Architects Want You To Live With Bugs
- December 2, 2023
- Posted by: MainInstructor
- Category: Architectural Design Go
Video Title: Architects Want You To Live With Bugs
Right now nestled inside of the 2200 ft or 21 M of any average American home there are about 100 different species of flies spiders beetles ants and other insects living in there humans of course are another species and they’re likely between two or three of them in there as
Well in total about 3,000 species of animals are currently found in homes across the world a good majority of these are called domestic species but I’m not talking about pets here like cats which for some reason just kind of domesticated themselves a few thousand years ago of course cats have places in
Our homes but like pets these domestic species have adapted to live specifically in domestic environments or spaces inside of our homes or around humans and they don’t live anywhere else but closely inside of our orbit I’m talking about animals like carpet beetles and bed bugs even which don’t
Really occur in the wild they live their entire lives inside of our buildings when we think of ecosystems we think of forests or oceans or savanas maybe rarely do we consider the microcosm of life that exists inside or between the walls of our houses that we build yet an
Average house is an ecosystem the system is regulated by certain characteristics of the home environment and the animals that participate in it including us many of those non-human species have come to depend on our presence how does this ecosystem work and what is our relationship to it is it a case of since
We built it we can do whatever we want or do we have some other responsibility here both ethically or just practically the ecosystems of our home are delicate and complex networks of exchanges between its design and the activities inside of course different parts of the building attract different
Kinds of life outside Eaves are important nesting sites for birds like swallows or wasps inside of the walls too can be a place where mice wasps or honeybees live inside in the basement you might have Sellar beetles where it’s dark and and then they can find food in the kitchen larer beetles that
Feed on animal products or flower beetles will eat well flower in the Attic you’ll find things like spiders ladybugs and of course bats some Architects like Joyce Swang create structures or modifications to buildings that are specifically designed for these species to thrive alongside of us rather than thinking about animals as
You know external to our world it’s like we have to start thinking about them as community members and neighbors they live right next door to us they live in our buildings um they’re part of our world so my name is Joyce Swang I am an architect I’m an associate professor at
University of Buffalo I run a practice called ants of the Prairie which is a small practice that works on designing structures that incorporate ecological conditions specifically looking at incorporating uh conditions for for wildlife synanthropic species are basically animals that that have been integrated into into human-built conditions so um animals like raccoons
And rats other examples might be like sparrows pigeons they are all predisposed to living around humans some of the insects from before like the carpet beetles are called comensal which translates as guests that eat at the same table they live in our homes but don’t really do any harm they don’t
Cause disease or damage inquilines on the other hand live in the nest and feed directly off of our waist without really doing any damage image silverfish and book lights are good examples of this those are in contrast to parasites but I don’t want to get into
That so inside of our homes have unique ecosystems that aren’t found anywhere else in nature these developed over thousands of years as agriculture allowed societies to just slow down and maybe set up permanent residences that we would return to regularly you know not nomadically moving with herds of
Buffalo or something this stability is coupled with four main features of the space inside a house that are unique first houses are dry the animals that take up residence here tend to like low humidity and protection from the rain just like we do but interestingly a
Number of animals that we find in our houses actually developed in almost desert-like climates like phero ants or the woodlouse that’s able to get the water that it needs directly out of the air they adapted this from their native desert climates where they couldn’t rely on rain in addition to dryness these
Animals are also seeking the comfort of warmth food and protection from prey all of these of course are why we like buildings too but our structures are used way more by non-human animals than they are by us humans and we don’t really think of it that way though and
I’m guessing that doesn’t really fit the picture in your minds of how the buil environment is supposed to work I think to make to make a space truly welcoming and comfortable for Animals you have to really choreograph your life with the animals life if there are places where
You’re doing things like eating places that need to be clean you would need to find a way to design your home so that the animals live somewhere else buildings are supposed to clearly delimit the inside from the outside the good nature from the bad nature in this case good nature means clean portable
Water not leaks or rainwater and in this case of animals we may choose to have a few pets of acceptable domestic species but beyond that the rest should just stay outside homes are a sort of Sacred Space where we expect a certain level of control over it part of this control is
About dictating who can and can’t enter if someone or something enters it should be By Invitation Only When Architects think of designing buildings you’re usually thinking about designing for people and not for Animals we go to Great Lengths to ensure this barrier between the two Realms remains as impenetrable as possible filters seals
