 Cochineal has been a source of red dye for thousands of years and is still used today. Last August, I sat down with Erica Lynn Hansen, an associate professor of textiles and socially engaged practices at ASU, to get a sense of the insect's history and role in our ecosystem. Professor Hansen also brought some show-and-tell along as well. So cochineal is a beetle-like parasite that lives on prickly pear cactuses here in the Sonoran Desert and also through Central and Southern America.