Re:When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home
by dredmorbius on Saturday March 10, 2018 @04:02PM
(#16560144)
As submitter, I found this to be a good backgrounder on the history and dynamics of this phenomenon, though it's weak on the aspect of residential control, at least for modest infestations: detergent-and-water bait stations, kill jars (have a tightly-fitting lid to avoid the stink), or spray bottles, work well.
Dawn dishwashing detergent is frequently mentioned (I've found any of several detergents works well), in a weak solution. Trader Joe's Cleary & Sage Multi-Purpose Cleaner cut to 1/4, 1/8, or weaker strength, pump hand soaps at ~5-10 pumps per 1 litre bottle, are all effective.
The major problem is when you have a large infestation and need to break the cycle. I don't have a solution for this, yet.
The buggers absolutely cluster on the back surfaces of furniture, wall-hangings, curtains, etc., as well as inside lampshades and other spaces. Frequent checks of these are useful. They also turn up behind books and other shelved items. And inside dressers, cabinets, closets, etc.
The other element of the story I find interesting are the dynamics involved: transport (and commerce) systems and infestations, unintended consequences, private benefits vs. socialised costs, the requirement for regulation and inspection, and comparison with earlier swarming infestations.
On transport, this passage especially:
Prior to the era of planetwide transportation networks, species routinely took millennia to establish themselves in new places. Today, thousands move around the world every day—by ship and plane and freight and pallet and packing crate, by business meetings in Switzerland and military deployments in Pakistan and tourism in Hawaii. At present, this vast influx of new species costs the United States about a hundred and twenty billion dollars a year and is, after habitat destruction, the main reason the world has lost so much biodiversity.
In another context, I'd turned up a reference to epidemiology: If a phenomenon follows transport or communications networks, it's an epidemic. This seems to be a general rule. (Sadly the reference is resisting attempts at rediscovering it.)
James Burke, commenting on his wildly successful 1980 television programme Connections several decades later, on how he'd continue the themes of the first series, mentioned for the jet airliner, epidemics. That is, any transportation system will become involved in the spread of disease or other dishygenic agents. That's a valuable lesson.
The fact that it was importers and exporters who didn't practice sufficient sanitation who brought about the spread of this epidemic reflects on the privatised benefit / socialised cost element.
And the fact that there are now significant restrictions, inspections, and insect-control regimes (including fumigating and/or heat-treating imports and exports, including such goods as automobiles), speaks to regulation and the concept of well and appropriately regulated activities.
There's swarming behaviour itself and the role it plays ecologically. Typically these involve flying or air-transmissible creatures or agents, with birds (the passenger pigeon), and grasshopper/locust behavioural phase-switching organisms, as key exemplars. A swarming or flocking mode allows for a seeking out and amortisation of some nutrient or food potential, in a fast-acting fashion. There are obvious analogues to various human, commercial, and economic behaviours here as well.
Dawn dishwashing detergent is frequently mentioned (I've found any of several detergents works well), in a weak solution. Trader Joe's Cleary & Sage Multi-Purpose Cleaner cut to 1/4, 1/8, or weaker strength, pump hand soaps at ~5-10 pumps per 1 litre bottle, are all effective.
The major problem is when you have a large infestation and need to break the cycle. I don't have a solution for this, yet.
The buggers absolutely cluster on the back surfaces of furniture, wall-hangings, curtains, etc., as well as inside lampshades and other spaces. Frequent checks of these are useful. They also turn up behind books and other shelved items. And inside dressers, cabinets, closets, etc.
The other element of the story I find interesting are the dynamics involved: transport (and commerce) systems and infestations, unintended consequences, private benefits vs. socialised costs, the requirement for regulation and inspection, and comparison with earlier swarming infestations.
On transport, this passage especially:
Prior to the era of planetwide transportation networks, species routinely took millennia to establish themselves in new places. Today, thousands move around the world every day—by ship and plane and freight and pallet and packing crate, by business meetings in Switzerland and military deployments in Pakistan and tourism in Hawaii. At present, this vast influx of new species costs the United States about a hundred and twenty billion dollars a year and is, after habitat destruction, the main reason the world has lost so much biodiversity.
In another context, I'd turned up a reference to epidemiology: If a phenomenon follows transport or communications networks, it's an epidemic. This seems to be a general rule. (Sadly the reference is resisting attempts at rediscovering it.)
James Burke, commenting on his wildly successful 1980 television programme Connections several decades later, on how he'd continue the themes of the first series, mentioned for the jet airliner, epidemics. That is, any transportation system will become involved in the spread of disease or other dishygenic agents. That's a valuable lesson.
The fact that it was importers and exporters who didn't practice sufficient sanitation who brought about the spread of this epidemic reflects on the privatised benefit / socialised cost element.
And the fact that there are now significant restrictions, inspections, and insect-control regimes (including fumigating and/or heat-treating imports and exports, including such goods as automobiles), speaks to regulation and the concept of well and appropriately regulated activities.
There's swarming behaviour itself and the role it plays ecologically. Typically these involve flying or air-transmissible creatures or agents, with birds (the passenger pigeon), and grasshopper/locust behavioural phase-switching organisms, as key exemplars. A swarming or flocking mode allows for a seeking out and amortisation of some nutrient or food potential, in a fast-acting fashion. There are obvious analogues to various human, commercial, and economic behaviours here as well.