111st. st. Mealworms and Wasps
Do you know what a mealworm is? They're about as nasty a they sound, they're small, about a thousand look like a tiny white speck.
They can devastate whole continents, because they reproduce rapidly. And reproduction means mouths to feed, like for example, African crops. A speck of mealworm once almost caused a huge famine in Africa, almost killing thousands.
Why didn't they? Wasps. Parasitic wasps, actually.
See, parasitic wasps reproduce rapidly, too, but instead of eating people food, they eat... that's right, they eat mealworms. Yummy. So, Africa was saved! What's the moral of this story?
The parasite of your parasite is your friend. If someone's kicking you around, and something kicks around what's kicking you around, then that's good for you.
But a parasite isn't the same thing as a predator. Take, for example, the Dingo. They live in Australia, but their ancestors lived in some cold ass place in Asia. They were brought over by Austronesian traders or some shit like that. So, yeah, they're not native to Australia. You know what this means? The fact that they're still around means that they had to bump someone off.
They killed all the carnivorous marsupials in Australia, or most of them, some of the ones still around are the Tasmanian Devils, but the Tasmanian Tiger and the Quolls, well, you never fucking hear about them anymore. The Dingoes fucking ate them all. And then, after all that? After they ate all of the other carnivores in Australia?
They went back to eating the dudes the carnivores used to eat, pretty much taking the place of the old bad guys. They weren't better or worse, just different.
So the moral of this story?
If it killed what used to kick you around, chances are it'll kick you around once it's done with them. In short, the predator of your predator is not your friend.
So, how do you tell the difference between a parasite and a predator?
Well... who's still around?
They can devastate whole continents, because they reproduce rapidly. And reproduction means mouths to feed, like for example, African crops. A speck of mealworm once almost caused a huge famine in Africa, almost killing thousands.
Why didn't they? Wasps. Parasitic wasps, actually.
See, parasitic wasps reproduce rapidly, too, but instead of eating people food, they eat... that's right, they eat mealworms. Yummy. So, Africa was saved! What's the moral of this story?
The parasite of your parasite is your friend. If someone's kicking you around, and something kicks around what's kicking you around, then that's good for you.
But a parasite isn't the same thing as a predator. Take, for example, the Dingo. They live in Australia, but their ancestors lived in some cold ass place in Asia. They were brought over by Austronesian traders or some shit like that. So, yeah, they're not native to Australia. You know what this means? The fact that they're still around means that they had to bump someone off.
They killed all the carnivorous marsupials in Australia, or most of them, some of the ones still around are the Tasmanian Devils, but the Tasmanian Tiger and the Quolls, well, you never fucking hear about them anymore. The Dingoes fucking ate them all. And then, after all that? After they ate all of the other carnivores in Australia?
They went back to eating the dudes the carnivores used to eat, pretty much taking the place of the old bad guys. They weren't better or worse, just different.
So the moral of this story?
If it killed what used to kick you around, chances are it'll kick you around once it's done with them. In short, the predator of your predator is not your friend.
So, how do you tell the difference between a parasite and a predator?
Well... who's still around?