Welcome to Litsy!

This book is great. It is not a list of animals considered to be pests. It is about how humans create pests through definition, expectations, inaction, and carelessness. That perspective showed up almost on the first page and the author takes her time making her case.

This solitary coneflower, first time blooming since I planted it ages ago. We got new gates and partial horizontal fence put it on either side of our yard and I thought I had the rabbit problem solved 💪🏻 until the baby bunnies were born and hopped through the chain link fence. So all my pollinators got decimated. I know my anger and frustration is irrational, especially compared to what elephants do in Africa, but this book gets me ❤️❤️

It‘s my 25th anniversary today and the biblical rains that have fallen for 2 days have finally stopped so I‘m back at installing my baby bunny deterrent. It is silver in colour so I am totally following the old fashioned gift guide #imlivinganextremelyglamorouslife #dontbejealous

This came ready for me to listen to at the perfect time, I am currently battling the baby bunnies WHO ARE DESTROYING MY POLLINATOR GARDEN!!! The bunnies have done nothing for me! The pollinators are life! #justcallmeelmerfudd #killthewabbit

This is a very interesting book about anthropocentrism and, generally, our perspective on nature.

A rat was always a pest, right? Or a pidgeon, or a dirty raccoon in your trash, or an invasive python. But what about a cat, a deer, an elephant? Because cats have driven dozens of bird species to extinction, deers destroy crops, and it‘s not that uncommon for elephants to kill people.

What really makes a pest?

Spoiler alert: we do.

4/5

It‘s all about perception: “the word ‘pest‘ takes away context & complexity, shuts down our curiosity, our desire to look for other angles or solutions.” This audiobook offers an engaging look at the way humans look at animals who refuse to stay where we think they belong.

Maremma dogs with the right training will defend almost anything. Maremmas are famous in Australia for defending the little penguins of Middle Island from foxes.

Peter Marra, who wrote Cat Wars, received death threats when it came out in 2016. The irony of people who hate the idea of killing cats threatening a scientist with death escapes neither of us.

The whole idea of pigeons degrading masonry was just something people said without any evidence.

There is really no such thing as a true pest, simply animals that we have deemed undesirable. Pests explores this concept, looking at animals that won‘t surprise anyone (rats) and others that will (elephants, cats, horses), with humor that didn‘t always hit for me (not sure if this was the writing or the slightly chirpy audio reader). Overall, I really enjoyed this.

I got major Mary Roach vibes from Brookshire‘s look at 10+ animals that can be seen as pests in various parts of the world. With a particular focus on the US and Australia, she looks at bears, deer, and coyote in the former plus cats and rabbits in the latter. She examines what turns an animal from cute and cuddly friend to enemy as well as habitat destruction by introduced species. Very interesting! 👍🏻