The One-Straw Revolution - Multiworld India

It is impossible for specialized research to grasp the role of a singlepredator at a certain time within the intricacy of insectinter-relationships. There are seasons when the leaf-hopper population islow because there are many spiders. There are times when a lot of rainfalls and frogs cause the spiders to disappear, or when little rain falls andneither leaf-hoppers nor frogs appear at all.Methods of insect control which ignore the relationships among theinsects themselves are truly useless. Research on spiders andleaf-hoppers must also consider the relation between frogs and spiders.When things have reached this point, a frog professor will also beneeded. Experts on spiders and leaf-hoppers, another on rice, and anotherexpert on water management will all have to join the gathering.Furthermore, there are four or five different kinds of spiders in thesefields. I remember a few years ago when somebody came rushing over tothe house early one morning to ask me if I had covered my fields with asilk net or something. I could not imagine what he was talking about, so Ihurried straight out to take a look.We had just finished harvesting the rice, and overnight the ricestubble and low-lying grasses had become completely covered withspider webs, as though with silk. Waving and sparkling with the morningmist, it was a magnificent sight.The wonder of it is that when this happens, as it does only once in agreat while, it only lasts for a day or two. If you look closely there areseveral spiders in every square inch. They are so thick en the field thatthere is hardly any space between them. In a quarter acre there must behow many thousands, how many millions! When you go to look at thefield two or three days later, you see that strands of web several yardslong have broken off and are waving about in27