You're through.
19:20I think these look solid.
19:24See all these little holes?
19:25Right there.
19:26Right there.
19:29There.
19:31Wow.
19:32There are some galleries there.
19:33Big time.
19:33But that first one that you picked, there's a huge gallery right under the surface.
19:37Found several other piles of frass.
19:40Yeah.
19:41Down here.
19:41Well, they're definitely...
19:43They're all through this place, then.
19:45Yes, it appears so.
19:47So in this building, we're gonna try various spot treatment techniques.
19:50Either through application technology to distribute that killing agent throughout the entire system, or rely on the social structure of
19:59the insects to move it about for you.
20:01The most common method of controlling termiting.
20:04Dr. Forshler's research is relying on understanding their social structure, so that he can implement different methods of containing the
20:12termites without having to use environmentally harmful pesticides.
20:16Perfect start to...
20:17A long, sweaty day.
20:19Yeah.
20:21Before we can study termites in the lab, we need to catch some at this old abandoned building.
20:27We're joined here with termite researcher, Sarah.
20:30So, here's an old entryway, active doorway, this plywood covering it, that we feel is infested with termites.
20:38And so, Sarah's gonna use a sound amplifier, a listening device that we have.
20:43At the end of this device is a hypodermic needle that pisses in for termites.
20:46What I'm trying to hear is, like, is them chewing?
20:51And they make kind of...
20:52It sounds kind of like bacon crackling, you know?
20:55It's kind of this faint sort of, like, you know...
20:57Yeah.
20:58Chewy sound.
20:59Okay.
20:59Don't anybody do, actually?
21:00Take a piece out of the bottom of that and see if there's any termites in there.
21:04Just...
21:06Got it, man.
21:09So, that's dry wood termites.
21:11See the soldier with the big head?
21:13Yes, I knew I heard him.
21:15You definitely did.
21:16I knew I heard something there.
21:18I'll see if I can break it open and find some more.
21:20Termite.
21:20Ow!
21:21That was stupid.
21:27See?
21:28What we can do is...
21:30There we go.
21:31Their crap is everywhere.
21:32Yeah.
21:33They didn't find a way to push their fascia frass.
21:38I just like to think of it as, like, dirt.
21:41Yeah.
21:41That makes it a little bit easier.
21:43Look at all of them.
21:44It's just a pile of little sons of guns right there.
21:46Yeah.
21:47These kind of...
21:48When you run a crowbar through a soft-bited animal.
21:50That's right.
21:54But...
21:55I would say that this building is...
21:58Has a termite problem.
21:59Would you?
22:00I sure would.
22:01And you would base that on something like this?
22:04Yeah.
22:05Termites.
22:07They are disgusting.
22:09Now we'll take some of these dry wood termites that are hiding inside these pieces of wood back to the
22:15lab.
22:16So we can compare them to the subterranean termites and put them together and see if they get along or
22:21if they fight.
22:22Let's do that.
22:22Where can we get the subterranean termites?
22:24We're gonna get them from some sections of PVC pipe that we've buried in the ground around here and have
22:30been checking for years.
22:32What we're gonna do now is check...
22:35Back in 1993, about 80 of them buried around the island.
22:39And what do you call them?
22:40Call them inspection ports.
22:42Here's your tool.
22:43Oh, we'll get some termites for you.
22:45Yes, thank you.
22:46It's buried somewhere in here?
22:47Yeah, somewhere in this vicinity.
22:51Find it?
22:52I think so, yeah.
22:54That sounds right.
22:54That sounds like something.
22:55Yeah, so...
23:00Well, the section of PVC pipe, we replaced the knockout plugs, as you'll see.
23:07Some of them are in better shape than others.
23:09Holy cow, it's covered with termites.
23:11Yeah, we've got a fresh sandwich, so take this, pull that out.
23:14Uh-huh.
23:15Just grab what you can of it.
23:17It's falling apart.
23:18The whole thing's falling apart.
23:20The termite-infested old wood is removed and replaced by a bundle of new wood.
