Invertebrates have a PR problem
April 9, 2020 7:56 AM   Subscribe

Insects do all the dirty work. They process faeces and decompose corpses. Plus they pollinate flowers. In spite of this, their image sucks. We need to change that. Because a dramatic decline in invertebrates threatens the liveability of this green planet. 98% of all animal species on Earth have a PR problem. That’s bad news for everyone. (Tamar Stelling, The Correspondent)
British nature researcher Christopher Packham once suggested he would "eat the last panda", so that the money spent on panda protection could go to less photogenic species, which have a real chance of survival outside the zoo and make an actual contribution to some ecosystem or other.

I see his point.

In 2018, ecologists compared the media attention for climate change to coverage of the collapse of insects and other types of biodiversity. In English-language media, there was eight times as much focus on climate change than on the disappearance of life.

This has an effect on the amount of available research funding, and subsequently on the amount of research that can be carried out – and, as a result, on the level of publicity. Right now, we have no idea how the insect populations are really doing. Poor PR, no attention, no money, and no research means no idea.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (30 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
I mean, maybe tell the mosquitos to chill the fuck out? That would help a lot, as far as I'm concerned.
posted by rikschell at 8:31 AM on April 9, 2020 [8 favorites]


I mean, maybe tell the mosquitos to chill the fuck out? That would help a lot, as far as I'm concerned.

Right? I mean, we have a PR problem with some of them, we are in an active war with others of them injuring us and destroying our stuff.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:39 AM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


*eyebrow* Okay, but how many of you know about the chocolate midge? It's the only pollinator cacao trees use--without it, you don't get chocolate ever again.

Or fine, that's highly specialized, you do probably know about honey bees, but how about the American salmonfly? Its larvae are phenomenal "canaries" for scientists measuring water pollution levels, because they're very sensitive to that. What about the humble soil nematode, C. elegans, who teaches us incredible volumes about neuroscience on a cellular level? How about dermestid beetles, which play an important role in decomposition in the wild and are very important to allowing us to get at bones to look at them?

What about caddisflies? Their larvae play massive roles in ecosystems worldwide. Or pill bugs, who are small round isopods people are beginning to breed as pets? (Ditto the brightly colored neocaridina shrimp, who come in almost every color of the rainbow.) What about fiddler crabs--how important are they to your understanding of what it means to be on a Carolina beach? Consider the humble June beetle, whose only crime is to be round and shiny and orange, or the earthworm who enriches our soil, or the beautiful markings of the nudibranch, or--

Look. Mosquitoes ain't the be all, end all of invertebrates. The article does something of a disservice to the reader by not explaining how many wonderful insects and other inverts out there not only are "neutral" with respect to their impacts on humans, but actually bring us joy either directly or indirectly. C'mon, now. Do you need me to think of more?
posted by sciatrix at 9:01 AM on April 9, 2020 [45 favorites]


that is a beautiful comment sciatrix and I agree with your considered sentiments...

but I still really hate mosquitos (I tend to get a 'large local reaction' aka. swelling the size of a bar of soap and weeks of pain and itching. and they loooove me, of course)
posted by supermedusa at 9:14 AM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


TFA:
And to be fair, some insects do deserve their bad reputation. At the end of the 19th century, links between diseases and insects were discovered, such as malaria and mosquitoes. And with the rise of industrial agriculture, insect infestations became costly affairs.

So for a long time, fewer insects on earth seemed like a good idea. In fact, billions of dollars have been – and are being – spent exterminating insects every year. But not only that, entomology originally was the study of extermination. The better you understand insects, the more efficiently you can eradicate them. Destruction is still a major driver for insect research. ebq
So maybe enough with the mosquitos?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:21 AM on April 9, 2020 [8 favorites]


Can we hate on earwigs then? I hate earwigs.

But for real, bugs are so cool. I recently got myself a pocket microscope, and it’s helping me appreciate the little guys. WATER BEARS ARE SO CUTE YALL.
posted by Grandysaur at 9:24 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


whose only crime is to be round and shiny and orange

And surprisingly good at flying directly into thick hair. Or the mayfly, which is sexually attracted to opening doors. Then you have to lead them back outside like a distracted puppy because they aren't bitey. Or the praying mantis, who everyone who sees one goes 'wow'. Or the giant roaches that all the 2nd graders petted at the zoo but the adults wouldn't touch. Or the millipede totally being overshadowed by his jerky cousin the centipede.

