With Apology to Edgar Allen Poe

Not The Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of entomological lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping–
Something crap, crap, crapping in my bedroom wall.
‘Tis the wind ,’ I muttered, Only this, and nothing more.’

Deep into the darkness peering, long I laid there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming damage I never dared to dream before.
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Squirrel!’
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into my bedclothes turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a scratching somewhat louder than before.
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
‘Tis the wind and nothing more!’

Off I flung the covers, when, with many a fart and flutter,
I smelled a stately squirrel of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, scratched above my bedroom door -
Perched, and shat, and nothing more.

And the squirrel, never flitting, still is shitting, still is shitting
In the gap within the wall above my bedroom door;
And his toenails have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And my sleep beneath that shadow that lies scratching in the wall
Shall be uninterrupted – nevermore!

Let’s all go to our happy place

How about a break from ranting and raving? It’s officially SPRING! A bee on a crocus:

Thanks to Thomas Binek for the use of his lovely photo.

File Under: Are you fucking kidding me??

What the…what?
Apparently, a pest control company in the UK has decided to drum up business by COMPLETELY MAKING SHIT UP.

This image shows some of the numbers of insects estimated to be on public transportation, as reported in a newspaper that picked up on a (now expunged of fake numbers) press release by the company Rentokil.

Ben Goldacre was on the case:

“After a bit of prodding, its PR company, Brands2Life, explained: no buses or trains were studied.
How did people get the wrong end of the stick? I have no way of knowing, as Brands2Life and Rentokil both declined to show me what they had sent to journalists but, in any case, contrary to what was said earlier, these numbers did not come from measurements and counts – they are based on a “theoretical model.”

As Ben goes on to explain, the assumptions that were made to generate those numbers included an unlimited food supply, completely unchecked reproduction, and survival of roach offspring at 100%.  Which, as anyone who knows anything about biology, is complete and utter shite.  Public transportation is regularly cleaned and fumigated. And they are not filled with an infinite food supply, nor do stampeding commuters never create mortality for little creatures that are trampled.   Any introductory biology class covers exponential growth, and how it is the potential for living populations–but very rarely the reality!

The whole fiasco was a shameful attempt by either the company, the company’s PR agency, or both, to drum up entomophobia. And, by extension, business.

Yes, roaches and bed bugs are a reality. But no, there are not 50 bedbugs on the average bus in London!!!  Cripes.
There is an acronym I learned in the dot.com world when I worked there: PIDOMA.  It stands for “Pull It Directly Out of My Ass.”  This is where these numbers came from.

Since Rentokil have a history of changing things after the fact, I took screen-shots of their current blog post and the news story; you can find them at Flickr.  They get a zombie roach, since clearly something has eaten their brains.  I hope that the National Pest Management Association will issue a statement strongly condemning this company and it’s PR mess.

(Also: BEN! DUDE! Why did you not invite me to the UK to help out with this?)

Pest Control: an old metaphor for racism

I happened to stumble across this really horrifying story last week:

Last week the Web site UsedWinnipeg.com ran an advertisement headlined “Native Extraction Service” with a photograph of three young Native boys. The service offered to round up and remove First Nations youth like wild animals, and “relocate them to their habitat.”

The text of the ad read: “Have you ever had the experience of getting home to find those pesky little buggers hanging outside your home, in the back alley or on the corner??? Well fear no more, with my service I will simply do a harmless relocation. With one phone call I will arrive and net the pest, load them in the containment unit (pickup truck) and then relocate them to their habit.”

To complete the clusterfuck trifecta, the image in the ad was stolen from Longhouse Media. In fact, it was from an award winning documentary about native Swinomish youth!

Despicable.

Beyond the obvious hateful racism, there is something else going on, and it’s a pattern: Talking about people of color as pests or insects.

“Nits make Lice.” Remember that one? When Col. John Chivington ordered the use of howitzer artillery guns to fire upon unarmed Cheyenne women, children, and elders in 1864?

This othering is a racist technique that’s centuries old. By treating your “enemies” as less than human, they become non-people.

And if you treat them as pests, well.
You know what you do with pests, right?
You EXTERMINATE them.

What do pests and native/other people have in common in this world view? They don’t respect boundaries. They go where they are not wanted.  Bugs and mice come in your house.  First people come….into your neighborhood.

