S6E5: Moths and Wasps – Tasty Collections and ‘Confused’ Insects

In this episode Rosa steps away from feathered objects to consider how museum collections and archives should be thought of as living ecosystems. She discusses how webbing clothes moths are understood as ‘pests’ and some of the strategies curators are trying to employ to manage them: including sexual confusion and the introduction of parasitoid wasps. 

• Pitt Rivers Museum
• Oxford University Natural History Museum
• National Trust launches pest-control trial combining wasps and moth pheromones
• The Lion’s Historian by Sandra Swart

Credits:

• Recorded: 28 May 2025
• Claudia Hirtenfelder, executive producer, editor and co-host 
• Rosa Dyer, script writer, narrator and co-host
• Rebecca Shen, episode artwork and logo
• Gordon Clarke, bed music
• Other sound effects from Bill Hayes - I Know an Old Lady (Archie Bleyer, Internet Archive)
• Learn more about the team here. 

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