I work as a custodian at a college campus. I thought my job was to clean up after students. Over the summer break, I realized that my job was to clean up before and after insects. It amazes me how much "wildlife" lives in a building whether people are there or not. Its not only animals. So much plant, fungus, algeae, molds life thrives in a well maintained, climate controlled occupied or unoccupied building.
I'm a high school custodian. We have bats, occasional racoons, mice galore and "water bugs" ahem roaches. Reminding college educated teachers that the mice will go elsewhere if they stop feeding them over and over. Explaining that blocking doors open is allowing furry friends to find a place to hide nets me blank stares🤣. Wait till the skunk families decide to join the party, there are several around the building along with fox. I worked at a school once that had coyotes living in the woods surrounding the building and snakes would appear inside fairly regularly. One season Turkeys popped up no doubt attempting to hide close to the building to avoid Wiley. Most folks have no clue how much wildlife is close by inside and out. Chances are that sound you heard wasn't a ghost
I think the issue isn't always bugs, but what they bring with them. I even tolerate cellar spiders somewhat, the issue is that they have to go at some point because the frass left behind tends to be an invitation for mold and that's the real problem with them being in the house as it's an allergen.
This is why I have designated areas I will and won't allow spiders where I can more easily clean up under the nest, and will move them there if necessary. Up in the corner of the living room over the easy to vaccum spot? Not a problem, over my bed? I don't think so bub
That's why we have to see ourselves as member and moderating influence of the home ecosystem, as we have been from the beginning. Cleaning things isn't the antithesis of that ecosystem, you are just the cycle they have to live by and always have.
Yeah spiders ironically the best of homies. They even ate many dangerous bugs. I visited them once in a while and I just saw it devouring mosquito. Gotta thx them for keeping my family safe lol All my family somehow be like "Ah it's our buddy" Even my 7 years old brother loves them But other bugs? Yeah... It's just annoying me and everyone...
Frass... that's a nice new word I've never heard before. I'll probably start seeing it everywhere now... But yeah spiders are absolute bros, i've got a couple in the kitchen who have huge webs with dozens of various flies in... I should really clean that up and give them a reset. Though it's getting cold now so they might move elsewhere. I wish them well, they have been doing work.
I´m a professor focused full time on teaching ecoarchitecture in all possible ways and consider this one of the most valuable treasures I´ve found navigating the web over this matter. My deepest appreciation, Stewart and Joice.
Keeping your home clean, and food stored properly is so important. If you live in an apartment you have no control of your neighbors, but if there are cockroaches in your building and they make it into your apartment, they will not stay for long if there is nothing to eat. That doesn’t mean you have to obsessively bleach your apartment. Just clean your apartment regularly, especially bathrooms and kitchens. Be aware of food crumbs and spills when they occur. As a kid, my family never wore shoes in the house. All too often people’s reaction is to spray when they see cockroaches, but that just leads to the insect species becoming more resistant and exposes humans to potentially harmful chemicals. I lived in apartments for years and rarely saw cockroaches, and never saw them in any of my childhood homes.
@@InventorZahran Yes, the genome of cockroaches is incredible. As a species, they just keep picking up genetic tools to survive whatever is thrown at them. Perhaps they will soon be fireproof.😀
@wyltedleaves Yes, cockroaches are very resilient creatures. They will even eat things that would surprise many people, but gravitate to where there is the best food available. If one removes their preferred food choices, they tend to move on to the next place. Without food and water they will not stay.
Here in Florida, we share our homes with brown anoles (daytime lizards) and house geckos (nighttime lizards). They’re our 24/7 natural pest control and I love them. We try our best to return them outside if they end up inside, otherwise they starve
haha so true! im up in north florida and we get cute baby lizards that sneak in all the time, especially during spring/summer i feel like. not too hard to catch and release outside but if they find a hiding spot... well i just hope they come out again lol
I love the little lizards I see in my house sometimes they are so cute and they let me hold them for a while when they realize I'm not gonna eat them haha
The sparrow example is an interesting ecological study but is not really applicable to in door spaces. The animal that should be welcomes into your home is the spider. They will eat all the other insects and keep them under control.
Some spiders are not only beneficial but informative. Common house spiders (Parasteatoda tepidariorum), for example, only set up in areas with a lot of insect traffic. If you see one in your home, you know that’s where bugs are getting in.
@@ninjaydesAustralia plays by different rules. They actually pulled an episode of Peppa Pig from the airwaves because it showed the characters playing with a spider and they didn't want to encourage that behaviour.
As an working ecologist, fantastic breakdown of the topic. Id encourage everyone who has the space to build micro ecosystems. You got a balcony? You can have a native pollinator garden easy.
It's my ongoing mission to make my property awesome enough that a frog or toad will take up residence. No luck yet. Unfortunately, suburbia isn't fond of yards and gardens that are beneficial to wildlife.
@@elliotgreason1364many frogs and toads return to the pond they were born in to copulate and lay eggs, you might need to introduce them yourself if you want any in your garden (either as adults while locked onto each other or bring some spawn and let it hatch in your pond)
At one house I didn't have an ant problem possibly due to the spider infestation I had instead. It isnt like they ever got in the way, but I'm sure it was a major contributing factor
When I was young we used to pour leftover cooking liquids down into tree stumps in the yard and the ants would eat the stumps from the bottom up! Kept them away from the house and we never had to pay for stump grinding! Only thing I could think of though.
I let certain bugs live in my house - like spiders, crickets, and even the super creepy house centipede. I have had a bumblebee colony under my house for over 2 decades. There has been a bird couple nesting above my backdoor light for years. My shed was the home for a groundhog - he loved to eat weeds in my garden. I'm looking to add bat houses - I always liked watching them start their hunt at dusk when I was a kid. I'm fine sharing my home with animals as long as they are non-damaging.
That's great, thank you for helping our wild neighbours so much and for leaving the bees be! I love getting to know the other inhabitants of my home, most of whom are very helpful!
This video actually reminded me of how we used to get insects coming into the house in search of water. When we put a container of water outside for the birds, the amount of insects that appeared inside decreased. I speculated that either the birds that came for water were eating the bugs and/or the bugs were drawn to the closer source of water.
Carpet beetles can cause dermatitis so they are not harmless. My poor brother and his kids had red marks all over their bodies from the irritating hairs on the larvae. They had to get rid of any carpet beetle food sources and of course remove as many as possible. I agree that we need to get along with residents on our properties so I leave unmowed areas, plant native flowers and left I water source for al the small animals that need it during the droughts in the desert-like area I live in. Thanks for standing up for them.
Pretty much no insect is really harmless if lived with constanly and in numbers. Most of them shed and/or defecate material that can cause tissue irritation in people with allergies, this becomes worse over time eventually leading to developing new conditions. What this video suggests is insane. Our instincutal revulsion for most insects exists for a reason, it's an evolutionary adaptation that helps us avoid creatures that are either dangerous or simply harmful.
A few years ago, Monocle magazine had an article about a landscape architect who designed a green corridor on the rooftops of urban Tokyo that allowed wildlife to migrate through the city, and also to connect people, especially children, with wildlife. I thought, what a cool idea!
Nope. I don't want to "cohabitate" with roaches, ants, mice, rats, mosquitos, gnats, flies, bedbugs or parasites. I don't mind bats, raccoons, mice, rats, possums, birds, and most of the previous animals as long as they remain OUTSIDE my home.
Yep. I think it's wrong to destroy environments but I have an environment too and it doesn't contain anything but people. This kind of overcorrecting ridiculousness is why liberals lose elections.