They ain't all bad.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:30 AM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]


Gwen Pearson used to write the Charismatic Minifauna blog on Wired--long since defunct but her twitter feed is a partial replacement.
posted by mark k at 9:31 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


We need a simple coding system of identifying the species, to go along with the common name, in order to alert anyone of its survival status, range and distribution and its relative importance to other species. For example, hummingbird 45A would be enough to meaningfully distinguish it from the hundreds of others and not require a history and biology lesson to convey its value towards intervention. As for insects, their public relations are smeared by having so many under our control efforts without any information to distinguish them. Most people eagerly kill the harmless spiders in their house that normally prey on the dangerous roaming spiders they never see, for example. Same method could apply to invasive plants versus native, also needing human attention.
posted by Brian B. at 9:34 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


Without dung beetles we might not have the band Journey, and what kind of world would that be?

Seriously, there are a lot of essential insects out there, and some really neat ones as well. They definitely deserve some respect.
posted by TedW at 10:17 AM on April 9, 2020 [3 favorites]


From the wonderful blog Futility Closet:
J.B.S. Haldane was once asked what his study of biology had taught him about God.

He said that the Creator, if he exists, has “an inordinate fondness for beetles.”
When I learned about this (possibly apocryphal) quote I told my biologist aunt about it. She laugh-cried upon hearing it. "My late husband had it taped on the door of his office..."
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 10:31 AM on April 9, 2020 [9 favorites]


Without the bombadier beetle we don't get the delightful anecdote about the time Charles Darwin tried to fit one in his mouth! (Previously.)
A Cychrus rostratus once squirted into my eye & gave me extreme pain; & I must tell you what happened to me on the banks of the Cam in my early entomological days; under a piece of bark I found two carabi (I forget which) & caught one in each hand, when lo & behold I saw a sacred Panagæus crux major; I could not bear to give up either of my Carabi, & to lose Panagæus was out of the question, so that in despair I gently seized one of the carabi between my teeth, when to my unspeakable disgust & pain the little inconsiderate beast squirted his acid down my throat & I lost both Carabi & Panagæus!
posted by sciatrix at 10:36 AM on April 9, 2020 [13 favorites]


Complaining about bugs you dislike in this thread is a really bad look. Like if you scraped your knee on one stone of a cathedral, and so decided that demolishing the whole cathedral was, if not justified, at least understandable. And you live in the cathedral for some reason. And the cathedral is multicellular life.
posted by agentofselection at 11:21 AM on April 9, 2020 [16 favorites]


"Do you need me to think of more?”

sciatrix, please do. I’d never heard of the chocolate midge, and it is fascinating!
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 11:55 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


If you like learning about insects you might enjoy this bit of pro-insect PR: Tom Waits’ Army Ants.
posted by corey flood at 12:06 PM on April 9, 2020


If God didn't want us to step on cockroaches, they wouldn't have a crunchy shell.
posted by Beholder at 12:53 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've always liked most insects. There are exceptions, but for instance I've learnt how to not have mosquitoes or flies in my bedroom (the noise drives me crazy). I try to explain to the spiders that I love them (because they eat the flies), but they really need to be more tidy with those webs. It seems they don't speak human, so I have to remove the old cobwebs all the time.
Incidentally, I seem to know how a lot of insects taste, which tells me I probably tasted them when I was a toddler. I prefer not eating them.
The thing is, I have found it really hard to teach this to my children. Where do they learn that fear and disgust from when their parents aren't into it? Is there a secret anti-insect propaganda machine?
Now I've joined a sort of biodiversity club where you get books and mails for children about insects, so I can engage my grandson from the beginning, and I also have an app for counting nature stuff that I look forward to sharing with him. He's only 8 months, so I'm ahead.
posted by mumimor at 1:23 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


Complaining about bugs you dislike in this thread is a really bad look.

I think earwigs are icky, I'm not gonna RAID the whole town because there's one in my bathroom! Hell, I'm probably not even going to kill the one in the bathroom because what did it ever do to me.
posted by Grandysaur at 1:24 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


Invertebrates vastly outnumber vertebrates in terms of number of species; number of individuals and total biomass. It's not even close.
Vertebrata (to the extent it's a thing at all) is just a noisy little niche, a distraction from the serious business of building the perfect dragonfly.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 1:32 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


I think cockroaches are really cool. I grew up in an arid climate that didn't support them, and the main kind they have here in the Mid-Atlantic are kinda just like black zippy beetles. As long as they stay out of the house they don't bother me a bit.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:39 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


We build mosquito habitat. Complain about the civil engineers, architects, and agriculture agencies encouraging stagnant, ephemeral puddles.

Dragonflies, other predatory arthropods and amphibians that eat mosquitoes are more sensitive to low-quality water than mosquitoes. Masses of mosquitoes are a symptom of not considering human structures as ecosystems.
posted by head full of air at 2:25 PM on April 9, 2020 [4 favorites]


We build mosquito habitat. Complain about the civil engineers, architects, and agriculture agencies encouraging stagnant, ephemeral puddles.

