How do Mexican jumping beans work?

Although Mexican jumping beans don't actually jump, they're definitely more active than your average bean. Find out how a moth makes them move in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

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Episode Transcript

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Brain with today's question, how do Mexican jumping beans work?
When I was a kid growing up in southern California,
my father used to take us to the seven eleven
on the corner for slurpeas and gum. There was usually
a display on the counter that held little, clear plastic
boxes of four or five Mexican jumping beans. You could

(00:48):
hear the display rattle is the beans clicked against the
plastic boxes. We would buy them and play games with
them on the kitchen table. Mexican jumping beans are very real,
but the Mexican jumping beans that you see in many
cartoons are not real. Mexican jumping beans are small, about
the size of a kernel of corn or small bean.

(01:10):
They do not wear sombreros. They do not jump into
the air. They rock, or, on occasion, scoot a millimeter
or two. Imagine a kernel of corn that moves a
millimeter in one direction every fifteen seconds or so. That's
about as exciting as jumping beans get. The thing that
makes these beans jump is a tiny moth larva that

(01:32):
lives inside the bean. The moth lays its eggs in
the flower of the plant, and the eggs are incorporated
into the seeds. The larva then eat out the interior
of the bean and live there. When the larva move,
so does the bean. Eventually, the larva turn into moths
that emerge from the beans to repeat the cycle. For

(01:54):
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