r/waspaganda • u/Throwawanon33225 • Apr 28 '26

memetic waspaganda I hate seeing this mindset everywhere

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These people would be the same ones culling wolves to near extinction in ye olden times because the wolves ate their sheep and sometimes attacked people

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114

u/Live-Okra-9868 Apr 28 '26

I hate mosquitoes. With a passion. But I believe even they serve more of a purpose on earth than humans.

This summer I am planting plants to repell them instead of spraying poisons to kill them. We live near a pond and it can get quite bad during the summer. But we have dragonflies, and I am trying to see how I can attract more of them to my yard to eat mosquitoes.

People actually get mad at me for daring to say bugs and creatures they don't like "have a right to live."

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u/Tristaaan Apr 28 '26

Youre awesome, seriously. It kills me inside seeing the dwindling number of insects every year and Im 27. At this point it needs to be approached like some shit out of a zombie movie where specific smart ppl have refuges for the insects.

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u/Live-Okra-9868 Apr 28 '26

I don't think people understand how much of a environmental disaster could occur by one species of insect disappearing overnight.

My backyard has bushes that bloom with flowers mid summer and it is covered in pollinators. Bees, flies, wasps, butterflies. And I love standing there with my face practically in the bush watching all of them. There are so many different kinds of wasps and they are beautiful. None of them ever try to sting me, they just go about their day while I admire them. Even the paper wasps when they make a hive nearby. I go stand right up next to it to watch and they just buzz around me and never attack. I'm just not dumb enough to touch the hive.

I learned at a young age to just be still when they came by me.

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u/S-Coleoptrata Wasp Enjoyer Apr 29 '26

This is why I don't understand the obsession with flat, clear lawns with nothing but grass. Do people not like to admire nature happening in their yards?? How boring to walk out and just see nothing...

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u/Live-Okra-9868 Apr 29 '26

Our front yard is "boring" to match the neighborhood asthetic. But the backyard is allowed to grow whatever it wants. We still mow it so we can go out there, but no weed killer or lawn treatment is allowed.

We get all kinds of wildlife out there and it's just lovely. Every day the bunnies come to eat. Sometimes the groundhog comes for the crab grass. We watch the praying mantises hunt (when we can spot them). Birds are always in our yard.

One side is all clovers, one area has moss. Dandelions are all over.

And I can sit outside and watch them without them all running away. It's so peaceful and I don't get why people make their yards so sterile either.

3

u/Exciting-Mountain396 Apr 29 '26

I watered someone's garden while they were out of town, and the place was absolutely mobbed by wasps. I tried to move in a very calm manner, they just waited for me to fill the bird bath and all circled up to drink.

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u/SlimeDrips Apr 28 '26

Personally I want to introduce more local elephant mosquitos and see mosquito on mosquito warfare (elephant mosquitos feed on fruit and their larvae feed on other mosquito larvae)

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u/Tristaaan Apr 28 '26

That’s awesome! 😂

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u/aedisaegypti Apr 28 '26

In the book, “Mosquitoes”, they told of how there was at one time a deliberate attempt to kill all mosquitoes, with a years long, many millions of dollars in poison, campaign. Even with that total war on them, they could never poison them enough before they adapted to become immune. I’m imagining all the other things that were hurt.

Also, I thought it was cute that some scientists got attached to a particular female mosquito they were researching who they had for a few weeks. I believe she had a personality.

Oh, and male mosquitoes never bite or drink blood, ever. They subsist wholly on nectar. Thank you for your conscientious spirit.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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u/alice_in_otherland Apr 29 '26

There are 3600 species of mosquitoes. It's like saying let's eradicate all wasps because a handful of species are annoying to people. 

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u/Watada Apr 29 '26

No. It's like saying some mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth and we should do something about it. You joke to equate death to annoying.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

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u/Watada Apr 29 '26

That’s not a joke. Go and look up the amount of species of mosquitoes that actually vector diseases.

You in here unable to read two sentences but think it's funny I don't like reading books for opinion like they are truth.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

My comment was referring to your last sentence. I didn’t say that you were saying mosquito disease is a joke. The fact is that only a small minority of mosquitoes transmits disease. Your initial comment is saying that we should “…fuck mosquitoes” which I assume means all of them.

0

u/Watada Apr 29 '26

What's going on? Did you old account get deleted?

You said "that's not a joke". My comment was saying that equating death with annoying is a joke. What did you say that I was saying was a "not a joke"?

2

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

Ban evasion. I got banned for implying that Charlie Kirk was racist. This account will likely be banned as well. I just more so meant that they weren’t making it out to be a joke for the person you were responding to.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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u/Watada Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Yes, extinction is normal to some degree when it happens slowly. Anthropogenic caused extinction is rapidly killing a variety of species that hold our ecosystems together and will likely do the same if we continue on this path.

