१९ जानेवारी, २०१६

The average home has 100 distinct morphospecies of arthropod.

A meticulous study 50 homes within a 30 miles radius of Raleigh, N.C.: 
Over 98 percent of homes contained book lice, 96 percent housed dark-winged fungus gnats, and every home contained cobweb spiders, carpet beetles, gall midge flies and ants.... Every type of room surveyed contained bugs, and only five rooms (four bathrooms and a bedroom) of the 554 studied contained no critters at all....
But don't worry. There were very few pests. The entomologist Matt Berton said: "They’re just milling around at the edges of room, eating little bits of hair and dead insects. This isn’t something that should change people’s behavior."

२१ टिप्पण्या:

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

Sort of sounds like this years GOP Presidential candidate field.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Indoor spiders are your friend. They catch indoor mosquitos.

JAORE म्हणाले...

"Sort of sounds like this years GOP Presidential candidate field."

I agree. The pests are in the (D) field.

Owen म्हणाले...

This is great news. I am not the only slob with ants in my bathroom.

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

The only things I try to eradicate are those little ants that invade my kitchen periodically. Solution: Clean counters. :)

rehajm म्हणाले...

Living on the 24th Floor helps buck the trend. You only see stowaways and the very ambitious.

wendybar म्हणाले...

traditionalguy said...
Sort of sounds like this years GOP Presidential candidate field.


At least they aren't crusty old white people like the diverse democrats!!

Owen म्हणाले...

rhhardin "Indoor spiders are your friend. They catch indoor mosquitos." Fact? I am willing to believe this, even (given my housekeeping habits) eager to do so. But which spiders do this? What about the daddy long legs who guards the back of our toilet tank? A benign domestic presence, surely?

JCC म्हणाले...

Well, I've been in places where humans still resided, and the roaches had eaten the wall paper up to about 5' high, the carpet padding, the adhesive in all the books bindings and magazines, etc. As I walked around, it sounded like I was walking on Rice Krispies, but that was roaches and roach exoskeletons crunching under my boots. I've also been in places where just a few feet into the residence - yes, still occupied by humans - and every square inch of my exposed skin was black with fleas. Hundreds of black, tiny little jumping, blood-sucking fleas. Completely creeped me out. There were commonly babies and children in places like this.

So, dust mites and such? Background noise.

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

But no bed bugs were found. So that is a good report.

jr565 म्हणाले...

You got rats on the westside. Bedbugs uptown...

Phil 314 म्हणाले...

Bugs always win

J. Farmer म्हणाले...

I saw WaPo's headline via Google News and instantly thought of half a dozen bug phobic friends and family whose days I could ruin by sending it to their inboxes. My inner humanity ultimately prevailed, and I didn't do it.

J. Farmer म्हणाले...

p.s. They're really called entomophobics, but I think bugphobic rolls off the tongue more nicely.

Sal म्हणाले...

The larger arthropods also provide entertainment for my cat.

MaxedOutMama म्हणाले...

I believe more detail on the rooms that were critterless is warranted. Do these people have cleaning secrets? Special treatments? Severe body odor?

Let's study the clean rooms!!!

Curious George म्हणाले...

This, like restaurant workers messing with food, is best left unreported. Nothing good comes from knowing.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

"This isn’t something that will change people’s behavior."

Fixed it for him.

virgil xenophon म्हणाले...

I'm thinking of the 1990 comedy movie Arachnophobia here with John Goodman as the insanely intense, uber-dedicated exterminator..

virgil xenophon म्हणाले...

Wait until the inspectors come to New Orleans and encounter our giant flying cockroaches. When surprised they seem to always fly right for one's mouth....gack!

virgil xenophon म्हणाले...

Funny comment about bathrooms. A cleanliness expert once commented on NPR that bathrooms were the cleanest rooms in the house and that on that basis he would recommend eating in the bathroom, LOL!