Three co-hosts, one guest judge, five minutes per paper.
Co-hosts Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders and Laura Rosenwald each bring a recent study and get five minutes to explain it in plain terms. Ticks, bed bugs, German cockroaches, mosquito attractants and H5N1 all come up, and the winner is picked by a guest judge from outside the technical side of pest control.
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NPMA BUGBYTES is a research show from the National Pest Management Association, built around a contest rather than a lecture. The rules are easy to follow. Co-hosts Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders and Laura Rosenwald each choose a recent scientific article, publication or bit of industry news that caught their interest, then get five minutes to explain it in common terms. A guest acts as judge. That guest is usually not a technical director or a research entomologist, so every summary has to make sense to someone outside the field. At a live taping, the hosts said the goal was to make new research fun for more than just the entomology crowd. That taping, 'BugBytes LIVE Episode At PestWorld 2025 Orlando!', is a practical first listen, because it starts by explaining the game to a room of attendees. Later it gets properly technical, comparing liquid termiticides, which form a treated soil barrier, with baits containing chitin synthesis inhibitors that disrupt the exoskeleton and often kill termites during molting. The run of episode titles shows how wide the subject range is: tick dispersal, tick-borne diseases, cat flea larvae locomotion, mosquito attractants, microwaving stored product pests, German cockroach control tools, bed bugs, wild pig management and H5N1 virus transmission. Disease-carrying pests get as much airtime as household invaders. The guests pull the conversation toward the working trade. The episode with Russ Ives turns to industry and association history, including why consumer messaging stresses working with a professional. A conversation with Suzy Rayner, owner of Valkyrie Pest Solutions, gets into hard client situations, where depression and weeks of piled-up garbage complicate the job and explaining the why matters. Mike Bullert and Faye Golden also appear as guests, with Golden introduced as a former president of the association. One line comes up more than once and sums up the whole show: pest professionals as protectors of public health, property and food. The tone is loose and unpolished, and that works in its favor. The '2025 Year in Review Episode!' needed three takes to get its intro right, and the hosts left that in. That same episode has no guest; instead the hosts trade guesses and friendly jabs about earlier papers, from pharaoh ants to a varroa mite study to an avian influenza paper that turned out to be little more than a database. Faye Golden's visit includes a story about being called on stage by a magician and having to borrow glasses from the audience. The closing notes point to links for the science discussed, so anyone who wants the paper behind a five-minute pitch can find it.
Made for: Suits a listener who works in or near pest control and wants recent research on ticks, cockroaches, bed bugs, mosquitoes and termites explained in plain language, alongside some trade history and client talk.
What sets it apart: The research is run as a game: each co-host gets five minutes to make a recent paper clear, and a guest from outside the technical side of the trade judges the result. The format pushes the hosts toward plain explanation and away from lab jargon.
Your podcast for the latest in science, news, and information impacting the world of pest management.
Five minutes per pest paper, and Mike, Ellie and Laura give your inner bug nerd a contest.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A focused pest-control episode connecting company history, professional expertise, and plain-English research summaries.
MPMA Bug Bites frames pest-control history as a practical way into questions of expertise, public health, and clear science communication. Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders, and Laura Rosenwald are joined by Russ Ives of Rose Pass Solutions in Troy, Michigan, for a look at the…
A Manitoba pest professional brings empathy and public-health purpose to a conversation about difficult pest work.
Manitoba's winter cold gives this Bug Bites conversation a sharp, local opening before Susie Rayner of Valkyrie Pest Solutions moves it toward the human side of pest control.
A pest-control science challenge built around five-minute summaries and a guest's final decision.
MPMA's Bug Bites turns a pest-control conference conversation into a light research challenge. Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders, and Laura Rosenwald welcome Mike Bullard of Big Time Pest Control in Redding, California, then hand the episode over to a timed format: Mike, Ellie, and…
A collegial pest-control episode turns recent research into a brisk five-minute science game.
NPMA Bug Bites brings pest-control science into the relaxed, familiar space of an industry roundtable. Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders, and Laura Rosenwald are joined by Faye Golden, introduced as a former president of MPMA, before the conversation shifts from holiday-shopping…
A playful year-end recall game revisits 33 pest-science papers, with a spider heart attack study as the standout pick.
MPMA's Bug Bites uses its year-end episode as a relaxed, companionable tour through 33 papers, with Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders, and Laura Rosenwald looking back at research they covered across the year.
Mushroom culture from soil to society.
Clear neuroscience for curious minds.
Plant papers, jokes, and useful uncertainty.
Weed science, from genomes to paddocks.
Biomedical careers, described from the inside.
Human stakes behind biomedical progress.
MPMA's Bug Bites opens with Russ Ives of Rose Pass Solutions tracing the company to Solomon Rose in 1860, when the business sold arsenic-based rat bait and pyrethrum 'cootie powder' for body lice.
MPMA's Bug Bites centers on Susie Rayner of Valkyrie Pest Solutions in Gimli, Manitoba, then pivots into two papers on tick collection and spotted lantern fly spillover.
["MPMA's Bug Bites features Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders, and Laura Rosenwald interviewing Mike Bullard of Big Time Pest Control in Redding, California, then framing the episode around his company history and two pest-science papers.", "Bullard says he spent nine years with a national pest-control company, opened three offices from scratch, and bought his own company in 2007 after he and his parents mortgaged their houses.", "He describes growth through termite inspections, government contracts, Pelican Bay prison work, and a later push to \"simplify, refine, replicate\" across Sacramento and a 17-county service area.", "Laura Rosenwald covers a Heartland virus study on co-feeding between Lone Star ticks and Asian longhorn ticks, with 40% larval positivity, 20.6% nymph positivity, and 82% mouse antibodies, while Ellie Sanders covers a Journal of Insects microwave study showing faster pest kill alongside grain damage."]
Bug Bites opens with Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders, Laura Rosenwald, and Faye Golden trading holiday-shopping stories, including a 4,000-mile family drive and Faye's overdue gift wrapping.
MPMA's Bug Bites uses its year-end episode, with no special guest, to review the 33 papers covered across the year.
NPMA BugBytes LIVE at PestWorld 2025 features Laura Rosenwald, Ellie Sanders, and Mike Bentley presenting three 2025 pest-management research papers for a live audience vote.
NPMA BugBytes hosts Mike Bentley, Ellie Sanders, and Laura Rosenwald interview Bobby Jenkins of ABC Home and Commercial Services about a Texas family business founded from a one-man San Antonio company.
NPMA Bugbytes interviews Burt Dodson Jr., president and CEO of Dodson Pest Control, about the family company founded on August 18, 1944, and its 38 offices across six states.
MPMA’s Bug Bites interviews Kathy Karate, New York City’s first citywide director of rodent mitigation, about coordinating agencies and changing public behavior.
NPMA Bugbytes features Judy Dold discussing Rose Pest Solutions, her MPMA leadership, and three recent pest-management studies.
The hosts welcome a guest from a pest management company to discuss her role in marketing and community involvement.
An interview with a pest control company owner discussing the industry and his company's history.
The host returns after a hiatus to introduce a new format with co-hosts, discussing monthly pest management research and news.