Let’s just ignore the fact that the boundaries are completely artificial, and it was their habitat in the first place before they were colonized.

I’ve linked here to an image of racist US propaganda from WWII. Same thing, different context.  This is why white supremacists talk about “mud people.” Non-whites aren’t humans. So killing them is easier. And killing them is a duty, not a sin.

Goebbels used this metaphor to rationalize death camps:

“Since the flea is not a pleasant animal we are not obliged to keep it, protect it and let is prosper so that it may prick and torture us, but our duty is rather to exterminate it. Likewise with the Jew.”

William Porter, Chief of the US Chemical Warfare Service in 1944, said “The fundamental biological principles of poisoning Japanese, insects, rats, bacteria and cancer are essentially the same.”

This metaphor between humans, insects, and war is pernicious and common. It dehumanizes its target. It makes them less than human.

Please. Don’t let it go unchallenged.

Additional reading:

• Nits Make Lice: Drogheda, Sand Creek, and the Poetics of Colonial Extermination. Katie Kane. Cultural Critique, No. 42 (Spring, 1999), pp. 81-103.
• “Speaking of Annihilation”: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies, 1914-1945. Edmund P. Russell. The Journal of American History, Vol. 82, No. 4 (Mar., 1996), pp. 1505-1529.
• The trailer for March Point, the movie about 3 young Swinomish men (the ones that had their images stolen and used in this hateful ad.) The movie is available for purchase on iTunes, BTW.

Happy St. Urho’s Day!

Mid March! A time when the US turns its attention to an important event–a type of March Madness, if you will. People stock up on food, buy special t-shirts, and drink alcoholic libations in mass quantities.  It’s….

St. Urho’s Day: March 16th.

St. Urho (pronounced “oorho”) is a completely made-up saint. Essentially, Finnish Minnesotans were sick of green beer and Irish hoopla in March, and decided they needed their own holiday on March 16th:

“The legend says St. Urho chased the grasshoppers out of ancient Finland, thus saving the grape crop and the jobs of Finnish vineyard workers. He did this by uttering the phrase: “Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen” (roughly translated: “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to Hell!”). His feast is celebrated by wearing the colors Royal Purple and Nile Green. St. Urho is nearly always represented with grapes and grasshoppers as part of the picture…..

Today, the St. Urho tradition is carried on in many Finnish communities, sometimes as an excuse to add an extra day of rowdy celebration to the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. In many Finnish-American communities, however, St. Urho’s Day is the celebration, and St. Pat’s feast day is merely an afterthought, a day to sleep off the hangover.”

Urho’s victory over grasshoppers is celebrated by this statue in Menahga, MN. A very amazing chainsaw sculpture!

Support  this champion of biological control by drinking some purple wine or purple beer (Ew!) March 16th, in honor of St. Urho’s entomological feat.

This is the 35th year  of celebration of St. Urho’s feat, BTW.

Related post:

• Beekeeping Patron Saints
• Patron Saint of Spiders

Women in Science Symposia

Wanted to broadcast this out to any newly-minted PhDs out there:

Women Evolving Biological Sciences

Women Evolving Biological Sciences, or WEBS, is three-day symposium on the retention of female biologists and the transition of women from early career stages to tenure track positions and leadership roles in academic and research settings. …WEBS targets early career women in ecology and evolutionary biology, particularly women who have earned their doctoral degrees within the past two to eight years and who do not have tenure, to address the critical transition from graduate studies and postdoctoral positions to permanent research and teaching positions. The symposium provides a forum for professional development, including awareness and improvement of academic leadership skills, opportunities to establish mentoring relationships, and resources for developing professional networks….Applications are due April 15, 2010.

Participants will be selected via an application process. Women from underrepresented groups will be actively sought and encouraged to apply…WEBS aims to include women from a range of institutions, personal diversity (race, ethnicity, disability, age), geographic locations and disciplinary interests. Preference will be given to minority applicants, to those interested in pursuing academic leadership positions, and to those whose career trajectory makes them prime candidates for future academic leadership positions. Also, given WEBS’s focus on addressing the critical transition period from graduate studies and post-doctoral positions to permanent research and teaching positions, priority will be given to women who have earned their doctoral degrees within the past two to eight years and who do not have tenure.

