Friend or Foe? - _TNY_9433
I find it interesting how people view and value different insects.
Now, some just consider all of 'em pests and annoying, but then there are those who like to dived them up into "useful" and "not useful" ones which feels a bit weird.
First, animals don't exist to fill a function for others - they are there to try and procreate and have a place in the eco system just like that. But also, the basis of being good or bad is often based on such odd concepts.
Butterflies are beautiful, right? They do no harm and we should take care of them in our garden because they look peaceful and pretty. Wasps on the other hand are a pest and should be killed on sight is something else that people seem to think.
Consider then that those peaceful butterflies start out like voracious eating machines, like this caterpillar which is an old world swallowtail (Papilio machaon). Sure it still looks incredibly pretty, but at the same time it taxes the garden by doing basically nothing but consuming leaves, in this case the large leaves of a purple Angelica (Angelica gigas).
Wasps on the other hand catch a huge amount of larvae in a garden to feed their young. They themselves instead eat nectar from flowers, making them pollinators so which ones were a pest in the garden again?
I personally like 'em all, but it's weird what is considered bad sometimes, right?
Friend or Foe? - _TNY_9433
I find it interesting how people view and value different insects.
Now, some just consider all of 'em pests and annoying, but then there are those who like to dived them up into "useful" and "not useful" ones which feels a bit weird.
First, animals don't exist to fill a function for others - they are there to try and procreate and have a place in the eco system just like that. But also, the basis of being good or bad is often based on such odd concepts.
Butterflies are beautiful, right? They do no harm and we should take care of them in our garden because they look peaceful and pretty. Wasps on the other hand are a pest and should be killed on sight is something else that people seem to think.
Consider then that those peaceful butterflies start out like voracious eating machines, like this caterpillar which is an old world swallowtail (Papilio machaon). Sure it still looks incredibly pretty, but at the same time it taxes the garden by doing basically nothing but consuming leaves, in this case the large leaves of a purple Angelica (Angelica gigas).
Wasps on the other hand catch a huge amount of larvae in a garden to feed their young. They themselves instead eat nectar from flowers, making them pollinators so which ones were a pest in the garden again?
I personally like 'em all, but it's weird what is considered bad sometimes, right?