100 replies to this topic

[P0rcelain]

people on the front lines doing good work: http://sos-bees.org/solutions/

[TennesseeAnts]

i would also like to point out that frankly, the honeybee situation is due to our own hubris. we put all our eggs in one basket by introducing this invasive pest to the entire world. it out competed everything, and now we are in danger because his one species is in trouble.
if it were not for us, the problem would not even exist in the first place. that said, very smart people are working hard to prevent a huge environmental collapse because of this issue.
if it really concerns you, you can try farming native bees and such. idk about other countries, but in australia it is a legit business and you can get native bee queens sent to you to farm and stuff.

Honeybees, the stealers of fame. They are invasive. Or at least in the US they are. Bumblebee populations are reaching critical points, as are native bees, feel like we should worry about those more.

I agree completely.

[Serafine]

Insects will soon get more attention because the lack of them is making cute birds go extinct.

Yes, the die-off has actually reached tier 2 in the food chain. In the US there are vast areas (we're talking hundreds of miles here) where populations of insect-eating birds have collapsed to near-extinction. Certain areas in Europe don't look much better.

And when the birds die out the cute mammals will be next.

Insect populations can regenerate very quickly, their predators can't. As long as the insects are the only ones being hit this can be fixed very quickly. When bird and mammal populations crash it'll take decades or even centuries to fix - if it's fixable at all.

Edited by Serafine, December 13 2019 - 12:56 PM.

[P0rcelain]

huh, i didn't know the situation was so dire over there.

i live in nsw australia, were pretty strongly environmentalist over here.

we have a tendancy to get hysterical when one animal starts to take a bullet rather than when the entire ecosystem starts to collapse.

Edited by P0rcelain, December 13 2019 - 2:30 PM.

[P0rcelain]

this said were getting smacked pretty hard by climate change too. look no further than the enormous fires and the fact that i am currently breathing smoke because i wanted fresh air this morning.

[ANTdrew]

Native insects need native plants to thrive. Anyone with a yard can help tremendously simply by choosing to grow as diverse an assortment of native plants as they can. Volunteering to remove invasive plants is another great thing you could do. There are probably groups in your area that do invasive plant removal if you look for them. Choosing organic, plant-based diets would have a big impact, too, but that is probably asking a lot of most people. I, for one, can’t afford much organic foods.

[TennesseeAnts]

Native insects need native plants to thrive. Anyone with a yard can help tremendously simply by choosing to grow as diverse an assortment of native plants as they can. Volunteering to remove invasive plants is another great thing you could do. There are probably groups in your area that do invasive plant removal if you look for them. Choosing organic, plant-based diets would have a big impact, too, but that is probably asking a lot of most people. I, for one, can’t afford much organic foods.

I'm anything but an environmentalist, but I agree with planting native plants and removing invasive ones.

[ANTdrew]

Where have US bird populations crashed to near extinction? This is news to me. I live outside one of the biggest mega-cities in the country, yet I’ve seen 72 species of birds (bats, too) in my yard. Not to over-simplify, but, again, native plants are the answer.

[camponotuskeeper]

I have seen a study talking about genetically modifying ants so they all have wings to take the place of honey bees.

[ANTdrew]

Winged ants wouldn't really be any better at pollinating than wasps are. They don't actively gather pollen and they lack the hairy bodies of bees and leg scopa that really aid pollination. This is interesting sci-fi, but I don't think it would work. A better plan would be to bolster native bee populations to off-set losses of honeybees.

[P0rcelain]

why would you modify ants when wasps already are closer to doing the job? is it because people hate wasps? they are usually quite benevolent

[ponerinecat]

I have seen a study talking about genetically modifying ants so they all have wings to take the place of honey bees.

I mean, why do all that work when we have native bees and wasps. Makes no sense. Ants aren't even good pollinators. You would have to use a large ant, and make them hairy. And by then you have a social bee.

[zantezaint]

Why are we even talking about how we care about insects when half this forum is about taking queen ants for captivity and amusement?

[TennesseeAnts]

Because we do care about them. I think I speak for everyone in saying that we don't capture queens ants for amusement, but rather for understanding. Understanding that ants are amazing creatures, with complex social systems, that we could never create ourselves. We take them into captivity to protect them (especially here in the South) from fire and argentine ants, that would surely kill the wonderful native ants that we love. We take them into captivity to give them a better chance of survival. In the wild 1 queen ant in about 100 will make it to maturity, and even then it's even more rare for them to last 5+ years. So I think it's pretty ignorant to say we don't care about ants.

[P0rcelain]

i think the real question is why are you on a forum specifically founded for discussing the 'captivity of ants' if you consider ant keeping to be so iniquitous

[P0rcelain]

i think the real real question is why you have 6 ant queens if you implicitly do not consider capturing them to be anything but dubious

[ponerinecat]

Why are we even talking about how we care about insects when half this forum is about taking queen ants for captivity and amusement?

This is a biased question. One of the questions lots of people who study insects get follow the same theme. Why do you say you like insects when you murder them and pin them? Why do you say you like them while you gas the entire tree top to find them? Why do you say you like them when you shove them in vials of kill fluids? This is a very poor understanding of all arthropod lovers. We care about the species. We rarely are attached to the individual, thought this happens too. Insects should not be thought of as individuals, but a collective. The loss of several hundred individuals is nothing, a daily occurrence. But the extinction of entire species is a huge blow. I really don't like seeing people who talk like this. I've been pestered by questions like this coming from my family my entire life. We do not capture queen ants for amusement. It is a hobby, a way to enjoy seeing the progress of the colony. We wish to watch the colony grow and hopefully flourish under our care. Why do you say you care about dogs when you force them to inbreed to the point where they can't breathe properly? We are among the more gentle members of the entire animal keeping community, though there is nothing wrong with any of the community. The way you worded it, it sounds like we starve the ants and laugh at their misfortunes. Stop acting like we are all hypocrites. If you acknowledge this fact, and yet still keep ants, you are calling yourself a person who captures wild animals for nothing but their own amusement. Please don't bring this up again, it is one of the most hated question stereotypes among the arthropod community.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Nature is already efficient at selecting the fittest out of each species to survive. We shouldn't be too quick to interfere with the process without knowing what we're doing.

Edited by TheMicroPlanet, December 16 2019 - 5:28 PM.

[ponerinecat]

Nature is already efficient at selecting the fittest out of each species to survive. We shouldn't be too quick to interfere with the process without knowing what we're doing.

That is true. The main problem is this. WE STARTED THE DIE OFFS. Should we just sit back and let our problems destroy nature? I think not.

[TheMicroPlanet]

 

Nature is already efficient at selecting the fittest out of each species to survive. We shouldn't be too quick to interfere with the process without knowing what we're doing.

That is true. The main problem is this. WE STARTED THE DIE OFFS. Should we just sit back and let our problems destroy nature? I think not.

 

Very true. We had the means to ruin a few things, but we also have the means to fix it and maybe even make it better 

That's something funny about us humans; we're the only organisms to do this much with the world around us, good or bad. We've been able to populate areas out of our original niche, we've engineered entire ecosystems (usually bad, unfortunately), and we're the only species on this planet to ask why that is.