TAYLOR BOYD
Staff Writer
Spring is here! And with spring come the colorful flowers, the cleansing rain, the fresh green grass and all of the wonderful creatures that emerge from the ground, the skies and wherever else they come from.
I, for one, love the diverse wildlife that comes out during this time of year, and I am one of the first ones to stand up for their right to existence. But these sweet, furry critters and colorful crawlers can be a real annoyance on some occasions.
Here we have a diversity of wildlife, especially insects that seem to pop up where they do not belong. Sometimes it seems as if the ants and termites lose their way and wander the entrance halls of the dorms.
Their movement and numbers are enough to frighten and cause uneasiness to all those who glance at them. Still, I try my best not to step on them or cause them harm in any way, but that can be a real challenge.
Even the bees, which at least stay in their natural habitat of the great outdoors, wander from their hives and make homes of man-made objects.
Sometimes we can have close encounters with these striped insects at the trashcans, and when we throw away our trash we must do so quickly due to the fear of being stung. I am concerned for the people who have phobias of certain wildlife, as well as possible allergies.
I don’t like the word “pest” to describe animals, because I feel that it is disrespectful to nature.
However, it seems that some animals do need to go back to where they came from.
But the question is why? Why have they wandered from their natural habits? As I tried to figure out the answer to this question, I realized that we are on their turf and in their land. And by tearing down trees, and building our dorms and other buildings, WE have become the pests.
We have messed with a lot of animals’ habitats, and all they are trying to do is adapt to their changing world. So maybe we should do the same. Of course that is just a thought.
We could always just get rid of these “pests” using toxic chemicals that could rip the “flesh” off of these animals, kill them, and eliminate their species from the area for a certain period of time. But I don’t really like the idea of being a mass murderer either.
I know that sometimes insects could get in the way, and accidental eliminations can happen, but that is just life. To be honest, I feel that we should try to improve the environment of our school by creating a habitat where insects and people can live in peace.
Maybe we can just try different methods of preventing insects from sneaking into “our” territory, or try to create a new habitat for them with little to no human interaction in it. I know a lot of what happens between nature and humans is beyond our control, but I feel that maybe we could at least try.
The answer to the question on what to do is limitless, but surely it could be possible to come up with a reasonable and ethical solution to this dilemma.