Insects Adapting Versus Pesticides

[Spacescifi]

 

It is known that animals and insects can adapt through successive generations to the mode of life that they live.

It is the reason we can breed dogs and cats to look different and even act different from each other.

 

During the summer in the USA, ants love to come inside the house where it is cooler.

After fighting off massive invasions several times in my youth, I decided upon some trickery.

I put ant traps OUTSIDE wherever I saw an ant trail.

Results: Smaller invasions... or massive invasions in different areas they used to not go.

I suppose because colonies decided to try another location.

I also noticed strange larger bugs I had not seen before invading. I suppose if you wipe out the Alpha swarm that are ants hen something else will always fill the void even if less in quantity.

I never seemed to notice ants adapting to the ant poison to become immune to it, so I am thankful for that..... although some ant traps worked faster than others.

 

By the way, can insects become immune to insect poisons?

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Spacescifi

[cubinator]

Insect communities can evolve immunity to pesticides, and the development of insect-killers is a big area of study. A big issue is making something that kills them, but doesn't ALSO work on us.

[Spacescifi]

16 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Insect communities can evolve immunity to pesticides, and the development of insect-killers is a big area of study. A big issue is making something that kills them, but doesn't ALSO work on us.

 

Makes sense considering how many generations they go through in a single year.

 

When you are at loss for human level intelligence, raw reproduction numbers and adapting for poison immunity compensates.

I would also add that some insects are clearly smart as they need to be gor what they are.

I have seen roaches stick to the shadows and run away from light and especially from the big scary human who has yet to attack them but will soon.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, Spacescifi said:

wherever I saw an ant trail

Tier1. Shoot a deer, let them get busy.

Tier 2.  Take a prisoner, ask for their HQ ant heap, call Musk.

Spoiler

 

P.S.
Or you can use diplomacy.

[SunlitZelkova]

4 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

When you are at loss for human level intelligence, raw reproduction numbers and adapting for poison immunity compensates.

???

In reality, an ant trap is nothing more than an inanimate predator. I don’t think anything special is particularly needed for them to avoid it.

I’m certain there were marine organisms in the far past that anglers regularly preyed on, but no longer do in the present because they figured out what the light really is.

4 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

I would also add that some insects are clearly smart as they need to be gor what they are.

It’s all relative. Terrestrial dinosaurs were perfectly evolved for survival on Earth… until Earth abruptly changed and they weren’t.

6 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

I also noticed strange larger bugs I had not seen before invading. I suppose if you wipe out the Alpha swarm that are ants hen something else will always fill the void even if less in quantity.

What sort of… biome?.. do you live in? I live in a suburb right on the border of country/farmland+forest, yet that almost never happens.

On the other hand, my grandparents used to live in a suburb that had the backyard literally leading down to a forest valley (in which lay a road, albeit pretty far away) and all sorts of insects and animals would enter.

It was a similar situation where my aunt lived on a small river in country/farmland.

So I think it isn’t a case of something “filling the void” so much as it is that everything will always try to get in no matter what- because in reality, there is no “in”, houses are no different than the underside of a warm rock.

[StrandedonEarth]

Diatomaceous Earth: I suppose insects can develop a tougher exoskeleton to deal with it, but that may require something harder than chitin...

 

[adsii1970]

4 hours ago, cubinator said:

Insect communities can evolve immunity to pesticides, and the development of insect-killers is a big area of study. A big issue is making something that kills them, but doesn't ALSO work on us.

This is why a good exterminator will rotate what is used every time they spray for bugs. The complex I live in has an exterminator come once per quarter because it seems the townhouse I live in was constructed on the world's largest ant nest. However, that's not enough to kill the little buggers off. So, we pay for an interval visit about six weeks into the quarter - where I have asked the exterminator to use a different substance to prevent adaptation to what's used on the quarterly visits.

They do, as I have since become good friends with the person that comes out. She said of all the customers who pay for the extra spray, there's only three of us in the complex that asks for a different spray and who understands insect immunity issues.

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

9 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

I also noticed strange larger bugs I had not seen before invading. I suppose if you wipe out the Alpha swarm that are ants hen something else will always fill the void even if less in quantity.

What sort of… biome?.. do you live in?

In Marigold.
It's their queen.

Spoiler

 

 

[Nuke]

last time my cats had fleas their topical, which had worked very well the previous time, didnt seem to work at all. so i hit the little buggers with a different poison, it wasnt long before i had happy cats again. it is critical to rotate your poisons, because them little buggers will just evolve right under your nose. professional exterminators say the same thing. 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Nuke