This may be your most enlightening video to date and I thank you profusely! Now all I've gotta do is "unsee" the images in my head of roaches, centipedes, and spiders undulating on the walls of my tiny home. Those images creep me out profusely!
I'd rather not have bed bugs or wild rats in my home. Basically if you keep your home clean and let a few spiders hang out in the corners you'll mostly be fine depending on where you live. Swallows and whatever building nests on your house are probably fine too (as long as it's not in the chimneys) bc most birds keep their nests clean.
I am curious about what you propose we do with fleas, mosquitoes, house flies, roaches, lice, termites, kissing bugs, bed bugs, scorpions, scabies, ticks, cloth moths, larder beetles, carpet beetles, mice, rats, and many other creatures that feed on our blood, transmit diseases, or destroy our food, clothes, houses, and possessions.
You under the impression that we’re the only large mammals they feed on. Or that they do so maliciously. Would you like it if everytime you ate a burger you where smushed into a bloody smear. Literally you don’t want ticks don’t wander into tick infested forests. Can’t avoid mosquitoes in warm wet climates and they don’t spread diseases intentionally. They’re already working on a way to solve that that doesn’t end up killing another group of pollinators. Look, these guys were here first. And every attempt to get rid of them kills the planet we live in everyday. Stay updated on your vaccines and shit and you’ll be fine. We have been coexisting with face mites for years. You live with bugs grow up.
A lot of those species are taken care of by letting spiders be, and scorpions also eat most of the species you mentioned. As for mosquitoes in specific though, I personally like giving a space to lay eggs outside because their larva make great fish food and some smaller fish can be kept outside on porches or balconies to be a natural mosquito trap, though definitely check comparability and legality in your area before doing that. I'd love a bat box for the airborn mosquitoes though, but that requires getting out of an apartment and getting my own place first
To be frank the only things I actively get rid of from my house are mosquitos and roaches, and sometimes ants if they're having one of their wars, the rest can do their thing. Luckily the lizards tend to take care of any roach, so I protect them from my dogs. A few times I wondered if I it was possible to bring in some of the tiny frogs living on the trees on the backyard inside the house so they get rid of the mosquitos.
As much as the idea of seeing "bugs" of all kinds living around, in and out of the home seen as icky, it is interesting how nature and architecture is intertwined in a unique way. In fact, as much as we see our home as separation of nature and in some cases above nature, yet your video got me thinking that overall nature tries its hardest to return us to the fold albeit slow and harsh. Love the video Stewart :)
If it makes you feel any better the majority won't be seen. Most inverts live in dark, secluded areas where you don't go often. Having stuff like leaf litter, decomposing branches, and rocks in your garden/yard can provide so much food and habitat and the little critters that benefit won't generally be seen unless you look for em.
Indeed! Little friends and little shelter spaces for the critters :) Though I do have some fear of them, I respect for what they are and why they are vital for our well-being. @@elliotgreason1364
I really prefer this pace of talking/narration. Some of your recent videos in the past few months seem like they were purposefully amping up the words per minute in a way that seemed somewhat forced and it came off as a little erratic (imo). The pace in this video is a really nice balance, not too fast and not too slow. Either way, love all that you do! thanks for making such high quality and informative videos :D
I had my home sealed with a sealant. They tape up all doorways, fire places, etc. and pump air in to create positive pressure and an air born solution to seal any gaps. have rubber silicon on all doorways and tight tolerances and get extremely few bugs.
I love how this channel keeps digging up interesting angles of the built environment. This is not the first video that changed the way i look at buildings... and i build them for a living.
I understand wanting to live in better harmony with the creatures we share the planet with, however, I still have not found a good reason, even from this video, to have them inside. Sure, have vines grow on the outside of my building that bugs can live in and maybe some overhangs bats can chill out under. That's cool. But there's zero reason for bugs or bats or birds to be inside my room, my kitchen, my toilet. Those places get maintained by myself. Now it's not the fault of the insects, but I won't have them eating wooden items, my clothing, or my food.
I can tolerate all kinds of critters around the outside my house, but I refuse to allow them to live in my house. I will continue to do everything I can to keep them out, even if it is impossible to get them all. If I wanted to live with bugs, I'd pitch a tent in the woods.
Eeek. To an extent I ask: “what are you smoking?” On the other hand when I had a house in the woods I employed the maxim: outside my domain let’s dance and I won’t bother you Mr. Wildlife, but inside the premises including its protective membrane and structure you will die or be thrust outside. It’s a big world which must be shared sensibly.
You've convinced me. I am off to the pet shop to get a cute cuddly Polar Bear for my appartment 🙂 I think that generally speaking, presence of bugs in a house is interpreted as the owner not having good house cleaning which is why presence of bugs is seen as a negative.
Seems perhaps an upper middle, upper class indulgence. For folks struggling socioeconomically, a notion like this might likely come across as tone deaf and removed from lived realities and its psychological toll. Ultimately it appears still a matter of control wrapped in a different package. It’s still choosing to favour for example bats over another species. Nothing wrong with it just not sure conceptually it’s truly aligned with notions of an harmonious, balance ‘ecosystem’. It’s an interesting idea nonetheless.
absolutely, after years of living in shitty dorms with dirty neighbors i want comfort inside my 15 m2 rented studio, i dont feel obliged to tolerate any crawling crap
See, the thing is, I'm perfectly happy to share my home with various animals. The problem comes about from the animals not being able to understand the boundaries for where I don't mind them being. For example, the spider building its web in the corner of the bathroom, where we stare each other down as I use the toilet? Perfectly fine, encouraged, even. But the spider nesting in the shower, or across a space I need to pass through? This isn't a good place to build, my friend; your web is going to keep getting destroyed by accident, and we're both going to be upset about it. But the worst is the spider I found in my bed, or the one who was hanging out in my pants when I put them on, and was confusedly skittering about all over my body inside my clothes. It's just... "Sir! This is unacceptable! Either you go outside, or one of us is going to have to die, as we cannot coexist like this."... you know?
The wood louse can be found in the home but I wouldn't call them "desert animals". They require a lot of moisture; some can tolerate low humidity but it is uncommon.
you have never woken at 3am to find a roach eating you eye lashes, or flea or even fire ants coming out of your bed. you will not be so tolerant if you do.
And even before that, wild pigeons are natural cliff-dwellers. Buildings provide a lot of artificial cliffs in close proximity to human-generated food sources.
At university we were taught to use as few organic materials as possible. Insects primarily destroy wooden houses. Rats burrow in XPS, ESP insulation, etc.
I live in an old cottage that isn't well sealed. It can be like an animal kingdom episode at times. Almost always some species of spider or other inside. I'm cool with them as long and they earn their keep by catching mosquitoes, ants and other bugs in their webs.
