As you all probably know, people who value insects, especially social insects, are a tiny minority. As a homeowner and gardener, I’ve always aimed to help insects of all kinds by planting native plants and creating diverse habitats with rotting wood, stones, and brush piles. I recently had to sadly deal with a big oak tree in my yard that had died due to some kind of fungus, which is my theory at least. My plan was to save a ton of money plus help all kinds of wildlife by cutting off all the branches and just leaving up the trunk as a snag. I have another snag like this on another side of my yard that is home to Crematogaster and Camponotus colonies. I had a tree company come out to do this work.
The problem came in when my idiot neighbor threw a fit complaining about my plan and criticizing my “scary looking, termite infested stump on the other side.” I told the fool my plan and that I couldn’t afford to remove the whole tree. What does he do? He went behind my back calling the company to cut down the stump and said he would pay the difference. Wanting to maintain some kind of peace plus the fact that my wife didn’t like the stump, I had to pay the company to remove the whole stump.
I saved a bunch of dead wood, though, for my termites and told my ignorant neighbor that as long as I pay the mortgage here, social insects of all kinds will be welcome, especially termites. Thanks for reading, I needed to get this off my chest.
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