A Plague on All Your Houses*

Plague Soldier Beetles Chauliognathus lugubris have been capturing the news headlines for the past year or so in Australia. These attractive dark green and orange beetles occur sporadically in large numbers in order to maximise reproductive success. They form dense aggregations on flowering plants and are often seen in gardens and in houses.

I saw them in Canberra in the Botanic Gardens and in private gardens, and in Sydney on the Manly foreshore. Alex Wild noted them from his trip to Australia this time last year and has posted some much better pictures than mine, along with some basic information about the species.

A Plague Soldier Beetle on a Canberra garage wall.

I am quite disturbed by what I read in the comments to his blog post. Most of them are from random Australians who have discovered his blog by accident because they have large numbers of these beetles in their garden and were trying to find information about them. What bothered me especially was the number of these comments that begin with 'I love nature, but...' and go on to say that they are planning to exterminate the beetles immediately.

So -- even when presented with the facts from a clearly reputable authority that a) the beetles are not just harmless but positively beneficial, and b) they will be in plague proportions for only a few days, these people are not prepared to temporarily modify their lifestyle or behaviour in any way (except to remember to purchase an extra can of Mortein at the supermarket). I have to wonder what exactly it is that they understand by the word 'nature' and what they consider to be 'loving' it.

A minor plague on a Teatree Leptospermum sp in the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

I was disquieted to realise that some Australian houses have not just the plug-in devices that deliver a regularly timed dose of synthetic, carcinogenic scent into a room, but some people also have a similar device that sprays a periodic burst of insecticide 24/7. These devices are prominently advertised on television. A decade earlier, people would have had screens on all doors and windows, or simply put up with insects coming indoors. These days, doors and windows are getting bigger and the big screens that would need to go with them are probably not rigid enough to be practical, as well as being seen as unaesthetic. Lights, both indoor and outdoor, proliferate, and exacerbate the problem by attracting the hapless insects.

Doing what they do best.

Granted these insecticides are fairly well accepted to be of low toxicity to mammals, but I do wonder how much gets out into the environment from people and pets in contact with residuals on carpet and furniture. After all, mammals are not the only fish** and every time you walk out the door or wash your clothes, some must be transferred to the soil or the water system. It all adds up. I could understand it, and indeed condone it, if the target was specific, such as malaria carrying mosquitoes, but this generalist approach that any insect in numbers or indoors should be a dead insect I find deeply shocking.

*to slightly misquote the Bard, in traditional tabloid manner.
**sorry, that's a feeble taxonomy joke, and you need to know about Willi Hennig to get it.