Bugs in the System: Insects and Their Impact on Human Affairs (Helix Books)

Customer Reviews:

makes fleeting nuisance of bugs very very interesting.......2006-12-21

In "Bugs in the System", Berenbaum sets out to counter the common perception of bugs as boring and icky. "There is no other life form on the planet," she writes, "whose lives are as inextricably bound up with our own....most people are completely unaware of the extent to which life and culture are shaped by insects." With masterful storytelling and flashes of wry humor, Berenbaum explores the role of insects in the human economy, in the disasters of war, and as the unseen, though vital, architects of our ecosystem.

Tropical ants, for example, sometimes function as the "gardeners" of rainforest canopy biota, where they cultivate and guard the plant species on which they depend from predators and other competitors. Pollination, of course, is the most important contribution of insects to human society. Migratory bee keepers - a huge agricultural industry - follow the seasons to keep their bees busy year round; for a fee, they fertilize fruits, beans and many other staple crops, in addition to producing honey. Without them, countless plant species would fail to reproduce.

Less well known are the roles of termites and other detritivores, Berenbaum writes, "spectacular consumers of dead, decayed, or otherwise seemingly inedible foodstuffs." They help to prevent wood, leaves, and animal products from collecting as toxins in the ecosystem. The introduction of cattle into Australia, for example, disrupted the recycle role of outback dung beetles, who had evolved alongside the marsupials. Soon "cattle dung accumulated at an alarming rate", which spawned huge populations of pest flies and choked the land. Only the introduction of forty-four non-native species - in the Dung Beetle Project - allowed the cattle and dairy industries to thrive in Australia.

Unfortunately, Berenbaum says, insects are perhaps also man's worst enemy. Many insect parasites have developed clever survival tactics. Lice and fleas, for example, have unusually tough exoskeletons, and are often flat, almost two dimensional; this way, they can withstand our efforts to crush them. To anchor themselves on the skin of their hosts, they have backward-pointing spines, which are surprisingly resilient barbs. On the other hand, mosquitoes and horse flies are extremely nimble navigators, expert at frustrating our slapping hands.

As the vectors of disease, parasitic insects have had an enormous impact on human history, which Berenbaum chronicles in fascinating detail. In the Fourteenth Century, the flea-borne pneumonic plague decimated Medieval Europe, eventually killing a third of the population. Because the supply of labor fell so low, Aristocratic landowners were forced to pay higher wages and grant other concessions to serfs and laborers; they never fully recovered their power. Labor, it seems, owes one of its great early victories to bugs. During times of war, concentrated groups of soldiers became an ideal breeding grounds for lice, the notorious carriers of typhus. Napoleon lost over 300,000 troops to typhus, Berenbaum reports, a decisive setback in his Russian campaign; similar losses of life, rivalling those from war wounds, occurred during the Crimean War of 1854 and during World War I.

One secret of insect success, according to Berenbaum, is their extraordinary diversity. Because insects breed quickly and prolifically, the natural mutations of successive generations make them into veritable evolution machines. Whatever environmental challenges (or opportunities) they face - cold weather, pesticides like DDT, or the sudden scarcity of traditional food sources - insects eventually find a way to survive and thrive. While their vertebrate competitors, including humans, can take decades or centuries to evolve genetically, insects can adapt in only months, perhaps even days. As supremely imaginative survivors, it is the insects who may one day inherit the Earth.

Written at about the undergraduate level, "Bugs in the System" is an excellent introduction to the scientific study of insects. Berenbaum spins countless tales of insect esoterica, from the artful description of insect genitalia - a tool to distinguish related species - to the many fruitless attempts to develop effective, though environmentally safe pesticides. She also explores the history of human perceptions and uses of insects, including a lengthy treatise on the varieties of gourmet bug dishes.

While Berenbaum is a talented writer and competent scientist, she rarely ventures to the frontiers of her field. I frequently found myself hungering for more detail, and hoped to discover some provocative thesis behind her stories. Instead, she chose to ignore the new theories on collective intelligence - the "hive mind" - of insect societies that computer scientists and complexity theorists are developing, or the impact of the gaia hypothesis on the study of insect ecology.

Recommended.

Goodness.......2006-02-21

The product arrived on time and it was exactly what I ordered. It was also for a very good price. It was in perfect condition.

Great Source of Insect Facts.......2003-07-20

This book is the best source of insect trivia that I have ever seen! I have used it as a source for questions for the Entomological Society of America Linnaean Games for several years, while I served on one of the ESA branch Linnaean Games committees. It is simply great!

