Bugged: The Insects Who Rule the World and the People Obsessed with Them, Hardcover

Descriere

""Creepy, beautiful, icky and amazing."" --Penny Le Couteur, author of Napoleon's Button Insects have been shaping our ecological world and plant life for over 400 million years. In fact, our world is essentially run by bugs--there are 1. 4 billion for every human on the planet. In Bugged, journalist David Mac Neal takes us on an off-beat scientific journey that weaves together history, travel, and culture in order to define our relationship with these mini-monsters. Mac Neal introduces a cast of bug-lovers--from a woman facilitating tarantula sex and an exterminator nursing bedbugs (on his own blood), to a kingpin of the black market insect trade and a ""maggotologist""--who obsess over the crucial role insects play in our everyday lives. Just like bugs, this book is global in its scope, diversity, and intrigue. Hands-on with pet beetles in Japan, releasing lab-raised mosquitoes in Brazil, beekeeping on a Greek island, or using urine and antlers as means of ancient pest control, Mac Neal's quest appeals to the squeamish and brave alike. Demonstrating insects' amazingly complex mechanics, he strings together varied interactions we humans have with them, like extermination, epidemics, and biomimicry. And, when the journey comes to an end, Mac Neal examines their commercial role in our world in an effort to help us ultimately cherish (and maybe even eat) bugs.