Dirty Jobs

Fearless host Mike braves heat, humidity and beetles while gathering guano in a Texas cave, before collecting mud for baseballs and fileting fish.

Mike gets a crash course in "catfish noodling," emptying septic tanks and feeding assorted creepy-crawlies at a Florida worm ranch.

Collecting lost golf balls from terrifying waters, facilitating horse breeding and cleaning up roadkill are all on the menu for Mike.

Mike does his part for the environment in San Francisco's Chinatown, assists with shark tagging and hunts for useful car parts in a muddy junkyard.

Mike steps into the shoes of a sewer inspector in San Francisco and enlists a disaster cleanup crew after a Brooklyn toilet explodes from a sewer backup. He then joins up with a demolition company, where he works as part of a deconstruction crew.

Mike Rowe steps into the shoes of an Iowa pig farmer, where he faces the challenges of feeding and cleaning up after hundreds of dirty pigs. Then, Mike learns how to care for a new litter of piglets and artificially inseminates a female pig.

Differentiating sexes at a chicken hatchery proves difficult for Mike, while brewing beer and harvesting oysters bring their own nasty challenges.

Mike takes to the high seas to catch some king crab. Other thankless tasks include making horseshoes and shadowing exterminators facing an infestation.

Hang ten! Mike attempts to craft a surfboard, extract honey from a buzzing beehive and clean up thick sludge beneath a New York bus depot.

Hot-tar roofing under the California sun puts Mike's stamina to the test — as does helping to move an entire house for a historical society.