‘Nature Red in Tooth and Claw’
Tennyson observed in his 1855 poem ‘Maud’ that ‘the whole little wood where I sit is a world of plunder and prey’. The wood is part of a Victorian garden but the poet might just as well have been talking about your flower beds in
Phuket.
Tennyson had been reading Darwin and his ‘world of plunder and prey’ is an oblique reference to Darwin’s theory of ‘the survival of the fittest’. While the role of key ‘plunderer’ has since been assumed by man as the apex predator– whose assault on the natural environment has been both massive and murderous – those less visible skirmishes and battles alluded to by the poet, continue in the natural theatre that is your garden. Nature red in tooth and claw.
Let me offer some examples. The primary bio-controls in your estate are carried out by predatory insects and, to a lesser extent, by insectivorous birds and reptiles. Fast-moving insects tend to spend their days or nights on an obsessive hunt. I watch with fascination as turquoise dragonflies, some of the first winged insects to evolve, quarter the zone above the swimming pool, displaying aerobatic skills that far surpass those of any machine invented by man. Why? They are chasing down and catching small flying insects which are then clutched between their front legs and devoured on a perch. They can devour up to a hundred insects a day.
While they are on the prowl, I rarely get bitten by mosquitoes or midges. It is no coincidence.
Among other efficient insect eaters, your garden will have its complement of creatures that operate by stealth. They can move at lightning speed, but generally only need to do so prior to the moment of capture. While spiders generally ensnare insects in their sticky, silken webs, some species hunt actively on foot and can run down their prey.
All spiders are venomous but very few – some tarantulas and the brown widow aside – pose any real threat. In fact, like dragonflies, they are extremely efficient pest controllers, and though arachnophobes would not agree, they are the gardener’s friend. It has been estimated that the world’s 25 million tons of spiders kill 500 tons of prey every year: twenty times their own body weight. But that they are themselves predated will come as no surprise to Darwinians. They are attacked by sphecid wasps and, higher up the chain of being, by small birds such as the aptly named spider hunter, which is adept at extracting spiders from the centre of their webs with its long curved bill.
Other critters which enjoy a mixed reputation among Thai gardeners are centipedes and praying mantids. Both look ferocious and both are extremely efficient hunters. But only the centipede is actually a bad guy and then only when accidentally touched or threatened. Its bite is said to be extremely painful and long-lasting. Make it a rule never to clear up leaf litter and other garden rubbish without wearing gloves. As for its value in the garden , the jury is out. It does consume a range of noxious insects, including small fly larvae, but is also known to prey on earthworms, a valuable resource. But even the fast-moving, heavily armed centipede is sometimes a victim - eaten by mice, lizards and snakes. Dog eat dog.
The praying mantids seem to have forsaken my garden. I used to see them on palm fronds – a camouflaged ambush predator that can eat small birds as well as a range of insects. A pity it has gone, since it looks so exotic. I wonder if it is a victim of the skinks or maybe of the mournful coucal which has proved so adept at eradicating all the oleander hawk moth caterpillars. Please come back.
I feel less concerned about the vanishing millipedes. Black and glossy, they look menacing and indeed they contain cyanide in their body fluids. My Thai partner sweeps them into a dustpan and hurls them into the undergrowth. But they are pretty harmless unless ingested, and as detritivores, their diet consists almost exclusively of rotting vegetable matter. But like centipedes they should be kept away from children.
In the early days of this column I wrote a piece about cockchafers. While the name is unfortunate, its disappearance – at least from my garden – is more explicable than that of the praying mantids. Known in my childhood as a ‘Maybug’ – for obvious reasons – the adult beetle (Melolontha melolontha) enjoyed its drunken sojourn in the sun before abruptly expiring.
The earlier damage to plants was caused not by the love-crazed imago, but by its voracious larvae, large cream grubs that regularly killed my container plants by munching away, unseen, at their roots. In those days, it was garden enemy number one. Nowadays it has disappeared, at least from my pots.
Similarly, they used to be a huge pest in Europe, responsible for the wholesale destruction of food crops, but their numbers there are now much reduced. Pesticides, there as here, are now a fact of life.
But in the Kingdom at least the Maybug, or ‘maeng plud’, are also a succulent addition to the daily diet for Thais who still collect them during the ‘danse macabre’ that preceded their death. Nature red in tooth and claw…
Patrick Campbell’s book ‘The Tropic Gardener’, described in one Bangkok review as the best book on Thai gardening for 50 years, is available for B500 (half price) to personal callers from 59/84 Soi Saiyuan 13 in Rawai (Tel: 076-613227 or 085-7827551).