Gallery - Birds and Bees and other Creatures
Bug #5 - Spotted Cucumber Beetle
2022 12x12 (includes black wood frame, 14x14") SOLD The Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) is one of those beautiful but deadly native pests of North America. Both the adults and larvae attack crops like cucumbers, squash, soybeans and corn. That's a lot of trouble from an insect that is only 0.5 cm long. But let's consider context. Like all invasive species, whether native or introduced, it is a product of nature. In a natural setting, it would attack similar wild plants, and those plants would die, return to the soil and become substrates for new forms. If an entire species was wiped out, another would take its place. Nature would embrace every step. The designation of 'pest' is a human construct, given to creatures that are inconvenient to our industry. These organisms move through our intensive monoculture, unrestricted by the natural predators we so carelessly eliminate. They increase their numbers to suit the food sources, as they are programmed by nature to do. Who are we, the most invasive and destructive species of all, to call any organism a 'pest'? |