Notices by myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)

Jeff Bezos in a recent interview opined over how terrible he thought it was that a "nurse making $75,000 from Queens" pays $12,000 a year in taxes.

He mused about how this nurse from Queens might better use that money.

And if you think a nurse from Queens is what he was really talking about may I interest you in some of #PicaTheCat 's exciting crypto currency investment opportunities.

Mr. Bezos we don't think you, yes you personally are paying your fare share of taxes. That's the issue bub.

Just watched a video by a pest control guy. He's putting bait *outside* of a home to kill ants that were seen feeding on a dead lizard. Outside.

Why.

What is going to eat the dead lizard if you kill the ants? Are you going to put the dead lizard in a landfill.

He uses the worst species key I've ever seen that will identify every ant as one "pest" or another, then decides to try using protein bait to kill the ants.

Never says why he's killing ants outside of a house.

People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.

I just listened to someone complaining about how "the garbage union" has schemed so that there are always two people operating NYC garbage trucks to "waste my tax dollars" and I guess making too many wealthy sanitation workers... oh no the horror.

I like that there are two people on each truck. It's more efficient and safer. But, even if it was somehow a waste I promise you that's not who is wasting your money bud.

And here I am thinking that doing honest hard work for a decent wage was as American as apple pie.

But apparently it's much more American to make everyone a gig worker and have one person do the job of six people badly and no one at the company even knowing their name or who they are.

Should the person who picks up your trash be able to buy a house? Should they ever get to go on a vacation?

A whole culture has grown up around minecraft escape rooms ... and criticizing "bad escape rooms" and I kind of love it.

All puzzles are math puzzles* and it's funny how the cultures around these things mirror each other.

Here is a video that kind of throws you into the thick of what the kids are up to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKKC1-EvEL8

#puzzles #minecraft #escaperoom #mathematics

There is exactly one (1) observation of a carpenter ant in the UK on iNaturalist.

It was a worker found in a plant nursery and nothing much came of it.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359155922

If there were ever ants that needed to pay the subway fare it'd be pretty serious since they'd need to be over 3 years old and taller than the turnstiles...

Some of my queens are old enough but not nearly tall enough.

But one can dream.

"fandoms" tend to coalesce around works of fiction that are massively popular and that have younger fans. That's probably why there isn't a massive Ian M. Banks (The Culture) fandom. And maybe it's for the best, but I do wish there was more fan art of The Culture.

What smaller or more obscure fictional work do you wish had a big online fandom?

The worst fandom is The Bible fandom. So many factions, so much infighting, so much non-cannon fan fiction. And tons of fake fans who have never read the manga.

Bees and wasps will be attracted to people with some perfumes on. So if a kid tells you a bee is chasing them, it might be true.

If you are taking your urban kids to some place with... creatures ... remind them not to wear perfumes or flowery soaps if they can help it.

If a bee or wasp starts doing this it's best to stay still. She will realize there isn't a flower and leave but if she get swatted at she may get scared and then you have a problem.

The way that you, as an adult, react to creatures has a massive impact on young people watching you.

If you scream when you see a bee, they will scream too. After all you have survived in this world much longer than they have and you are scared, so they need to be scared too.

Even if you are scared you can model better reactions. And it works really well.

Has anyone in biology written a book on the concept of "pests" how they are defined, how they spread, and their place in our understand of ecosystems and the impact of humans on those ecosystems?

You will find the word "pest" in serious scientific papers. It's just in the abstracts to explain "why this research matters" -- but it's also not well defined, it can be deeply subjective.

1/

The ultimate pest, the one everyone agrees on is the pestilence. A virus, fungus, bacteria, or other disease that harms human beings and can spread.

On the other end of the spectrum you have native animals some people just don't like, people will call wolves a "pest" even though the wolves were there before they even showed up, the wolves are a part of the ecosystem and the wolves are endangered in the region.

But, it feels like they might kill baby farm animals. So they are called pests. 2/

Smallpox is a pest and a pestilence.
Wolves are not.

Those are easy cases. So, what about more ambiguous cases? Lasius emarginatus is not a native species of ant in NYC. But neither are most of the other ants you may see. Lasius emarginatus likes to live outside and doesn't habitually nest in human spaces. This ant is very numerous and conspicuous on our sidewalks. Like most ants it's a predator of other insects, but also a detritivore and clean up crew. Is it a "pest?"

3/

When people fall in conflict with each other whole groups of people have been described as "pests" --this language is so alarming since the way that we respond to pest animals and living things is often extreme and alarming.

It's the worst kind of dehumanization to call a people "vermin" or "roaches."

Because it opens the door to genocide. The history is deeply disturbing.

Our attempts to eliminate actual pests have been less successful. Is it a broken way of thinking?

4/4

If you like ants you quickly discover that some people see them as "pests" --

But, ants are really hard to classify. Is it bad to have ants in your garden?

Ant Downsides
* Ants will protect aphids so they can drink their honeydew and eat them
* Some ants may sting

Ant Benefits
* Ants clean up honeydew from aphids preventing mold.
* Ants clip the wings of aphids so they can't spread
* Ants improve the soil
* Ants attack many garden pests.
* Ants clean up dead animals and insects.

a clock that also displays the weather, but the temperature is shown in the form of a cat icon.

tight shivering ball: under 16
loaf: 16-21C
back legs out: 21- 24
flat four legs out: 24-29
totally flat: 29-35
toe splayed: 35-37
puddle, cat gone: 37+

I wonder what kind of experiment one could design along these lines.

Can a queen ant learn that vibrations and light changes signal water is avaliable?

2/2

It's really hard not to open the drawer where I keep the queen ant. I always want to peek in on her.

When I first had her if I opened the drawer she'd run around and seem to panic. She'd run away from the end of the test tube where I wet the cotton to give her an extra drink.

But, now she no longer panics, she walks slowly to the cotton. I think she's learned that the vibrations and light aren't a big threat worth panic, and that it means the cotton may be wet soon.

1/

We all know I could easily not talk about ants for a whole day. I could do this, but what is the point when we all know that it’s possible?

There is no need to test to see if it’s true. Just saying.