Tuesday 20 June 2017

Good Bug or Bad Bug?


I will apologize in advance for my bug talk especially for those who may be a little squeamish when it comes to crawly things.  This is what happens when your job has you spending more time with plants and bugs than with people.  The great outdoors, best office in the world! 

In my job we have many insects brought in baby food jars for identification, the reason being that people want to know is it a good bug or a bad bug?  Of course there is the lady bug which everyone knows to be a friend but what about all those others that don’t have those cute polka dots?  If they are black, hairy, long antennas and just plain ugly does that automatically makes them bad? A lot of people see bugs and think ‘must squish’; however, there are a massive amount of crawly things that are actually beneficial in huge ways; for example, the braconid wasp.  Many things about this insect upon first appearance scream SQUISH! This is a species whose females inject its eggs into host insects, which many times this host is destructive to many plants and trees.  These eggs then hatch into larvae which feed inside the host insects. Once the larvae have reached full development the host insect (problem insect) dies, nature’s own biological control. I know gross, but bear with me. 

Like so many things in life that change or hit us out of the blue it becomes easy to come to the conclusion that if we don’t want it or didn’t ask for it, it must be bad.  Whether it’s an illness, injury, job loss or whatever it may be, I believe it is for a reason.  Maybe it’s to humble us, maybe it’s to move us into a better job or relationship or maybe it’s to keep us safe from that which we aren’t even aware of. Although I may not understand many of these things that appear to me as something negative and ugly, I am also aware that I don’t see the entire picture.  Sometimes the valleys loaded with discouragement, pain and disappointment are the paths that lead us to something great, something that wouldn’t be possible without first going through the low times. Not that I welcome the valleys with open arms but I am trying harder every day to see the positive, to see the possibilities.
 

Alana Regier

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