23:26So...
23:26That's the comparison.
23:27What we have here is a before and an after.
23:32That's what the termites have been doing to this wood over the last few years.
23:36Well, actually, the past few months.
23:38Oh, because that's how recently these were put in?
23:40Yeah, this was put in three months ago.
23:42Oh, I see.
23:42So the...
23:43We've been checking them on a regular basis.
23:47Jamming on down in there.
23:49I think that should do it.
23:51Perfect.
23:52Not perfect.
23:53All right.
23:53Just...
23:53Yeah, a little bit.
23:55Climb.
23:55Make it easier to fly next time.
23:57All right.
23:57Take me to the lab.
23:59All right.
23:59You want me to carry these?
24:00Yeah, if you don't mind.
24:00Yeah, you can have the chisel.
24:02All right.
24:03I'll follow you.
24:04This way.
24:04No, you follow him.
24:05I'll follow her.
24:09Either animal or insect can compete.
24:12Australian and African mound-building termites can build their nests over 20 feet tall
24:16and about 98 feet in diameter.
24:24Well, it's not air conditioned, but there's a nice cross breeze.
24:27Troy has set up a special camera.
24:29Good luck with that.
24:30You're Wes?
24:30I'm Wes.
24:31Wes, great.
24:32And Bryce?
24:33Right.
24:33They all know who you are.
24:35Unfortunately.
24:35These are students under your tutelage.
24:39Yes.
24:39What's your major?
24:40Microbiology.
24:41That makes sense.
24:42What's your major?
24:43Exercise science.
24:44What are you doing here?
24:45Um...
24:45I mean, are you taking the class kind of because you figured it would be, you know, look,
24:48I'll get out of the school, I'll come to a nice island, meet some girls.
24:51Uh, no.
24:52I mean, it's a summer job and I love doing it.
24:53It was exercise science, was it?
24:55It was exercise science.
24:56That's right.
24:56And lift weights and make sure everything's going right.
24:59I thought it was just technique.
25:00I mean, it is technique to a science.
25:02Oh, I see.
25:03You've elevated...
25:05You've elevated the technique of working out to a science.
25:08All right.
25:09So, what do you want to do first?
25:10All right.
25:10First, we're going to...
25:12I want to pick out...
25:13You want to be able to tell the difference between, like, actual dirt or, like, termite poo.
25:17You call it poo?
25:18Pretty much, yeah.
25:19The majority of us.
25:20I mean, I would call it poo, but frass is, I guess, a good scientific term.
25:24You're already with frass?
25:24I'm good with that.
25:25All right.
25:25Poo, dirt.
25:27Poo, dirt.
25:27Do you think that's dirt falling off or poo?
25:29Probably dirt.
25:31Oh, crap.
25:32Crap makes it even more complicated.
25:34New term.
25:35Only poo in here.
25:36Why don't you strap everything into this?
25:38No, babe.
25:39Wait.
25:39T.S.V.
25:40Exercise science.
25:41That's what I'm saying.
25:43Let's take one of these chisels and just bang it.
25:50The dirt and frass are kept separate so the dirt can be tested in a different lab.
25:55Contrary to popular belief, termites are not all destructive.
25:58Their underground tunnels help to aerate the soil and they also recycle old cellulose material.
26:05Slapping the wood with a couple of college guys.
26:07It's been a while.
26:09It's like some sort of terrible grilled cheese sandwich.
26:12What's inside?
26:13You open it up and...
26:20Crap.
26:22Frass.
26:23Frass, man.
26:24That thing was spring-loaded.
26:26So that's one sandwich.
26:27How many termites do you guys think are there?
26:29That's an actual number.
26:31All right.
26:34I don't want to go first though.
26:36Looks like the price is right.
26:37You want to go?
26:38Yeah.
26:38The price is right.
26:39Let's go price.
26:40The price is right.
26:41I'll go with $856.
26:43I'm going to go with $1,500.
26:46Whew.
26:46Wow.
26:47One of you is going to look really smart.
