[FRIAM] Kill it!

[Steve Smith]

On 8/24/21 9:05 AM, uǝlƃ ☤>$ wrote:
> I'm definitely rooting for the Murder Hornets! Little wimpy bugs need someone to teach them what it means to be a real bug. These hipster bugs in the PacNW are a bit sad ... kinda like the self-conscious nerds so popular in movies and TV lately ... Woody Allen destroyed masculinity. Those bugs in TX and NM, now; those are real bugs ... respectable bugs ... bugs you wanna sit down and quaff a Bud Light with. Apparently, China's doing something right to grow such macho bugs.

My first reaction to the subject line is one of my favorite parody
attributions to redneck culture:  "it's Diffr'nt, kill it!" but then I
read the content and realized it was more apropos than I expected.    

I believe that something like "xenophobia" is an adaptive response in
many contexts...  we have some pretty deep instincts it seems that let
us know to be "askeered" of "spiders and snakes" even if we'd never seen
another ape respond that way.  My dog has always been very (properly)
fearful of snakes...  otherwise her natural curious aggression would
have had her dead-by-snakebite long ago...   she went crazy everytime
she saw a rattlesnake but always barked crazily from a good 6-10 feet
away.   She never alerted to a non-rattler that I knew of.    And in the
arms race of survival, it is natural that some "skeery" things will
camoflauge as benign or friendly or cute. 

I am always a little nervous when large movements (especially gubbm'nt
supported ) try to tap those instincts.  It seems like a bad precedent
to encourage formalized xenophobia even against helpless insects.   The
Charlottesville (and too many other) white-nationalists chanting "jews
will not replace us" and all of Trump's fear-mongering are obvious (and
ugly), but aspects of the B(lack) L(ives) M(atter) movement that perhaps
overstated police culpability (in general not in specific cases), and
Hillary's unfortunate election-forfieting statement calling Trump
supporters "deplorables" (plenty of them were, but the brush was too
broad and there was probably at least some backlash turnout over that
one).  Her "superpredator" comments, etc. in the 90's are another
example.  

As for me, I have a nicely expanding set of stands of what is know
locally as "Guaco" (critical to the black on black pottery process) in
the pueblo nearby but more commonly known as "beeweed" among anglos...
it turns out to be a particularly attractive nectar source for the
Tarantula Hawk (or Tarantula Wasp), a big ole blue-black  beast that
looks like it could stun you with a sting and drag you to it's
underground lair where it would insert it's fertilized eggs into your
abdomen to hatch and thrive until the larva are ready to emerge and
pupate ultimately into more giant scary wasps.   The thing is, this is
exactly what they do, but only with Tarantulae (and perhaps other large
spiders?) but can hardly be induced to sting anything else (I think
there is a YouTube Steve-Irwin wannabe who succeeded in getting one to
sting him on camera, but while painful it was not acutely life or limb
threatening).  There are as many as a dozen or more of these wasps (and
occasionally a few other pollinating insects) hanging around them.   I
approach them relatively casually but even when I drive up within a few
feet on my way into the driveway or run my weedwhip into the ragweed
surrounding the stand, they take no interest in  me.   I suppose if I
were to violently attack them, they *might* respond in some offensive
way, but most indications are, they reserve their sting for immobilizing
their Tarantula baby-incubators.   My immediate neighbors have lots of
loud yard-grooming equipment and a whole shed full of pesticides and
herbicides they run around  spraying on everything in their yard, and
while "beeweed" would never survive a week in their yard, I think they
would be out machine-gunning these elegant (though menacing looking)
wasps if they saw one.   FWIW I have not seen a Tarantula at this
location in the 2 decades I've lived her, I guess the wasps feed in my
yard and reproduce elsewhere.

My bottom line is that xenophobia is first-order adaptive, but humans
need not be first-order (only) creatures.  We *can* think past our
initial reactions or herd-hysteria if we choose to.  Or not.

>
> On 8/24/21 7:57 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> And wouldn’t you know it is from C H I N A!
>>
>>> On Aug 24, 2021, at 7:54 AM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>> Those big wasps you got out there in the NW, they're kind of pretty to.  Shall I root for those?
>>>
>>> Nick Thompson
>>> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>>> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2021 10:45 AM
>>> To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
>>> Subject: [FRIAM] Kill it!
>>>
>>>
>>> ‘Kill it!’ US officials advise no mercy for lanternfly summer invasion https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/24/pennsylvania-lanternfly-summer-invasion
>>>
>>> Am I so wrong to root for the bad guy? ... such a good lookin' bug.