Im in an appartment in a citiy and even i'm not a big lover of spider, i like them also because once they establish their web they don't really move from it and, they catch all other species i don't want live with it. 😄 I consider spiders as the most "socialisable" insect in our home.
i've been wondering for a while... what would it take to "domesticate" common household vermin like roaches? can't we design our homes with little tunnels for them to travel between waste collection areas so they can eat without coming into contact with actual humans? similarly, could we have hidden tracks and walkways for ants to travel around, perhaps even nest in? how about spiders? geckos? other bugs?
the issue with roaches and ants is that they will continually explore outside of the designated areas to pick up whatever food is dropped by humans. they have no reason to stay inside a hidden area if all the food is outside of that area. most species of roaches don't cause infestations in houses. you can keep and breed dubia roaches in a plastic tub if you're really keen on having a bunch of little guys
When I lived in an apartment in an architecturally significant 1890s townhouse in Covington, Kentucky, I had a huge beehive move into the ceiling of the bedroom in the early spring. The bees were also somehow finding their way inside through small gaps in the brick walls, but weirdly, clearly never through the bedroom, where the hive was actually located. On a warm day after a brief cold spell, I came home to four dozen bees that had tried to escape through the windows and spent their last hours of life buzzing desperately trying to get out. My landlord had to pay someone to relocate the colony, which involved cutting open the ceiling in the bedroom to remove the beehive, and sealing up the box gutter on the outside. The bees had found a small passage into the stud cavity below the roof through an area beneath the metal channel within the outer trim of the box gutter, and were always buzzing around that area. For some reason, they were also always swarming around another side of the house that was mostly a blank brick wall, which is where I believe they gained access to the apartment. It was remarkable to me how they found a place to live that was not very obvious. In that apartment, I also occasionally saw a few spiders which I let be, and spider beetles in the bathroom and bedroom of that apartment, which never caused any problems. The only major problem was a small ant infestation from ground level three floors below the apartment. Similar to the bees, the ants found access through cracks in the bricks and were swarming into my dishwasher, which had dried remnants of wine, and into my cabinets to access a box of sugar that was in a plastic bag, which had developed a small hole, above the stove. It was remarkable how they were able to find my kitchen from so far away and get into the space through such small openings. Wasps, especially invasive European Paper Wasps, were an issue on the outside porch and outdoor staircase to the apartment entrance, even building nests inside the handrails of the staircase. However, I found them very easy to deal with, as they are not very smart, and have a difficult time understanding that you sprayed their nest with bug spray or dish soap. The house's windowsills and porch often attracted nesting native Mourning Doves, which did not seem to fear humans as much as other species of birds, and I could easily get within a few feet of them without the birds flying off. I've had a lot worse issues with unwanted insects and animals at previous apartments, including my first apartment while working an architecture internship in Charleston, South Carolina, where the walls and floors were just wooden boards, and big Palmetto Bugs and spiders crawled out the gaps between the wooden boards on the walls and on one occasion, a Palmetto Bug jumped on me first thing in the morning in the bathroom when I was getting ready for work. I luckily had bug spray ready, but that is not an experience I want to have again.
Working at a toxicology center inside a hospital and seeing the effects of bug bites surprisingly made me more tolerant of these insects inside my own house, to the point that I even though I'm obsessed with cleanliness, I avoid disturbing indoor spiderwebs. After I got a more accurate idea of which species of local insects could cause a significant health problem and how easy it was to treat non-medically relevant bug bites, I stopped bashing random bugs out of sheer paranoia. They're more like roommates now, I just cherry pick the ones that cause less trouble - fly-eatings spiders are in, cockroaches and termites are out. (Before anyone comes for my neck, there are more spider-related deaths in my countries than in Australia)
There are bugs in space already and there have been bugs in space ever since mankind first venture there. The ISS definitely has bug infestations, its kind of unavoidable. I'll pass over the millions of bugs who probably achieved escape velocity on debris thrown out by asteroid impacts.
I have a no kill policy in my home (except for flour moths because i need my food lol) , if a spider or giant bug comes to close to my bed they get relocated to a another corner There's a healthy population of spiders and they seem to enjoy breeding here, I've seen multiple egg sacks over time, saw one hatching over a day in my office one day all the little spiderlings were so cute In the summer there's also all kinds of other bugs
Homes need to be very airtight for thermal reasons regardless. I don't want an ecosystem in my house, I want a comfortable environment for myself. The video made no clear arguments about what indoor speecies and ecosystems actually need preservation and why, and all of the examples were literally about outdoor bats or outdoor green walls. Yeah, some bugs aren't really harmful - why would I care though? If I don't need to have them where I sleep and shower I will obviously prefer not to have them.
The video doesn't answer the question "why do we need other species in our homes". The example with Chinese sparrows is irrelevant since generally nobody wants to exterminate species, just to remove them from homes. And honestly uncontrolled introduction of other species in your house or apartment will likely bring a lot of problems. Most rodents and many insects carry diseases. They will eat your food, they will contaminate your living space, they will pose a threat to structural integrity. Let other species live outside your home
Under the house if the house is lifted above the ground - So be it. Under the eves - Okay. In the wood shed - Fine. In the compost bin - To be expected. On the deck/porch - Tolerable. In the rubbish/trash/recycling - Not ideal. But inside the home? No! Absolutely not, and I will exercise every tool available to prevent and eradicate, to cleanse and purify my home. My home is the small piece of the world I have carved out with my sweat for subjugation, and nothing shall enter my castle, my dominion without permission. Every one is different, so each to their own. But if you live with rodents and insects indoors and invite someone over, and see their eye twitch as something scuttles past, you are likely being silently judged regardless of what they say.
Sure, there may be more individual organisms of other, non-human species living in a house, but their small size is why they aren't given as much consideration. In terms of biomass, you could combine all the bugs and birds and bats in an entire house and it still wouldn't be equal to the biomass of a single human child, let alone an adult. Humans make up the majority of the life inhabiting a house.
As an entomologist my experience with anti bug infrastructure is a daily problem that limits my ability to protect and maintain local environments from all sorts of issues.
The video falls short of showing how. What changes have to be made to live with bugs and other animals so we are not inconveniced by them and vice versa.
I used to remove spiders from my home when I would find them, then I found out that a lot of spiders can't survive in the outdoors anymore and are exclusive to indoor environments. Realizing that putting them outside was a death sentence I decided to start leaving them be. I've noticed since then that there are fewer species of bug that I really don't want inside my house like earwigs. And I also haven't seen an increase in bug bites in fact I've seen the exact opposite I wake up with less bug bites now than I used to. I know spider phobias are a real thing but if you can overcome them I have found that living with spiders is a real benefit. Start small have a fake spider in your house at first such as a Halloween decoration and once you're used to that start getting progressively smaller spiders until they don't seem to bother you anymore. Then you can try moving spiders outside of your house instead of killing them some species will do just fine outside. And then hopefully once you're used to interacting with spiders you'll be able to just leave them be.
There is no reason we should just say it’s inevitable to have pests in a structure. I own a lab where this can’t be tolerated. It’s not so hard to accomplish. But it has to be done at planning.
This was a very thought-provoking video! I love catching glimpses of backyard wildlife and even some of the rarer things that live in my house with me.
I live in Idaho Falls and a few years ago the city passed a bee ordinance where people are allowed and even encouraged to keep bees, I wish it was more utilized but its good for the various community gardens we have around the city.
@@carissafisher7514 Airtight structures are required by code to have mechanical ventilation systems, these have screens and filters that keep out pests.
There is a community down the road from me (In southern UT) called Kayenta that has integrated the homes into the natural landscape. It is for rich people and I’ll probably never be able to afford to live there, but I absolutely love it. The reason I bring it up is that we see all the desert creatures out there that we really don’t see in our standard American suburbia. I realize this is addressing the ecosystem around humans and not a desert ecosystem.
This was really interesting. I've often wondered at how bugs survive in our homes and the desert connection is really cool to see. I think this logic of species diversity is often forgotten but extends really deeply into humans. The degree to which our bodies, our spaces and our societies are reliant on (and composed of and with) other species is incredible. I remember reading somewhere for example that only 10% of the cells in a human body are human and of course the 3000 species in the home makes sense in that same way.