26:50I'd say there's at least $4,000 there.
26:53Uh, $2,900.
26:55Okay.
26:57All right.
26:57I'll tell you a guess.
26:58All right.
26:58All right.
26:59Thin skinned and they dry out rapidly.
27:01So we set some paper up that provides them with moisture.
27:05Plus it's all crinkled and wrinkled so that they can hide or desire to get away from dryness
27:13and leave the dirt behind, hopefully.
27:16So as you can see, they're starting to run off, go underneath, and we want to try and provoke them
27:23to leave this dirt.
27:24It's just a lot of dirt.
27:26It's just a lot of dirt.
27:27After the termites are clear of the dirt, they need to be placed on the weigh boats to be weighed.
27:31Yeah.
27:33I think you got a defective pair of tweezers.
27:36It can't be the operator.
27:37It can't be.
27:38A lot easier.
27:43Soldiers on the run.
27:45And you can throw it in that weigh boat that Bryce has.
27:48So these are all of our termites minus the dirt.
27:53It's amazing how deceptive, how many more there are than you think.
27:59Yeah.
28:01Have a way with words.
28:03As Steve Martin said, some people have a way with words and others not have way.
28:13Coming up, the answer to our termite population pop quiz.
28:18Let's see.
28:1921 plus 18.
28:21That is, if I can figure out the math.
28:22It's at .5.
28:24How is the average lower than any?
28:26Well, that's part of the mystery of math.
28:29I'm a science major.
28:34Next, we need to weigh five boats containing 10 termites each, so we can determine their
28:40average weight.
28:40So you want to put your weigh boat on the scale?
28:42Mm-hmm.
28:42Get everything out of there?
28:45You want to zero it out.
28:47Okay, and then you put your first group of 10 on there?
28:500.19?
28:51Yep.
28:52.21.
28:54Take the average of all those numbers.
28:56There's a calculator right there.
28:57Oh, I don't need to calculate it.
28:59All right.
28:59Calculate it.
29:00Let's see.
29:0121 plus 18 is 31.
29:0419 is 91.
29:0791 divided by 5.
29:095 goes into 9.
29:10Well, only the one time.
29:11Check here.
29:14How is the average lower than...
29:17I've studied that far yet.
29:18I'm a science major.
29:19I'm in...
29:19Yeah, you'll get to that later.
29:21Oh, okay.
29:22I'll take your foot.
29:23I think I'm going to use a calculator.
29:26So conventional.
29:28Oh, you know what?
29:28I bet that was 101.
29:30That's what that was.
29:31Yeah.
29:31It was 100.
29:33100 even?
29:34Yeah.
29:3520.
29:36Is that right?
29:38Oh, wait a minute.
29:39Is that an 18 or 19?
29:40That's a 19.
29:41Oh, I thought that was an 18.
29:42You're still off by way more than that.
29:44Yeah, but your handwriting is frickin' atrocious.
29:46I'll give you that.
29:49All right, now our total weight.
29:50You'll be a scientist.
29:51Neatness counts, man.
29:52I would be a doctor.
29:53Oh, well then.
29:55Appendix, gallbladder, whatever.
29:56Take them both out.
29:58What's this say?
29:58I don't know.
29:59Open heart, cut off a leg.
30:01Mystery.
30:02What's a 6.943?
30:04That's all this right here.
30:06Everything.
30:06Oh, you just weighed all those things.
30:07I dumped all of them in there.
30:08And this is going to tell us how many total termites are in this thing.
30:13It's all of them.
30:14And he guessed 4,000.
30:164,000.
30:17He was right.
30:18I guessed 29.
30:20What'd you guess?
30:21Do you remember?
30:22800 or something.
30:23800.
30:24Yeah.
30:24Man, you were off by more than anybody.
30:26Yeah, I know.
30:27I just want to know how you managed to think that this average was the right answer.
30:31Well, I'll tell you how.
30:32That was a straight-up classic boneheaded mistake.
30:35But this simply can't look at that and say that that's not an 8.
30:42That's a 9.
