We all know them: fleas, wasps, flies, musquitos and lice.
Their hobby is to sting and bite us, and leave itchy or painful spots on our skin.

What is their function,why did mother nature create them?

Waps get angry pretty fast and sting you, which can painful or even deadly to some people. What is their good function?

Fleas are on animals and can get on us, they make our skin itch by biting us. What is their good function?

Flies. Oh god flies. Annoying us, flying against the window the whole time even when it's open and sit on you on hot summer days. Their good function?

Lice. laying eggs on your head, making it itch. Their function?

Musquitos. MUSQUITOS! sting you, drink your blood and leave an annoying itchy red spot on your skin to come back 5 minutes later to sting you again a few centimetres away from the other spot. I got stung 8 or more times on both of my legs and feet by one darn musquito. And again: Whats their freaking function?!

I know it sounds odd, but I just had to let it out. Sadly it doesn't kill musquitos

Insects don't have functions. Function requires design, which is pretty much only present in research insects like fruit flies right now. If you want animals with functions, you need to look on your plate and in your lap.

They exist to eat and fuck. I'm sure there's a better answer, but I think that's pretty much the purpose of life for most things-- to just keep living.

Most insects are a food source for other creatures. The whole "circle of life" thing, you know. (Don't worry, I'm not going to sing the song.) Bats, for instance, eat a TON of mosquitoes. So if you don't like mosquitoes, build some bat boxes. And while you're at it, don't kill spiders, which also feed on mosquitoes. Also, mosquito larvae are a bountiful food source for aquatic critters like fish and frogs.

Flies serve a very useful purpose. That is, their larvae do, eating dead creatures, which facilitates the decomposition of whatever they don't eat, which returns nutrients back to the Earth to be reused. The circle of life ain't all pretty, y'know, but it's all necessary, and flies are a HUGE part of the not-pretty end. Also, in their adult form, they are a valuable food source for other creatures.

Bees and wasps, depending on the kind of bee/wasp in question, serve a number of functions from plant pollination to pest control. If you're afraid of spiders, you should love certain solitary wasps, which prey on large spiders. In most cases, if you don't bother them, don't antagonize their hives, and don't freak out when one approaches you, they will not bother you and will fly off and go about their business because they have zero interest in you otherwise. At least, they won't intentionally bother you. I once drank from an open can of soda into which, unbeknownst to me, a yellowjacket had climbed, after the sugar. Got a nasty sting in my mouth. But that wasn't the yellowjacket's fault; it was my fault not covering my drink.

As for fleas and lice...Well, you've got me there. I know of nothing that preys on them and can think of no useful function for their purpose. At least, not useful-to-me or useful-to-nature. Obviously, the evolved to fill a niche that nothing else was filling. Nature is opportunistic that way.

I always find it amusing how people (not you, OP, just people in general) advocate getting back to nature and being natural all that...and then they complain about bugs that bite them. Can't have one without the other, I'm afraid. And just because something bothers you, that doesn't mean that they're purposeless. You just have to look at the larger picture, is all.

In that case... I'm totally getting a bunch of bats, never killing any spiders again, and at LEAST 5 frogs and other fish. That should keep 'dem mosquitoes out of my home!!



Too bad that makes so many people's eyes' hurt.

Except bats carry all sorts of communicable diseases like rabies. They're essentially flying rats.

It's just as valid to ask, what's the value of humans? To mosquitoes, humans are fast food. It's all in your perspective.

True. If insects and animals can think like humans, they'd probably wonder why we exist too.

I wish that DDT wasn't completely banned, but just used in moderation. It would have saved the lives of so many people in places like India. Also, there are plenty of other non-annoying bugs. For me, the mosquito's only functions are to bite, annoy and spread disease. Maybe I sound like a typical conservative or libertarian, but for pete's sake, I hate it how these insects are always finding a way to bite us even when we take the precautions!

They all have functions, subjective functions.

Mosquitoes are here to remind us that camping sucks and that nature is dirty.
Wasps and hornets thrive to provide us glorious entertainment and mirth.
Flies point out which of us are filthy, like nature. Also, the maggots indicate which restaurants not to eat from. I always enjoy seeing a maggot or two crawling around the box of el pollo loco.
And lice are here to remind us to get haircuts. And so that we will be wary of touching animals that come from filthy nature.

