posted
I put this in the Insect Advocate column, but it's kindof fallen off the map...
I've been asked to speak for the insects at a local health food store. If any of you have been affected by my advocacy for invertebrates, please answer the following questions:
How has your attitude toward insects changed? What were the most instrumental aspects of the "Insect Advocate" and "Mommy Bugga Bugga" toward affecting that change?
I have 45 minutes to talk, I guess. And I'm feeling shy and tongue-tied and not knowing what to say.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Jen -- I've always been a big fan of bugs, so I don't know that you've swayed me since I was already a fan. But I think it should be easy to fill 45 minutes with information about all the GOOD things that different insects do, and their place in the overall ecosystem and foodchain, and how disasteredly(?) different a place it would be if we didn't have them.
And some bugs are yummy, I've been told Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Yes, but I want to heal the great rift between humans and insects. Many people hate/fear insects irrationally, and reach for a can of poison (which is harmful to the environment and humans, as well as insects)when they see anything with more than 4 legs. Also, insects CAN become extinct. It's a general problem with the attitude of modern people toward the natural world. Insects are just some of Nature's more blatant ambassadors.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Jenny Gardener, I responded most to your matter-of-factness, humor, and your specific stories of how things look from an insect-lover's perspective.
(Do you want specific stories from us that you can then relate to your audience? Or are you looking for general feedback just to guide you in what to emphasize?)
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Jenny, I've always been fascinated with insects (I was always the kid watching the ant colonies at recess, and stopping other kids from tromping on them. Well, trying to stop them, anyway), so you're pretty much preaching to the choir with me. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of your threads on the subject, though.
One discussion that we've had that I particularly enjoyed was the one about providing honey near entry points to encourage ants not to forage further into the house in search of food, and the way the ants would appear to become intoxicated and swim purposefully into the honey, killing themselves. I think that that was in the origianl Mommy Bugga Bugga thread (my favorite of the bug thread titles, by the way).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Jenny, I think you'd do well just to get people to stop killing them outright. I don't do that anymore, but admit that it doesn't matter what kind of bug it is, I'm still irrationally scared of them. It's a phobia. So I let my son, who loves bugs, deal with it. When the wolf spider that had taken up residence on my front porch needed to be evicted, he did that for me, capturing it and letting it go in the quarter of our lot that is wooded.
Sorry, but I will keep on killing slugs until they start working on my blackberry briars.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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All right, so seriously-- I've stopped smashing spiders immediately because of some of the things JG and aka have said.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Slugs aren't insects, as such. Though they are invertebrates.
Me, I wish I could keep the damn flies out of my apartment. There are dead flies all over my bathroom ceiling. Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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