A recent study links higher income to the diversity of bugs inside homes. Called the ‘luxury effect,’ wealthier people tend to have more bug types hanging out indoors.
This may not seem obvious at first, but the reason is simple. The richer you are, the more likely you are to own a bigger house and maintain a landscape, which supports more plants and trees, which cultivates more bugs, thereby inviting more types of insects into your home.
“More expensive houses tend to be larger, providing more space for bugs to roam. This is called the species-area curve, a concept originally developed to help explain diversity in oceanic islands. The concept soon expanded to include diversity of all stripes. Basically, the more area there is, the more species can call a place home.”
The study also suggests that bugs treat the larger homes like they do trees, living in different rooms like they do on tree branches.
So, just imagine the diversity of insects bug lovers would discover at the White House, Lebron’s mansion, or your resort. But if you live in a city? You can throw the insect to income ratio out the window.
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