The attitude of ordinary people to entomologists

And even neighbors in the country can viciously joke: "soon you will catch all the butterflies."
The garden itself is treated with such rubbish-insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
It's funny that everyone brags that cucumbers are eco-friendly!
To the right and to the left, the term "ecology"is used. The most common expression is "You will break the whole ecology with your net"

I don't like the current usage and interpretation of the term "ecology" at all. After all, if you translate literally, ecology is a science, a branch of knowledge, as well as biology, geology, etc. However, I realize that this is a personal grumble: after all, the term "biology" is interpreted more broadly than just the science of living things (life).

I totally agree with Dmitrich. They often use such an expression as "bad ecology" In our school, ecology was taught as a separate discipline. And the teacher was competent. So, when one student once again started talking about "bad ecology", she got angry and said that saying "bad ecology" is the same as saying "bad math". Ecology is a science, and it can't be bad or good. By and large, the majority of the Russian population has no idea what ecology is. For them, it's just a buzzword, nothing more... And which they use, when necessary and when not necessary.

I totally agree with Dmitrich. They often use such an expression as "bad ecology" In our school, ecology was taught as a separate discipline. And the teacher was competent. So, when one student once again started talking about "bad ecology", she got angry and said that saying "bad ecology" is the same as saying "bad math". Ecology is a science, and it can't be bad or good. By and large, the majority of the Russian population has no idea what ecology is. For them, it's just a buzzword, nothing more... And which they use, when necessary and when not necessary.

Yes, this is all correct. I just wonder why ecology was introduced from the 1st to the 11th grade?
I just feel sorry for the teachers, they don't really have a program, so they tell me the same thing. It is good if the teacher is experienced and knows a lot, but when only from the institute? This is where it turns out that ecology is something about environmental pollution.
The jokes of the rural population about toads and strawberries always killed me, too. This city child only saw a toad in pictures, but the villagers have the opportunity to observe their life in nature, so why do the village children still throw toads into the fire? I don't understand!!! And, indeed, you start to explain, and they say to you – you, there, in the city, are all very smart, and we have lived like this for 100 years and will continue to live!
Although, smart and understanding people often meet in the villages.

This post was edited by Dinusik - 12/25/2007 04: 28

to Dinusik:
we had ecology from the 8th to the 11th grade, and until the 10th grade we were taught by a very smart teacher, and a young one (i.e., recently graduated from the institute) and taught exactly ECOLOGY. Before the 11th grade, she quit, ecology was taught by a biologist, and it was disgusting, and ecology became a bad clone of biology. And I have heard that this is exactly how ecology is conducted in many schools... The subject turns out to be about nothing in fact... There are very few competent teachers right now. And literate graduates of pedagogical universities very rarely go to school (this is not prestigious), usually those who were not taken to other places get into school. As a result, we have the same level of secondary education that we have...

There are very few competent teachers right now. And literate graduates of pedagogical universities very rarely go to school (this is not prestigious), usually those who were not taken to other places get into school. As a result, we have the same level of secondary education that we have...

Right for the soul hooked... But in our country, everything is like this: we complain about poor health care, the education system,and the incompetent and thieving police. But one of the reasons (if not the main one) is on the surface: the impoverished public sector gets those personnel who did not come to the court of commercial structures. They don't send us doctors who don't know how to treat people, illiterate teachers, and moronic policemen from Mars! Highly qualified specialists simply don't pay indecent wages that are out of proportion to the actual workload and level of responsibility - you also need to think about your daily bread. Individual fans-Don Quixotes do not count. However, we quietly moved away from the original topic and started a new flood...

Right for the soul hooked... But in our country, everything is like this: we complain about poor health care, the education system,and the incompetent and thieving police. But one of the reasons (if not the main one) is on the surface: the impoverished public sector gets those personnel who did not come to the court of commercial structures. They don't send us doctors who don't know how to treat people, illiterate teachers, and moronic policemen from Mars! Highly qualified specialists simply don't pay indecent wages that are out of proportion to the actual workload and level of responsibility - you also need to think about your daily bread. Individual fans-Don Quixotes do not count. However, we quietly moved away from the original topic and started a new flood...

