Base Behavior of Leps-L threads

Anne Kilmer viceroy at gate.net
Mon Sep 23 16:58:40 EDT 2002


James Kruse wrote:

> Mike Quinn at ento at satx.rr.com wrote:
> 
> 
>>To say that mosquitoes have never killed anyone is like saying that guns
>>have never killed anyone, it was the bullets after all that did the killing.
>>
> 
> Ah yes, those guns floating down the street all by themselves, and going off
> all by themselves, killing people and blaming it on the bullets are pretty
> scary.
> 
> Otherwise, I and most other sane people would agree that certain insects of
> medical and agricultural fame are more 'important' than your standard
> butterfly, or anything else, depending upon what your personal condition is
> or what light you paint it in. We could argue about this forever.
> 
> Jim
> 

Well, I think some of them scientists are attempting to boost the 
mosquitoes' little immune systems, so the poor things don't get malaria 
and so forth. See, nobody ever worries about this from the mosquitoes' 
point of view, and that's important.

Meanwhile, interests south of us are massing at their borders with guns 
set to wipe out migrating birds, many of which carry contagion and 
sudden death. The West Nile thread was fascinating, and presently I will 
look at TILS, which I set to no mail and which has been waiting politely 
for my return.

The man with a gun to my head is of breathtaking importance to me, and 
the fellow out picking tomatoes for my dinner is background noise. If a 
bug is not pretty, useful or dangerous (medical or financial) we ain't 
interested.
That is why your community is free to use a mosquito larvicide that 
kills all the diptera it contacts, without the anguished howls you hear 
from "butterfly gardeners" whose caterpillars are all dead. Nobody says 
"oh dear, when I walk along the lake I am not the perch for a million 
'blind mosquitoes'".

ah well. I got to get old and have lots of grandchildren, and perhaps 
they'll have the same privilege. There are fireflies in Stone Mountain, 
Atlanta, where Emily is growing up. She likes to be sung to, and is fond 
of strained carrots but doesn't care much for peas, and there were a 
great many butterflies in her yard but I haven't a clue what they were.
Anne Kilmer
South Florida



 
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