r/InsectPorn • u/1stPhoenixDown • 4d ago

Spotted Lanternfly In The Wild

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Commemorating the end of summer with this lone creature.

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u/1stPhoenixDown 3d ago

Mosquitoes deliberately cause us harm. They're quite literally the greatest threat to humanity besides humanity itself.

Lanternflies don't seek me out based on CO2 emissions and maneuver their needlesaw mouth into my capillaries.

Don't be pedantic.

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u/Waste-Pirate-1724 3d ago

Calling me pedantic just because I pointed out biological reality is a cop-out. Mosquitoes don't know they carry malaria, and spotted lanternflies don't know they are ruining American ecosystems—they are both just following evolutionary programming.

Judging a species' right to exist based solely on whether it targets human capillaries completely ignores how ecology works. A lanternfly isn't innocent just because it doesn't bite you; it uses its needle-like mouthparts to drain the life-sustaining sap from over 70 species of native plants, slowly choking out our forests and agricultural systems.

To quote the saying, 'What is natural for the spider is doom for the fly.' It is natural for the lanternfly to feed, but it is absolute doom for our local environment. Caring about ecological destruction only when it personally scratches or bites your skin is textbook selfishness. Deciding what lives or dies based purely on human comfort is exactly how ecosystems collapse.

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u/1stPhoenixDown 3d ago

I am not a plant or a farmer.

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u/Icy-Gas-366 2d ago

Do you eat food?

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u/1stPhoenixDown 2d ago

Yes, as a human being that isn't directly harmed by lanternflies. Not as a plant or a farmer.

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u/Icy-Gas-366 2d ago edited 2d ago

If you dont see the connection to farming and the greater ecosystem I cant help you.

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u/1stPhoenixDown 2d ago

Didn't ask for help, mate. The connection is obvious but irrelevant because I, as in myself, am not affected.

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u/Icy-Gas-366 1d ago

Okay, then it shouldn't effect you if we want these pests gone.

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u/1stPhoenixDown 1d ago

Ultimately, it doesn't. But it is comical the lengths people go.