After the institute, I also happily went to school to get a job! I met with the director, she offered me a salary of 600 rubles, a rather big load and a geography office in which there was nothing else besides the sign on the door "Geography Office". In the process of communication, it turned out that there was no money for the office, I had to arrange it myself... In short, intuzazizm immediately disappeared somewhere.

Sorry for the distraction from the main topic

Gee. My wife for 15 years of marriage and could not accept. Hesitates to tell her relatives that the overgrown moron running around with a net around the summer village is her husband. The son also prefers to stay away. But the daughter goes to bed with a net, demands personal staining straighteners, even selected a couple of boxes for "her" collection.

Colleagues! Why such an inferiority complex!!!
I remember collecting ticks for the flag in the immediate vicinity of St. Petersburg: I'm wearing an orange Zhukova suit so that only my eyes and beard stick out (there are a lot of mosquitoes), a green field jacket with a hood on top (I call it a la Robin Hood), a bamboo stick in my hands, and a waffle towel to go with this stick linked. How people shied away from me - it's nice to remember. Apparently for a possessed Tolkienist, or someone worse was taken...
In fact, I have long accepted that in the eyes of a certain circle of people I pass in the category of "bohemian". And this is an entomologist, yes, he collects insects, and just imagine what he does!

PS. at one time, Thor Heyerdahl was very annoyed by the fact that his expeditions are perceived by many people on a par with jumping in a barrel at Niagara Falls...

Colleagues! Why such an inferiority complex!!!
I remember collecting ticks for the flag in the immediate vicinity of St. Petersburg: I'm wearing an orange Zhukova suit so that only my eyes and beard stick out (there are a lot of mosquitoes), a green field jacket with a hood on top (I call it a la Robin Hood), a bamboo stick in my hands, and a waffle towel to go with this stick linked. How people shied away from me - it's nice to remember. Apparently for a possessed Tolkienist, or someone worse was taken...
In fact, I have long accepted that in the eyes of a certain circle of people I pass in the category of "bohemian". And this is an entomologist, yes, he collects insects, and just imagine what he does!

PS. at one time, Thor Heyerdahl was very annoyed by the fact that his expeditions are perceived by many people on a par with jumping in a barrel at Niagara Falls...

Vividly imagined the picture of collecting ticks!
Yes, in fact, there is no complex, the one who chose this occupation (or even more so the profession) after a while becomes all the same on the opinion of others

At the beginning of my acquaintance with insects, an aunt told me that I was collecting unpaired silkworm caterpillars from her tree. There were a lot of them, but all my attempts to explain that I only bring benefits were followed by another volley of abuse (apparently, she thought that I would eat all the fruits from her ELM, or maybe I would cook jam...). I was then about 10 years old, and my main book, through which I began to love and understand It was a children's colorful publication "Insects of the Red Book of the USSR". So I made a mini-book out of a common notebook (about 12 by 8 cm, and about 20 pages in volume). He drew a butterfly on the cover as best he could and wrote: "Young Entomologist." Then I came up with a text (I can't quote it verbatim, she is now in another apartment): "We, the undersigned members of the World Entomological Society, located at 58 C Houston (or something like it) Street, office 211, New York, confirm that Sergey Kolov is a full member of our society. In the absence of a typewriter, we write by hand, and in the absence of a seal, we cannot seal this document with it (I remember this sentence by heart!!!). Know that he collects insects, and does not want to harm you in any way. Please do not send him away from your land plots in the name of Science!"
Next, I wrote down on a piece of paper all the names of famous entomologists mentioned in the aforementioned book (about 30 people). He asked my mother to fill out a little book with a fictional text (skumekal that children's handwriting does not "sink"), and of course, that the main volume of this "document" was made up of those "undersigned members", a good half of whom (Maak, Grum-Grzhimailo, etc.) have long reposed in bose. My mother conscientiously rewrote everything and even "forged" the paintings of each of the members. It was no joke, but I'd always had the book with me ever since, and no matter where I went, I was sure that if anyone yelled at me, I'd show it and everyone would respectfully back off... The most interesting thing is that no one ran over me (and sometimes in my dreams I dreamed that I would have to show "crust..."). It is still alive today, as a reminder of my childhood...