May Berenbaum has a very informal and humorous style that appeals to both the public and students. If, after reading her book, you still think insects are icky or uninteresting you are certainly made of stone. The number of little known facts in this book is simply huge. If you use just one book for reference on insects, Dr. Berenbaum's book would be a very good candidate. She treats everything from the invasion of the cotton boll weevil and the mysterious extinction of the Rocky Mountain locust to insects in movies and as human food.

If you do not like insects or are afraid of them, you really should read this book. It will go a long way toward desensitizing you and make you fascinated with insects instead.

I recommend this book highly to everybody from elementary school to retirement.

I Didn't Know That.......2000-12-19

So you've been asked to make a presentation on pest control to your local school,Elk Lodge , or Chamber of Commerce. You want to make a good knowledgeable presentation but where can you go to get good yet digestible information with a bit of humor? I recommend "Bugs In The System" from Perseus Publishing by May R. Berenbaum. This book time and time again has proved an invaluable resource for many projects. May Berenbaum is head of the Entomology Department at the University of Illinois so the scientific aspects are quite sound. What makes this book unique is the portrayal of various insects and their march through time along with us. Classification or "A Rose-chaffer by any other name...." is the first chapter which is then followed by sex , bugs and rock and roll. Each chapter is scientifically accurate but is written with the intelligent general populace in mind. The book is further enlivened with insect quotes , such as "More courtship lives in carrion flies than Romeo" William Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet and interesting as well as humorous photos. As the book progresses the chapters on Parasites and Hosts as well as History of Pest Control offer a real sense of purpose and perspective to our mission in the management of those insects which society has deemed pests. On insects such as mosquitoes a wonderful historical perspective is given on these vectors effect on history and disease. On the other hand we are reminded of the majesty and importance of insects throughout the book especially in the final chapters , Appreciating Insects and Equal Time. Upon concluding the book one truly gains some insight into the various systems that make up our environment as well as the evolution of knowledge in the field of Entomology and Pest Control. The book is excellently laid out in terms of progression from biology to human interaction to pest potential finally concluding with a sound and ecologically balanced view. Each chapter carries plenty of references and the appendix is an excellent key to insect orders. As a resource as well as a requirement I heartily recommend this book.

Fantastic bug book w/ bit of humor.......1998-06-19

This book was so good! It provided me with everything I wanted to know about the insect world. It also included some humor (i.e. Reproduction chaper intitled "Sex, Bugs, and Rock & Roll). I recommend this to everyone who wants to know about how precious insects are to our life.

The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect - Human Connection

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Food for Thought on the Insect-Human Connection
Ms Lauck Gives A Beautiful Voice To The Insect World
A wonderful and much-needed new perspective
A book for animal lovers
Highly unusual approach to these creatures

The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect - Human Connection
Joanne Elizabeth Lauck
Manufacturer: Granite Publishing, L.L.C.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1893183106

Book Description

Understanding the Infinite in the Small is less a book about insect biology and behavior than it is about reinventing ourselves as a non-hostile species. It is a unique psychological and spiritual perspective on insects and the recasting of our relationship to this Lilliputian world. The popular culture never rises above issues of power. It is in this mode then that we are caught between opposites: either we kill the insects, or we are defeated by them. We rarely see a third possibility. We rarely put down our weapons long enough to consider the effect we might have if we entered their world with empathy and compassion. Perhaps we underestimate the powers of providence that would suddenly appear if we could align ourselves with the earth and the small creatures that serve it so faithfully. It's time to try.

Customer Reviews:

Food for Thought on the Insect-Human Connection.......2005-08-25

Joanne Lauck's book "The Voice of the Infinite in the Small," starts with the very intriguing premise that we humans tend to demonize the smaller six, eight and multi-legged creatures around us, while these have their place in nature and are often important in our own survival (where would we be without pollination!) As a professional biologist who has specialized in arthropods, I could not agree more on this point. Indeed, Lauck has brought together some most intriguing imagery and fascinating myths and metaphors into a discussion that I think was long overdue. As a professional I constantly hear complaints from people about some harmless or nearly harmless arthropod, such as any spider, certain innocuous true bugs and beetles, or house centipedes that they think should be immediately wiped off the face of the earth.

