Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects PDF
Preview Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects
WICKED BUGS ALSO BY AMY STEWART From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities Wicked Bugs THE LOUSE THAT CONQUERED NAPOLEON’S ARMY & OTHER DIABOLICAL INSECTS Amy Stewart ETCHINGS AND DRAWINGS BY Briony Morrow-Cribbs Published by ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL Post Office Box 2225 Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225 a division of WORKMAN PUBLISHING 225 Varick Street New York, New York 10014 © 2011 by Amy Stewart. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited. Design by Anne Winslow, with thanks to Jean-Marc Troadec. Reproduction of the Schmidt Pain Index (pages 137–138) reprinted by permission of Justin O. Schmidt. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stewart, Amy. Wicked bugs : the louse that conquered Napoleon’s army & other diabolical insects / Amy Stewart ; etchings and drawings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs.—1st ed p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-56512-960-3 1. Insect pests. 2. Arachnida. I. Morrow-Cribbs, Briony. II. Title. SB931.S83 2011 632′.7—dc22 2011003629 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition To PSB CONTENTS Warning: We Are Seriously Outnumbered African Bat Bug She’s Just Not That Into You Asian Giant Hornet Assassin Bug Bugs of War Bed Bug Biting Midge Black Fly Black Widow Stinging Caterpillars Bombardier Beetle Brazilian Wandering Spider Curse of the Scorpion Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Brown Recluse Chigger Mite Chigoe Flea Have No Fear Cockroach Colorado Potato Beetle The Gardener’s Dirty Dozen Corn Rootworm Death-Watch Beetle Bookworms Deer Tick Filth Fly I’ve Got You Under My Skin Formosan Subterranean Termite The Ants Go Marching Giant Centipede Mediterranean Fruit Fly Millipede Arrow Poisons Mosquito Mountain Pine Beetle Nightcrawler The Enemy Within Oriental Rat Flea Paederus Beetle Corpse-Eaters Phylloxera Rocky Mountain Locust Fear No Weevils Sand Fly Scabies Mite What’s Eating You? Spanish Fly Tarantula Tsetse fly Zombies END NOTES About the Artist Resources Bibliography Index INTRODUCTION WARNING: We Are Seriously Outnumbered In 1909, the Chicago Daily Tribune ran an article titled “If Bugs Were the Size of Men.” It began with this ominous statement: “All the powers of destruction that were ever invented by man are puerile and absurd compared with those with which nature has invested insects.” The reporter went on to ask what would happen “if some mighty magician’s wand should be waved over the world tomorrow and mankind be reduced to the size of insects, while these tiny creatures should reach the size of men.” Chicagoans must have read with alarm of the calamities that would befall them if they were to trade places with bugs: the giant Hercules beetle was not just formidable, but immoral, with a taste for drinking and brawling; bark beetles would mow down massive fortresses; armies would be helpless against the artillery of the bombardier beetle; and spiders would “destroy elephants . . . a man’s only possible salvation would be that he was too insignificant to attack.” Even lions would cower in fear against these new winged and multilegged enemies. The reporter’s intent was, undoubtedly, to make the point that insects are powerful in their own way and to suggest that only their diminutive size keeps them from conquering the world. If only that were true. In fact, insects have changed the course of history. They have halted soldiers in their tracks. They have driven farmers off their land. They have devoured cities and forests, and inflicted pain, suffering, and death upon hundreds of millions. This is not to say that they don’t do good as well. They pollinate the plants that feed us, and they are themselves food for creatures up and down the food chain. They do the vital work of decomposition, returning everything from fallen leaves to fallen heroes back to the earth. Any number of insects, from the blow fly to the blister beetle, have proven useful in medicine. And they prey on one another, keeping pests in check. We could not live without them. In fact, indiscriminate pesticide use and destruction of insect habitats is far more harmful than simply learning to live alongside them and to appreciate their finer qualities.
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