This post was edited by Mylabris - 12/25/2007 15: 47

Poor, miserable entomological society, they don't even have a typewriter or a seal! In general, the story is cool!!! So it turns out that the little book has become a talisman?!!
I would really like my son to have such a strong passion in his life, and it doesn't matter if it's entomology or something else

Thank you, Dinusik. With such an enthusiastic mother, I think this is not a problem

At the beginning of my acquaintance with insects, an aunt told me that I was collecting unpaired silkworm caterpillars from her tree. There were a lot of them, but all my attempts to explain that I only bring benefits were followed by another volley of abuse (apparently, she thought that I would eat all the fruits from her ELM, or maybe I would cook jam...). I was then about 10 years old, and my main book, through which I began to love and understand It was a children's colorful publication "Insects of the Red Book of the USSR". So I made a mini-book out of a common notebook (about 12 by 8 cm, and about 20 pages in volume). He drew a butterfly on the cover as best he could and wrote: "Young Entomologist." Then I came up with a text (I can't quote it verbatim, she is now in another apartment): "We, the undersigned members of the World Entomological Society, located at 58 C Houston (or something like it) Street, office 211, New York, confirm that Sergey Kolov is a full member of our society. In the absence of a typewriter, we write by hand, and in the absence of a seal, we cannot seal this document with it (I remember this sentence by heart!!!). Know that he collects insects, and does not want to harm you in any way. Please do not send him away from your land plots in the name of Science!"
Next, I wrote down on a piece of paper all the names of famous entomologists mentioned in the aforementioned book (about 30 people). He asked my mother to fill out a little book with a fictional text (skumekal that children's handwriting does not "sink"), and of course, that the main volume of this "document" was made up of those "undersigned members", a good half of whom (Maak, Grum-Grzhimailo, etc.) have long reposed in bose. My mother conscientiously rewrote everything and even "forged" the paintings of each of the members. It was no joke, but I'd always had the book with me ever since, and no matter where I went, I was sure that if anyone yelled at me, I'd show it and everyone would respectfully back off... The most interesting thing is that no one ran over me (and sometimes in my dreams I dreamed that I would have to show "crust..."). It is still alive today, as a reminder of my childhood...

Just great!!!!!!!

At the beginning of my acquaintance with insects, an aunt told me that I was collecting unpaired silkworm caterpillars from her tree. There were a lot of them, but all my attempts to explain that I only bring benefits were followed by another volley of abuse (apparently, she thought that I would eat all the fruits from her ELM tree, or maybe I would cook jam...).

As a child, I suffered in a similar situation from complaints from neighbors to my mother that I allegedly steal their berries, apples, etc. Really, what else can a boy do at their bushes, trees, etc., and even at dusk, and even jumping over the fence! It's a good thing that my mother is a geography teacher, and her first education (post - war teacher's courses) is biology. But it was good for me, but my mother had to constantly fight with the neighbors...

And I once ruined the whole educational process in kindergarten. Our teacher promised to plant silkworm caterpillars by the scruff of the neck for those who do not obey. They burn very badly, he says! Silkworms were very plentiful in the surrounding trees at that time. I had to get my hands full of caterpillars and show everyone that you can continue to hooliganize with impunity! The teacher still remembers me