That said I think Lauck also makes some fairly serious blunders and depends too much on very questionable authority. I find some of her supposedly true stories (such as bees visiting the grave of a dead bee keeper or people making pacts with Japanese beetles) to be pretty difficult to swallow and she is totally wrong on several "facts" about flies and arachnids. One (perhaps minor, but none the less irritating) example is the old legend that male deer bot flies can fly hundreds of miles an hour. This tall tale was based on a totally mistaken calculation made by C. H. Tyler Townsend, a late nineteenth and early twentieth Century entomologist, who guesstimated that to be a blur a male deer bot fly had to be traveling at least 500 mph! In actuality they need only be flying no more than 35 mph! To be traveling at 500 mph, the bot flies would use up a huge amount of energy and the resulting turbulence would tear off their wings! On a more serious note I am quite reluctant to give blood to mosquitoes (although I have given my share involuntarily to be sure!) and am also a bit leery about being too cavalier about mosquito-born diseases. Eventually we may make our peace with a parasite like the malarial plasmodium, but it is only after a period of adjustment during which many of us may suffer as much as the insects. It is easy to contemplate these problems from a distance when one does not have to stand by the bed of a child dying from dengue, yellow fever or malaria! As to friendly scorpions, I would be willing (and in fact have done so) to hold a big black Pandinus (Emperor) scorpion (which are pretty docile and not especially venomous), but definitively not a "death stalker" (Leiurus sp.) or fat-tailed scorpion (Androctonus spp.) Only a fool would handle either of these two directly. Encouraging anyone to hold such dangerous creatures is a very bad idea!

I, indeed, would take the middle way (and I can only speak for myself in this). I believe that one should not go out of ones way to do harm to other creatures and that deliberately killing another organism is excusable for only three reasons (one being very human). The first is need for sustenance (including protecting food crops from pests, although not to the level of broad-spectrum pesticide use we have employed in the past)- I have heard that even the Delhi Lama eats meat every other day because of a metabolic problem. The second is to protect oneself and others from disease or envenomation - at least some, if not most mosquitoes, ticks, lice and fleas, as well as some scorpions and spiders, may fall under this- Bubonic plague or dengue are not fun diseases to get and I am not going to wait around for them to become more benign! The final reason I would grant (being a scientist) is to gain knowledge of the natural world, in part to help protect it in the long term and to maintain a body of knowledge that would help us understand the relationships and dynamics of the biota. I would put some constraints on this activity- as organisms become better known I see them being more valuable alive than in a collection. Thus most mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, marine mollusks and a few others, like butterflies, can currently be monitored without usually taking physical samples. The eventual goal would be to eliminate the need for collecting, although this may take more time for some groups like beetles or higher flies.

That said I admire Lauck for bringing the subject up and hope that some of her wonder and respect for the insect world would permeate society more than at present. We need not kill every creature that causes us fear. However, to discriminate properly in an all too imperfect world we need to arm ourselves with some knowledge.

Read this book for some inspiration for ways to get along with the insect world (which as Lauck points out, is also our own), but also with a carefully critical eye.

Ms Lauck Gives A Beautiful Voice To The Insect World.......2005-03-26

The prevailing attitudes towards insects are mostly antagonistic or ambivalent, and certainly, uninformed. In the concrete covered human world that has distanced itself from Nature and realitiy, we are daily subjected to the perverse messages delivered through commercials by profit greedy pesticide companies about the nasty, stinging, dirty, disease carryings bugs. By now, though, we should all be able to see through that snake-oil facade, but how about the "bad bug" disinformation passed along by good intentioned, but uninformed teachers, parents, et al?

Lauck's "Voice of the Infinite" covers all the bases of the intentional to the inadvertant adverse propaganda campaigns against insects and goes much further by introducing us to their beautiful world- bug by bug. Reading this book will let you "walk" with bugs and hear their song. Unless one's heart is stone cold, one will come to know exactly what empathy and admiration for insects is all about.

What is the purpose of a bug as annoying as a flee or mosquito? Read this book! You still might not want to hang out with them, but you will most likely see them in a different and less antagonistic light. Those who have embraced the wisdom and insight of Rachel Carson's book, "Silent Spring", will certainly enjoy Joanne Elizabeth Lauck's book.

And another beautiful tale of finding admiration and empathy for critters is mentioned in Lauck's book and that is: J. Allen Boone's "Kinship With All Life", the true story about "Freddie" the fly. This book is the story of Boone finding mental connections to Freddie and all other animals. Thanks to Ms Lauck for referencing that book!