30:42What'd you think that was?
30:43That was an 8 as well?
30:44No, that I thought you had a seizure.
30:46You know what we need to do?
30:48I think, honestly, we need to talk to a, uh, to a phys ed major.
30:52I think we should.
30:53Sort this out.
30:54Luckily we have one right outside.
30:58Wes, settle a discrepancy for me here.
31:01This number that's circled, what is it?
31:05I'd say an 8.
31:08Touché.
31:09Then, uh, doctor, would you concur?
31:11Looks like an 8.
31:12Looks like an 8.
31:14Okay.
31:15I think, I think I get it.
31:17Yeah.
31:17There's a lot of adding, subtracting, some questionable penmanship, counting, and that's how we assess
31:22the, uh, the total number of subterranean termites.
31:26Correct.
31:27That are caught in the, uh, the sandwich technique.
31:29Yes.
31:30But these guys, whole different deal?
31:32Very different.
31:33And so, what we'd like to do is knock some of these subterranean termites.
31:37Alright.
31:38Whoops.
31:38Sorry.
31:40Man, these guys are much bigger.
31:42Yeah.
31:45Yeah, you just cut off like a ton of them.
31:48I just what?
31:48Just cut a ton of them in half.
31:50Oh my God, yeah I did.
31:53There's a soldier right here.
31:55Tell me about the soldier.
31:56What makes him so daggone angry?
31:58You cut like half of them in half, so.
32:00Well that'd be a quarter.
32:02I guess you aren't good at math.
32:03See the difference here?
32:05What you got there?
32:06It's two soldiers, different species.
32:09Well, we should let him duke it out.
32:11What we'd like to do next is to, uh, demonstrate a mercury capture technique that we developed.
32:18Uh huh.
32:18And it's one of the ways to see who's connected to who.
32:21That sounds awesome.
32:22Do you have any more students?
32:23I think these two are sick of me.
32:24I could probably find a couple more.
32:26Yeah, let's get out of here.
32:27Thanks.
32:28Good fun.
32:29Hey, help me out, will you?
32:31Thanks.
32:39Well, it appears that those termites are holding their breath.
32:42I'm not entirely sure that's true.
32:44Uh, the doctors, uh, join me once again.
32:45And, uh, Sue Yi as well.
32:47How are you?
32:47Good.
32:47How are you?
32:48I'm fine.
32:49Are they holding their breath or are they dead?
32:51They're holding their breath.
32:52Yeah?
32:52How long can they hold their breath?
32:53Probably about eight hours.
32:56Eight hours?
32:56Or more than that.
32:58Is she making things up, doctor?
32:59Is that true?
32:59Basically, the way they survive, when it rains and water moves through their world, they
33:05just shut down, go into a state of suspended animation, and wait for the water to move through
33:10the soil profile in a timely manner.
33:12Mm-hmm.
33:12That's rather amazing.
33:13But you can drown them.
33:15The ground stays wet for over a week.
33:17You'll, it's probably the largest single mortality factor that these animals face.
33:21Is drowning.
33:22Drown.
33:23All right, well, what are we going to do?
33:24Are we going to recreate this?
33:25Yes.
33:26Oh, great.
33:27Oh, yeah.
33:28This experiment helps to illustrate the termites' durability.
33:32And so we have these that we have had, we've prepared like two hours earlier.
33:35If you look at them now, they look like they're all pretty much dead.
33:39Yeah.
33:39They look like drowned termites.
33:41Termites.
33:42We're in the form.
33:44Reanimation?
33:45If it's going to happen.
33:47If it's going to happen.
33:48Just leave them sitting like that.
33:50Those look like 10 drowned termites, for sure.
33:52It may take them a few minutes.
33:54We'll have to come, we'll have to go to something else and come back to these things.
33:57All right.
33:58Water.
33:58Hey, this guy's moving.
33:59Yep.
34:01Yep.
34:01He's good.
34:02See?
34:03They're all back alive.
34:05Amazing.
34:06They're all back.
34:06Okay.