Thank you so much for such a beautiful theme. I read it and laughed. I remembered my own stories. Directly almost everyone to quote hoch met with many. I especially liked how Dmitri noticed it. When people come to me, they also ask me, and this is all in Moldova. Where do you catch all this, and now the stories:
1-Once I was fishing at sea. In a fresh-water pit, he caught swimmers and other water beetles. A mother passed by with a child. Well, rypa, as it should be in any self-respecting village, is a local landfill. And the child shouts to me: "Hey bum with bottles, bum with bottles, and so on 5 times." It wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was fun to remember.
2. At the dawn of my entomological activity when I didn't have a yazykana. I really wanted to add this species to my collection, especially for me as a teenager and a novice entomologist, it looked so much like a hummingbird. And here is a miracle as the fall I go to the store. And I see he is the most yazykan. I quickly bought groceries and think just don't fly away. After running home, I grabbed my healthy net with a diameter of 50-60 cm not folding and quickly went to the store. Fortunately, there were flowers and the butterfly lingered. It was somehow all the same, although the eyes were clearly not perplexed. I was especially pleased with the guy who was sitting next to me and happily ate food. You should have seen the look of it. I was focused on the butterfly, and he thought it was on his plate. The man didn't understand if I was hungry. After 15-30 seconds, the butterfly was in the net and under the eyes of the surprised crowd, I went home.
3. Finally, the most interesting case. One night, some Boeings were flying over the lamp near the entrance, it was May. And I just really wanted to sing peacock. I was with Shastik. From my 3rd floor, I asked my father to give me an extension cord, connected an ultraviolet lamp. And there is nothing on earth. Just not interesting, climbed on the awning, the one at the entrance. To poach butterflies. And caught. So nothing arrived, as it turned out it was sparrows who were happy to grab the scoop. It was already around 10-11 o'clock. My aunt is coming. Comes to the entrance we are sitting on the awning. She's perplexed. What are you guys doing here?
Zhenya's answer: We catch fish. My aunt wished us a safe trip to the madhouse. And with a high mood, I went to the entrance.
4. And finally 1 more story, otherwise I feel like I won't stop. I came once to visit friends in the village. The village is not a big one with 1000 inhabitants. Everyone knows each other. House of friends in the center of the village. I came for a night fishing trip. The house is 2-storey. I climbed up to the roof, and it came out on level 3. I put on a cyclops (flashlight) and caught it for up to 2 hours. Then friends told stories - one aunt could not sleep all night, called the whole village. What's going on on your roof..... In short, I had fun. And once I was also in a park in the woods, outside the city. Pass by the guys on the lake and say: tots omen bun, shi bolnav shi drug addict, tots oamen bun (Which translates from Moldovan: all good people and drug addicts and patients, all good). I'll leave it at that. And how many interesting things there are in these trips ... wow.

This post was edited by Trofim - 25.12.2007 19: 59

2Dmitrich
And if you say that you are a dead eater from a strangled man, it's not just a stupor....

Forensic entomology?

Again about Primorye.
I must say, the hostess, with whom they lived, once dropped the phrase to one of the neighbors: "And let them catch their light bulb, maybe there will be fewer flies."
The owner even offered us an extension cord, promised to see where he had another ceramic lamp holder, asked if we (!) came across a relic barbel!!!
The hostess was pleased in her heart that her 10-year-old grandson was in his garden and catching butterflies with us, and not walking somewhere.

Forensic entomology?

Well, almost. After all, I have two degrees: the first - biological and the second - legal (for getting my daily bread). That's the second profession and had to examine the corpses.

On relations with the "uninitiated". As a child, I often made fun of my peers, claiming that I would pick up a bee or wasp without fear, and they would not sting me. Naturally, to confirm my words, I demonstrated to them my abilities as a "bee-wasp tamer" by picking up babbling flies (beekeepers, sirfs, etc.). It's still nice to remember the furor that was made.

Of course, every meeting with the local population is not complete without a conversation, and whatever conversation, it is a pearl. I can't remember everything. Here are a few cases. In Sochi, on Tchaikovsky Street, I collect bedbugs with an exhausterfrom plane trees hanging over the river. A lot of people came up. Two meetings were most memorable. A mother approaches with a girl:
"May I ask what you're doing?"
-"You can. I collect insects.
-"Look, Natasha, how interesting it is. And for what purpose?
-"For the collection of such and such a museum.
The mother explains to her daughter for a long time what insect collections are, why they are collected and how they are studied. He asks his daughter:
-"Understand?"
-"I see.
-"You want to ask your uncle something?"
-"I do. Do they taste good when you put them in your mouth?...

Then an old man approaches, and, apparently, a local, not a vacationer.
"That's right, that's the point, it's high time. And then there is no life from fleas. You sit on a bench under a tree, and they just keep coming out.
-"I collect bedbugs.
-"Yeah, and bedbugs, and fleas, just keep coming...

