The Issues of INSECTS AND HUMAN SOCIETIES

BIOLOGY 162CS

The Issues of INSECTS AND HUMAN SOCIETIES

2019 Midterm TAKE HOME Exam

40 points

(The other 60 points were on the in-class midterm exam you took 8 March 2019)

24 March 2019

Remember the goals of this course are to encourage you to think critically and creatively as you explore issues of the interaction of insects and human societies. The learning objectives for the sections of the course we have just finished, insect biology, and introduction to the issues of insects and society, are to understand the amazing adaptations of insects to live on Earth and how culture and society continue to strongly influence an individual’s attitude toward insects and other arthropods.

NAME: _____________________________________

This is a take-home exam. You may use any reference and talk with anyone about this. Engage your family to help you with this. You can even ask me questions about it. If you have questions, email me or call me and, to be fair, I will share answers to your questions via email with all your classmates. Email at fdunkel@montana.edu. My cell is 406 451 9343. You will need pages 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72 of your Course Notes for question Number 3 and the Pesticide Conspiracy by Robert Van den Bosch (it’s on D2L and on your email) for Question number 2. Question number 4 is extra credit if you want to answer it.

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1. Natural products. 5 points.

After your TA, Claire Zahner, graduates this year, she will likely move to Seattle. It is a much milder climate there than in Bozeman. She wants to start a vegetable garden in her back yard or in pots on the patio. Milder climate, more insects. If she needs some insect management in her garden, what kinds of natural ways or plants could she use to manage insects (and mites) in her garden.

2. The Pesticide Conspiracy: Is it a piece of history? 20 points (of the 40 points on the take-home exam.)

2.1. First the definitions.

What did Van den Bosch mean by the title The Pesticide Conspiracy?

What did he mean by the Pesticide Treadmill?

What is Integrated Pest Management?

2.2. What was your favorite chapter? Why? Be very specific.

2.3. Robert Van den Bosch was very angry when he wrote this book. Why was he angry? With whom was he so upset?

2.4. Is there any evidence that a pesticide conspiracy is happening now with other pesticides than the one he mentions in the book? or other pest management techniques? What is the evidence either for or against? Who are the participants in the conspiracy?

2.5. What social action can you take in your community to prevent a pesticide conspiracy? (Consider what we have discussed in lecture on risk, mode of action, bioaccumulation, bio-magnification)

3. Nutrient content calculations (15 points)

Your professor has 6 grandchildren from ages 1 to almost 19 and they all like steak. Some of her grandkids eat a lot of venison steak, and the others eat beef steak.

Their moms and dads all say, “eat your steak, Aria.” Or “eat more steak Roman, it will feed your brain.” You need the iron and the protein to be strong and smart.

Then they say to my grandchildren, don’t forget the milk, cheese, and eggs for your calcium. Here’s an orange for your vitamin C and a mango for your vitamin A.

How smart those rural African (and other places in the world also) moms were before the Europeans arrived, when they harvested the local lepidopteran or coleopteran larvae for their young children and had pesticide-free fields for their older children to hunt grasshoppers and locusts for their snack food.

Were these rural African moms who likely had no formal education choosing a better diet for their children than my own children, all with doctoral degrees, are choosing as a diet for their children, my grandchildren?

Here is the label information from the beef top sirloin steak (USDA organic, grass-fed) I purchased for the grandchildren during vacation:

Serving size 4 oz (113g). For calculation, just round it off to 100grams

Nutrient content preserving:

Total fat 6g (of this 2g were saturated fat or 11% of the % daily value [dv])

Cholesterol 60mg (20% dv)

Sodium 80mg (3% dv) Vitamin A 0%

Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 0%

Iron 15%

Protein 25g

Use the nutritional tables in your Course Notes and Lab Manuel

Make (theoretically) the same serving (100 grams) for plate of palm weevils, and for a plate of lepidopteran larvae (Usta terpsichore). Using your tables in the Course Notes make a new table comparing the above nutrients with a plate of palm weevils or a plate of the silk moth larvae.

Does it really make better sense to feed my grandchildren an insect meat patty or insect burger (these are available now in Switzerland, England, and Germany) or other preparation with insect meat? Why or why not?

4. Extra credit– 8 points. The War on Locusts was still going on in West Africa in 2004 (see BBC [British Broadcasting Company] report that will soon be posted on D2L or search the Web for it.) At that time the rate of malnutrition (medical term is “stunting,” both brain function and physical stunting) in West Africa was 40% of the rural children 0-5 years of age. That level was still, in 2018, 38-40% in West Africa.

What is the War on Locusts?

Who participated in the War on Locusts?

Is the War on Locusts still going on?

What might the War on Locusts have to do with malnutrition in West Africa?