Page 30 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10

Talking

point

undermined,” says Coath. “Things don’t
grow and people can no longer enjoy
their gardens.” Left unchecked, these
upstart ants could rise to power in our
back gardens, wresting control of the
ecosystem from our fingers.
It’s a similar scenario for wasps, slugs
and other putatively troublesome animals.
If we let them reign unchecked, they can
become a nuisance. “It becomes a direct
case of competition between two potentially
dominant species,” Coath says. So we have
a choice. Either they take control, or we do.
Things are no different in other, more
natural, ecosystems that were not created
by humans. Inside the USA’s Yellowstone
National Park, for example, wolves are top
dog. They control the deer population,
which in turn influences the growth of
plants and numbers of many other
animals. In the North Pacific Ocean, sea
otters prey on urchins, which in turn helps
to regulate coastal kelp forests. In the
freshwater rivers of Devon and Scotland,
beavers fell trees to make dams, creating Which brings me to another
habitat for countless other creatures. point. We are ‘ugly-ist’ and
‘species-ist’. We are prejudiced
pecies compete, and as a result against the animals that we find
there are always winners and unattractive. We love butterflies,
losers – except that my human but we hate caterpillars because
brain helps me to ponder the they’re creepy and crawly.
Simplications of my actions. Wolves Spiders can’t win because they
may well be wily, but they don’t consciously have eight legs. Slugs can’t win
decide how to manage their ecosystem. because they are slimy and
We, however, are different. We are capable have one foot. All too often, we
of thought at a deeper level and make tar different species within the
conscious decisions about how best to same taxonomic family with the
manage the ecosystems we maintain, and same dismissive brush. The same
are capable of realising there is more than friend who swats bluebottles tells
one possible course of action. And yet, our me he kills all wasps and spiders
behaviour is sometimes far from rational. and slugs at his property because
Often it’s visceral. I have a friend who “they’re all a nuisance”.
swats bluebottles because, and I quote, No, they’re not. There are more
“they’re just so annoying”. When I was than 9,000 species of wasp of
attacked by ants on my patio, the logical which but a few are the colony-
response would have been to replace the living, nest-building, haranguers of
plant pot in its original position and walk picnic nightmares. Most don’t even
away. Then put some shoes on. have stingers. None of the UK’s 650
Meanwhile, in the vegetable patch, it or so spider species are dangerous,
could be argued that the logical response and there are around 40 species of
to caterpillars that feed on brassica plants British slug, of which only a handful
would be to go back in time, Terminator- are genuine pests. It’s time we cut
style, and hunt down the parents that will them some slack.
one day produce them. But do gardeners This species-ism reaches new
charge around killing cabbage white heights when people put down
butterflies? No, they do not. Instead they slug pellets. It’s a loathsome
target the larvae, which through no fault and short-sighted strategy that
of their own have simply hatched in what indiscriminately kills all slugs.
is deemed to be the wrong place. When they are poisoned, then consumed

30 BBC Wildlife October 2018