Screen Plays

Summer time and out come the bees - and wasps. Unfortunately, some regard these insects as bad and dangerous, and they can be. Many  who are not thinking about our world, hang out insect killing devices either store-bought or hand-made. I am very allergic to wasp sting but I refuse to put out insect killers or use sprays. I find these offensive to the natural order of things. There are lots of ways of being a good earth creature (remember that we are but one kind of inhabitant and we do not have dominance with the right to kill unless for food sustenance and very seldom as defense)  and there are ways of living with natural others, not destroying them. Yes, we need to protect ourselves from dangers but I believe finding a way to do that while respecting the natural order is the way to go for the continuance of future generations of all living things, human and otherwise. Someone I can see from my back window persists in hanging out  home-made devices that kill not only wasps but good insects such as bees. She's proud of her daily catch and tells everyone how many she drowned that day. But each insect that she kills is prevented from doing what the earth needs it to do to help produce plants or perhaps to become food for another creature. We are all part of a natural cycle whether we want to ignore it or not. Unfortunately, this person is seldom, if ever, in this part of her garden where these and other devices are hung. The garden has flowering bushes and trees and she, herself, grows many potted florals. I am sorely tempted to tell her that all of the lovely colourful plants around her patio need bees, wasps and other flying insects in order to be pollinated and reproduce more enjoyable botanicals for her to look at.  Even mosquitoes help not only to pollinate, as all insects do, but they also provide food for water fowl who eat hoards of them in their "wriggler" stage and for flying birds. Wasps are helpers, also, even though, not being as hairy as bees, don't do as good a job of pollination. I do not want to get into the debate that one side says "we have to defend ourselves somehow". It is true that defense is part of survival but it is the method one uses that is key. Screening, either in tent form or other means, keeps unwelcome insects away. Some people use deterrents such as hanging paper sacks to look like bee hives, in trees and on patios. Wasps do eat bees but bees also gang up on wasps, too, and the fake hives do detour the wasps. I've seen it. What draws wasps is food. Food net tents are wonderful places to enjoy the outdoors and not be bitten or stung. Don't leave food out and about for insect to feel invited  to share with you. More and more, our pollinators are disappearing due to other forces such as pollutants, urban sprawl and deforestation. Let's not help the bee and wasp population die out. We need them for our plant life; it is what feeds us and cools us and makes our world beautiful. I planted scarlet runner beans on my deck and this year for the first time, I have had almost no beans. I see very few bees or wasps about either for the first time. Is it everyone killing insects or just a natural phenomenon? I don't know for certain, but I want to see more screen plays and fewer, if any, of those electric insect killers or the hanging bottles filled with bad liquids. I prefer living in and competing fairly with my fellow creatures in every way I can in a natural world.