The Insect Clause (Bugs and Biophobes)

I met a charming lady at a party the other day: we talked about where we lived. She extolled the virtues of living close to the city with access to amenites and services. I extolled the virtues of the life to be had out in the sticks with all the flowers and trees and that... Her face changed and she exclaimed how living in the Sai Kung Country Park would be intolerable. To justify her perspective she invoked the 'Insect Clause'.

I've come across the Insect Clause many times. It is a statement stoked with fear and usually accompanied by misunderstanding and goes along the lines of, 'Oh there are simply too many bugs and other things that bite: life would be intolerable!' But this ain't necessarily so. Allow me to explain.

In both the tropics (Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Southern India, Northern Australia, Thailand and Singapore) and sub-tropics (Northern India, Southern United States, Hong Kong and southern China) the lushious greenery, at least for part of the year, is due to something called rain –in fact, round some parts 'rain' may even constitute a season. This wonderful and varied plant growth then becomes the feed-stuff of all creatures great (cows, monkeys and wild boar) and small (the birds and bugs). Some of these smaller organisms are obviously beautiful –humming birds, for example, feed off flower nectar, as do butterflies who also go for fruit, dung and mud!

Other herbivorous insects, such as cicadas with their massive buggy eyes, may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love them. Living for years undergound sucking on root sap, they only emerge, make lots of very loud cicadery noises and then mate –once! There are about 2500 species of cicada alone, so they must be quite successful in this... behaviour.

Insects have been around on the planet for quite a long time and have notched up a few able predators. These adept specialists have generally been able to keep the numbers of the more annoying insects down. Geckos should be welcomed as they race about the ceilings taking errant mosquitoes. Amongst the most common of the insectivorous birds here are the lovely Red-whiskered Bulbuls. There are so many of these pretty birds around, they clear up pretty much any insect that comes their way. (They themselves are also a handy lunch for many of the larger predators.)

Other more obvious insectivores are the arachnids –the spiders! Whilst there are plenty of them in the trees, their scary presence belies their role as the good guys. I'm sure that if you have lived in these parts, either in the city or countryside, you have at one time been caught under prepared to meet the huntsman spider: but if it's in your house then it's hunting only one thing –cockroaches!  The large yellowy-spotted Woodland Spider that builds spectacular large orb webs, hence their more common name of the Golden Orb-web Spider (Nephila Pilipes, to be precise). They're clearly successful insectivores round these parts and grow into truly large, beautiful creatures but they also tire easily, so if they are in your path, please don't knock them about too much.

Insects themselves are great predators. One only has to think of a praying matis, or a dragonfly to get the picture. In fact, many dragonflies like the slighty fuzzy Russet Percher below) are adept at catching the much-hated mosquitoes on the wing –they are, in fact, at their most active during high humidity which is when their prey also choose to emerge.

The best insect insectivores are, however, wasps and hornets. These are the only things I am wary of, having come a cropper from an encounter with Yellow Paper Wasps building a nest on our rooftop. They put any European wasp in the shade: the venom felt like I had been stabbed with a red hot stiletto blade! Someone obviously loves them, however, as I recently came across a wonderful Youtube channel of a local chap who has bothered to take the time to get to know these amazing insects and their cousins the hornets. I'm usually far too scared to approach these stripey devils because, as my daughter painfully found out on a walk last summer, the only time it is clear whether these animals are on the hunt, have found prey or are defending a food supply is when they've attacked you! And that really hurts. So, I suppose there is a case for invoking the Insect Clause on this occasion, but one seldom meets these hunters because they spend most of their time clearing out bees nests. And they were so successful last year, there are no bees to be found in the park at all this summer.

One cannot not forget the larger predators; boar, civet cats, shrews and monkeys –especially during termite swarming season. Most bats specialise in catching and eating insects and have even modified their noses to echo-locate whilst on the wing. One of the most pleasant early evening spectacles to be witnessed from our balconies here in the park, glass of wine in had, of course, are our lovely bats emerging from their roosts under our roof tiles in order to go a-hunting. Go get 'em, chaps!

Do we get bitten by mosquitoes out here? Sometimes. Are we bothered by other things like wasps? No, not really, but we are aware of them from time-to-time. If anything, barring the night-time scuttling of the cockroach across the kitchen floor, our interaction with insects is generally pleasant, if not delightful. I really don't know which of these wonderful creatures we will meet on my journeys in the park. Actually, the Insect Clause is probably one of the main reasons we live out here in the sticks with all the flowers and trees and that…

Comments

[Richard Peters]

Thanks for that, Andrew.

The purple hornets are beautiful: I've never felt threatened by them.

I wanted to add comments and ask questions about the Youtube clips, but the account is comment-disabled. Do you have any contact details about him?

Glad you enjoyed the post.

R

[Andrew H]

I suspect the wasp videos are by John Lee. He is brilliant and has written an excellent book on the bees & wasps of HK. Your picture looks like Polistes gigas. These are not normally aggressive. They drink from our birdbath! Nice post. Andrew