Screens airtight details are all important soldiers in the battle to M this fundamentally imbalanced equilibrium this attention also targets the outside of buildings to make sure that animals don’t get too comfortable on or near them building cracks or seams or other potential nesting locations where say like a a swallow might take up
Residents are quickly patched and sealed and if we let our attention drift too long any building can fall victim to an infestation and some animals like termites actively make our buildings unsafe by eating away at the wooden structure interestingly though maintaining this separation effectively isn’t just about how much money that you
Throw at the problem you might say that like a a poor household that’s maybe cleaned less regularly or its maintenance isn’t quite as up to date would have more animal species inside of it than say like a a wealthier household but it’s actually the opposite wealthier homes usually have more species due to
Their proximity to Gardens and other Wildlife either way there is a huge Rift between this perceived role of the buildings that we inhabit versus the reality of their situation the reality is that our buildings are complex ecosystems that not only serve humans but hundreds if not thousands of interrelated species whose delicate
Balance is important in ways that we can’t predict or even really comprehend this is an area where thinking of humans as lone exceptions in a world that serves only our needs can get us into real trouble you can’t foresee what’s going to be useful or not useful right
Um at some point someone thought bats were pests and then realized only after they started dying that they actually eat mosquitoes the animals that we tend to like these are called charismatic species dog cats or even polar bears are considered charismatic species we invite them into our home well maybe not the
Polar bears but this idea of Charisma plays a big part in what we find acceptable or what creeps us out I almost feel like any animal um if you put it on Instagram it’s going to become a star at some point I’ve seen a lot of attention on baby bats on Instagram for
Example there’s a there’s uh a baby bat called L dra and it’s very cute but just like any ecosystem the ecology inside your home Home is pretty nuanced and delicate take for instance a massive project in China that was meant to solve its hygiene Problem by targeting certain species for removal
This happened in the late 1950s and 60s it was called the four pest campaign on the surface it had good intentions get rid of the animals that seem to cause problems and diseases they decided that the best four species to Target were rodents for their role in spreading the
Plague mosquitoes for spreading malaria flies and sparrows who were eating a lot of the country’s rice and fruit before they could be harvested for food sparrows weren’t really part of the hygiene problem but ate rice at an astounding rate 4 lb or 2 kg of grain per Sparrow per year that’s not an
Insignificant amount which affected crop yields so the country banded together and encouraged all citizens to do their part to eradicate every Sparrow they were hunted and people would just make lots of Noise with pots and pans and drums to scare them until they died from exhaustion Sparrow nests were dest
Destroyed their eggs were broken and then the chicks were killed the campaign was so intense that sparrows were nearly driven to Extinction in China this had some unforeseen dire consequences while sparrows did eat rice they also ate a lot of insects the imbalance caused by removing them from the ecosystem seemed
To favor locusts whose population skyrocketed to unprecedented levels the locusts devastated crops which significantly contribute to the great Chinese famine when 45 million people starve to death if we want to intervene inside of this ecosystem we should do so carefully part of this means considering animals as
Cohabitants in the ecosystem which is a more accurate and probably healthy way to think about our relationships animals inhabit the world and share the world with us in every way possible so if you’re not thinking about them while you’re designing you’re going to have to deal with them later on this rebranding
Hints that maybe we have a little less control over the system than we might like but if we think of ourselves as good neighbors it can have a Cascade of benefits some general things that you might consider doing are to maintain corridors across your yard that allow
Wildlife to move more freely you can also reduce the amount of light pollution that your household generates Bright Lights can really disrupt the natural behaviors of nocturnal animals or you might think about installing a green roof or a green wall which can provide habitats for plants and insects while helping to insulate your
Home if we understand the roof or the wall of a house as a space that can be inhabited by other species then we can start thinking about those kinds of enclosures as a more expanded environment so not just a kind of thin membrane that keeps the inside away from
The outside um but something that’s more expanded that’s more that’s more um gradiated so let’s do a thought experiment around that average American home and let’s imagine that you do something simple like building a bat house it would be a safe place for bats to be able to find homes and maybe raise
Their young this would help offset the destruction of their typical habitats Beyond just helping to maintain a healthy and diverse ecosystem bats offer a natural control mechanism for other species which you might find even more undesirable like moss and mosquitoes and they’re important pollinators that Aid in the Regeneration of forests and other
Habitats in the work that I’ve been doing designing installations and built projects to support bat habitat I’ve been really interested in creating projects that are conspicuous projects that are visible and announce the presence of bats I think it’s important to give identity to to the animals to really kind of celebrate their presence