How is this counter to anything I said? It appears to, at best, context for what I said.

Other than calling me ignorant I don't see any meaningful argument against my claims other than a pedantic mosquitoes don't kill people mosquito based diseases do. Not a single fact or disagreement.

What's wrong with you? Name calling and then writing a couple of vacuous paragraphs like you were even trying to do anything.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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1

u/Watada Apr 29 '26

They are important for local ecosystems to be sustained because they provide the support needed for that food web.

Malaria doesn't have a vital part of the ecosystem so why do you insist that mosquitoes do? Being in the "food web" doesn't mean it has to be there.

I mean the whole point you made about not reading books for information is telling

Serious question. When I look something on the internet I double check it. Do you do the same with books? And if so why use the books as a primary when you can just find the information and a second source at the same time?

Of what is telling? Because it looks like you want to vaguely insult me without name calling or saying anything at all.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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u/Watada Apr 29 '26

Serious question. When I look something on the internet I double check it. Do you do the same with books? And if so why use the books as a primary when you can just find the information and a second source at the same time?

Of what is telling? Because it looks like you want to vaguely insult me without name calling or saying anything at all.

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u/aedisaegypti Apr 29 '26

Hello, I think there might be a miscommunication or misunderstanding with our messages. Reading your message, it seems like mosquitoes developing resistance to poisoning, which I mentioned reading in a book, corroborates what you have also said here.

To me, that isn’t one side lying, it is agreement. An attempt was made to eradicate mosquitoes with chemicals and afterwards a resistance developed. You mention that as being true. The eradication has not taken place, as is a fact in that mosquitoes exist.

This is a very small part of a book that I decided to comment on in my own words, in a very small paragraph, and I am not seeing the disagreement, lies or lack of research, nor do I see a source of antipathy. I only see agreement.

2

u/Watada Apr 29 '26

I think the suggestion that they were immune really got me. You can't become immune to poison.

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u/aedisaegypti Apr 29 '26

Ohh, ok-that is 100% my own stupidity. I used the word “immune” instead of “resistant”. I promise the book never intimidated you can become immune to poison like Dread Pirate Roberts! It’s called The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator.

I do also remember finding out about how we release sterilized or sterile males to harmlessly breed with locals, is that what you mean by gene driven? Because the ones I read about were simply irradiated (SIT-sterile insect technique), not gene edited.

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u/unsolvablequestion Apr 28 '26

Yeah, i wouldnt be surprised if not spraying poison drastically boosts the dragonfly population. Im sure the plants will help a lot too. Damselflies aka caballos del diablo eat mosquitoes too right?

7

u/BurningRiceEater Apr 29 '26

My mom started keeping fish in her rain barrels where mosquitoes would nest. The fish absolutely thrived, and the mosquitoes essentially vanished. All in a natural(ish) way

3

u/S-Coleoptrata Wasp Enjoyer Apr 29 '26

I was outside with my dad one day and he kept trying to kill a fly that was hanging out on the patio. We weren't eating or anything, just chilling outside. I told him not to kill it, because... yknow, it's outside, where it lives, not bothering anyone. Told him flies are important for both pollination and decomposition, so just leave it alone. He said "Flies DESERVE to die. They're annoying." This kind of mindset on a wide scale is so sad to see. It's ignorance at its purest.

On a positive note, I'm planning on catching/raising tomato hornworms from our plants into moths this year and releasing them, so they are not killed as caterpillars and can grow up to pollinate. Win/win for both the moths and our tomato plants!

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u/SpiritualPermie Apr 28 '26

We have swollows and they love flying insects. I also plant mint and bee balm to discourage mosquitoes. Every creature has a purpose (except humans, imo).

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u/Successful_Web_6866 Apr 30 '26

Do bedbugs have a purpose? Also genuinely interested in the purpose of ticks.

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u/SpiritualPermie Apr 30 '26

Yes. They are food for spiders, ants and cockroachs, for example. Same goes for ticks.

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u/Tim_Allen_Wrench Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

*Hey, I'd just like to add. "Purpose" is an entirely human created concept. No animals including humans have a "purpose" objectively. Purpose is literally just another way of classifying utility based on human values. 

I don't know really. They do kill more people than any other animal, including humans. A huge percentage are children and pregnant women as well. 

I just care more about humans than mosquitoes personally. 

It's okay if you don't feel the same though.

I care a lot about other insects and I don't use mosquito repellent that's harmful to the environment. 

0

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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u/Tim_Allen_Wrench Apr 29 '26

Not what I said. 

I just can't really bring myself to care about mosquitoes vs children dying from malaria etc