A Fleeting Thought on Good and Bad Insects

Holding up a magnifying glass between my squinted eyes and the tacky cardboard rectangle, I tally up all the little spiders and beetles who've met their fate in one of these strategically placed traps within the Museum building. I do this every two months as part of an integrated pest management strategy - picking up traps carefully enough not to get my fingers stuck on the glue, scrutinizing over dead or yet dying arthropods, writing in my log sheet, then disposing of the traps and setting up all over again. 

Millipedes are occasional visitors at the Museum. They're a relatively harmless arthropod
distantly related to lobsters, crayfish, and shrimp. The color of this particular millipede struck me.

It's a bittersweet task to interact with these "pests" - the identification skills I'm gaining while viewing their intricate bodily structures come as a result of very intentionally causing their death in the name of saving already dead specimens from even further destruction. And as I make my way around the building to collect these pest traps filled with an array of insects, I breeze past a prettily packaged hallway display with pinned insect mandalas and blown-up photos which I had installed with the intention of highlighting the beauty and importance of insects. The fleeting thought does not escape me: how are we designing such hierarchies of insects? 

The glass-like wings of a cicada (Family Cicadoidea) can be appreciated for their beauty. 
In some instances, cicadas are regarded as art, in others, they too are pests.

The juxtaposition of goodness and badness in insects (pest versus non-pest, beautiful versus disgusting, and so on) is an intriguing discussion point, and one that I beg readers to explore beyond this brief post. At any rate and despite my fleeting deep thoughts, it's still worth mentioning that A. many potential organismal hazards have been eliminated from the Museum and B. the Insecta display will soon be deinstalled from the collections hallway to make way for an accompaniment to upcoming geology exhibit. 

Images of flesh flies and other insects may help to squash
misconceptions that common names may inspire about their appearance.

Read more about the arthropods found in our building here or view the virtual Insecta display here.