ZAP THIS! — by Steve Nadis
In a fascinating essay in last Sunday’s Boston Globe Magazine, MIT political scientist Stephen Meyer discussed America’s misguided war on mosquitoes, which is being played out in backyards throughout the country. According to Meyer, a standard bug zapper will kill more than 10,000 insects over the course of a summer, “but body counts reveal that fewer than a couple dozen of these will be mosquitoes or other biting insects.” The rest, almost 99.9%, consist of collateral damage or, as Meyer puts it, “harmless bugs of all kinds, including rare and endangered ones.” Pesticides and herbicides are equally indiscriminate in their killing. To me, this seems like the worst of American ingenuity–using technology in a wholly inefficient way, with little regard to its effectiveness or to the consequences–an approach that, unfortunately, seems all too common.
Posted by
at
15:01:45
… and the are annoying too. Who needs that blue light in the back yard anyway. Light a citranella (spelling?) and be done with it.
Well put, GS, well put…
“To me, this seems like the worst of American ingenuity–using technology in a wholly inefficient way”
GOD AMN I”TS THE AMERICAN WAY,
…..napalm,, ring-a-bell…….vietnam
…..atom bomb , ring-a-bell…nagasaki-hirishima
all zapped.
then there’s the ecological way,,,
to eradicate the buggers,
forget to tell-em how really big KATRINA is….
ANYWAYS………….=Z=
Yer right again, Z. I couldn’t have said it better.
I don’t usually understand a word ZARDOZ is saying. But for once I think he’s hit the nail right on the head–with an atomic bomb, of course.
3 snaps in a Z formation for you, ZARDOZ!
I agree Gatemouth, as I indicated above. In fact, I originally planned to get into some of that stuff, talking about Iraq instead of Vietnam. But I worried that people might think I was equating dead insects with dead people so I let it go. But I’m glad others spoke up and said what I might have been thinking but never put into print.
Yeah, I perfer to think of humanity as a virus rather than insects, snake, so yeah…
I’ve often sat outside a good friend’s home- just before dawn- many years ago (in my youth), mellowing out after our long walks taking the “hi road”… and have watched all SORTS of birds, incl. some rare (endangered?) species, fighting for a share of nicely done insect ‘ribs’- below & at the base of his P’s Zzapper. I’ve seen “well-done” moths, beetles, skeeters (what’s left of ‘em) & other ass’t flying creatures of the night, and NEVER noticed a decrease in the local insect population.
They CAN be annoying on a quiet summer’s eve, but a Threat to the INSECT WORLD?? You (& Stephen)have GOT to be kidding, Snake. The population of this world is >>10 to 5th power/ acre- in OUR neck of the woods. Think of all those cute, young, rare chicks being fed FRESH DELECTIBLES by Mom between dawn flights to that (softly-glowing) miracle-of-ingenuity. Mmm.. MMMM!
THIER ‘tummys’ are full! (OK… their “crops” ;)~