The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad June Bug Plague - Page 6

Marya · 07-31-2008, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maylynn

Speaking of honey, something to think about the next time you put honey in your tea: it takes 12 honeybees working their entire lives to make enough honey for 1 teaspoon!

OMG now I am going to feel like a capitalist pig every time I use honey. But I guess I would rather exploit bees than migrant workers cutting cane or harvesting sugar beets.

Marya

maylynn · 07-31-2008, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marya

OMG now I am going to feel like a capitalist pig every time I use honey. But I guess I would rather exploit bees than migrant workers cutting cane or harvesting sugar beets.

Marya

Ooh, not meaning to make you feel like a capitalist pig! I have honey in my tea every morning, and I just like to appreciate the fact that it came from bees and took a lot of work to make.

On that note, I highly recommend 'Bee Movie'!

Aisha Azar · 07-31-2008, 01:22 PM

Dear Maylynn,

[quote]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maylynn

I love insects! They are absolutely essential building blocks of our ecosystem - as Sir David Attenborough has said (as I can recall): if humans disappeared from the planet, things would look and function very much the same...but if insects dissappeared, the rest of the creatures on Earth would be unable to survive without them. (From Life In the Undergrowth by the BBC - incredible documentary series, you must watch it if you can!)

They are perfectly welcome to be building blocks everywhere except my house, my front porch or my back patio or my vehicle. I'm no crazy about them in the yard, but I understand they have to live SOMEWHERE!

Quote:

Granted I am a biologist, so my views on this are probably a bit different and more pro-bug than the average person's! That being said, I don't deny the creepiness of a whole lot of legs. Sea spiders, for instance - totally creep me out. And centipedes are not my favourite (but I like millipedes). And although I love spiders, I have strict rules for them interacting with me ie: no surprises, and no unwanted touching - although they do not always follow these rules! The thing I am most afraid of actually is the delicateness of all those legs - detached/broken bug/spider legs are my worst nightmare.

I do not go to their homes and I do not invite them to mine. If they come in here without an invitation, no matter if they are human, animal or insect they are not going to be welcomed with open arms.

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Yes, bugs have circulatory systems and 'hearts' and 'blood', although arthropod circulatory systems function much differently from vertebrate circulatory systems.

Thank you. I have wondered about this. What might a bug heart look like??

Quote:

Mahmoud, I especially love bees and really hope that you keep bees again one day - the world needs more bees! And I'm also glad you didn't shoot the bear - after all, who can deny honey??

Speaking of honey, something to think about the next time you put honey in your tea: it takes 12 honeybees working their entire lives to make enough honey for 1 teaspoon!

Well, thank goodness there are still a lot of them. I hear there are many hives in the U.S. and other locations that are suffering from a couple of different diseases that are really killing them off. I know we did not see many bees until late this summer. I do believe that bees are one of the creatures without which the planet would not survive.

Regards,
A'isha

maylynn · 07-31-2008, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aisha Azar

Dear Maylynn,
...
They are perfectly welcome to be building blocks everywhere except my house, my front porch or my back patio or my vehicle. I'm no crazy about them in the yard, but I understand they have to live SOMEWHERE!
...

Dear A'isha,

Have you ever considered that perhaps it is you who is in THEIR house/frontporch/yard?

A bug heart looks like a section of tube. In fact, it is the abdomen subsection of a longer tube called the dorsal vessel that runs all the length of the bug and pumps their bug blood around. Bugs don't have a circulatory system that keeps their blood separate from the rest of them, like we do with our veins/arteries/capillaries - they just pump their plasma around their bodies directly to their organs! It probably has to do with efficiency of scale - being so small they probably don't need a more complex system like we have, and whereas bigger creatures like us need something more sophisticated for the plumbing to work.

More info and neat animations here in case you're still curious:
Circulatory System

You're right about the poor bees. They're being killed off in significant quantities by a parasitic mite and other factors we don't fully understand like Colony Collapse Disorder where suddenly they abandon their hives and disappear. So, I appreciate my honey - not to mention pollination of all the world's flowering plants!

Best regards,
Maylynn

Aisha Azar · 07-31-2008, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maylynn

Dear A'isha,

Have you ever considered that perhaps it is you who is in THEIR house/frontporch/yard?

A bug heart looks like a section of tube. In fact, it is the abdomen subsection of a longer tube called the dorsal vessel that runs all the length of the bug and pumps their bug blood around. Bugs don't have a circulatory system that keeps their blood separate from the rest of them, like we do with our veins/arteries/capillaries - they just pump their plasma around their bodies directly to their organs! It probably has to do with efficiency of scale - being so small they probably don't need a more complex system like we have, and whereas bigger creatures like us need something more sophisticated for the plumbing to work.

More info and neat animations here in case you're still curious:
Circulatory System

You're right about the poor bees. They're being killed off in significant quantities by a parasitic mite and other factors we don't fully understand like Colony Collapse Disorder where suddenly they abandon their hives and disappear. So, I appreciate my honey - not to mention pollination of all the world's flowering plants!