I don't know how to deceive people, if they ask me what I collect, well, I call what I collect: bedbugs, I say, I collect. Usually people then go into a rage: "Bedbugs?!! Are these parasites that suck blood and spread enciphalitis??". Although, of course, there is nothing surprising here.

Another funny case came to mind, which happened to a colleague. He deals with staphylin and collected them once in the Caucasus. Collected in cow cakes. He's on his knees, picking at it with tweezers. The sun is shining at your back. Suddenly, two shadows appear silently in front of him, right and left. He doesn't look up as he continues to pick through the manure, looking at the shadows. The situation lasts for a minute, two, three. One shadow raises its hand, twirls its finger at its temple, and both shadows are just as silently removed.

In general, of all the categories of people that an entomologist can meet "in the field", the most useful are children. Especially village children. Every time I met them, I saw great interest and the most sincere desire to help. Children can't be brushed off with streamlined phrases, and then they will follow you until dark and drag everything they see or ask them to find.

Guilty, forgot to login

  On relations with the "uninitiated". As a child, I often made fun of my peers, claiming that I would pick up a bee or wasp without fear, and they would not sting me. Naturally, in support of my words, I demonstrated to them my abilities as a "bee-wasp tamer" by picking up babbling flies (beekeepers, sirfs, etc.). It is still nice to remember the furor that was made.

Ah, I used to joke around like that before.

   On relations with the "uninitiated". As a child, I often made fun of my peers, claiming that I would pick up a bee or wasp without fear, and they would not sting me. Naturally, in support of my words, I demonstrated to them my abilities as a "bee-wasp tamer" by picking up babbling flies (beekeepers, sirfs, etc.). It is still nice to remember the furor that was made.

Yes, there was such a thing. The most chic thing was to grab a male bumblebee or a paper wasp
I also ate barbel larvae on a bet...

I also ate barbel larvae on a bet...

Well, you are a Fijian, my dear fellow...

Well, you are a Fijian, my dear fellow...

No, I was a student then
No joke, 15 cans of stew...

 
I also ate barbel larvae on a bet...

I didn't eat it myself, I won't say. But Elizar ate. Fried ones. He says you can eat!

  
In general, of all the categories of people that an entomologist can meet "in the field", the most useful are children. Especially village children. Every time I met them, I saw great interest and the most sincere desire to help. Children can't be brushed off with streamlined phrases, and then they will follow you until dark and drag everything they see or ask them to find.

Once in the village, digging in the manure, a boy of about 8 years old came up and watched for a long time without asking anything. Potm even took beetles with his hands, unlike me, armed with tweezers, and threw them into my jar.

I didn't eat it myself, I won't say. But Elizar ate. Fried ones. He says you can eat!

But we haven't tried crickets. I once cooked it, but it didn't look very good, and it was bad for me later. And I have them with roast, with sauce. And still not delicious. I just liked the way they are Korean, they eat everything with taste, I think I should try it.

And I once had to eat locusts - steamed (salt water) without oil. They were as red as crayfish... I will not say that it was delicious-rather new sensations (there was something to eat then).

Once in the village, digging in the manure, a boy of about 8 years old came up and watched for a long time without asking anything. Potm even took beetles with his hands, unlike me, armed with tweezers, and threw them into my jar.

