There’s a bunch of right-wing people posting memes about “”DOGE”” making the government more efficient by removing funding from “”dumb bug researchers”” and I am now realizing how little the average person knows about entomology and its importance
Excuse me while I get sad .
There is a community note correcting this post about the importance of researching insects - including the reproductive habits of insects. But still the fact this was posted and 2k people liked it makes me sad 🥲🥲
“stupid researchers studying the mating habits of beetles” people when they can’t afford groceries because an invasive beetle species is decimating crops
An actual conversation I had with a colleague.
Colleague: so they were using the wrong species to pollinate their crops.
Me: what do you mean?
Colleague: well they were using a fly species from Canada and they’re growing onions in Texas. The fly they were using was dying in a day in their greenhouses because it’s frigging Texas in May/June.
Me: and no one was studying this or telling them otherwise?
Colleague: not till me.
Me: so they were wasting all that money on an inefficient pollinator and losing out on crop yield.
Colleague: yep…
And yet these idiots want to cut entomological research funding. Yeah, good luck with that. Come back to us when there’s huge outbreaks of pest insects and arbovectors that we were studying but y’all decided it was “too stupid” to fund.