I'm all for redesigning cities and neighborhoods in general to be more walkable, and part of that will generally help wildlife and green things of all sorts instead of favoring... cars. I'm also for redesigning living spaces,and providing alternative places for the buggy sort of life on the outside of the home. But I really can't stand the thought of a creepy crawly falling onto my face when I'm sleeping... ever. I'd still rather keep them out of the space I'm doing my inside-living. I don't mind finding a balance but I just... have to have that barrier. I mean hey... if bees and ants are incredibly strict about what's allowed in and what isn't, I think humans should be allowed the same courtesy.
My parents always classified animals in the house "these are bad, kill. These are scary but not bad, release outside. These are good, let's live with them" so I learned not to kill
I'll call mammals or birds my neighbors, but no way in hell will I ever consider a bug to be my neighbor! Honestly I've moved a lot all over the US and China. I've lived in suburbs, rural areas, big cities. I can confidently say that the place to live if you don't want as many bugs is on higher floors - the higher the better. Even older buildings don't have as many bugs as a regular house if you're high enough. I've lived on the 5th, 10th and 27th floors and didn't have many problems with bugs on any of them. However on the 3rd floor or in houses, especially if surrounded by trees or if 20+ years old, lots of bugs.
On my commute from Mukilteo to Marysville, Washington, years ago, I observed an apartment complex under construction in the vicinity of Boeing's operations. The bare framing was exposed for weeks to the intense Pacific Northwest's winter rains. I started to wonder how many other structures were built under similar conditions, and what kind of organisms they would eventually host. One hopes that things were allowed to dry out before the drywall went up.
Nah, I'm not having bugs and mice in my condo. I do leave the bees/wasps that moved into a hole in my outside wall alone, and the baby dragonflies that nest on my aluminum windowframe (outside), they're cool. When I moved in tore out the old carpet and sealed all the cracks in the floor slab before the carpet guys came, I think that's why I don't see too many silverfish and othet bugs inside. All I get is what gets past the window and patio door screens. If I had swallows building nests like that on my wall I think I would put a birdfeeder out there.
I will not live with ze bugs. But I do everything I can to encourage life thriving in my yard. Which includes bats and even wasps. Wasps aren’t as aggressive as people act. I’ve been living with them for years and never been stung
Terrestrial isopods, or woodlice, are not desert species. Isopods adapted to arid climates are rare, and in drier climates, they seek out humid microclimates such as under logs and debris. They are adapted to moist conditions, which is why they have modified gills in order to breathe. The species shown in the clip is Porcellio scaber, and their native range are forests and woodlands of western and central Europe, though they have spread across the globe now. Most isopods will actually die in dry conditions because of their gills. Low humidity can damage them, and then even if the isopod returns to a higher humidity condition, they will be unable to breathe efficiently. They don't pull the water out of the air; they require moist air to survive. If you find isopods in your home, they'll generally be in moist conditions like in a basement or bathroom. If you find them, it's a sign you may have humidity and moisture problems that you need to take care of.
please show us several present day architect living in and making their designs in a room/house with live/active bugs roaming around.... then we'll believe their 'agenda'
We stopped using the old fireplace in our house, and put a large assembled jigsaw in front for aesthetics. We recently discovered that a wild possom climbs down the chimney each morning and spends the day sleeping in our fireplace, before leaving again at night. It's really nice having wildlife so close as we go about our day.
Possums also eat tons of ticks, including the deer tick that spreads Lyme disease. They're bros to humans, unless you keep chickens unfortunately then they can sometimes be a problem.
I had a little fungus fly bothering at my face and i was thinking 'what's wrong with you? get out of my face! I'm so much bigger than you, why wouldn't you avoid me?" but then I realized I'm probably one of the only animals this fly has ever seen and it's trying to figure out what the heck is going on. It may not even have a fear response because of the lack of dangerous exposures
I love when you talk about incorporating nature and biophilic design. Chicago is taking a leading role in city ecology, and I think it’s the only way forward for us. Would love to see a discussion about rebuilding the prairies of Illinois!
I work as a custodian at a college campus. I thought my job was to clean up after students. Over the summer break, I realized that my job was to clean up before and after insects. It amazes me how much "wildlife" lives in a building whether people are there or not. Its not only animals. So much plant, fungus, algeae, molds life thrives in a well maintained, climate controlled occupied or unoccupied building.
Environmental Engineer
It depends a lot on climate and location. Also the age of a building.
the termites in my walls:
I'm a high school custodian. We have bats, occasional racoons, mice galore and "water bugs" ahem roaches. Reminding college educated teachers that the mice will go elsewhere if they stop feeding them over and over. Explaining that blocking doors open is allowing furry friends to find a place to hide nets me blank stares🤣. Wait till the skunk families decide to join the party, there are several around the building along with fox. I worked at a school once that had coyotes living in the woods surrounding the building and snakes would appear inside fairly regularly. One season Turkeys popped up no doubt attempting to hide close to the building to avoid Wiley. Most folks have no clue how much wildlife is close by inside and out. Chances are that sound you heard wasn't a ghost
@@susanlippy1009where the hell is this? So cool
I think the issue isn't always bugs, but what they bring with them. I even tolerate cellar spiders somewhat, the issue is that they have to go at some point because the frass left behind tends to be an invitation for mold and that's the real problem with them being in the house as it's an allergen.
This is why I have designated areas I will and won't allow spiders where I can more easily clean up under the nest, and will move them there if necessary. Up in the corner of the living room over the easy to vaccum spot? Not a problem, over my bed? I don't think so bub
That's why we have to see ourselves as member and moderating influence of the home ecosystem, as we have been from the beginning. Cleaning things isn't the antithesis of that ecosystem, you are just the cycle they have to live by and always have.
Yeah spiders ironically the best of homies. They even ate many dangerous bugs. I visited them once in a while and I just saw it devouring mosquito.
Gotta thx them for keeping my family safe lol
All my family somehow be like "Ah it's our buddy" Even my 7 years old brother loves them
But other bugs? Yeah... It's just annoying me and everyone...
Frass... that's a nice new word I've never heard before. I'll probably start seeing it everywhere now...
But yeah spiders are absolute bros, i've got a couple in the kitchen who have huge webs with dozens of various flies in... I should really clean that up and give them a reset. Though it's getting cold now so they might move elsewhere. I wish them well, they have been doing work.
Mouse shit in flour, moths in dried food, eaten wool, BED BUGS, sorry, maybe spiders but not disgusting pests
I´m a professor focused full time on teaching ecoarchitecture in all possible ways and consider this one of the most valuable treasures I´ve found navigating the web over this matter. My deepest appreciation, Stewart and Joice.
thank you for your contribution! For a better future
Keeping your home clean, and food stored properly is so important. If you live in an apartment you have no control of your neighbors, but if there are cockroaches in your building and they make it into your apartment, they will not stay for long if there is nothing to eat.
That doesn’t mean you have to obsessively bleach your apartment. Just clean your apartment regularly, especially bathrooms and kitchens. Be aware of food crumbs and spills when they occur. As a kid, my family never wore shoes in the house.
All too often people’s reaction is to spray when they see cockroaches, but that just leads to the insect species becoming more resistant and exposes humans to potentially harmful chemicals.
I lived in apartments for years and rarely saw cockroaches, and never saw them in any of my childhood homes.
The cockroaches are slowly evolving to become immortal!
@@InventorZahran Yes, the genome of cockroaches is incredible. As a species, they just keep picking up genetic tools to survive whatever is thrown at them. Perhaps they will soon be fireproof.😀
Cockroaches really just need a moist environment, so just don’t have leaks, or dripping faucets.
