Are Pest Episodes of Children’s Shows Accurate? – Part 1

Children’s entertainment encompasses such a wide margin of TV shows, movies, books, and music. There are lines loosely drawn between the media that is deemed appropriate for certain age groups, such as between preschool and early elementary. But no matter the age of the child, it is a definite perk if the show brightening the living room is also illuminating the child’s mind. Educational television shows do not have to be the snooze-inducing documentaries that many of us had to watch on the VHS player wheeled into the classroom. 

In fact, children’s television shows have captivated audiences for generations with lovable characters, interesting facts, and vivid colors. But when it comes to a topic that can be fact-checked, like pests, do some of the most well-known children’s shows sacrifice reality for a fun story? That is exactly what we are going to be exploring in this three-part blog series all about pest-themed episodes of children’s TV shows, primarily from the 1990s and 2000s. Make sure to tune in over the next couple of weeks to catch the later installments to this series!

Bugs, Bugs Everywhere

Show: Blue’s Clues – “Bugs!”

Episode Synopsis: If your child is a little explorer, this is the perfect episode to inspire them in their quest for leaning more about the big world they live in. This Blue’s Clues episode has the original host, Steve, leading Blue and various friends on a bug-watching expedition. The beloved characters come across some interesting insects in the backyard, all of which spark questions from Steve regarding the habits and appearances of each pest. This episode showcases fan-favorite characters with some of the common backyard insects that the audience can likely find in their own yard: grasshoppers with Periwinkle, mole crickets with Shovel, walking sticks with Pail, and ants with Blue. The insects are all made more adorable through the magic of animation, but the episode balances it out by showing the insects functioning as our real ones do. Well, except for Antoinette the Ant – she talks much more than real ants do!

Fact or Fiction? Overall, this episode seems to stay true to the general facts of these insects, save for some added dialogue and cartoonish smiles. But let’s take a brief look at some of the questions Steve raises about each insect. First, Steve and Periwinkle guess that the reason for a grasshopper hopping is to either get food or simply move around. In reality, grasshoppers do use this as a means of travel, but they primarily do it to avoid predators. The locusts can bend their hind legs at the joint and use them as a spring to launch themselves over two feet away. They also eat half their body weight in plants daily, so gardeners and farmers alike dread seeing these little pests in the yard. The next insect is the mole cricket, whose digging causes Shovel to say it’s making a home and Steve to guess that it’s finding a place to rest. This animated mole cricket functions like a real one; they use their forelegs to dig into damp, vegetated areas and create their own burrows and tunnels. Shovel and Steve were both correct, but the added function of these tunnels is to act as a speaker. The male mole cricket calls when they create a shelter in damp soil, and the females go to the males in the dampest tunnels since that is prime egg-laying territory. 

The walking stick, or “stick bug,” that Steve and Pail assess is pretty tame compared to the others. It is not doing much, which leads them to assume it is either scared or looking for food. This is also true-to-life, as walking sticks don’t act as energetically as other insects. It prefers to use its strange appearance to its advantage by seeming like a normal twig. The insect will hide in plants and trees, and even sway a little to look like a stick in the breeze and truly blend in. Even the mail segment of the episode has researched facts, as the children learning about insects in the video discover that roaches and praying mantises are related since they are both in the superorder Dictyoptera. Finally, the anthill adventure is definitely the highlight of the episode. Setting aside the fact that both Antoinette and the Queen talk (and have friendly smiles), the whole ant segment is also accurate. There are different classes of ants in a colony, and Antoinette’s role as a young worker ant is correct. Real worker ants perform multiple functions, like finding food, feeding and cleaning the queen, and caring for the eggs. Antoinette’s strong mandibles carrying the giant crumb that shrunken Steve and Blue could not is very true, since ants can carry objects at least fifty times their own weight. Also, the anthill structure is valid, since real anthills also separate the queen’s chamber, egg sites, and food storage. 

This episode is overall a great way to teach children about the critters that can roam our backyards and the strange habits they have that set them apart. There is nothing fun about watching pests roam the yard, but if your little one is going bug-watching too, remember Steve’s number one rule: “watch your step.”

Subjective Accuracy Rating: 4.5/5

Quit Bugging Me!

Show: Arthur – “Bugged”

Episode Synopsis: This one is less about educating the youth about insects, and more about teaching them the importance of being kind and a good teammate through a humorous scare tactic. After Brain goes through his day of being a know-it-all and is called a “pest” by Francine, he has a dream that transforms her insult into a literal nightmare sequence. He wakes up as a giant humanized bug – á la “Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka where a businessman experienced the same situation – and has to go about his day in this new body. Brain is unable to function as normal at school since he cannot grip a pencil, is banned from the cafeteria, is scared by the camera flash at picture day, and is despised by everyone. His so-called friends decide to squash him like the pest he is. They capture him in the scary factory from the superhero show Brain watched in real life, where they want to send him to his fly-swatter-induced end. Predictably, Brain wakes up just then and decides to be less egotistical and more understanding of other people’s preferences, which is made all the better when Francine apologizes for calling him a pest. 

Fact or Fiction? Before dissecting the nightmare that many of us would dread to have, there is one detail in the beginning that is worth noting. The superhero show that Brain watches depicts a rabbit hero supposedly being sent to his doom after two rats chew through a rope pulley. Rats have such strong chompers that they can chew through just about any material that is softer than their teeth, so this is a perfectly plausible plot. 

