World's 'Rarest Insect' Makes Stunning Comeback After Near-Extinction

Science Alert ^ | 14 January 2024 | TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS

[Bob434]

not totally haRMless- someone could trip over one and break their neck

[Robwin]

Since 2019, there has been a massive effort to eliminate the rats on Lord Howe Island with the help of rat-detecting dogs.

Perhaps NYC ought look into this idea

[MNDude]

“There is an estimated 30-300 times the mass of humans of just termites.
One insect…”

When you consider the total mass of all life in the world, you realize how ridiculous the global warming fright is. Every time a plant, insect, animal, or bacteria dies, it decomposes and releases CO2 into the air. Are automobiles and power plants are minuscule compared to the CO2 the natural world puts in the air.

[EEGator]

It is ridiculous. People have a problem intuitively understanding size and scope.

Many also seem to have an issue trying to wrap their heads around input v output of algorithms. They don’t get GIGO.

[TigersEye]

So the scientists have decided to collect the remaining few specimens of this species from their natural precarious habitat and give them a new unnatural home in a glass box where they can be given all of the things they would never encounter in the only habitat they have ever known.

Science! It's so wise.

[dangus]

Well, termites is an entire order of insects... thousands of species. The estimated global weight of termites is 450 million tons; the estimated global weight of humans is 350 million tons.

[Reeses]

Exterminating rats is a killer app for robots, and DARPA should fund monthly contests in NYC. The need to hunt and exterminate demon rats in an urban setting is reaching a Fat Al Gore sized tipping point.

[EEGator]

I just saw your numbers on a site and here’s this.

https://www.actionpest.com/blog/post/ten-amazing-termite-facts-for-termite-week-in-louisville#:~:text=Of%20course%2C%20a%20single%20termite,total%20weight%20of%20all%20humans.

The discrepancy is massive. I have no clue which is more accurate or why the sources differ so wildly.

I hate bugs, and they’re everywhere, was my main point…

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Looks like the child of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

[Theophilus]

This incredible feat of survival

Absurd. For suvival to be a "feat", there has to be some kind of intent. Insects don have intent. It's not like a group of them made an arduous pilgrimage to a volcanic outcrop to escape the rats.

[SunkenCiv]