@wyltedleaves Yes, cockroaches are very resilient creatures. They will even eat things that would surprise many people, but gravitate to where there is the best food available. If one removes their preferred food choices, they tend to move on to the next place.
Without food and water they will not stay.
@@barryrobbins7694they don't seem to have built a resistance to boric acid yet
Here in Florida, we share our homes with brown anoles (daytime lizards) and house geckos (nighttime lizards). They’re our 24/7 natural pest control and I love them. We try our best to return them outside if they end up inside, otherwise they starve
Same here in Hawaii :)
Much better than mice
haha so true! im up in north florida and we get cute baby lizards that sneak in all the time, especially during spring/summer i feel like. not too hard to catch and release outside but if they find a hiding spot... well i just hope they come out again lol
I love the little lizards I see in my house sometimes they are so cute and they let me hold them for a while when they realize I'm not gonna eat them haha
Seems like there were more lizards in Florida when I was growing up. I don't know if this is true. Maybe I just spent more time outside.
Fun fact: most pigeons in cities are likely feral descendants of domestic pigeons.
Pigeons are actually rock birds that lived on the shorelines of the Mediterranean
@@Abp.Mars-Assemblyyes but we did end up domesticating them
and they spread a lot of disease and parasites.
@@Abp.Mars-Assembly bro way to try to sound smart but sound like an idiot instead
@@kamjohnson6877and we Abandoned them 😅
As someone who's mostly recommended software content by UA-cam, these were different architects and different bugs than I anticipated.
LMFAO
The sparrow example is an interesting ecological study but is not really applicable to in door spaces.
The animal that should be welcomes into your home is the spider. They will eat all the other insects and keep them under control.
Some spiders are not only beneficial but informative. Common house spiders (Parasteatoda tepidariorum), for example, only set up in areas with a lot of insect traffic. If you see one in your home, you know that’s where bugs are getting in.
Depends on the spider. Some are fun and cool. Others can leave a nasty bite. Know your species.
*cue child in Australia staring at the footlong spider outside their window*
The kiddo: "Welcome in?"
I kick out the 'outdoor' species but any indoor evolved species get to stay in my house, they pay their rent in pest control!
@@ninjaydesAustralia plays by different rules. They actually pulled an episode of Peppa Pig from the airwaves because it showed the characters playing with a spider and they didn't want to encourage that behaviour.
As an working ecologist, fantastic breakdown of the topic. Id encourage everyone who has the space to build micro ecosystems. You got a balcony? You can have a native pollinator garden easy.
Home Depot will love me because I will dump all of their foam sealant into any crack I can find and you won't stop me.
@@Cocc0nuttt0 yes...because its your home...not theirs...
It's my ongoing mission to make my property awesome enough that a frog or toad will take up residence. No luck yet. Unfortunately, suburbia isn't fond of yards and gardens that are beneficial to wildlife.
I really didn't expect Bear to comment here. This just feels so random.
@@elliotgreason1364many frogs and toads return to the pond they were born in to copulate and lay eggs, you might need to introduce them yourself if you want any in your garden (either as adults while locked onto each other or bring some spawn and let it hatch in your pond)
I’m having difficulty imagining myself coexisting with ants.
My ants took the bait (peanut butter) off my mousetraps lol that was not helpful hopefully I only had the 2 mice that I trapped
You’re doing that now.
At one house I didn't have an ant problem possibly due to the spider infestation I had instead. It isnt like they ever got in the way, but I'm sure it was a major contributing factor
When I was young we used to pour leftover cooking liquids down into tree stumps in the yard and the ants would eat the stumps from the bottom up! Kept them away from the house and we never had to pay for stump grinding!
Only thing I could think of though.
most ant species do not like going inside ppl's houses, a lot of US ants you see in your house are hyper invasive argentine ants
I let certain bugs live in my house - like spiders, crickets, and even the super creepy house centipede. I have had a bumblebee colony under my house for over 2 decades. There has been a bird couple nesting above my backdoor light for years. My shed was the home for a groundhog - he loved to eat weeds in my garden. I'm looking to add bat houses - I always liked watching them start their hunt at dusk when I was a kid. I'm fine sharing my home with animals as long as they are non-damaging.
That's great, thank you for helping our wild neighbours so much and for leaving the bees be! I love getting to know the other inhabitants of my home, most of whom are very helpful!
This video actually reminded me of how we used to get insects coming into the house in search of water. When we put a container of water outside for the birds, the amount of insects that appeared inside decreased. I speculated that either the birds that came for water were eating the bugs and/or the bugs were drawn to the closer source of water.
Carpet beetles can cause dermatitis so they are not harmless. My poor brother and his kids had red marks all over their bodies from the irritating hairs on the larvae. They had to get rid of any carpet beetle food sources and of course remove as many as possible.
I agree that we need to get along with residents on our properties so I leave unmowed areas, plant native flowers and left I water source for al the small animals that need it during the droughts in the desert-like area I live in. Thanks for standing up for them.
Pretty much no insect is really harmless if lived with constanly and in numbers. Most of them shed and/or defecate material that can cause tissue irritation in people with allergies, this becomes worse over time eventually leading to developing new conditions. What this video suggests is insane. Our instincutal revulsion for most insects exists for a reason, it's an evolutionary adaptation that helps us avoid creatures that are either dangerous or simply harmful.
A few years ago, Monocle magazine had an article about a landscape architect who designed a green corridor on the rooftops of urban Tokyo that allowed wildlife to migrate through the city, and also to connect people, especially children, with wildlife. I thought, what a cool idea!
Nope. I don't want to "cohabitate" with roaches, ants, mice, rats, mosquitos, gnats, flies, bedbugs or parasites.
I don't mind bats, raccoons, mice, rats, possums, birds, and most of the previous animals as long as they remain OUTSIDE my home.
"No" on the raccons.
Yep. I think it's wrong to destroy environments but I have an environment too and it doesn't contain anything but people.
This kind of overcorrecting ridiculousness is why liberals lose elections.
This may be your most enlightening video to date and I thank you profusely! Now all I've gotta do is "unsee" the images in my head of roaches, centipedes, and spiders undulating on the walls of my tiny home. Those images creep me out profusely!
architects are actually thousands of bugs sewn up together into a human-shaped bag
I knew it
so we are deliberately ignoring the "parasites" part of it, I see
I'd rather not have bed bugs or wild rats in my home. Basically if you keep your home clean and let a few spiders hang out in the corners you'll mostly be fine depending on where you live. Swallows and whatever building nests on your house are probably fine too (as long as it's not in the chimneys) bc most birds keep their nests clean.
Carpet beetles literally do damage thou. Their larva eat furniture, blankets, and well carpets
They also infest larders.
I am curious about what you propose we do with fleas, mosquitoes, house flies, roaches, lice, termites, kissing bugs, bed bugs, scorpions, scabies, ticks, cloth moths, larder beetles, carpet beetles, mice, rats, and many other creatures that feed on our blood, transmit diseases, or destroy our food, clothes, houses, and possessions.
You under the impression that we’re the only large mammals they feed on. Or that they do so maliciously.
Would you like it if everytime you ate a burger you where smushed into a bloody smear.
Literally you don’t want ticks don’t wander into tick infested forests. Can’t avoid mosquitoes in warm wet climates and they don’t spread diseases intentionally. They’re already working on a way to solve that that doesn’t end up killing another group of pollinators.