Now, for the Brain-bug sequence. It is never stated what pest he is embodying, but almost all of the clues point to it being a roach. He has six legs, antennae, a brown insect body, and all of the preferences of a cockroach. The Board of Health won’t allow him in the cafeteria, just like real roaches, and point him to some rotten fruit he can eat instead. Also, the camera flash scaring him away is similar to the light-averse roaches, who prefer darkness and solitude from people. The fact that everyone wants to squish him is also true to life since roaches are some of the most repulsive pests on the planet. 

But there are two features that are not realistic to actual roaches, besides Brain’s head being on top of the body. One is the pincers he has that make it difficult to grasp anything. Roaches just have regular insect legs, not claws. These pincers are more reminiscent of a beetle or an earwig. The other deviation from reality is the brown slime that Brain somehow creates at his desk. While cockroaches can leave droppings that are occasionally slimy (gross!), this slime isn’t like their secretions. It actually looks like the defensive spit that grasshoppers can create when threatened. Their spit is a combination of digestive enzymes and digested plants, which is not bad for humans but can definitely ward off an animal predator. This episode accurately depicts the details of insects, but the general nightmare of being turned into a bug is, thankfully, not one we have to worry about coming true.

Subjective Accuracy Rating: 4.25/5

Bertha the Bug

Show: Bear in the Big Blue House – “Buggin’”

Episode Synopsis: Diving back into the episodes that directly educate their viewers, this episode is all about the world of bugs and how they coexist with us. Ojo searches for the bug she wants to study and eventually finds it on a log, which she excitedly invites Bear to examine. They watch this strange-looking insect crawl on the plants while Bear tells the audience to be careful around any new bugs and discusses the famous features of well-known insects. Bear and Ojo then sing about how they wish they could be different bugs (we don’t share the same sentiment), before Bear heads inside and learns that Tutter is terrified of bugs. Bear comforts him by saying the bug is outside, but Ojo later breaks the news that the bug is now indoors. Tutter barricades his home to no avail, but eventually makes friends with the insect and tells the gang that he now likes Bertha the bug due to her diet of the weeds in his tomato garden.

Fact or Fiction? First of all, the appearance and habits of Bertha seem to be a combination of multiple insects. She has the body structure of a massive ladybug, with an outer colorful shell and six dark legs. But the coloring is more reminiscent of a Cotton Harlequin bug, with the blue and gold hues coming through the strongest. Bertha likes to eat plants, specifically weeds, which is akin to multiple helpful garden insects. The aphthona beetle, gall wasp, and certain weevils are all friends to growers due to their diet of harmful weeds. Also, Bertha’s place on the log by the pond is similar to a dragonfly or mosquito that is at rest. Overall, there is no bug quite like Bertha, but she does seem to do a great job of teaching children about multiple bugs at once.

As for Tutter’s crippling fear of anything creepy-crawly, this is also relatively accurate. Entomophobia, the fear of insects, is one of the most common fears in the world, so it is not outlandish that Tutter would suffer from it. It is unclear whether mice in particular can have entomophobia, but there are a couple of signs that it is a possibility. Mice are scared of anything dangerous or risky, and are easily startled by sudden movements. Bertha is a little larger than Tutter and has the unpredictability of an insect, so his initial fear would likely be shared among real mice. This episode has some embellishments to make bugs more appealing to children, but it also has interesting facts and a comfortability with exploring the natural world that is not always seen in modern children’s shows. Plus, Bear’s fact about there being more bugs than anything else on Earth, which is true, is definitely a statement that sticks with you long after the episode ends. 

Subjective Accuracy Rating: 4.5/5

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***Disclaimer:  Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act recognizes “fair use” copywriter content as such:  “Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phono-records or by any other means specified by that section, for proposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” This blog post may contain certain copyrighted works and characters that were not specifically authorized to be used by the copyrighted holder(s), however, the content on this post qualifies as “commentary” on the copyrighted works under the “fair use” doctrine of the U.S. Copyright Act and is thereby protected by federal law. Furthermore, we do not claim any ownership or creative rights of any characters on this list, and all rights outside of the fair use doctrine belong to the respective owner(s).

Citations

Brown, M. (Writer) & Bailey, G. (Director). (2003, September 17). Bugged (season 8, episode 3) [TV series episode]. In P. Valette (Senior Producer), Arthur. CINAR and WGBH.

Can grasshoppers bite you?. (n.d.). Healthline. Retrieved January 5, 2023, from https://www.healthline.com/health/do-grasshoppers-bite 

Hadley, D. (n.d.). 10 fascinating facts about grasshoppers. Magnuson Children’s Garden. Available at https://magnusonchildrensgarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/10-Fascinating-Facts-About-Grasshoppers.pdf (Accessed on January 5, 2023).

Kriegman, M., Strader, P.K., and Yerkes, A. (Writers). (1998, March 27). Buggin’ (season 2, episode 24) [TV series episode]. In M. Kriegman (Executive Producer), Bear in the big blue house. Shadow Projects.

Mole cricket. (2021, April 28). Australian Museum. Retrieved January 5, 2023, from https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/mole-cricket/ 

SciBugs. (2015, March 16). Unlikely sisters – roaches and mantises. Ask an Entomologist. Available at https://askentomologists.com/2015/03/16/unlikely-sisters-roaches-and-mantises/ (Accessed on January 5, 2023).

Simpatico, D. (Writer) & Hopwood, J. (Asst. Director). (2001, November 12). Bugs! (Season 4, episode 10) [TV series episode]. In T.P. Johnson & A. Santomero (Executive Producers), Blue’s clues. 9 Story Media Group and Nick Jr. Productions.

Thomas, H.S. (2018, March 30). Got invasive weeds in your pasture? Get some bugs. Beef Magazine. Available at https://www.beefmagazine.com/parasites/got-invasive-weeds-your-pasture-get-some-bugs (Accessed on January 5, 2023).