Joyce took me to a house for bats that she designed to keep the animals nearby and visible the project is called to Middle species with love and it’s basically um if you can kind of look up this right here the top of this is basically a bat house so it’s it’s
Modeled after a rocket box which is a a kind of typical type of bat house that’s been proven uh to be effective for the endanger Indiana bat it’s located about um you know 12 to 16 ft above above ground which is a kind of decent height
For for bats and then this part down here is um a pile of local Stone yeah when we were building this structure one of the things that happened is as we were stacking the stones like little toads actually started to like hop into it inside the complex ecosystems of our
Built environment it’s clear that the lines between nature and nurture between the wild and the domesticated are more blurry than we think our homes are sacred spaces but also thriving ecosystems this narrative that our buildings are solely for human Comfort is severely limited to a point that it’s
Almost detrimental to how we even adapt the world to our needs the reality is that our homes are shared spaces teeming with life and each species playing a role in the delicate balance of this microcosm most of us won’t be killing all The Sparrows in China or even
Erecting public bat sculptures but these examples I think underscores the importance of understanding and even respecting the intricate network of life that exists inside of our walls so maybe we can challenge the traditional Notions of what it means to inhabit a space with Intruders or pests let’s cohabitate with
Those species maybe not just the charismatic ones let’s recognize maybe a wider range of animals that contribute to the health and vitality of our shared environment maybe you will personally feel a little bit more fulfilled in your new position in the natural order but more importantly it will go a long way
To making better decisions about the way that we build Joyce showed me all around Columbus Indiana to check out human-built animal habitats she brought out her bat detector and we hunted through a barn that was filled with a gorgeous Furniture looking for even more evidence of bats it was a blast we spent
An entire day together even though only a few seconds of it made it into this video I just couldn’t leave it there so I made a full video of Joyce teaching me all about animal architecture and it’s on nebula the streaming platform that’s owned by us creators and who is also
Helping support me by sponsoring this video Sam at went over Productions real engineering not just bike City beautiful and many more of the folks that you watch are also part of the hand selected crew of educational creators that’s on nebula and it is by far the best place
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Gross that you resort to using artificially generated images for your thumbnail. The company you used to generate that picture illegally stole data from millions of people without credit or compensation, it didn’t just appear out of thin air. Imagine if your architectural career was spied on and stolen by a company intending to sell it to convenience hungry consumers and you got no credit and wasn’t paid a dime. Surely you wouldn’t do the same to the millions of photographers and digital artists who barely even make enough to skate by. Don’t be gross, just use normal images.
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 KNEW IT
From what we learn in history pretty much if you DO need some species.
Example just leave all those that eats bugs. Spider are homies that clean our house in exchange for their web. And geckos are just introvert that eat bugs and flee from our way if we walk there.
Those twos are the best to keep at home.
The title is completely misleading. I'm an architect and I actually want you to live with toads and other assorted amphibians.
I do my best to not dislike bugs as a person with a long history of having a negative reaction to bugs. I think I'm down to just hating cockroaches, wasps, mosquitoes and stink bugs.
Random Bug Stories:
I had a spider living in my outdoor garage opener who only weaved her web on the outside, so I didn't have to actually disturb her, and I named her Karen because she seemed annoyed about moving off the keypad when I had to punch in the number, and the name felt appropriate. My grandpa found her though and made the choice to unalive her. I still miss her sometimes.
On the other side of the spectrum, I do ask flies to not fly in front of my face or into my ear, and I do name them before I unalive them. Stink bugs can burn in hell. One night I was reading in my bed the dark (on my phone) and one of those little shits flew from my headboard onto my face and when I turned on the light it hit me in the face again. It even squirted its stink on me, and I think I screamed four times that night. It's been really hard to get over that.
"Domestic homes" are a social construct 😏
They can start living in my house when they pay rent.
I'm a biologist and this video is just up my alley, since I'm currently working on publishing a book on urban wildlife! It does a wonderful job at showing how anthropocentric our world view is. We are a part of nature, no matter how many concrete walls we build.
I also encourage you to consider a wider point of view: we should also work towards designing urban spaces taking the "wilder" animals into account. Having protected wildlife areas can only do so much good if they are left as non-communicating patches of nature (small patches = less diversity = usually native species get the bad end of the deal), so advocating for the addition and conservation of parks, trails and other more natural areas within cities is a really good step to work towards healthier coexistance 🙂
Carpet beetles literally do damage thou. Their larva eat furniture, blankets, and well carpets
The point about Bats is interesting because its a two sided coin. on one side they ate tons of bugs. on the other hand the amount of rabies cases (at least in my area) has dropped to 0 for the past few years and has been almost non-existent since the fungal infection that decimated their population rolled through.
