h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hmmmmm. Now you have me tempted. Your planned project sounds very interesting. I'm not really in the habit of thinking of bugs as pests. I'll have to give it a bit of thought. Gardeners do have a problem with weevils. They use some sort of organophosphate preparation to get rid of the larvae that eat the roots of their fuchsias and their begonia corms. A lot of people regard ants as a problem because they farm aphids on their prize roses and lots of other plants. Are you interested in contributions on weevils and ants? Let me know.

By the way, Amy the Ant has done a nice entry on the Pharaoh Ant. I'd been trying to persuade her to do one on the honey pot ant but I think she's probably too busy. I thought I might do the honey pot myself if she didn't get round to it. I had a vague idea of doing an entry on ants in general when I find the time. I hadn't considered focusing on their peskiness though.

Oh, and what about warble fly? That's definitely a pest!

Sure, any insect pests will do. Ants and weevils are good, I might chime in with a carpenter ant or boll weevil entry, too.

I hadn't heard of the warble fly, but it sounds destructive enough. It would probably be best to produce as much as possible for general entries about the insect, and then have a large section focusing on the pest qualities. The only problem I foresee is limiting my own desire to write the entries(within the time constraint).

I was also considering including insect vectored diseases like malaria, chagas disease, yellow fever, bubonic plague, etc.
Some of those have interesting historical impacts, too.

I like the idea of the disease vector insects. In a way, it's a shame ticks aren't insects because Lyme disease was already on my mental list of entry subjects to get round to sooner or later.

I know what you mean about limiting yourself and keeping within time constraints. That's another reason I didn't want to sign up for the UofL. I like the idea of pootling along turning out the odd entry every 2 to 4 months, as and when I feel like it. I have a fuzzy sort of list of entries that I'll probably do sooner or later if someone else hasn't got to it first. It also seems good to keep the list rather fuzzy and not to feel too territorial about the subjects, otherwise a person's apt to feel peeved when someone else beats them to it

Perhaps a second project *gulp* on arthropod disease vectors. That would handily include ticks and mites.

A good sentiment, I say if an entry's already there, the less for me to worry about writing.

So many entries, so little time. Prospects for summer internet aren't very good, so it'll probably have to wait til fall.

Hope I can get my milkweed bug entry done before then.

Yes that would be good. There are so many interesting arthropods. That would cover another project on my fuzzy list of projects - the horseshoe crab. I wanted to do an entry on animals with blue blood and I was going to concentrate on the horseshoe crab. As you say, so much to do and so little time. How long does the UofLife allow you? It's about 6 weeks isn't it?

I join you in hoping your milkweed bug entry is finished before you stop for the summer. Trouble is, once you take it to peer review, you have to sort of look after it by keeping an eye on the thread and responding to comments. What are you going to do if you finish the entry just before you have to go off line?

Good point. I'll try to finish this week, that'll give it a week or two to go through Peer Review.

How's the entry coming along ddombrow? Don't forget to give me a shout when you take it over to peer review

Hmmm... well, I don't know. I've come to the two last important sections, and suddenly I've got writer's block . Perhaps its cuz I've got too much information already and still have lingering questions that I'd like to be able to answer.

Well, don't keep it to yourself. A problem shared is a problem halved or so I've heard. Perhaps you haven't got too much information - maybe you'll just have to make the entry a couple of paragraphs longer than you initially intended. Don't want to go leaving interesting stuff out just to keep it to a particular length that you had in mind.

Well, actually the main impediment to writing now is my finals ...

But what I am thinking of is that I don't have the info for a very complete look at the bug's life cycle in the wild. I can talk about their migration patterns and how they sequester the milkweed toxins in detail, but the rest is rather fuzzy.

Leave it till after your finals then. I don't think anyone will hijack it. Is the problem that the material can't be found because the bug hasn't been studied in enough depth yet? Remember, you don't have to write the last definitive word on the milkweed bug. Entries can be updated in future (in theory) as more information comes to light. It sounds as though have enough material for a very interesting article already.

Sal

Yes well, thanks for the encouragement .

Ho hum, the best laid plans...