unwanted cicada killers

thank you for your response. I have difficulty viewing a parasitic species as helpful. I don't believe that just the sickly are being targeted and taken out of the picture. There are over a dozen cicadas attacked throughout the day. This is why conservationists working to reintroduce or encourage species comeback will work with the afflicted species to discourage brood parasitism, i.e. the effects cowbird, and (introduced species) house sparrow, starlings have on migratory birds. I'm sorry, I know there is a viscious beauty in the cycle of life, but if I were to agree with the philosophy you present, it ultimately, I feel, leads to an acceptance of squashing the weak, which, applied to our own species would mean a comfort with allowing the weak, those with tendencies toward developing cancer, or showing signs of autism, for example, to either not be helped, or to be encouraged toward a speedy death. I don't think all the fellas with prostate issues out there would go for this viewpoint if it came from the medical community. So, I guess I'm coming from a philosophy of caretaker, rather than spectator, does that make sense? Although, there are ways this can go too far and cause one to lose sight of the big picture. I know I am not going to learn much if I arrogantly assume that I can control what's been going on for some time now. Still, I would like to discourage any parasitism around here, whatever form it takes, if I can.

but your cowbird / House Sparrow / starling analogy doesn't fit. Humans, not cowbirds, caused the speedy decline of Kirtland's Warblers, and not only did humans bring House Sparrows and European Starlings to North America, but those two species also kill animals (bluebirds, kestrels, etc.) for reasons having nothing to do with food or predator/prey relationships. (not unlike us idiotic humans) For what it's worth, and so you know I can see the issues from all sides, I've witnessed this gruesome House Sparrow / bluebird interaction firsthand in my very own backyard, and have since baited and destroyed countless House Sparrows over the years.

So here's the other side, and why I agree with the Balabans on what you are dealing with. This is a comment I left on one of the images here on BugGuide:

"So two years ago I started manually removing the caterpillar predators. "You stupid stinkbugs, I'm trying to raise Monarchs here!" At one point late in the year I had at least 100 Monarch cats on just a small patch of milkweed. After eating every single leaf from every plant, they started working on the stems and eventually wiped out the whole patch almost down to the ground. Nearly all of them, all but about 5 to 10 cats, ended up starving to death. Tough lesson to learn: Cat predators are actually beneficial to the overall cat population. If I'd just left everything alone I probably would have had 70-80 Monarch butterflies for the year, instead of just 20 or 30."


Be careful-- your actions, if successful, will have unintended consequences.

Good luck with your environmental micromanagement decisions.

That was just what was needed to put it into proper perspective. Thank you, Jay.