A wonderful and much-needed new perspective.......2003-10-09

Thomas Berry, the famed theologian and cultural historian who wrote the introduction to this book, makes a perfect statement: "The time has come for humans and insects to turn toward each other. Such is our way to wisdom, the source of our healing, our guidance into the twenty-first century." Joanne Lauck has made a wonderful contribution to those of us seeking to transform ourselves as we travel our spiritual pathways. This book (herein referred to as The Voice) is not a study of insects, it's not a scientific book and it doesn't pretend to be. It's more than that. The Voice offers a new perspective to life, to all that is beautiful and wonderful on this planet; it opens the doorway for us to consider insects in all their splendor and beauty and as necessary beings for the balance of all life. The many stories and myths, woven into facts about insects, make for fascinating reading. For me, reading The Voice brought to my attention the dusty corners of my mind, those places that held prejudices I didn't even know existed. Not just against certain insects--I was forced to look beyond them. Reading The Voice proved to be exciting, educational, rewarding, eye-opening and, finally, a critical step on my spiritual journey. Since then, I've gifted others with the book. An acquaintance named Robert, who reads The Voice while sitting with the insects, tells me time and time again that he looks at the world differently now; his vision is much larger than it was before he began establishing a relationship with insects. The insects welcome him. The bees especially have been offering their friendship--they walk back and forth along the top of his glasses in greeting, then explore the gentleness of Robert's hands. Robert is in the healing profession, and he admits that as he is changing, so also is his work changing. Such is the impact of Ms. Lauck's book. I highly recommend it!

A book for animal lovers.......2003-10-06

I am going to buy this book for every animal lover on my Christmas list! It changes your mind and heart about insects and spiders without preaching or giving you a bunch of boring scientific facts. It could have been called "Insect Angels" like the Animal Animals book since its major theme of insects as messengers weaves through all the chapters. My favorite chapter was on insects in dreams because the author explains how even frightening dreams can have a positive message that can help you. I'll never look at an insect in the same way after reading this book.

Highly unusual approach to these creatures.......2003-10-06

The Voice of the Infinite in the Small is a psychological and spiritual look at one of the most broken relationships we have with nature, namely our relationship to insects and related creatures. Turning the spotlight on people, instead of on the insects, Lauck reveals a blind spot in the culture, our fear-based hatred of what is different and our cherished and unexamined perceptions which in essence deny the creature. Lauck is a layperson and a storyteller-not a scientist or entomologist-and is clear about her motives for writing this unusual book-to raise awareness about our projections that have made these creatures our enemies and to return them to the role of messenger, both in the environment and in the human psyche. The connections she makes to the spiritual traditions are wise and illuminating and the writing eloquent. The cover is a bit misleading as it looks like a traditional resource book on insects. In fact it looks like a book by an entomologist and that is unfortunate. Those drawn to looking at insects as specimens and who believe entomologists are the only ones who should write about these kinds of creatures are not going to like her approach at all. I loved it though and so will anyone who accepts that life is not random but is driven by an unseen world and spiritual forces that are ultimately benevolent. I would highly recommend this book. It is truly one of a kind.

War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Studies in Environment and History)

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creative synthesis
angels and insects

War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Studies in Environment and History)
Edmund Russell
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Ecotoxicology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0521790034

Book Description

While cultural and scholarly traditions have led us to believe that war and control of nature are separate, there are many more similarities than most people might suspect. Tracing the history of chemical warfare and pest control, Edmund Russell shows how war and control of nature coevolved. Ideologically, institutionally, and technologically, the paths of chemical warfare and pest control intersected repeatedly in the twentieth century. War and Nature helps us to understand the impact of war on nature and vice versa, as well as the development of total war, and the rise of the modern environmental movement. Edmund Russell is an assistant professor in the Division of Technology, Culture, and Communication in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. This is his first book.

Customer Reviews:

creative synthesis.......2003-05-01

In War and Nature Edmund Russell, Associate Professor of Technology, Culture, and Communication at the University of Virginia, cleverly traces the interaction between chemical warfare and pest control from World War I to the Vietnam War. His central thesis is that war and control of nature have coevolved: "the control of nature expanded the scale of war, and war expanded the scale on which people controlled nature" (p. 2). Following up on his dissertation (University of Michigan, 1993), which won the Rachel Carson Prize from the American Society for Environmental History, Russell culled a wide variety of recently declassified U.S. government documents, business publications, and contemporary books and articles. Russell finds that World Wars I and II and the Cold War forged close ties between military and scientific institutions, and efforts to maintain such links became hallmarks of the post-World War II era. Scientifically and technologically, pest control and chemical warfare each created knowledge and tools that reinforced the other (p. 4) For example, on the eve of World War I, there were few U.S. chemical companies. They manufactured primarily low-profit bulk chemicals. In contrast, Germany had the best chemical factories and schools and had the largest output of sophisticated products. Eight German companies made up almost 80 percent of the world's dyes (p. 18). However, the increased use of mustard and chlorine gas in the war boosted the demand by European allies for these chemicals from the United States. The "Chemical Warfare Service" was created within the U.S. Army to employ civilian chemists to conduct research on war gases. This research also stimulated the invention of new insecticides to deal with such menaces as the boll weevil (attacking cotton crops), house fly (spreading typhus), the San Jose scale (damaging fruit trees), and mosquitoes (spreading malaria).
The use of chemicals in warfare is not new. Interestingly, Russell points out that the first recorded use of poison gas was in 428 BC, when Spartans besieging Plataea attempted to kill its defenders by burning wood soaked in pitch and sulfur under city walls (p. 4). However, chemical warfare increased throughout the twentieth century. According to Russell, at least 90,000 people were killed in World War I by gas, and estimated 350,000 were killed by gas in World War II, not including all the victims in Hitler's gas chambers. Even these figures seem low. Russell skillfully shows through cartoons how federal entomologists and chemists used insects in their propaganda as metaphors for human enemies. One cartoon depicts a conversation between two worms, one of them exclaiming: "What! Me sabotage that guy's victory garden? What do you take me for-a Jap? (p. 100)."
The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 sought to exclude gas from warfare and define the rights of combatants. Public outrage at the use of chemicals as weapons of war continued to mount. After World War II, the Chemical Warfare Service and other chemical companies lobbied Congress vigorously, stressing the need to develop war gases as insecticides, for which increased funding was required. Noted chemists testified before Congress, claiming also that chemical and biological warfare was "more humane" than conventional warfare. According to Russell, who interviewed several of these chemists, Chief Chemical Officer William Creasy inanely argued in 1958 that 25,000 American casualties on Iwo Jima could have been avoided had the U.S. military employed chemical weapons (p. 208). Miracle "psychochemicals" were promoted, such as LSD-25 that could temporarily incapacitate troops but not permanently harm them. Russell cites a US Army propaganda film produced in 1958 in which a cat chased and caught a mouse, inhaled an unnamed gas, and then cowered from another mouse (p. 208). This publicity campaign persuaded Pentagon authorities to increase the U.S. Army's budget to $80,000,000 for chemical research.
Research to fight insects increased simultaneously with the development of chemicals to fight humans. As thousands of families moved to the suburbs in the 1950s, gardening became a popular hobby and stimulated the desire for pest control. Pesticide manufacturers such as Du Pont and Dow increased their marketing to this group of consumers, while federal crop dusting programs using DDT were initiated.
Russell shows how Rachel Carson's publication of Silent Spring in 1962 galvanized the American environmental movement, leading eventually to the ban on DDT in 1972. This immediate bestseller detailed the noxious effects of DDT on plants and animals and characterized pest control as a self-defeating form of warfare (p. 229).
Reading this book, one is struck by the immense irony of the twentieth century and the causal interaction of peace and war. Never before have so many human lives been saved (thanks to pesticides killing disease-carrying insects and increasing crop yields) and so many destroyed (mostly due to incendiaries, but also chemical weapons). Americans got better at saving lives partly because they got better at taking them, and vice versa. While War and Nature is almost too dazzling in its rich detail and sometimes a bit careless in its logic (e.g. implying that human beings should not be considered part of nature), the book breaks new ground in its connection of two traditionally disparate fields of inquiry, environmental and military history. It should be required reading in college courses in both security studies and environmental science.---Johanna Granville, Ph.D. (Stanford University)

angels and insects.......2002-10-01

World War I was just the beginning of an ongoing cultural and scientific process in which chemical based weapons were created and marketed for use against human and insect enemies. Russell reminds us that the cultural, institutional, and political evolution of twentieth century science and warfare in the United States began not with the J. Robert Oppenheimer and the physicists of Los Alamos but with chemists like James B. Conant and his colleagues at Harvard and American University, emergent corporations like Dupont and the Hooker Company, and government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and the United States Chemical Warfare Service. With an eye for detail and a witty and readable narrative style, the author assembles scientific papers, declassified governmental and military planning documents, trade journals, and propaganda and advertising literature to reshape our understanding not only of the role of chemistry in warfare, but more importantly the reflexive nature of our understanding and relation to both technology and nature during times of peace.

Asian Honey Bees: Biology, Conservation, and Human Interactions

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Asian Honey Bees: Biology, Conservation, and Human Interactions
Benjamin P. Oldroyd , and Siriwat Wongsiri
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0674021940

Book Description

The familiar European hive bee, Apis mellifera, has long dominated honey bee research. But in the last 15 years, teams in China, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand began to shift focus to the indigenous Asian honey bees. Benjamin Oldroyd, well known for his work on the genetics and evolution of worker sterility, has teamed with Siriwat Wongsiri, a pioneer of the study of bees in Thailand, to provide a comparative work synthesizing the rapidly expanding Asian honey bee literature. After introducing the species, the authors review evolution and speciation, division of labor, communication, and nest defense. They underscore the pressures colonies face from pathogens, parasites, and predators--including man--and detail the long and amazing history of the honey hunt. This book provides a cornerstone for future investigations on these species, insights into the evolution across species, and a direction for conservation efforts to protect these keystone species of Asia's tropical forests.