It wasn't just because they bother me, it wasjust because they bother lots of people and I've been wondering what their good functions are.
Like school. It's bothering me, but I know it's not purposeless


Hornets are fine to me, even though they're bigger and when they sting you it's much more painful. They don't sting very fast and they eat wasps

I don't know I hate bugs (except for butterflies and caterpillars sorta) I remember when I was little I used to love to play with rollie pollies and worms. now I can't see why I ever liked them.
as to mosquitos, wasps and flies, they don't really bother me that much considering I hate bugs. flies just buzz around that's all and to me I think it's sometimes interesting to have a fly in our apt because my Pom, Rocky goes nuts trying to get it (although when he barks about it, it's so annoying but he barks at a lot of things so it really wouldn't make a difference) so I'd say the purpose if you have an animal it's to watch them go crazy with it...lots of fun
mosquitos, well they hurt but it's not that bad..wasps same thing (well I've never been stung by a wasp but I have by a yellowjacket and I think that's just as bad) and this is coming from someone who has a low tolerance for pain.
roaches which are the dirtiest, grossest creatures ever. I remember when roaches were in our old kitchen, I would go out there to eat something and I would walk right back out empty handed once I saw them crawling. they literally made me nauseous. I don't understand their purpose for sure and they took forever to get rid of (they say that roaches are one of the few creatures to survive a war)

as for fleas I can't understand it at all...why are they on this earth? unfortunately Rocky still has fleas and it's a pain in the butt. thankfully they don't bite me anymore but they bite Rocky a lot. worst of all he has a flea allergy apparently but vet gave us a pill to help that and a pill to stop fleas some as well..but those buggers are hard to get rid of. we've even moved everything and vacuumed with this earth powder and keeping him away until he's out of the bath but that did nothing. I guess if you had to think of a purpose for fleas it would be to have people like my mom be more motivated to clean the apt more (but even then I don't think we need that because we're having an inspection next week so we don't need the fleas as a motivator)
but if you think fleas are bad, try having bed bugs which brings me to what Icad said:
if you had bed bugs, I'm pretty sure you'd change your tune about this esp if you had a mom who somewhat hoards because of her ADD (esp stuffed animals).

we used to have bed bugs bad. they made me itchy (and like my mom if I get an itch I have to scratch or I'll feel extreme torture. I've picked scabs because of this) and feel like I'd have to take a shower all the time. the process to get rid of them was extensive and intense because they get over everything. they leave you embarrassing welt marks. I wouldn't wish them on even my worst enemy, it was literally a living hell. worst part is you can get them anywhere at any time. thankfully we don't have em at our current apt (but I still worry if they'll lurk back because I've heard they really like to lurk in hotels) but when we have gotten rid of one bug problem, we get another. first we had ants then when we got rid of those we had roaches, then bed bugs and now fleas. will this nightmare end? but again I'd rather have anything else than bed bugs, even fleas.

Eh. Everyone has insects in their house all the time, you just have to keep everything balanced. You'll never be able to get rid of every single bug. It's important to know which bugs are harmful to you or your property, which ones are "neutral" and which ones are beneficial. The vast majority (save for parasites and the like) have no interest in you, and probably go out of their way to stay away from a giant ape thumping around their home. Pff, there's no point in hating bugs. If your bedbug/flea/roach/ant/whatever problem is really as horrible as you say, you should probably call a professional exterminator.

Fyi, cockroaches are only as dirty as their surroundings, they actually clean themselves meticulously.

