‘See it, Squash it’: On sentience, human nature, and the meaning of ‘invasive’ species
Invertebrates ranging from sea slugs to crayfish to flies and ants have all displayed internal states reminiscent of what we consider emotions. If insects do indeed possess even a basic form of sentience, do we owe them a different kind of consideration, even when ecological management is necessary? When we declare certain lives unworthy of empathy, what line are we drawing in the sand, and how stable is that line, really? Now that the lanternfly population has sharply declined, though its presence is here to stay, we can look back and ask: What did all the stomping accomplish? And what does it say about us?
CURRENT AFFAIRS: The short-lived invasion of the spotted lanternfly into New York City, beginning in 2020, produced an unusually clear directive from state agencies and local officials: see it, squash it. And New Yorkers happily obliged. People veered off course to stomp a single insect and posted videos tallying their kill counts online. In the following years, sidewalk extermination became a small ritual of late summer. The response felt like a citywide art project, creating a mosaic of smudged wings and fractured exoskeletons…
Environmental and agricultural agencies in the tri-state area began to warn about the lanternfly’s lack of natural predators and their potential damage to forest trees as well as vineyards, orchards, and other high-value crops. These agencies, with the help of local grassroots organizers, circulated posters and social media posts urging residents to kill the insects on sight and to scrape away their egg masses. The messaging was simple, permissive, and militaristic: if you see them, kill them…
The question of whether stomping is effective or not also sidesteps a larger ethical question. In recent years, research has accumulated suggesting that insects—long treated as morally negligible—exhibit forms of learning and memory, tool usage, playfulness, and mood states that challenge the idea that they are mere automata. Insects experience forms of fear, stress, and pain avoidance in ways that extend beyond nociception (the reflexive response to damaging stimuli).
Invertebrates ranging from sea slugs to crayfish to flies and ants have all displayed internal states reminiscent of what we consider emotions. If insects do indeed possess even a basic form of sentience, do we owe them a different kind of consideration, even when ecological management is necessary? When we declare certain lives unworthy of empathy, what line are we drawing in the sand, and how stable is that line, really?…
There is something undeniably compelling about the kind of engagement that makes environmental problems not only the domain of experts and distant agencies but of ordinary people willing to act, especially when that feeling is part of a collective, and motivated, in a sense, by care. But it also raises difficult questions. Who defines which forms of life are expendable in the name of protecting others? And what happens when the language of environmental stewardship becomes indistinguishable from the language of elimination?…
Today, the insects are far less common in New York City. It is tempting to say that that’s because the campaign worked: the city rallied together to confront an environmental threat and ultimately won. But both the ecological and the human story are more complicated. Now that the lanternfly population has sharply declined, though its presence is here to stay, we can look back and ask: What did all the stomping accomplish? And what does it say about us? HANNA EHRLICH
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