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, thompnicks...@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 >>> thompnicks...@gmail.com >>> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$ >>> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2021 10:45 AM >>> To: FriAM <friam@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. - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
