Nononononononononononononono
Mar. 17th, 2009 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI managed not to scream aloud at work, but my heart all but lurched backwards away from my computer screen upon reading this.
I can breathe. I can. I can breathe. The deadly, deadly DEADLY SPIDER OUT OF NOWHERE can't hurt me. It's locked up. In Oklahoma. It would have to kill a lot of people to get to me. However, I'm less than sanguine about the reality--brought to my attention in that article--that this sort of thing "happens all the time." As in, insects and arachnids frequently hitch rides on produce; it's just that the "DEADLY AS FUCK" bugs tend to be the exception.
On one hand, I know this happens. I learned all about invading species in my Australian biology class. They have a huge problem with invading flora and fauna. However, living in Australia, they're more likely to be killed by the plants and animals that fucking evolved there than the invaders. (Stinging trees might wound humans like whoa, but they can't compete with prickly pear for ground space.) So the thought of STRANGE BUGS COMING AT YOU is sort of less of a big deal.
On the other, HOLY SHIT, SOUTH AMERICA NEEDS TO KEEP ITS CRAZY KILLER EVERYTHINGS TO ITSELF. I'd like my produce dipped in arsenic or something, please. If it kills me, too, well, at least I won't have to worry about spiders out of nowhere.
(I'm not such a bad person as that. I do recognize that the only reason we import food from South America is because we exploit their cheap labor and fertile soils. But no matter how high the price of produce now, I'd cheerfully pay double for the guarantee that no Brazilian Death Spiders are riding shotgun on my fruits.)
I can breathe. I can. I can breathe. The deadly, deadly DEADLY SPIDER OUT OF NOWHERE can't hurt me. It's locked up. In Oklahoma. It would have to kill a lot of people to get to me. However, I'm less than sanguine about the reality--brought to my attention in that article--that this sort of thing "happens all the time." As in, insects and arachnids frequently hitch rides on produce; it's just that the "DEADLY AS FUCK" bugs tend to be the exception.
On one hand, I know this happens. I learned all about invading species in my Australian biology class. They have a huge problem with invading flora and fauna. However, living in Australia, they're more likely to be killed by the plants and animals that fucking evolved there than the invaders. (Stinging trees might wound humans like whoa, but they can't compete with prickly pear for ground space.) So the thought of STRANGE BUGS COMING AT YOU is sort of less of a big deal.
On the other, HOLY SHIT, SOUTH AMERICA NEEDS TO KEEP ITS CRAZY KILLER EVERYTHINGS TO ITSELF. I'd like my produce dipped in arsenic or something, please. If it kills me, too, well, at least I won't have to worry about spiders out of nowhere.
(I'm not such a bad person as that. I do recognize that the only reason we import food from South America is because we exploit their cheap labor and fertile soils. But no matter how high the price of produce now, I'd cheerfully pay double for the guarantee that no Brazilian Death Spiders are riding shotgun on my fruits.)
