Is it OK to kill stuff? I like the occasional crab cake, and I’ve been known to chop up a leaf of kale and toss it into a salad. So, no. I’m not a vegan or even a vegetarian. Things die so that I can live, and that is a fact.
But how about the spider I saw skittering across the shower pan just as I was stepping onto it the other day? It had a body the size of a fingernail and legs that went on forever. He looked dangerous. Creepy.
Squash the Interloper?
Would it be OK to squash this little interloper and toss him into the trash?
No. Not for me. I put my bathrobe back on, captured the creepy thing between a paper cup and a sheet of paper and escorted him out the back door to live among the daisies.
That spider was a living thing. It possessed a will to live not so different from my own. I couldn’t kill it.
Spiders Are One Thing, Mosquitoes Another
I have nothing against spiders. I do, however, have something against mosquitoes. And eucalyptus trees.
During my summers as a kid in the moist, bug-infested woods of Michigan, I was tormented by the dive-bombing mosquitoes that showed up as soon as the sun went down. The 6-12 Insect Repellent my cousin Jeanie and I slathered on our arms and legs did little to discourage them. And, once bitten, there was nothing to do but to spit on our fingers and cool the itchy welts with our saliva. And try not to scratch.
But I’m a grown-up now, living in dry, coastal California, where mosquitos are rare and so laid back you can reach out with two hands and clap them to death. Which I do, every chance I get. Vengeance is mine.
Yes. It’s OK to Kill Stuff
Right now I feel the same way about a gaggle of eucalyptus trees growing across the canyon from me. They stand there, scrawny and ugly, blowing in and out of my already smallish view of the San Francisco Bay.
They are unsightly. They starve or suffocate anything hoping to grow at their feet. And — they are a fire hazard. The 1991 firestorm that took out nearly 3,00o houses and killed 25 people was fed in part by the highly combustible eucalyptus trees people had growing next to their houses.
If they were to catch fire, those eucalyptus trees across the way from me could explode — literally — and send burning embers onto neighboring rooftops, mine included.
No. These days my main quarrel with Mother Nature is not the pesky, often deadly, mosquito. It’s the eucalyptus tree.
Native to Australia, the homely, straggly things are so beloved down under that a National Eucalypt Day is held for them each March.
A Homely Fire Hazard
In California, however, eucalyptuses are not so popular. They were were first imported to California by Australian gold miners. Later, the state government encouraged their planting on the assumption that eucalyptuses would be a cheap and easy source of lumber. They weren’t.
This invasive eucalyptus tree is wrecking the view from my house. Partly because it’s blocking my view of the San Francisco Bay, but mostly because it’s just plain homely. Photo by Barbara
A century or two later, the Aussie trees have become an invasive, as well as unsightly, species in California. They grow all over my neighborhood.
But not for long. Two neighbors and I have banded together to take out that scraggly gaggle of eucalypts. Those trees are not long for this world.
Same goes of a slice of the mosquito population of Michigan. I’m planning a trip to my home state later this summer. Culex pipiens, I’m coming for you.
More at “Confessions of a Carnivore. Why Eating Meat Is OK — Sorta.” Also, “I Want to Kill My Snapdragons.”
Dear Barbara, We have taken down about 20 on our property with still a group to go. It is very expensive to have large and tall trees removed. I am grateful to PG&E for taking down three of the twenty . I wish our state government would offer help in the paying for removal of eucalyptus trees. I spent 20K last year on various other tree removal, limb pruning, and bush clearing and did not accomplish all that preferably needs to be done. I would love help in covering the cost of Eucalyptus removal.
That’s a great idea — a little help from the state in removing these fire hazards. The trees that my neighbors and I are proposing to remove are on city property — we think. The city allows us to take down eucalyptus trees without getting a permit, which is a step in the right direction. We are willing to pay because our views will be enhanced… Jon liked the eucalyptus trees because he grew up with them in Berkeley. I understand that because I have a particular attachment to the ferns, mosses and oak trees of my Michigan summers.