I always wondered. What's the function of younger siblings. (And, other annoying people you have to live with)

Random replies:



*shrugs* Some do. Most don't. My son and my housemate's son built a number of batboxes on our property a few years back, each of which will house about 15 or 20 of the bats that migrate through our area in the spring/summer. We have a large, still pond on our property, so mosquitoes can be a problem, in season. However, we believe in natural methods of pest control rather than spraying chemicals all over the place, and we noticed a significant improvement in our very local mosquito situation once a number of bats moved into the batboxes. (It's not surprising since a single bat can eat 1000 mosquitoes an hour and colonies can of bats can number in the thousands, even into the millions. You do the math. Our little seasonal colony is never THAT big, but we probably have around 100 or so in the boxes, in season. So, they can take care of 100,000 mosquitoes per hour.) Neighbors have also commented that they have less mosquito problems since we started actively attracting bats to our property and some have also had our kids make some boxes for them, too. None of us has noticed any rabid ones. But then, we don't see them much. They're sleeping in their boxes during the day. (We peek in; they're adorable. The teeny little babies even more so.) At night, they're generally flying about, doing their thing, not bothering us at all. (But I love watching them, since I'm nocturnal, like they are. Very acrobatic fliers. Awesome critters. But then, I like rats and rodents in general, too. I'm an animal-lover in general, I'm afraid.) Oh, and their poop is an AWESOME fertilizer.



Oh, I've had worse. I've had chiggers, and they lasted for MONTHS. And they target areas that you really, REALLY do not want to have targeted. (i.e. the groin) That was NOT fun. But I just accept that if you're going to be out and about, communing with nature, bugs are (and definitely, IMO, should be) a big part of the package. Some bugs can make one very uncomfortable, yes, but they are what nature made them to be. I guess I'm just not one for sterile living, in general, and I accept all the consequences thereof. And I do tend to look at the larger picture.

And: For your (or anyone else's) flea problem, the best solution, I've found, is to give your pets garlic oil pills. Garlic oil is a natural flea deterrent when the pet ingests it; it makes an animal's blood (Animals including humans, of course) unpalatable to fleas, so they will leave them eventually and then stay off of them. Sure, drugs/chemicals will work, too, but like I said, we go for natural methods of pest control wherever possible. Unfortunately, you have to flea-bomb your house on occasion until the fleas don't like you and your pet(s) anymore, to get fleas and their eggs out of carpets and stuff. But other than that... And, as a benefit, garlic oil gives your dog/cat a nice shiny coat and better heart health, just like it does for humans. And no, they don't end up smelling like garlic at all. They'll only do that if you feed them garlic in its raw form, from the bulb itself. Capsules of oil are filtered so that they don't smell, just like fish oil capsules. You will hear it said that garlic is toxic to dogs, but that's only if eaten in huge quantities and they're eating the actual bulb. The oil itself is harmless. And garlic oil pills are cheap, much cheaper than the drugs/chemicals, and can be found in just about any grocery store that carries vitamin supplements. One capsule a day will do for each pet, until the fleas are gone. After that, one capsule every few days will keep up their "immunity," so that they don't bring more in from outside. I now live in a place where there are no fleas (Or roaches for that matter. Too high, too dry, too cold), but when I lived on the East coast, this was a lifesaver. Well, not literally, but it made all of us, pets and humans, far more comfortable. Unfortunately, garlic doesn't seem work as well for ticks, at least not the ones we have here, which ARE a problem where I live now...but I'm determined to find a natural solution for them, too...

Anyway, the garlic cure for fleas has long been known-about, and is likely the basis for the vampire lore, given that vampires are similarly blood-sucking creatures.

You are a cool person, iCad.

Why thank you, paksetti. In reality, I'm just a freakin' hippie. Right down to the fondness for patchouli. I'm not the world's biggest treehugger and I actually tend to think that a lot of environmentalist claims are exaggerated, but I do like to live in harmony with my environment as much as possible rather than trying to dominate it.

...Which reminds me that I need to go have a chat with the Indian herbalist who lives down the road a piece. I'll bet SHE know what to do about the damned ticks... :p

And I have to say this: I love your sig.