The Cockroach Papers: A Compendium of History and Lore

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knowledge=power over cockroaches
I Still Step On Them!
Excellent human and natural history of the cockroach
A Much-Maligned Evolutionary Wonder
Fascinating

The Cockroach Papers: A Compendium of History and Lore
Richard Schweid
Manufacturer: Four Walls Eight Windows
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1568581378

Book Description

What has six legs, skulks around late at night, and likes to sniff out the hidden crevices, the dank corners, and the dark recesses? The cockroach, of course.

The cockroach is a bug of great design. Most of its contemporaries from the Carboniferous period - around 300 million B.C. - are extinct, but cockroaches live on reproducing inside our walls and traveling the world as stowaways aboard ships.

In The Cockroach Papers, readers learn more than they ever wanted to know about this nasty little pest. It features a mix of anecdotal material from people who have had memorable (mostly nightmarish) interactions with roaches and facts about the lives of roaches - from where they live and how they mate to their much-awaited dying days.

Customer Reviews:

knowledge=power over cockroaches.......2007-09-24

This is an engrossing book which actually has some good tips on how to rid your house of cockroaches. I'm planning to find some Siege or Maxforce, or at the very least dip stale white bread in old beer and put the "bait" into a jar with Vaseline spread in a line along the top inside. A few of the cockroach experts (warriors?) the author interviews are just as fascinating as their subjects. Something else in the book: a miniature flipbook of cockroaches mating (not as interesting as his written description, though).

I Still Step On Them!.......2007-08-08

I read this book while spending the summer in a run-down, cockroach-infested, seasonal fishing cabin in Canada. It was hilarous, informative, very, very well-written and almost (almost) made me like the nasty little things. I always read while eating lunch, but really, don't do that with this book! I highly recommend this to anybody who has an interest in nature, an interest in insects, a curious mind, or...a population of cockroaches in his house! (No, really; there was enough info in this book to help me understand The Enemy and largely eradicate them. I am now in the market for similar books on bats, mice, ants, and bears... .)

Excellent human and natural history of the cockroach .......2005-06-06

_The Cockroach Papers_ by Richard Schweid is a book one might not normally think of as enjoyable, one that that focuses on the biology and human history of the cockroach. I however found it very entertaining, even funny at times, and also extremely informative and boasting a wealth of illustrations. The author had an engaging writing style, weaving in stories of his personal life (some only marginally related to cockroaches, though all were quite engrossing).

There are a great variety of roach species in the world, though not all of them are pests. The most famous of course are the pest species, including the most common domestic cockroach in the U.S, the German cockroach, (_Blattella germanica_), and the second most common, the American cockroach (_Periplaneta americana_), both the main subjects of the book. Other pest species in North America include the oriental cockroach, brown-banded roach (noted for colonizing appliances), and the smokey-brown, though there are 64 other species on the continent far from the haunts of man. More than 5,000 species of cockroach are known in the order Blattaria (from the Greek word blattae, for roach). Only about a hundred species worldwide occur around humans at all; most live unseen, generally in hot humid jungles though they are found virtually everywhere on Earth.

Schweid went into a great deal of detail exploring roach anatomy, physiology, pheromones (including not only mating pheromones but interestingly aggregation and dispersal pheromones), daily habits, and mating behavior, much of it fascinating reading. One learns the early warning system for roaches is not their antennae; it is a pair of feelers called the cerci, located on the backside near the anus, covered in hundreds of remarkably fine and sensitive hairs, each only 0.5 millimeters long and 0.005 millimeters wide (this is what lets them scurry away so fast when the lights come on!).

Roaches have had a long history with humanity, traveling with humans to every spot on the globe. They were particularly fond of traveling by ship, and historical records have shown people such as the Sir Francis Drake, Captain Bligh, and others having contended with them. Interesting, the word cockroach itself is a relative newcomer; while they have long been known to humanity (the Romans for instance called them lucifuga, for their habit of avoiding light), the word did not appear until Europeans began traveling the world. "Cockroach" as a term first appeared in the 1500s to describe not long familiar pests but new ones noticed from sojourns in Africa and elsewhere (the first written use in the English language came from Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame in 1624). The two most famous in the U.S. are not natives; the German cockroach is thought native to north Africa, spread by the Phoenicians to Europe and then from there throughout Russia and eventually the Americas, while the American cockroach (sometimes euphemistically called the "water bug") is thought to have come directly from Africa on slave ships.

