Pest Peeves

©2019 Karen Richards

 I found these colorful beetles on some flowers in the back yard. “Pretty!” I thought, “they must be related to ladybugs!”

Well, I looked them up and learned they’re Anthrenus verbasci, aka carpet beetles. They’re considered a pest, and all of the articles about them are about how to kill them. I have several issues with this.

First, it’s the larvae of the beetle that cause damage to animal-based fibers like wool, silk, and leather. The beetles in the image are completely innocent adults who only eat pollen. The larvae (which can live two years) are known as “woolly bears” because they’re covered in brown hairs. Yes, they damage some things that some humans invest with value. But.

Here’s my second point: Insects are not inherently evil. They don’t conspire to tick you off. Often (perhaps usually?), the reason an insect is a problem is because humans did something to unbalance nature. Case in point: When humans decided to make clothes out of wool or silk, populations of insects who had for eons fed on that food boomed. Nature always enforces a balance: Insects can’t destroy too much of their food source or they won’t survive. We just make it easier for more of them to thrive when we increase their food supply or concentrate it as it never was naturally.

Certainly, there isn’t a shortage of carpet beetles. Killing the ones inside your house probably won’t dent their population. However, there are many examples of tragic unintended consequences. Insecticides hurt insects, animals and plants other than the targeted ones. People should think before reaching for the poison.

Action: UNDERSTAND. Before you get out the insecticide, get your head around what your goal is and think through the best way to achieve it for your own health, and that of your pets, children and yes, the insects.

Fatal Attraction?

©2019 Karen Richards

Two years into my insect infatuation, I realize I’ve fallen into a trap that was one of the reasons I started studying invertebrates in the first place. I’ve been more drawn to flashy, bizarre and storied insects and ignoring smaller, single-colored average-looking species. 

We care more about attractive things. It’s hard-wired in some cases. The large-featured faces of babies, kittens and puppies are universally appealing for a reason. That instinct backfires when we’re more inclined to save a colorful rare bird or mammal and care less about dull-looking plants and animals … or tiny creepy crawlies. By focusing on only the more attractive creepy crawlies, I’m forwarding that same bias. Perhaps the ho-hum black beetle that researchers and entomologists aren’t drawn to studying has more to teach us than the flashiest iridescent one. At the very least, they should be treated equally. 

Action: RETHINK. Think of something you consider dull or uninteresting (baseball? opera? coin collecting?) Take 15 minutes to look into that topic. Read just a little more about the subject than you ever have. Research until you find one or two things that make you say “wow!” Chances are, it won’t take that long. And maybe you’ll understand your avid birdwatching uncle or ping-pong crazed co-worker a bit better. 

©2019 Karen Richards

P.S. The beetle above is the female dimorphic longhorn beetle. The black beetle at the top of the article is the male.

All in the Family (or not)

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  #1

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  #2

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  #3

Here are three beetles I’ve seen in the past month. They’re all black and yellow and about the same size. They live in the same part of the United States. They look related, right? Like cousins, maybe even in-laws. 

But.

(Sing to the Sesame Street tune if you remember it) … None of these things are much like each other. 

They’re all unique species. They can’t breed with each other. They can’t survive on one another’s food or grow up in another one’s specific habitat. In addition, they’re all in a different genus, and one is in a different family than the other two (and it’s not the two you think!). 

Families, in scientific classification, are a pretty wide category. Humans, for example, are in the same family, hominidae, as other great apes, like gorillas and orangutans. The ornate checkered beetle (#1) and the banded yellow longhorn (#2) are in different families. They’re as different from each other as we are from lemurs, a species outside our family, but in our order (primates). The two beetles that are most alike (#2 and #3) are both longhorn beetles in the cerambycidae family, and are related like we are to gorillas. 

Action: EXAMINE. Look closely at insects. What you might shoo away thinking it’s a bee could easily be a fly or a beetle. You might find a rare insect, or one with an amazing life story.

Fun bonus fact: The ornate checkered beetle parasitizes bees! Its larvae attach themselves to solitary bees such as mason bees, accompany them back to their nests, and feed on bee eggs and larva as they morph into adults.