Dan Bean is the Director of the Biological Pest Control Program at the Palisade Insectary. He joins the pod to discuss what exactly the Insectary does, what biocontrol is and how it's used in Palisade, how the Insectary came to be located in Palisade, collecting bugs as a kid, the Insectary's public relations' problem and how cockroaches help fix it, the biggest biocontrol problems in Palisade, the return of the Japanese beetle to Grand Junction, generalist versus specialist insects, the biggest biocontrol bungles in history, the truth about the Colorado pine beetle, why Colorado's forests are stressed, whether we should save our forests or let them be, saving the planet versus saving humanity, working in a quarantined lab, how travelers are helping invasive species, lab leaks, the consciousness of insects, living in the present, and more.