Along the way Schweid chronicled the numerous ways the cockroach has entered various cultures, ranging from their role as the "Trickster" in Caribbean folktales to the famous song "La Cucaracha" (originating with Pancho Villa's soldiers, about a roach missing its two back legs, a song with many versions), to the writings of Franz Kafka, to the 1997 movie _Mimic_.

The association with roaches has not been a wanted one, as they have been known to be vectors of many diseases, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and even hookworms and tapeworms. They have been known to be more direct threats; people have gone to emergency rooms when roaches became lodged in their ear, and roaches have been known to partially consume human fingernails, toenails, and skin. Also, they sometimes feed on human corpses, causing such damage at times that forensics experts have mistaken damage caused by roaches as wounds sustained by the deceased while alive.

The war against cockroaches has gone on for millennia. Over the centuries there have been numerous ways used to combat them. An Egyptian papyrus was found with a prayer to the ram-headed god Khnum for protection from roaches, and the Greek scholar Diophanes recommended ways to rid homes of roach infestations. Sailors were once given rewards, either bottles of brandy or shore leave, for turning in specified numbers of roach bodies and sometimes kept on board monkeys or lemurs to hunt and eat roaches.

Today fighting roaches is big business; there are estimates that as much as $240 million a year is spent in the U.S. on control of roaches, with the city of New York alone spending half a million dollars a year on insecticides. Schweid chronicled much of the research into controlling them and the debates over whether to use sprays or baits. The war has taken a special significance as studies have shown a very strong linkage between asthma and allergies to cockroaches. As asthma appears to be on the rise - a 60% increase in the last decade, particularly among poor African-American males - this is very important.

Roaches are of course famous survivors and Schweid provided numerous examples of this. The American cockroach for instance can survive 90 days without food, and 40 days without food or water. They eat a tremendous variety of items, with the pest species known to consume glue, hair, paper, leather, banana skins, and feces. There are 14 breaking points on the legs, cerci, and antennae of the German cockroach, which, if grabbed by a predator, they can pull away and leave the enemy with just an appendage, one replaced at the next molt.

As much a pest as some species of roach have been, they have actually served mankind. The American cockroach has long been a favorite laboratory animal thanks to its substantial size, abundance, ease of care, and exemption from any laws governing the use of lab animals. Work on roaches gave birth to the field of neuroendocrinology and was important in early studies of circadian rhythms.

A Much-Maligned Evolutionary Wonder.......2003-08-18

OK, I admit I used to be among the majority who reacted in revulsion to these creatures and whose first instinct was to squash it--quickly!

Reading Schweid's fascinating book changed all that. The highly adaptable cockroach will probably outlive humans. They're perfectly designed scavengers and extremely good at proliferating their species.

The book combines a mixture of fact, anecdotes and fictional excerpts that explore the nature & habits of the cockroach as well as its uneasy relationship with humanity.

One of a selective number of books I actually had to buy. And, as a footnote, on a recent trip to D.C., I went to the Smithsonian and held a giant Madgascar hissing cockroach. And I like it!

Fascinating.......2000-03-24

There are fascinating random factoids on nearly every page. My coworkers and most friends don't care to hear all my new knowledge, unfortunately. Not exactly cocktail party chitchat. But extremely interesting to learn about. Mating habits, nervous systems, favorite foods, pheromones,molting, it's all here!

Average customer rating:

Advocates Pest Management via Biological Control
Good introduction to basics of attempts to control pests

Nature Wars: People vs. Pests
Mark L. Winston
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Insecticides & Pesticides | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

On our side, a vast arsenal of chemical pesticides. On their side? They don't have a side, the pests who must do nature's bidding. This is our war, and should we win it, ours would be a sorry planet. With disturbing news from the front, Nature Wars sounds the alarm against our dangerous tactics for controlling the pests that are an annoying but integral part of our world.

Thirty years after Silent Spring woke us to the devastation wrought by DDT, chemical pesticides are as pervasive as ever, deployed at a rate of 4 pounds a year for every man, woman, and child in this country. This ongoing commitment to pesticides, Mark Winston argues, reflects our sense of place in nature: embattled, beleaguered, driven to aggression. His book, as sensible as it is wise, seeks to change this mindset, to show how a more measured and discriminating approach to pests, one based on management rather than eradication, might serve us and the natural world far better than our ill-fated all-out war.