34:07So will you continue test three, four, eight, ten hours, two days?
34:10Yeah, that's the way we did it until we got to the point where we were seeing mortality.
34:14These termites survive for two hours submerged in water.
34:18They can only live for three or four days in flooded soil, proving that long periods of
34:23rain will control termite population.
34:25Oh.
34:27Jacob has a degree from the University of Georgia in International Affairs, which I guess
34:32is kind of relevant given what we're about to do.
34:35Yeah.
34:36What are we about to do exactly?
34:37We're going to see if we can fight some termites, and it should be a good match.
34:42We learn what, doctor?
34:44If they fight, they're definitely different.
34:46Whether it's the same species or not, they're different populations.
34:49They're different colonies.
34:50So different populations, even within the same species, are inherently hostile to one
34:54another?
34:54Not always.
34:55One of the reasons it makes them such a successful invasive species is they have this lack
35:00of aggression and ability to coalesce rather than form real strong territorial bounds.
35:06Well, Jacob, if their natural propensity is to get along, how do you get them to duke
35:12it out?
35:13Well, typically, one of the two different, if they're different, populations to fight.
35:20What we're going to do is we're going to just dump them together and see if they fight.
35:24See what happens.
35:24So you can grab that one.
35:26I'll grab this one.
35:26All right.
35:27And we'll just dump it in here, differentiate.
35:29Okay.
35:30The first pairing will consist of big versus other big termites.
35:34If they don't fight, they're most likely from the same colony.
35:38Can you instigate it?
35:39Give them some liquor?
35:41The next pairing is big versus small termites.
35:44Oh, what's happening?
35:45Look at that.
35:46See it?
35:46There you go.
35:47He's picked him up.
35:48There you go.
35:48They're fighting.
35:49The big and the smalls are fighting.
35:51Which is what we would expect.
35:52Yeah.
35:53And the big one's just eating the small one.
35:54He's eating them.
35:55Right there.
35:56If the termites fight, they're probably from different colonies.
35:59And the infestation can cover a bigger area.
36:02Killed him and left him for dead.
36:04It's been a long, hot day, full of knowledge, unexpected surprises, and billions of termites.
36:11They're everywhere, aren't they?
36:12Yeah, there's numerous as the stars.
36:15No, we don't know that for sure, do we?
36:17Yeah, it could be infinite.
36:18Yeah.
36:19We need Bryce for that kind of math.
36:20Yeah, I've heard about your math skills there, Mike.
36:22Yeah, yeah.
36:23You know, it's a great time to say goodbye to you and good luck with the rest of your life.
36:26Thanks.
36:26Doctor, it's been a pleasure.
36:28Thank you very much.
36:28I'm going to walk over here.
36:31Okay.
36:32Bye-bye.
36:32See you later.
36:33Research like this can help give us a better understanding of termites.
36:37How to control them with less impact on the environment while still keeping.
36:41And as we speak, and it's hard to believe that just 12 hours ago, I was up there in the
36:45cupola
36:46in 150 degree heat, learning everything I could learn about termites.
36:50I'd love to sum it all up for you, but I really can't, other than to say that if you're
36:54going to study these things,
36:55you better roll up your sleeves and get busy.
36:57Because in the end, they're small.
37:00They'll kick your frass.
37:03I want to show you something.
37:04It's disgusting, but I think you can take it.
37:10This looks like beetles eating rotten potatoes.
37:13It's actually a metaphor.
37:14The beetles, you see, are your ideas, and the potato is my brain.
37:21My brain normally is empty, but with your ideas crawling all over it and infecting it.
37:27Dirty jobs are ideas for dirty jobs directly into my brain.
37:32Next thing you know, the two of us are together getting filthy.
37:35It's just math.
37:36It looks clean, but off-putting.
37:43Maybe the most sarcastic stand-up I've ever done.
37:46Some people have life preservers.
37:49We went with beer.
37:50Three, two, three.
37:53One.
37:53One, two.
37:54One, two.
37:54It looks dirty.
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