I'm not a fan of bugs. Don't much like them, and even while, sometimes, appreciating their beauty and diversity I still don't like them. Even so, I try my best to take insects out of the house and release them outdoors, when possible. I suppose we all have our boundaries; I'll kill wasps, for example, if they're in my house. But overall, I certainly don't go out of my way to kill a bug. I don't understand those - and in fact, find it creepy and telling about a person's character -- who stomp on bugs outdoors as they're casually walking along, talking with you about mundane matters, and WHAM! BUG STOMP! in mid sentence. Whatever is that poor bug doing to you on the pebbled path that you have to take the energy to step on it for no apparent reason other than it's there?
I digress, a bit. This article is both wonderfully interesting and unnerving, about the Giant Weta, a really big bug in New Zealand. What really got my attention however was this comment:
And yes, the man in the video actually eats one of the bugs (and no, bug preservationists need not be alarmed--the smaller Weta is not endangered):With video clip, which I didn't watch, because I didn't want to add energy to a completely gratuitous act of "food porn." Because it's there, one has the right to kill it, seems to be the message. Underscoring that sentiment is the justification that it's okay, because the bug "... is not endangered."
I didn't watch the video either, but wow! I had no idea that a critter that size existed.
ReplyDeleteThe Moffett guy, if quoted accurately, must be a jackass if he believes this;
"She would have finished the carrot very quickly, but this is an extremely endangered species and we didn't want to risk indigestion."
Or explosion? The carrot is bigger than the bug...
The Maori call it the 'God of ugly things' which I quite like.