Winston backs up this approach with a full battery of case studies that take us from lawns and kitchens to farms and orchards, from insects and weeds to rats and coyotes. Here we see the complex political, biological, economic, social, and personal interactions that lie behind each pest management decision. Against this background Winston considers diverse instances of past pest management that reveal a consistent pattern of mistakes and problems--and lead to realistic, workable proposals for reducing pesticide use.

A compelling book about ethics and choices, Nature Wars shows us the difference between protecting ourselves from real pests and poisoning ourselves and the planet. It turns us from our war on nature to our task as stewards of the environment.

Customer Reviews:

Advocates Pest Management via Biological Control.......2000-09-24

Since 1962, when Rachel Carson published her seminal work, Silent Spring, nothing much has changed in our practice of pest control. Carson had advocated that the methods we employ for pest control must be such that they do not destroy us along with the insects. Yet today, despite the lip service we pay to Silent Spring, and in spite of considerable environmental protest, public outcry and the availability of viable alternatives, we still choose to spray chemical pesticides at an alarming rate. In fact, chemical pesticides still remain our pest control method of choice.

Our attitude is to approach pests as organisms to control rather than manage; we exterminate instead of reduce; we dominate rather than learn to accommodate. Why this sad state of affairs remains so is a central theme of this book, which introduces the concept of pest management (as opposed to pest control). Pest management forces us to look beyond the immediate benefits and disadvantages, costs and side effects, of pest control methods towards choosing alternatives that are more environmentally compatible and less harmful to our own health. The author explores scientifically exciting alternative technologies such as biological control, yet admits, as the 1990 gypsy moth invasion of Vancouver has shown, that the public needs more education and assurance on its safety and environmental correctness.

This book provides such an education and forms the basis for novel biologically based strategies involving pheromones, parasitic insects, bio-engineered crops and pest diseases to become standard practice.

Mark L. Winston is professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of two previous books, The Biology of the Honey Bee and Killer Bees.

Good introduction to basics of attempts to control pests.......1998-12-31

I found this book to be a very good introduction to the issues surrounding control of pests. It uses cases histories such as attempts to control the gypsy and codling moths to introduce not only the biological and environmental issues but also the political influences on decisions to control pests. It's quite readable. Anyone familiar with Silent Spring will enjoy this book.

Furtive Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures Who Live on You

Average customer rating:

Fun reading
Capitivate young readers with this one
You Will Never Be Alone.

Furtive Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures Who Live on You
Roger M. Knutson
Manufacturer: Ten Speed Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0898158273

Customer Reviews:

Fun reading.......1999-12-27

My third grade daughter and I found this a fun and informative book. It takes some of the mystery out of the little creatures we live with.

Capitivate young readers with this one.......1999-09-21

Librarians and teachers looking for books for reluctant readers, take note of this title. With facts about fleas, mites and other tiny human-loving insects, this book will fascinate (and gross out) even the most resistant reader. Great for book talks, I've used this title in many school visits leaving everyone scratching furiously and begging for more.

You Will Never Be Alone........1998-09-02

Did you know that fleas are highly specie-specific (e.g., the fleas that prefer dogs don't like cats or people)? Did you know that the lice found on the bodies of people are completely different from the lice inhabiting the head or pubic region (a.k.a. crabs)? Do you care?

Book Description

This book is an identification guide to the arthropods (insects, mites, ticks, etc.) which affect the health of people and their domestic animals. It is designed for practical use on the laboratory bench and in the field. Coverage of organisms is world-wide, allowing the student to become familiar with and identify to genus level, all types of medical and veterinary pests.

Flow of Life in the Atmosphere: An Airscape Approach to Understanding Invasive Organisms

Average customer rating:

Flow of Life in the Atmosphere: An Airscape Approach to Understanding Invasive Organisms
Scott A. Isard , and Stuart H. Gage
Manufacturer: Michigan State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Weather | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

As we enter the twenty-first century the ultimate objective of environmental management programs should be to manipulate ecosystems so that they fulfill the needs of humans and at the same time maintain their integrity. In this new ground-breaking work, Isard and Gage look at the importance of anticipating consequences of the aerial flow of biota as new strategies to understand and manage our environment. A sound understanding of the biological and meteorological interactions that govern the movement of organisms in the atmosphere is a prerequisite to the development of successful management strategies for terrestrial ecosystems. Inflows and outflows of organisms to and from habitats can be as important as birth and death rates in regulating the dynamics of populations.

Book Description

In The Insect-Populated Mind, author David Spooner proposes a close connection between aspects of insect evolution and the human intellect.

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