Look, these guys were here first. And every attempt to get rid of them kills the planet we live in everyday. Stay updated on your vaccines and shit and you’ll be fine. We have been coexisting with face mites for years. You live with bugs grow up.
Imagine ignoring the point of the video this hard.
@@aff77141 when you don't like questions about your message...
@@aff77141 ah yes. A thing has good qualities, so I should not question any of the negative qualities 🤨. OP has a legit question
A lot of those species are taken care of by letting spiders be, and scorpions also eat most of the species you mentioned. As for mosquitoes in specific though, I personally like giving a space to lay eggs outside because their larva make great fish food and some smaller fish can be kept outside on porches or balconies to be a natural mosquito trap, though definitely check comparability and legality in your area before doing that. I'd love a bat box for the airborn mosquitoes though, but that requires getting out of an apartment and getting my own place first
Be careful with a green roof/wall. Most modern building materials don't last too well with things growing on them.
To be frank the only things I actively get rid of from my house are mosquitos and roaches, and sometimes ants if they're having one of their wars, the rest can do their thing. Luckily the lizards tend to take care of any roach, so I protect them from my dogs. A few times I wondered if I it was possible to bring in some of the tiny frogs living on the trees on the backyard inside the house so they get rid of the mosquitos.
As much as the idea of seeing "bugs" of all kinds living around, in and out of the home seen as icky, it is interesting how nature and architecture is intertwined in a unique way. In fact, as much as we see our home as separation of nature and in some cases above nature, yet your video got me thinking that overall nature tries its hardest to return us to the fold albeit slow and harsh. Love the video Stewart :)
If it makes you feel any better the majority won't be seen. Most inverts live in dark, secluded areas where you don't go often. Having stuff like leaf litter, decomposing branches, and rocks in your garden/yard can provide so much food and habitat and the little critters that benefit won't generally be seen unless you look for em.
Indeed! Little friends and little shelter spaces for the critters :) Though I do have some fear of them, I respect for what they are and why they are vital for our well-being. @@elliotgreason1364
What an eye-opening topic this is. I would have never thought of our home as an ecosystem too. Thanks for the video.
👍 Wow! I haven't seen anyone use "Too" correctly in a LONG time! 🤯👏👏👏
I really prefer this pace of talking/narration. Some of your recent videos in the past few months seem like they were purposefully amping up the words per minute in a way that seemed somewhat forced and it came off as a little erratic (imo). The pace in this video is a really nice balance, not too fast and not too slow. Either way, love all that you do! thanks for making such high quality and informative videos :D
I had my home sealed with a sealant. They tape up all doorways, fire places, etc. and pump air in to create positive pressure and an air born solution to seal any gaps. have rubber silicon on all doorways and tight tolerances and get extremely few bugs.
I wouldn't classify carpet beetles as harmless if you work with wool yarn.
Or if you have any fabric. They eat anything
@@animeloveer97 they eat leather, too
I love how this channel keeps digging up interesting angles of the built environment. This is not the first video that changed the way i look at buildings... and i build them for a living.
I understand wanting to live in better harmony with the creatures we share the planet with, however, I still have not found a good reason, even from this video, to have them inside. Sure, have vines grow on the outside of my building that bugs can live in and maybe some overhangs bats can chill out under. That's cool. But there's zero reason for bugs or bats or birds to be inside my room, my kitchen, my toilet. Those places get maintained by myself. Now it's not the fault of the insects, but I won't have them eating wooden items, my clothing, or my food.
I can tolerate all kinds of critters around the outside my house, but I refuse to allow them to live in my house. I will continue to do everything I can to keep them out, even if it is impossible to get them all. If I wanted to live with bugs, I'd pitch a tent in the woods.
I have an unspoken pact with the spiders and centipedes in my house; If I don't see you where I sleep, I don't see you at all 🤝
I just want to live in a concrete bunker with walls and floors doused in the strongest poisons known to man.
At this point I want to live in a metal welded edge room so nothing can enter or exit unless I allow it lol
Eeek. To an extent I ask: “what are you smoking?” On the other hand when I had a house in the woods I employed the maxim: outside my domain let’s dance and I won’t bother you Mr. Wildlife, but inside the premises including its protective membrane and structure you will die or be thrust outside. It’s a big world which must be shared sensibly.
You've convinced me. I am off to the pet shop to get a cute cuddly Polar Bear for my appartment 🙂 I think that generally speaking, presence of bugs in a house is interpreted as the owner not having good house cleaning which is why presence of bugs is seen as a negative.
Great video! I like how unbiased the four pests campaign and famine was compared to other videos I've seen that have briefly covered it like you
Seems perhaps an upper middle, upper class indulgence. For folks struggling socioeconomically, a notion like this might likely come across as tone deaf and removed from lived realities and its psychological toll.
Ultimately it appears still a matter of control wrapped in a different package. It’s still choosing to favour for example bats over another species. Nothing wrong with it just not sure conceptually it’s truly aligned with notions of an harmonious, balance ‘ecosystem’. It’s an interesting idea nonetheless.
absolutely, after years of living in shitty dorms with dirty neighbors i want comfort inside my 15 m2 rented studio, i dont feel obliged to tolerate any crawling crap
See, the thing is, I'm perfectly happy to share my home with various animals. The problem comes about from the animals not being able to understand the boundaries for where I don't mind them being. For example, the spider building its web in the corner of the bathroom, where we stare each other down as I use the toilet? Perfectly fine, encouraged, even. But the spider nesting in the shower, or across a space I need to pass through? This isn't a good place to build, my friend; your web is going to keep getting destroyed by accident, and we're both going to be upset about it. But the worst is the spider I found in my bed, or the one who was hanging out in my pants when I put them on, and was confusedly skittering about all over my body inside my clothes. It's just... "Sir! This is unacceptable! Either you go outside, or one of us is going to have to die, as we cannot coexist like this."... you know?
The wood louse can be found in the home but I wouldn't call them "desert animals". They require a lot of moisture; some can tolerate low humidity but it is uncommon.
The title is completely misleading. I'm an architect and I actually want you to live with toads and other assorted amphibians.
you have never woken at 3am to find a roach eating you eye lashes, or flea or even fire ants coming out of your bed. you will not be so tolerant if you do.
I keep my open drinks under a spider web on my desk to keep the flies out and the spiders get to eat the flies
hence sparrows was removed fromt he list and lice were added instead. you can see the change in the poster shown around 8:49.
Pigeons live near us, because they're a feral domesticated species that we just abandoned. They cant exist without us.
And even before that, wild pigeons are natural cliff-dwellers. Buildings provide a lot of artificial cliffs in close proximity to human-generated food sources.
Pigeons live near me, because I feed them and ignore the law cause im a badass like that
Cats didn't domesticate themselves, they simply enslaved humans as their loyal servants for convenience. 🐈
All hail the Great Meow!
And then decimated the small animals
Domestricate? That is an interesting new word 😅
I for one welcome our new feline overlords
@@sandrahiltz *ancient
At university we were taught to use as few organic materials as possible. Insects primarily destroy wooden houses. Rats burrow in XPS, ESP insulation, etc.
Termites can't destroy a house made of stone/bricks and metal framing!
@@InventorZahranthose are also non organic
The best gift for your least favorite neighbor: A jar of termites
(Please don’t do this lol)
I live in an old cottage that isn't well sealed. It can be like an animal kingdom episode at times. Almost always some species of spider or other inside. I'm cool with them as long and they earn their keep by catching mosquitoes, ants and other bugs in their webs.