Children are definitely the flowers of life...
I once went on an expedition to the eastern part of the Aral Sea, the village of Akespe. Since the expedition was herpetological, we caught all sorts of lizards. There were 5 of us. Everyone went fishing, I was left alone to guard the UAZ and tents. Village boys from the village come, 8-12 years old. I said hello in Kazakh. Then the conversation didn't go very well - unlike them, I was the one who felt like an aboriginal, and it was even awkward. But they, with their childlike spontaneity, searched the entire camp and when they saw lizards in metal cages (which we simply had to take to Alma-Ata (about 900 km) not only alive, but also in good health), they began to repeat the same phrase:"Kerek pa?". They jumped and shouted their kerekpa all around me. Intuitively, I understood that they were asking: "Do you need more?". With an affirmative shake of his head, prsheltsam made them disappear. I checked my things: is everything in place? But I knew in my gut that they would return again (and I suspected that they would not be empty-handed). They returned an hour and a half later. Our members of the expedition returned half an hour before them, baked, angry, with a weak catch... The kids are coming, mouth to ear! They brought lizards of 30 roundheads and agamas and foot-and-mouth lizards. Everything would have been fine, but everyone was dead - the head was smashed, the spine was broken...
It was a sad sight.
But we gave them 4 bottles of mineral water and a bag of sweets for their efforts. After 12 minutes, the camp was littered with candy wrappers (unlike water, they disappeared into the wombs very soon) and the remaining mineral water (which did not get into the boys ' stomachs) they began to water each other, and when the water ended, a battle of Jedi armed with plastic bottles began to boil (without weapons, except of course us, successfully retreated).
As a result, we had: 30 lizard corpses, 4 boys who ate candy and were beaten with bottles, about the same number who were not beaten, but simply ate and escaped the plastic carnage, and the territory was polluted with candy wrappers...

      Vividly imagined the picture of collecting ticks!
Yes, in fact, there is no complex, the one who chose this occupation (or even more so the profession) after a while becomes all the same on the opinion of others

And here is another story "about ticks". Night collection of ticks on the night of May Day (Walpurgisnacht, by the way). There is a hill on the edge of the forest (it is drier on the hill, it is wet and bad around), a bonfire is burning on the hill (it is cold at night, however), and picturesquely dressed people are walking in circles on the slopes of the hill (I have already described myself, and one girl, for example, went in an old greatcoat...) and waving white canvases. in principle, it was not very far from the road, and if some drunk traveler went into the bushes, he would be able to see the reflection of a fire in the pitch-black night. And if he continued to be curious (it's just that something turns out according to Lovecraft...) That's how unhealthy legends are born.

1-Once I was fishing at sea. In a fresh-water pit, he caught swimmers and other water beetles. A mother passed by with a child. Well, rypa, as it should be in any self-respecting village, is a local landfill. And the child shouts to me: "Hey bum with bottles, bum with bottles, and so on 5 times." It wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was fun to remember.
   

I can't help but recall a classic joke. I apologize to the moderator.

Autumn, rain, impassable mud. 1 doctor of science, 2 associate professors and 2 graduate students dig a ditch (good hack, money at once...). all respectively in the mud, etc. By a well-dressed lady drags a reluctant child to school and breglivo says: "look, if you study poorly , you will be like these uncles..." .

And here is another story "about ticks". Night collection of ticks on the night of May Day (Walpurgisnacht, by the way). There is a hill on the edge of the forest (it is drier on the hill, it is wet and bad around), a bonfire is burning on the hill (it is cold at night, however), and picturesquely dressed people are walking in circles on the slopes of the hill (I have already described myself, and one girl, for example, went in an old greatcoat...) and waving white canvases. in principle, it was not very far from the road, and if some drunk traveler went into the bushes, he would be able to see the reflection of a fire in the pitch-black night. And if he continued to be curious (it's just that something turns out according to Lovecraft...) That's how unhealthy legends are born.

And they didn't let naked girls out at all to attract ticks? In the Moscow region? Live bait should probably go well...

In Sochi, on Tchaikovsky Street, I collect bedbugs with an exhausterfrom plane trees hanging over the river.

Surely not lace-makers?

Surely not lace-makers?

The very same ones. Well, the ligeid is still a bit off.

And they didn't let naked girls out at all to attract ticks? In the Moscow region? Live bait should probably go well...

You can not catch live bait, because there will be a violation of the purity of the experiment. Different people and animals have different degrees of attractiveness for ticks, so for cleanliness experiments are collected on a clean waffle towel.

PS. But if there are a lot of naked girls , then the error will be leveled! Thanks for the idea!

PPS. But this is what kind of funding is needed...

PPS. But this is what kind of funding is needed...

Many people are ready to work for the idea

But this is what kind of funding is needed...

Yes, no special funding! Only personal charm and the gift of persuasion!

This post was edited by Dmitrich - 12/30/2007 14: 08

Sometimes I am surprised-a lot of entomologists go with nets, knives, and even with various frightening objects.. And in such cases, we are talking about financing..