• Nougat@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Rats are actually wonderful, loving little creatures. Maybe “wasps” is a better perjorative, for more than one reason?

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I’m not that guy, but someone from science_memes will be here shortly to advocate for the many wonderful qualities of wasps for some reason.

        I guess they’re also considered pollinators? And . . . some of the species aren’t psycopathic murderous bastards? Or something.

        • Seleni@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          They kill pest insects. They’re voracious hunters. And they are the only insect that pollinates figs.

          How’s that?

          Amazing how even asshole wasps manage to be more useful than MAGA creeps. There’s not a single useful thing they do for anyone or anything. Hell, they even shoot dogs!

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Some social wasps are poor to middling pollinators. Some social wasps don’t pollinate at all. All social wasps are flying terrorists.

          Add some more bees and get rid of all social wasps.

          Solitary wasps are cool, though. They can stay.

          • Seleni@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Nooo they kill pest bugs!

            Wish we could convince them to expand their repertoire and go after MAGA pests too…

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              So do other species that aren’t evil incarnate!

              If we could change their behavior into leaving all humans except fascists alone, I could see the point of keeping them around, though 😁

        • Nougat@fedia.io
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          3 months ago

          To be perfectly clear, domestic rats and wild rats are different. Domestic rats are bred to express behaviors appropriate for living with humans. But either way, they are incredibly smart, clean, and capable of a lot of love and compassion.

          There have been many experiments to investigate rat social behavior, which show that they will ignore food in order to help another rat “in trouble,” even if they’ve never met that rat before. They will also show friendliness to a new rat from a different species if they have met and interacted with a different rat from that species before.

          As the video explains, rats do have a very short lifespan. Two years is good for a domestic rat, and I’ve been in full weep over losing them. I just can’t do that anymore, it’s too often.