Thanks for providing free hosting to small-scale web developers! I'm sure you'll appreciate their effort to find and eliminate bugs.
Im in an appartment in a citiy and even i'm not a big lover of spider, i like them also because once they establish their web they don't really move from it and, they catch all other species i don't want live with it. 😄
I consider spiders as the most "socialisable" insect in our home.
They can start living in my house when they pay rent.
everyone in australia lives with the tacit knowledge that somewhere in their house there's a palm sized huntsman spider, just chilling.
i've been wondering for a while... what would it take to "domesticate" common household vermin like roaches? can't we design our homes with little tunnels for them to travel between waste collection areas so they can eat without coming into contact with actual humans? similarly, could we have hidden tracks and walkways for ants to travel around, perhaps even nest in? how about spiders? geckos? other bugs?
Geckos are actually fun to have around. I wouldn't mind seeing them in my home!
the issue with roaches and ants is that they will continually explore outside of the designated areas to pick up whatever food is dropped by humans. they have no reason to stay inside a hidden area if all the food is outside of that area.
most species of roaches don't cause infestations in houses. you can keep and breed dubia roaches in a plastic tub if you're really keen on having a bunch of little guys
When I lived in an apartment in an architecturally significant 1890s townhouse in Covington, Kentucky, I had a huge beehive move into the ceiling of the bedroom in the early spring. The bees were also somehow finding their way inside through small gaps in the brick walls, but weirdly, clearly never through the bedroom, where the hive was actually located. On a warm day after a brief cold spell, I came home to four dozen bees that had tried to escape through the windows and spent their last hours of life buzzing desperately trying to get out. My landlord had to pay someone to relocate the colony, which involved cutting open the ceiling in the bedroom to remove the beehive, and sealing up the box gutter on the outside. The bees had found a small passage into the stud cavity below the roof through an area beneath the metal channel within the outer trim of the box gutter, and were always buzzing around that area. For some reason, they were also always swarming around another side of the house that was mostly a blank brick wall, which is where I believe they gained access to the apartment. It was remarkable to me how they found a place to live that was not very obvious.
In that apartment, I also occasionally saw a few spiders which I let be, and spider beetles in the bathroom and bedroom of that apartment, which never caused any problems. The only major problem was a small ant infestation from ground level three floors below the apartment. Similar to the bees, the ants found access through cracks in the bricks and were swarming into my dishwasher, which had dried remnants of wine, and into my cabinets to access a box of sugar that was in a plastic bag, which had developed a small hole, above the stove. It was remarkable how they were able to find my kitchen from so far away and get into the space through such small openings. Wasps, especially invasive European Paper Wasps, were an issue on the outside porch and outdoor staircase to the apartment entrance, even building nests inside the handrails of the staircase. However, I found them very easy to deal with, as they are not very smart, and have a difficult time understanding that you sprayed their nest with bug spray or dish soap. The house's windowsills and porch often attracted nesting native Mourning Doves, which did not seem to fear humans as much as other species of birds, and I could easily get within a few feet of them without the birds flying off.
I've had a lot worse issues with unwanted insects and animals at previous apartments, including my first apartment while working an architecture internship in Charleston, South Carolina, where the walls and floors were just wooden boards, and big Palmetto Bugs and spiders crawled out the gaps between the wooden boards on the walls and on one occasion, a Palmetto Bug jumped on me first thing in the morning in the bathroom when I was getting ready for work. I luckily had bug spray ready, but that is not an experience I want to have again.
So why, out of all the species living in my home, am I the only one paying rent?
Working at a toxicology center inside a hospital and seeing the effects of bug bites surprisingly made me more tolerant of these insects inside my own house, to the point that I even though I'm obsessed with cleanliness, I avoid disturbing indoor spiderwebs.
After I got a more accurate idea of which species of local insects could cause a significant health problem and how easy it was to treat non-medically relevant bug bites, I stopped bashing random bugs out of sheer paranoia. They're more like roommates now, I just cherry pick the ones that cause less trouble - fly-eatings spiders are in, cockroaches and termites are out.
(Before anyone comes for my neck, there are more spider-related deaths in my countries than in Australia)
I'm moving to space to get away from bugs
The bugs will follow you.
There are bugs in space already and there have been bugs in space ever since mankind first venture there.
The ISS definitely has bug infestations, its kind of unavoidable.
I'll pass over the millions of bugs who probably achieved escape velocity on debris thrown out by asteroid impacts.
The bugs will not follow unless we let them. It takes too long to travel the distance.
Bed bug cognates are absolutely well represented in nature. Bats and squirrels particularly have them
I have a no kill policy in my home (except for flour moths because i need my food lol) , if a spider or giant bug comes to close to my bed they get relocated to a another corner
There's a healthy population of spiders and they seem to enjoy breeding here, I've seen multiple egg sacks over time, saw one hatching over a day in my office one day all the little spiderlings were so cute
In the summer there's also all kinds of other bugs
Homes need to be very airtight for thermal reasons regardless. I don't want an ecosystem in my house, I want a comfortable environment for myself. The video made no clear arguments about what indoor speecies and ecosystems actually need preservation and why, and all of the examples were literally about outdoor bats or outdoor green walls. Yeah, some bugs aren't really harmful - why would I care though? If I don't need to have them where I sleep and shower I will obviously prefer not to have them.
The video doesn't answer the question "why do we need other species in our homes". The example with Chinese sparrows is irrelevant since generally nobody wants to exterminate species, just to remove them from homes.
And honestly uncontrolled introduction of other species in your house or apartment will likely bring a lot of problems. Most rodents and many insects carry diseases. They will eat your food, they will contaminate your living space, they will pose a threat to structural integrity. Let other species live outside your home
I removed a couple of pieces of vinyl siding on my house to make a repair and the amount of dead bug carcasses behind the siding was amazing.
Any bugs that want to live near me must remain 100% unseen. The second I’m aware of one’s existence, it’s instant annihilation.
We're just applying artificial selection pressure towards stealthiness 😃
"Get in the pod and live with the bugs!"
Under the house if the house is lifted above the ground - So be it. Under the eves - Okay. In the wood shed - Fine. In the compost bin - To be expected. On the deck/porch - Tolerable. In the rubbish/trash/recycling - Not ideal.
But inside the home? No! Absolutely not, and I will exercise every tool available to prevent and eradicate, to cleanse and purify my home. My home is the small piece of the world I have carved out with my sweat for subjugation, and nothing shall enter my castle, my dominion without permission.
Every one is different, so each to their own. But if you live with rodents and insects indoors and invite someone over, and see their eye twitch as something scuttles past, you are likely being silently judged regardless of what they say.
Sure, there may be more individual organisms of other, non-human species living in a house, but their small size is why they aren't given as much consideration. In terms of biomass, you could combine all the bugs and birds and bats in an entire house and it still wouldn't be equal to the biomass of a single human child, let alone an adult. Humans make up the majority of the life inhabiting a house.
If they're gonna share my space, they better get a real job and start paying me rent!
That's cute
**tosses a bucket full of ticks to an architect's home**
*termites
throw a bag of brown recluse spiders at the ceiling fan
As an entomologist my experience with anti bug infrastructure is a daily problem that limits my ability to protect and maintain local environments from all sorts of issues.
The video falls short of showing how. What changes have to be made to live with bugs and other animals so we are not inconveniced by them and vice versa.
Yeah, must be nice living in a place where there are no deadly insects around...
An interesting topic! Great production quality as always.
I personally allow spiders to cohabit in my apartment because they just chill on the wall, they don't want trouble!
