Insights from Insects: What Bad Bugs Can Teach Us

Gilbert Waldbauer has written several entertaining and informative books on insects, but "Insights from Insects: What Bad Bugs Can Teach Us" may well be his best, both from the importance of the subject and because of the clarity with which he expounds it. Insects have always fascinated me and Waldbauer explains why we all should at least pay attention to these real owners (along with worms, microorganisms and plants) of planet earth. Starting with the most dangerous insects on earth- mosquitoes (malaria kills about a million people a year worldwide and is now re-invading the United States, and it is just one of the diseases that mosquitoes vector) - and going on through the house fly, the "fruit fly" (used in laboratory genetics studies), aphids, the tsetse fly, the bagworm, the black swallowtail (a pest of carrots and relatives), the cabbage white, the corn earworm, the gypsy moth, the grape phylloxera, and several others, ending with the screwworm fly, Waldbauer explains the trials and successes of human attempts to tame "bad bugs." From the failures and environmental disasters of DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons to the success of sterile male release for screwworm and the successes and failures of biocontrol, scientists have learned a great deal about the insect world, natural selection, genetics and protecting our crops and our health and the health of our domestic animals. Waldbauer covers each of his subjects in an entertaining and informative way, leaving you with the satisfaction of knowing an amazing amount about each of the insects discussed. If you only have time for one book on economic insects, this would be it. I recommend it without reservation!

This book is a pretty fun read. It has all kinds of fun comparisons, and a few interesting pictures. I also like pretty books, and this one has a very vivid cover, and made well. This book covers mosquitoes, house flies, drosophila, corn rootworms, fruit flies, aphids, tsetse fly, evergreen bagworm, black swallowtail butterfly, cabbage white butterfly, corn earworm, gypsy moth, grape phylloxera, codling moth, european corn borer, japanese beetle, chinch bug, hessian fly, cottony cushion scale, and the screwworm fly.

From casual readers who enjoy natural history and bugs to students at the high school and college levels, Insights From Insects: What Bad Bugs Can Teach Us provides a delightful compendium of insect facts. Twenty chapters on twenty insects move from swallowtail butterflies to moths and worms as they provide fun facts and natural history.