Best regards,
Maylynn

Dear Maylynnm
Nope. They never even once contributed a dime to the house payment, they never pay the taxes or clean the place. It is definitely they who invade my house!! I had a small volunteer tree growing in some leaves in the back of my pick-up last year and a spider lived in it. I let him stay there, but one day my husband thought it was too weird to be driving around growing a tree in my vehicle, so he took it out and the spider moved, too, I would assume...or hope and pray.
Thanks and I will look at the site when I come back from walking my dog, who looks like she is about ready to get grouchy about it if I don't hurry.

Regards,
A'isha

khanjar · 08-01-2008, 12:15 AM

When I had a car last, I had two spiders which lived behind the wing mirrors on each side. They would build a web between the mirror and the door, and when stopped they could occaisionaly be seen abseiling out from behind the mirror, soon to wind themselves back in when I moved the car. My pals found it humorous that I let them be, and gave them names. The left hand spider was horis and the right hand spider was boris. I sold the car complete with resident spiders

Aisha Azar · 08-01-2008, 12:44 AM

Dear Maylynn,
Very interesting article! I was amazed about the pulse beats mer minute ranging from 30 to 200. Doesn't an elephant's heart beat really slowly? I was wondering if the size of the bug had anything to do with it, and I also thought it was interesting that some bugs do not have heart beats so much as responses to movement that push their life blood around. I think I know a couple of people like that..... if they have hearts at all.
Regards,
A'isha

Shanazel · 08-01-2008, 03:54 AM

Okay, bug people, here is your giggle for the day on me.

I am from Arkansas. Our family farm did not have running water until I was about ten, so when we visited my grandparents, the "facilities" were contained in a small wooden house out back in which bugs and wasps abounded. I lived in terror of being attacked duing a call of nature. I also was a range conservationist in parts of the country where restroom facilities did not exist at all, which required some careful observations and adroit maneuvering to avoid disturbing various life forms during potty activities. I never had a single encounter with attacking insects during these activities despite my fears.

Today I went into my lovely, indoor, recently remodeled bathroom- and sat on a wasp which proceeded to express his displeasure by stinging me on the butt. I then expressed my displeasure by flushing his butt into the sewer system. The End.

masrawy · 08-04-2008, 05:36 PM

Hey Shanazel,
I feel your pain once when I was about 12 years old got bitten by an ant in my frontal male part ... That hurt I'm 55 years old young now but still remember the pain to this day. In case you wonder the ant got killed in the spot .. Sorry ant lovers. Regards~Mahmoud

Shanazel · 08-04-2008, 06:33 PM

Thanks, Mahmoud. It is the indignity of it rather than the pain. The nerve of those creepie crawlies, anyway.

08-01-2008, 12:15 AM	#56 (permalink)
khanjar Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: England Posts: 442	When I had a car last, I had two spiders which lived behind the wing mirrors on each side. They would build a web between the mirror and the door, and when stopped they could occaisionaly be seen abseiling out from behind the mirror, soon to wind themselves back in when I moved the car. My pals found it humorous that I let them be, and gave them names. The left hand spider was horis and the right hand spider was boris. I sold the car complete with resident spiders __________________ I am a dream to some...and a nightmare to others.

08-01-2008, 12:44 AM	#57 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 4,463	Bug cardiovascular stuf Dear Maylynn, Very interesting article! I was amazed about the pulse beats mer minute ranging from 30 to 200. Doesn't an elephant's heart beat really slowly? I was wondering if the size of the bug had anything to do with it, and I also thought it was interesting that some bugs do not have heart beats so much as responses to movement that push their life blood around. I think I know a couple of people like that..... if they have hearts at all. Regards, A'isha

08-04-2008, 05:36 PM	#59 (permalink)
masrawy Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: In the Shadow Posts: 465	The ant and I !! Hey Shanazel, I feel your pain once when I was about 12 years old got bitten by an ant in my frontal male part ... That hurt I'm 55 years old young now but still remember the pain to this day. In case you wonder the ant got killed in the spot .. Sorry ant lovers. Regards~Mahmoud __________________ "Be beautiful , the universe will turn beautiful in your eyes!"

08-01-2008, 03:54 AM	#58 (permalink)
Shanazel Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rocky Mountains USA Posts: 4,573	Okay, bug people, here is your giggle for the day on me. I am from Arkansas. Our family farm did not have running water until I was about ten, so when we visited my grandparents, the "facilities" were contained in a small wooden house out back in which bugs and wasps abounded. I lived in terror of being attacked duing a call of nature. I also was a range conservationist in parts of the country where restroom facilities did not exist at all, which required some careful observations and adroit maneuvering to avoid disturbing various life forms during potty activities. I never had a single encounter with attacking insects during these activities despite my fears. Today I went into my lovely, indoor, recently remodeled bathroom- and sat on a wasp which proceeded to express his displeasure by stinging me on the butt. I then expressed my displeasure by flushing his butt into the sewer system. The End.

08-04-2008, 06:33 PM	#60 (permalink)
Shanazel Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rocky Mountains USA Posts: 4,573	Thanks, Mahmoud. It is the indignity of it rather than the pain. The nerve of those creepie crawlies, anyway.