When it comes to cleanliness, common sense suggest wealthier homes are at an advantage. Live-in maids and cleaning services should, ostensibly, help create antiseptic, exclusively human enclosures. Yet new research shows there’s a correlation between socioeconomics and the presence of bugs in the home: more affluent neighborhoods host a greater number of species than lower-income areas.
If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense: more green space means more plants that harbor insects. In fact, socioeconomics impacts diversity across the board, with higher affluence associated with more birds, bats, reptiles, etc.
Humans don’t live aside “nature”, but are an integral and influential force in ecology. Despite all our pesticides and cleaning products, our homes are entangled in a mesh of bacteria, fungi, plants, insects, and animals. According to the study, the average home hosts about 100 species of arthropods, ie. insects and spiders
"Our houses are really permeable and dynamic,” states Michelle Trautwein, co-author of the study. “Through our studies, we hope to inspire citizens all over the globe to get curious about the species in their everyday lives. We still have so much to learn about indoor ecology and the ever-evolving relationship between humans and arthropods."
Interested in more about how the built environment is entangled in ecology? Check out past Archinect features:
4 Comments
if you read Magic Schoolbus as a kid you know that some species actually thrive in our urban and suburban environments. Cardinals and raccoons LOVE the suburbs!
Personally my house looks pretty crappy because I won't kill a spider so I just let the webs build up over the summer. So my house is pretty webby. But those webs are gorgeous!
I'm reminded of a culinary corollary (!) from my earlier life as a waiter in a swanky restaurant.
The chef told me (and I witnessed for myself) that, overall in the dining world, the higher priced the restaurant, the more hands touch the food. In cheap fast-food places, all is prepared quickly and in high volume, often mechanically; there's generally no time to do much besides sling it around, pronto. (Exceptions happen, yes, but you get the point.)
But in a fancy eatery serving haute cuisine, every last thing is fussed over, from temperatures to presentation on the plate. To get it right, sous-chefs, line cooks, salad guys, and pastry chefs all test here and move there, each with a different set of digits. And don't get me started on all the damp breath exhaled into wine glasses to help wipe away smears just before opening the dining room...
Bon appetit !
Oooh citizen I love that story! I'm not much afraid of germs.
Germs are delicious!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnmMNdiCz_s
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