Fox News FAIL: Insect Museums

Ok, I’m a couple of days late to this, but that’s mostly because I had to wait until I could stop cussing and breathing in a bag to calm down.  If you haven’t already heard, Anthony Cognato got sandbagged by Fox News when they sent Tucker Carleson in to interview him about a grant he received from NSF to upgrade the MSU insect collection facility.

They called it wasted stimulus money! OMGWTF?

I think the issue of why keeping historic specimens is important has been addressed elsewhere, and Anthony had a pretty good answer in the video–it’s a library of the past, that we need to preserve.  Aside from just knowing what species occurred where, the genetic material in those specimens is invaluable. How have insects changed since the introduction of different agrochemicals and introduced competitors?  It’s all in this library of dead insects.

I’m sure my friends at the NCSU Insect Museum can provide a better and more detailed explanation of the value of insect collections.  (*cough* HINT!) Their blog makes their work more public, which is a great idea!  People don’t value what they don’t understand. Witness: The Fox “news” story.

Those of you who have not worked with historic collections (insect or otherwise!) may not be aware that dead insects and other animals are very fragile things.  It is a constant battle to keep them from being eaten or decaying. The primary culprits are dermestid beetles–little larvae that can wreak havoc on everything from a 200-year old insect specimen to your favorite sweater.

In fact, dermestids are good enough at eating things that they are commonly used by museums in another context–to clean off all the remaining flesh from a vertebrate skeleton.

Many, many students have made fabulous insect collections, but not listened to my admonitions to use a tightly sealed box with moth balls or other repellents …and ended up with a box of brightly colored dust.  It is very, very difficult to keep dermestids out, because they are so tiny. You need specially sealed cabinets. And that is why MSU applied for, and received, a grant to upgrade their storage for a collection that dates back to 1867.

An additional issue is human health: everything that is commonly used to repel insects from collections is toxic to people. While I find the aroma of mothballs relaxing and homey, most people recognize it as a carcinogen. And keeping those vapors sealed tightly in a cabinet is healthier for entomologists.

Want to know more?

Check out this National Park Service publication for horrifying photos of the kinds of damage that dermestids (and other insect pests) can do:

National Park Service Conserv-O-Gram: How to Identify Museum Insect Pest Damage (PDF)

Anthony explains what the grant was for…without the entomophobia hype or anti-gubmint crap:

Want to skeletonize something at home? How to Skeletonize a mammal with Dermestids (UofM Museum)

Insect Art Show!

The Observatory Room in Brooklyn NY has a show right now that features insects!

ENTOMOLOGIA – A Group Show of Insect Art
February 26th – April 4th, 2010

OBSERVATORY and Curious Expeditions’ Michelle Enemark are delighted to announce “Entomologia,” a group show of art incorporating and inspired by insects

Several special events will coincide the exhibition!

Check out the list of artists and links to their work for a neat trip through insects in contemporary art.  You can also look at photos of the artists’ work in the Curious Expeditions Flickr set.

New Bee/Pollination book!

It starts shipping in late March! ($23.50, plus postage.)

Managing Alternative Pollinators: A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers and Conservationists
NRAES 186, SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) Handbook 11

A step-by-step, full-color guide for rearing and managing bumble bees, mason bees, leafcutter bees, and other alternatives to honey bee pollinators.

For Beekeepers: Detailed information on each alternative pollinator’s biology and susceptibility to disease, pests and chemicals, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to rear and manage alternative pollinators.
For Growers: Guidance for understanding the business of pollination, matching pollinators to crops, and deciding how best to pollinate for successful agricultural production and pollinator protection.
For Conservationists: Easy-to-understand accounts of the honey bee’s plight, the business of pollination, and what can be done to protect pollinators and our food systems.

Looks like great info!

Entomologists in togas?!?

I happened to pick up this flyer for the North American Forensic Entomology Association Meeting.  Pretty much everyone is interested in forensic entomology, the same way everyone looks at a train wreck. It’s both horrible and utterly fascinating.

But here is the part that caught my eye: “A roman-themed social gathering will follow the final day of presentations.”

Uh. what does that mean?

Togas?  Will there be a vomitorium?
Inquiring minds want to know.

It’s not the right date for a Saturnalia, but that would be pretty interesting too. This Roman festival sounds like fun: “The Ludi Florales included theatrical entertainment, including mimes, naked actresses and prostitutes.”

If anyone is planning to go, please report back to us on what, if any, bacchanalia-type activity occurs!