oh I know like I said flies and ants and even bees don't matter to me. when I say I hate bugs, I mean when I see one I kill one (I won't kill bees I'll just walk away from them of course) but I mean I'm not going to scream or get sick over a dinky little fly/ant/bee. basically I classify bugs like that as minor annoyance, that's all
well you'd probly say the same about worms but I find them gross too (funny thing is when I was little I used to try and find worms but now I look back on it and think what a gross child I was..esp since that wasn't the grossest thing I had done but I will not mention that since for one thing it's not relevant to this thread.), although not as gross as roaches because roaches just seem and look way dirtier but they don't bother me anymore since I don't have the infestation of them anymore




hmm well I will think about that but I keep thinking about how the vet said that we are never going to get rid of those fleas if we don't sterilize the environment and it makes sense right because then they can spread out and don't have to worry about you having to get them off your animal since they won't be on em so I think the garlic pill would be the same, it would not get rid of them by itself.
and my impatient self does not like that this is logical because well like I said my mom has ADD which means a lot of stuff in our apt (don't get me wrong she has made progress but for someone who has impatience as their middle name it's not getting done soon enough and I can't very well tell her to throw things away because it's not my stuff. plus she can't do it sometimes because she has her college work and sometimes other chores) this means they can't spray either because the stuff will be in the way.
I think this is the main reason I don't like bugs. I mean I hate bugs in general but I can deal with flies and ants as well as a somewhat girly girl can..however the bugs like fleas are difficult to deal with because of the amount of stuff my mom has prolonging the infestation



hehe I'm an only child but I wouldn't say I don't know what that's like. I had someone at one time that was like a little brother and it definitely made me be grateful I never had a real brother because he was bad enough.
I still would have liked a sister though but that would never happen since my mom is past her time.

Why are you talking about my servants? *put on leash to my mosquito queen*

Nature has a funny way of getting back at you when you least expect it.

I hate those little motherf*ckers, really. And I wouldn't even be annoyed merely by the fact that they make awfully itchy spots on my body, but I HATE HATE HATE when they are flying around me and making that absolutely horrible buzz. Also, at night. Always, always at night.

Oh, my. There was a lot of "HATE" in that sentence. I don't know if a mosquito crawled up YOUR pantyhose and died or if you just didn't have a "snickers bar" today yet.

Female mosquitoes are the bloodsuckers you hate. A male mosquito drinks the nectar out of fruits and flowers, while a female mosquito needs our blood to help fertilize her eggs. Once she's got enough blood, she'll lay her eggs in water, for them to hatch in later on. You often can't feel when a mosquito is biting you because she carries special enzymes in her saliva that sort of "numbs" the pain until she's finished. That's why you can only feel what she's done to you after the bite, and not during.

I'm not sure if that's amusing or disturbing. Or both. I'll go with both.

They're bloodsuckers, though, so if you can keep them off the dog (and anything else alive) for long enough, they'll starve.

Ah, bugs. I used to have a big big swarm of these little green flying insects that lived right outside my window. If I left the window open even five minutes after sunset, there would be hundreds of them sitting on the ceiling. I tell you, there are few experiences equal to having to use a broom to sweep up the carcasses once you've sprayed a room with bug killer. Lucky I had a laminate floor.

I didn't mind those so much, though. They were pretty benign. Mosquitos are the ones I can't stand, and not because of the bites (though I'm not a fan of being bitten either). The problem with mozzies is that the sound they make when flying is the perfect pitch for waking me up. Every fifteen minutes. All night.
I was staying in a rented apartment in Rome for a couple of weeks last summer, and we had mozzies. There was one in my bedroom keeping me up, so I figured, fine - it can have the bedroom. Shut it in there and fell asleep on the sofa instead. Then discovered the little fucker could get through the crack under the door. Such sweet relief when I finally squished it with a shoe, even if the landlord wasn't too impressed with the red and brown smear on his newly-painted white wall. I tell you, I'm a crack shot with a shoe or a bus timetable book.

I do also... *try* to not be quite so destructive as the above suggests, though. When I first moved into my current place, I kept seeing small brown things in the kitchen, always vanishing too quickly for me to get a good look at them. I was convinced they were cockroaches, and really not happy with that prospect at all. Turned out they were actually mice - so every time I see one of them now, instead of thinking "Gah, fucking mice", I think "At least it's not a cockroach".
...
I will admit, though, that after one of the damn things spent all last night clanking, even after I put away everything metal; and then finally managed to knock a cheese grater in such a way that, in true Rube Goldberg style, a hammer ended up falling off the table and landing on my foot at 4am, I did spend some time standing in the kitchen, wielding the hammer, muttering under my breath about how mousey's attempts to send me crazy had worked and I hoped it would be happy with the squished yet crunchy result.