I used to remove spiders from my home when I would find them, then I found out that a lot of spiders can't survive in the outdoors anymore and are exclusive to indoor environments. Realizing that putting them outside was a death sentence I decided to start leaving them be. I've noticed since then that there are fewer species of bug that I really don't want inside my house like earwigs. And I also haven't seen an increase in bug bites in fact I've seen the exact opposite I wake up with less bug bites now than I used to. I know spider phobias are a real thing but if you can overcome them I have found that living with spiders is a real benefit. Start small have a fake spider in your house at first such as a Halloween decoration and once you're used to that start getting progressively smaller spiders until they don't seem to bother you anymore. Then you can try moving spiders outside of your house instead of killing them some species will do just fine outside. And then hopefully once you're used to interacting with spiders you'll be able to just leave them be.
Don't lop "architects" into this... Just because you found one batshit architect who wants bugs in the home. No, just no. Raid is your friend...
There is no reason we should just say it’s inevitable to have pests in a structure. I own a lab where this can’t be tolerated. It’s not so hard to accomplish. But it has to be done at planning.
I am not so fond of insects in my home. However, this is why I generally don't throw spiders out. More spiders = less (flying) insects.
This was a very thought-provoking video! I love catching glimpses of backyard wildlife and even some of the rarer things that live in my house with me.
It's all good until you have an infestation, roaches and spiders don't play. 😂
I live in Idaho Falls and a few years ago the city passed a bee ordinance where people are allowed and even encouraged to keep bees, I wish it was more utilized but its good for the various community gardens we have around the city.
Building airtight goes a long way toward reducing pests.
Where do you think your air comes from? If it was air tight, you would die of suffocation.
@@carissafisher7514 Airtight structures are required by code to have mechanical ventilation systems, these have screens and filters that keep out pests.
Eat ze bugz: ❌
Live wit ze bugz: ✔️
🤣
There is a community down the road from me (In southern UT) called Kayenta that has integrated the homes into the natural landscape. It is for rich people and I’ll probably never be able to afford to live there, but I absolutely love it.
The reason I bring it up is that we see all the desert creatures out there that we really don’t see in our standard American suburbia.
I realize this is addressing the ecosystem around humans and not a desert ecosystem.
This was really interesting. I've often wondered at how bugs survive in our homes and the desert connection is really cool to see.
I think this logic of species diversity is often forgotten but extends really deeply into humans. The degree to which our bodies, our spaces and our societies are reliant on (and composed of and with) other species is incredible. I remember reading somewhere for example that only 10% of the cells in a human body are human and of course the 3000 species in the home makes sense in that same way.
I'm all for redesigning cities and neighborhoods in general to be more walkable, and part of that will generally help wildlife and green things of all sorts instead of favoring... cars. I'm also for redesigning living spaces,and providing alternative places for the buggy sort of life on the outside of the home.
But I really can't stand the thought of a creepy crawly falling onto my face when I'm sleeping... ever. I'd still rather keep them out of the space I'm doing my inside-living. I don't mind finding a balance but I just... have to have that barrier. I mean hey... if bees and ants are incredibly strict about what's allowed in and what isn't, I think humans should be allowed the same courtesy.
Ain't co-habitating with raccoons or opossums inside our walls, nope.
My parents always classified animals in the house "these are bad, kill. These are scary but not bad, release outside. These are good, let's live with them" so I learned not to kill
I'll call mammals or birds my neighbors, but no way in hell will I ever consider a bug to be my neighbor! Honestly I've moved a lot all over the US and China. I've lived in suburbs, rural areas, big cities. I can confidently say that the place to live if you don't want as many bugs is on higher floors - the higher the better. Even older buildings don't have as many bugs as a regular house if you're high enough. I've lived on the 5th, 10th and 27th floors and didn't have many problems with bugs on any of them. However on the 3rd floor or in houses, especially if surrounded by trees or if 20+ years old, lots of bugs.
If you invite lizards into your house, they live under the fridge and eat all the cockroaches.
On my commute from Mukilteo to Marysville, Washington, years ago, I observed an apartment complex under construction in the vicinity of Boeing's operations. The bare framing was exposed for weeks to the intense Pacific Northwest's winter rains. I started to wonder how many other structures were built under similar conditions, and what kind of organisms they would eventually host. One hopes that things were allowed to dry out before the drywall went up.
Thus far, no insect has offered to help me with the monthly mortgage. Not even the energy bill. Freeloaders!
This guy probably never got stung or bitten lol
Somewhere out there, someone is watching this video and vomiting.
It's me
Nah, I'm not having bugs and mice in my condo. I do leave the bees/wasps that moved into a hole in my outside wall alone, and the baby dragonflies that nest on my aluminum windowframe (outside), they're cool. When I moved in tore out the old carpet and sealed all the cracks in the floor slab before the carpet guys came, I think that's why I don't see too many silverfish and othet bugs inside. All I get is what gets past the window and patio door screens. If I had swallows building nests like that on my wall I think I would put a birdfeeder out there.
I have a resident bathroom spider, he’s there every winter, I’ve given him the name Carl.
I will not live with ze bugs.
But I do everything I can to encourage life thriving in my yard. Which includes bats and even wasps. Wasps aren’t as aggressive as people act. I’ve been living with them for years and never been stung
Wasps, like a lot of animals, will only act aggressively if you make them feel threatened.
Not all wasps are created equal lol 😂 some of them build nests by my front door and going out the door is apparently a sin. They had to go
Terrestrial isopods, or woodlice, are not desert species. Isopods adapted to arid climates are rare, and in drier climates, they seek out humid microclimates such as under logs and debris. They are adapted to moist conditions, which is why they have modified gills in order to breathe. The species shown in the clip is Porcellio scaber, and their native range are forests and woodlands of western and central Europe, though they have spread across the globe now. Most isopods will actually die in dry conditions because of their gills. Low humidity can damage them, and then even if the isopod returns to a higher humidity condition, they will be unable to breathe efficiently. They don't pull the water out of the air; they require moist air to survive.
If you find isopods in your home, they'll generally be in moist conditions like in a basement or bathroom. If you find them, it's a sign you may have humidity and moisture problems that you need to take care of.
please show us several present day architect living in and making their designs in a room/house with live/active bugs roaming around.... then we'll believe their 'agenda'
This. Sad that this naturalist ideology is showed down everyone's throat as we are just supposed to bend over nature unconditionally or something.
Thanks for highlighting this. I left the web in the corner of my room because it caught a mosquito. It's like the spider telling me 'you're welcome' 🕸
We stopped using the old fireplace in our house, and put a large assembled jigsaw in front for aesthetics. We recently discovered that a wild possom climbs down the chimney each morning and spends the day sleeping in our fireplace, before leaving again at night. It's really nice having wildlife so close as we go about our day.
That’s so cool! I love opossums.
Possums also eat tons of ticks, including the deer tick that spreads Lyme disease. They're bros to humans, unless you keep chickens unfortunately then they can sometimes be a problem.
Silverfish are typically a sign of a humidity or water leak issue though
I had a little fungus fly bothering at my face and i was thinking 'what's wrong with you? get out of my face! I'm so much bigger than you, why wouldn't you avoid me?" but then I realized I'm probably one of the only animals this fly has ever seen and it's trying to figure out what the heck is going on. It may not even have a fear response because of the lack of dangerous exposures
I love when you talk about incorporating nature and biophilic design. Chicago is taking a leading role in city ecology, and I think it’s the only way forward for us. Would love to see a discussion about rebuilding the prairies of Illinois!