Oh we do.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:34 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Obligatory Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon.
posted by JDC8 at 2:42 PM on April 9, 2020 [3 favorites]


We could, however, do without the lanternfly.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:45 PM on April 9, 2020


We need a simple coding system of identifying the species, to go along with the common name, in order to alert anyone of its survival status, range and distribution and its relative importance to other species. For example, hummingbird 45A would be enough to meaningfully distinguish it from the hundreds of others and not require a history and biology lesson to convey its value towards intervention.

So confused by this comment! Is it a joke? Was it written by a computer? Does the commenter not know about scientific names? Or think that alphanumeric codes are catchier and more approachable?
posted by snofoam at 3:00 PM on April 9, 2020


I learned earwig mothers look after their eggs and then their offspring until second molt. They congregate in clusters of hundreds underneath rocks near my house. My wife says that we should just unleash the chickens on them, but they are earwig mothers looking after their earwig babies. Imagine lying in a bed of your writhing masses of children, waiting for them to crawl out of their skin enough times for them to strike out on their own, when a huge, incomprehensibly large being comes to lift up the stone your under to have a peek exposing you to the cold.
posted by Mister Cheese at 3:59 PM on April 9, 2020


Ted Hughes wrote one of his best poems in honor of the mosquito:
Mosquito

To get into life
Mosquito died many deaths.

The slow millstone of polar ice, turned by the galaxy,
Only polished her egg.

Sub-zero, bulging all its mountain-power,
Could not fracture her bubble.

The lake that squeezed her kneeled,
Tightened to granite -- splintering quartz teeth,
But only sharpened her needle.

Till the strain was too much, even for Earth.

The stars drew off, trembling.
The mountains sat back, sweating.

Mosquito

Flew up singing, over the broken waters-
A little haze of wings, a midget sun.
In honor of and in adoration of, that is.

Which I think is the proper response.
posted by jamjam at 10:42 PM on April 9, 2020 [6 favorites]


If you dont directly love invertebrates you certainly love the birds that are dependant on them? Ant-shrikes, ant-vireos, ant-wrens, ant-pitas, ant-thrushes, ant-birds, ant-tanagers and others are all dependant on ants so much that they have a whole Wikipedia page on their behaviors. Ant followers "...may be obligate, meaning that they derive most of their diet by following ant swarms, or non-obligate, meaning they derive only some of their diet from this behaviour. Some species may feed extensively at ant swarms yet may not be obligate ant followers, being able to and regularly feeding away from the swarms as well." And that's just for ants! [I have been reading about neo-tropical birds and ran across them and was amazed.]
posted by RuvaBlue at 12:16 AM on April 10, 2020 [3 favorites]


I love insects. All of them. It's fascinating to sit and watch one (or many) - the way they move, the way they interact with one another, it's all just so alien and magical and otherworldly. And they feed so many other critters on up the food chain - I am especially fond of bats, so that gives me another reason to be glad for mosquitoes and other insects.

And if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have this album, which consists of songs from the perspective of different insects and is just good silly fun. Community is my favorite:

You have but two, we have six
We can use them to such great accomplishment
The sum of all, all of us all
Outweighs humanity's obstinance

You argue much, don't get along
You seem to try to do everything alone
But who needs to speak in our society
We take advantage of our pheromones

We communicate with chemicals
But this is not as you might think just mechanical
It's an expressive art, instinctually smart
Secretions quiet and dependable

Altruism is our way
Each alone we do not have so much to say
We're individuals in a community
One hundred forty million years we've been this way

With wisdom and ingenuity
We outwit so much larger adversaries
We symbolize this treasured prize
Buried deep within the human psyche

Between order and instability
We thrive on this beautiful complexity
We regulate our density
Emerge in the social biology

We get things done...
We get things done

posted by DingoMutt at 9:40 AM on April 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


this part made me laugh in delight:
'"Can’t we tell teenagers that many types of yeast required for beer hibernate in the wasps’ stomachs?" suggests Italian wasp researcher Alessandro Cini. "We have to allow the youth to interact with large, slow insects, such as the hissing cockroach," says Lockwood, who recently wrote an opera about locusts, which was staged in Wyoming, USA.'
also surprised there was no mention of eating bugs, which some were touting as the future a couple of years ago. the focus is definitely a bit eurocentric — surely certain cultures and societies, especially indigenous ones, that have better, more respectful relations to animal life in general may have interesting lessons to teach us about loving invertebrates. the lushootseed story of lady louse comes to mind immediately, for example; or think of Anansi, the west-african trickster god. as a toddler i myself would come up with stories about a hero i called spotty the spider the worm. most children like or are at least fascinated by invertebrates, but our standard version of growing up in the west is a forced process of abjecting and subjecting all things considered low, dirty, lacking "intelligence," and not-human
posted by LeviQayin at 9:03 AM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


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