No real benefits were mentioned beyond bats eating mosquitos. Mice cause thousands of dollars of damage to my homes, cars, tractors, mowers, literally everything and have nothing good to offer. Yet this was not even mentioned. Likewise carpenter bees wreak havoc on structures across America, also not mentioned.
I stopped spraying for bugs and spiders when I saw garter snakes and toads dead after the application of pesticide. Possible they ingested it through poisoned bugs or simply had a fatal reaction to the chemical itself. I now let the bugs alone as I don't want to hurt the toads and snakes which in turn eat the bugs for me.
I don't poison mice because I don't want to hurt owls and cats. I do trap mice. But by far the best defense to the destructive rodents is sealing the house so they can't enter.
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.
No.
We've been trying to get bats to nest in our garden for 2 years, and they've not arrived. We have a lot of trees and wet areas, which creates a perfect environment for mosquitoes.
I put up three bat houses years ago because I noted quite a number flying around. All three houses were home to flying squirrels from then on. I added two more as far from the three as my property would allow. No bats; just flying squirrels. The squirrels also made my attic and crawlspace their homes, ruining the insulation under the house.
This is so cool. I feel like a good name for this phenomenon could be "Conservation Architecture"
Sometimes I start a farming game on my tablet when my cat asks if it can play games
Now if they only came up with something that eats roaches.
i met a lot with ant
I'm sorry dude. You seem really nice and all but this is just goofy. Nothing belongs in my home but me and my family.
Breakfast tea quandaries explained. nice
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.
Hey i would invite a polar bear inside my house. gotta need a whole lotta ice tho
Life, uh, finds a way
Hard pass, I would never trust the opinion of someone who only knows places like Buffalo NY. I grew up in upstate NY and the pests are very mild compared to everywhere else I've lived because of how harsh the winters are there. There's little risk of having severe infestations when the city's frozen in a glacier six months of the year. I'd never seen a single roach in the many years I lived there and only saw tiny mosquitoes in the summer and not the behemoths that have invaded the south and west US. This whole thing speaks of someone who's never had squirrels chew through their shit or had every surface of a room covered with ladybugs. Come live in the South with the giant roaches and tiger mosquitoes and wasps/hornets that will sting you if you look at them wrong and then see if you want to share your home with these disease ridden pests. The thing I will agree with is that houses should be designed better to prevent bugs and animals from getting in. The rest comes down to superior city planning and not destroying the homes of the animals to begin with.
tl;dr, Do not invite nasty insects and wild animals into your home and do not build things to attract them unless you want your house to get infested. Also, don't do something stupid like try to put a garden on your roof because it will probably cave in and you'll get fined by your HOA for having a fucking garden on your roof. Peace.
What kind of 'rose colored glasses' nonsense is this? You surely realize how many of these pests are vectors for deadly diseases? Rabies? Hantavirus? Coronaviruses? Not to mention their feces or urine can be toxic (looking at you guano).
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 actually cohabitate with wolf spiders, house spiders and cellar spiders very well. I actually cultivated my wolf spider population. I live in an area with brown recluse, black widows, and tons of other crawly critters that are less venomous, but as long as I keep those three spiders happy and safe I never see any other "bugs" inside my house because they get quickly outcompeted.
I wouldn't classify carpet beetles as harmless if you work with wool yarn.
So have I been committing community genocide?
How'd that guy get on the green roof? That ladder looks precarious.
Lol “The Cat Domesticated Itself” sounds like my cat who just moved in
2:54 What is this… A school for ants?!?!
We evolved to have "sealed" houses thanks to pandemics like the plague.
I lived in a historic building with 1941 casement windows that had leaks. I tried my best to seal up the leaks, but things still got in, which sucked. I had about, I dunno, 2-3 spiders in the corner of my living room, just under the window. My friends would be like, get rid of them, I told them absolutely not. What is worse, 3 spiders, or flies and mosquitos in your home? I'll take the spiders, they dont move and in fact, they eat everything else that I absolutley do not want in my home. Since I moved forward with that strategy, I never really had any issue. They were like my pets that I wanted nothing to do with, and they me. lol
Bed bugs. If they only live in human habitats that means they evolved their life cycles during the time man lived in "homes". what animal did they begin from?? or did they just Poof into existence.
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.
A fascinating and fun book is 'Never Home Alone' by Rob Dunn
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.