#pests

[classicbrion]

Pigeons are wild. We domesticated them at roughly the same time we started making cities and lived side by side with them as honored pets for companionship and food and messaging until the 1930s when food became convenient and we didn’t need squab on our roof and just abandoned them to become pests.

Yes they’re ungovernable they’re literally living in a species-wide abandonment cycles

Further reading: Pests: How Humans Created Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire

Become Ungovernable Pigeon Print by halseywberryman

[gawki]

Cult of the Trash 🔥

[crevicedwelling]

here’s a fun animal I saw in Borneo: the mammal!

unlike the rest of us, mammals are endothermic and produce their own body heat—but they’re not birds! it is covered in a thick coat of hair (you guessed it, separate evolutionary origin from feathers) and secretes a fatty liquid from special glands to nurture its larvae. mammals can be found almost worldwide and are highly adaptable. this one was making odd squeaking noises, possibly begging for morsels of food.

here’s another mammal I saw. pretty sure it’s a different species but I’m not an expert on identifying them

fun mammal fact: some are curiously soft to the touch! try palpating the next mammal you see, but please be careful. some may bite!

[incognitopolls]

Difficult to get rid of, difficult to face because you're too squeamish (or too sympathetic), etc.

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[sofenart]

American Cockroach

This pencil drawing is of an American cockroach. Despite its name, it isn't actually native to the Americas, but instead originated in Africa and the Middle East. They arrived on American shores in the early seventeenth century, through stowing aboard on commercial boats and slave ships. American cockroaches are the largest of the cockroach species.

There are thirty species of cockroach that infect human habitats out of 4,600, so are generally known as pests. The American cockroach is one of those species that are considered pests. Cockroaches may have a similar look to beetles, but aren't actually of that group. They're more closely related to termites.

[thebrainscoop]

What’s up nerds

Here’s a weird one for ya

[balkanradfem]

Rating of Garden Critters!

Bee: 12/10, beloved, beautiful, miracle bug, would die for her, all flowers in my garden are for her

Ladybug: 10/10 I love her, she trusts me and walks on my hand, has little dots I can count and eats plant lice for breakfast lunch and dinner!

Ants: 2/10, they keep starting lice farms on my plants :/ go farm your lice elsewhere. Fun to watch though.

Spider: 10/10 charming, threatening, excellent vibes, does not respect my walkways, ultimately so useful for the garden I will never bring them down

Frog: 10/10 I don't know what she's up to but I love looking at her!

Mouse: 3/10 she gets 3 because she's so adorable but. She will dig out seeds and eat them. Go live in the fields please.

Snake: 10/10 absolutely love the long noodle, will resolve the mice issue, incredibly useful critter + points for powerful presence

Mushroom: 10/10 not a critter technically but she will make my soil healthy and I hope my plants can communicate underground too? If there's mushrooms?

Worm: 10/10 must have in the garden, please thrive in my soil, please live in my compost pile

Wasp: 6/10 threatening aura but I do believe she just wants to pollinate some plants and I respect her. There's place for her in my garden.

Bird: 8/10 I love her, I'm unsure whether she eats my worms but I hope she also eats bugs that eat my plants. Please don't eat my strawberries.

Plant lice: 0/10. No. Get off my swiss chard.

Butterfly: 4/10 Please stop laying eggs on my broccoli. You're so beautiful I love you and I want you to have as many babies as possible. But I am hungry. I am too weak to support your reproductive process.

Potato bugs: -2/10. No. Only bug I've enacted violence upon.

Any other bug that I do not recognize: 7/10, welcome to my compost pile! We have grass, we have peels, we have rotten fruit. Please eat it. Also if you're a cool neon color or really big I will follow you around for a while infinitely entertained by your existence.

Hedgehog: 10/10 I know she's just lost in there but please stay you're so adorable.

Slugs: -99999999/10. They know what they did.

[acti-veg]

As a vegan myself I'm curious as to what other vegans views are on "pest animals"? I don't know how to feel about it bc I think mostly the term "pest" is labeled onto animals who are just trying to live by humans whom they may happen to inconvenience (such as farmers.) Also I understand some of these animals take out native plants too.

I can only give you my own perspective, but I do think that our conception of 'pest' animals has essentially become 'any animal that we don't like sharing space with.'

Some species are genuinely very difficult to share space with. Mosquitoes and rats both carry diseases that can be deadly to humans, and many animals will do a lot of damage to people's houses, their food stores and their clothing. It is just important to keep in mind in that case that many of these animals have important roles in the ecosystem, it is just that their interests are directly contrary to ours, so we designate them as pests.

The trouble comes when we start to expand that label to include animals like wolves, foxes, beavers, badgers etc. because they threaten the economic interests of the powerful, particularly by interfering with livestock. It is the same criteria we apply to human groups when we want to call them pests.

I'd say that most vegans have a pretty pragmatic view of pests and how to deal with them. Prevention is always better than cure, and every effort should be made to prevent an infestation or to drive animals away rather than killing them. Only when other, humane alternatives have been exhausted should lethal pest control even be considered. In those cases, there are relatively few vegans who would honestly expect someone to share their home with animals who could threaten their health and wellbeing.

[myfckingnameisnuwanda]

"Are you a ghost?" NOOO 😭😭😭

Masterpost

<- 038: Lost and Found - 040: Human Remains ->

<-<- 001: Angler Fish

[coolbugs]

Bug of the Day

The Three Amigos!

Three Asiatic garden beetles (Maladera formosae) in my yard, which is three too many of these awful pests. If you are at all familiar, you know how many hundreds of these I must have to be able to find a group of 3 clustered together on one leaf...

[biologist4ever]

[pumpkin-patch]

Thank you for your services madam

[starseedsrise]

Cats are the best pest control. Adopt a cat.

Meet the cats fighting Chicago’s rat problem:

[thebugcollection]

My favorite color is green, so I'm really drawn to bugs that are green. Luckily, there's so many to choose from!

This is an Aphid, or also known as a plant louse. Aphids suck the sap from plant leaves and are a common pest. They are super destructive when it comes to plants, they suck the life out of them, transfer plant diseases, and carry around mold.

They are the embodiment of chaos in the insect kingdom.

Crazily enough, though, some types of ants have found a way to farm these tiny little death bringers. Its a mutual agreement between them, the aphids feed the ants, the ants protect the aphids.

A bargaining system, if you would.

Without them, our ant population would probably drop, and we need ants, my man.

So good on you, aphid. Good on you.