Buggin' with Ruud

Some of the biggest and most beautiful bugs in the world live right here on the island of Papua, New Guinea. It's known as the land of the unexpected: a land of steep mountains, deep valleys and many different tribes' people who between them speak over 800 languages. Probably more than a quarter of a million insect species and around 900 different butterflies are here, and I'm on my way to find the world's biggest and some say the most beautiful butterfly: the Queen Alexandra Birdwing butterfly. And they are rare, rare, you wouldn't believe it. They only occur in one locality in this whole wide world, in a tiny southeast corner of the island. On the way, I'm going to find out why some beetles have butt-snorkels, and how one of the world's biggest, most beautiful spiders can not only catch birds, but maybe even an airplane. So why don't you come... buggin' with Ruud?

Ruud goes Down Under to observe nasty Australian bugs of the stinging and biting variety.

Unwelcome domestic guests. Included: vinegaroons, centipedes, cockroaches and horse flies.

Ruud compares B-movie bugs with the real thing. Included: fleas and fireflies.

Ruud travels to Madagascar to examine some truly bizarre bugs.

Ruud examines insects that live in the desert. Included: beetles that drink condensation from their shells; insects that “swim” under the sand.

The Alaskan arctic is near the limit of life on Earth. Bugs love the heat, but, up in Alaska, it's freezing most of the year. However, the bugs in Alaska don't just survive. They positively thrive. How? In many places there's only ice and snow as far as the eye can see. Glaciers, vast, slow moving sheets of ice. They cover almost 30,000 square miles. Only the north and south poles have more snow. In this climate you make one mistake and you're history. Prolonged exposure to extreme cold can lead to frostbite. Cell membranes are torn apart, tissue dies, flesh turns black and gangrene sets in. The best cure is prevention. And for us mammals that would mean thick clothing or a coat of fur. But, what about the bugs? How do they do it? You see, bugs are cold-blooded, so they love the warmth. They thrive in the tropics where they can reproduce and grow at an astonishing rate. But summer in Alaska only lasts for eight weeks, and it's still not what you'd call warm. But, that's good enough for the bugs. They find strange and wonderful ways of coping in this icy environment. Meet bugs who live their whole life encased in ice, bugs that can stop their blood from freezing and bugs that have been frozen solid for thousands of years and came back to life. And along the way we'll find out what we can learn from these ice insects and how they can help us transplant organs and maybe give us clues about life on other planets.

Ruude travels to the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, where he encounters swarms of insects.

Survival adaptations of insects, and how humans have used them in modern technologies.

Bugman Ruud Kleinpaste goes on a quest to discover how Hawaii, which is so far from anywhere else, managed to end up with 10,000 bug species including killer caterpillars, and Happy Faced spiders.

Meet Ruud Kleinpaste, the bug man. He's traveled into the cloud forest of Venezuela to find out about teamwork. When everyone helps everyone else amazing things are possible. Why do moths live on sloths? And why do scorpions ride on the backs of beetles? Come and see this enchanted forest for yourself. There are more bug species in one square mile here than in all the United States. They're big. They are spectacular. And they're everywhere. Here, bugs cooperate. Everyone needs each other. Break the chain and it all falls apart. So, how does that work? It starts with location. Venezuela is mostly covered in rain forest, but up high in the mountains it becomes cloud forest, and plants and animals get their water from clouds and mists. In a very special part of the Venezuela cloud forest, there's a narrow opening in the Coastal Mountains called Portachuelo Pass. It's bug paradise, and it's the only crossing point in Venezuela's Coastal Mountains. All animal traffic, and that includes bugs, must go through the pass. So what better place to go looking for bugs that cooperate and to show you how everything around here depends on each other?

Travelling in the Amazon is not easy. If the climate and terrain don't get you, the bugs will. But for Bugman Ruud Kleinpaste it's all worth it because he's on a mission: to meet with a remote community of tribes people, the Piaroans, who hunt and eat the world's biggest arachnid: the Goliath Bird Eating spider. A dramatic turn of events cuts short his adventure and brings him face to face with some of the worst experiences of his Buggin' career.

Stinging and biting insects are examined to see why they attack humans and how a person's body reacts to a sting.