Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleons Army and Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart

Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleons Army and Other Diabolical Insects Reviews

• 
  Carrie

  I no longer fear the brown recluse. However, I learned that everything in the rural south wants to kill me.
• 
  Melki

  As long as they're not crawling on me, or glued to my bedroom ceiling eying me with evil intent, I am fairly tolerant of bugs. After all, we would be drowning in our own waste without them. They eat other bugs. And there's that whole pollination thing to consider.
  
  But....
  
  Insects cause billions of dollars worth of structural and agricultural damage each year. They spread disease and have caused the deaths of untold numbers. Basically, they are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, crawling and winging their way in your direction. And many of them have a taste for blood.
  
  The bug profiles in this little volume read like the stuff of science fiction and nightmares. Frightening tales of giant centipedes catching and eating bats in midair! Swarms of millipedes that brought Tokyo's express trains to a halt! Six types of bugs that eat books! Horrors!!!
  
  When you're not busy cringing and slapping at the tickling sensations on your extremities, you'll find all sorts of nifty facts and info that will surely make you the know-it-all Cliff Clavin of your next cocktail party.
  
  They may be smaller than us, but we are vastly, vastly outnumbered. I am now fully convinced that bugs will one day rule this planet.
  
  Which reminds me of the final lines from a poem I liked when I was a kid -
  
  Metropolitan Nightmare by Stephen Vincent Benet:
  
  "Say, buddy," he said,
  "You better look out for those ants. They eat wood, you know,
  They'll have your shack down in no time."
  
  The watchman spat.
  "Oh, they've quit eating wood," he said, in a casual voice,
  "I thought everybody knew that."
  
  -And, reaching down,
  He pried from the insect jaws the bright crumb of steel.
  
  
• 
  Terence

  Wicked Bugs follows on Stewart's
  Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities and mirrors its format: short (2-3 page) essays about a variety of subjects - in this case, "bugs." And I don't fault her for defining "bug" loosely. As she writes, "This is by no means a comprehensive field guide or medical reference.... Most of us use the word to describe any number of tiny slithering and crawling creatures." (pp. xiii-xiv)
  
  The only fault I found in this book was the lack of photos. Sure, there are illustrations but when we're discussing Lactrodectus hesperus or xenopsylla cheopis or Theraphosa blondi, one expects and deserves glossy, hi-res, color photos of these "monsters."
  
  I correct that fault - to an extent - with the following list of my five favorites:
  
  #5: Body lice (Pediculus humanus humanus)
  
  
  
  The titular louse of the book's title. These little fellows have been with us since we started wearing clothes (c. 100,000 years ago), and under the right conditions (overcrowding, unwashed clothing, war) are happy to carry diseases like typhus and trench fever. It's they who stopped Napoleon's Grande Armee and sent it fleeing back to France (whatever Russian patriots might say).
  
  #4: Giant centipede (Scolopendra gigantea)
  
  
  
  These beauties can reach lengths of 30 cm (c. 10 inches). Centipede venom is rarely fatal and its power is related to size - the bigger the 'pede, the stronger the venom. The bite of the North American species (Scutigera coleoptera) is nearly painless, and the insect eats other pests like bed bugs, silverfish, carpet beetles and cockroaches.
  
  #3: Hairworm (Spinochordodes telinii)
  
  
  
  This parasite zombifies grasshoppers. Hairworm larvae hang around in water until an unsuspecting grasshopper takes a drink. Once inside the 'hopper, it grows into an adult. But in order to complete its life-cycle, the adult has to get back to the water so it takes over the insect's brain and forces it to commit suicide by jumping into the nearest waterhole to drown.
  
  #2: Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia japonica)
  
  
  
  These insects are so large (5 cm, c. 2 inches) that they're mistaken for small birds, and their sting feels like "a hot nail through my leg," as one man described it. (p. 9)
  
  Japanese scientists have based an energy drink on a liquid giant hornet larvae produce that has been shown to reduce fatigue and increase fat burning in mice and graduate students. Naoko Takahashi, Olympic gold-medalist marathoner, swears by the stuff.
  
  #1: Brazilian wandering spider
  
  This guy deserves two photos:
  
  
  
  
  
  I was torn between the wandering spider and the giant hornet but my fascination with arachnids won out to put this dangerous hombre in the #1 spot. This spider reminds me of the facehugger from "Alien" - fast and aggressive. If you don't kill it with the first blow, expect to go mano-a-mano with a seriously pissed off, seriously venomous spider (an unlucky British chef bitten by one hiding in a crate of bananas spent a week in the hospital).
  
  Bonus icky anecdote: There is a case of a woman who went into surgery for a suspected brain tumor. When the surgeon opened up her skull, however, he found that she was infested with tapeworms.
  
  Pork - the other white meat :-)
  
  Bonus lesson about interfering with Mother Nature: The lowly earthworm is generally considered a boon but this was not the case in Minnesota, where before the advent of the European nightcrawler (Lumbricus terrestris), the ecosystem had evolved without them. They devoured the layer of leaves that fell every autumn and the native flora began dying out. There's nothing to be done at this point except damage containment and hoping the ecosystem will recover. But it won't be the same environment that hosted Solomon's seal, large-flowered bellwort, wild sarsaparilla, meadow rue, sugar maples and red oak.
• 
  Manybooks

  Although Amy Stewart is of course quite correct pointing out that there are many insects which have been, can be and often still are massively destructive, her attitude in Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Insects is in my opinion simply and at best massive ignorance personified. For she really does seem to think that all insect pests are this way simply because they are personality wise deliberately nasty and inherently evil, whereas any entomologist worth his or her salt could and hopefully would easily tell her that insects like all animals are struggling to successfully survive, to reproduce, to pass on their genes to further generations, and yes, that often might mean being parasitical, being destructive (or rather what we would consider destructive).
  
  And no, Ms. Stewart, just because some insects and perhaps even a great many of them do tend to negatively affect humans and our projects, our lives, that does NOT automatically make insects as a whole evil and anthropomorphically nasty, it just makes them or rather some of them potentially annoying and sometimes also a legitimate threat. But furthermore, considering how deliberately and willfully destructive humans in general are, how we have with full knowledge and yes even with overt acceptance trashed the earth and many of its ecosystems, and often still continue to blithely and carelessly do so (and how indeed, even many so-called insect pests have been introduced by US, by humans, into erstwhile pristine natural areas and ecosystems), honestly, how dare you call insects diabolical when you, Ms. Stewart really should at the very least also be condemning of humans and at least accept our own guilt here, that in many ways, destructive insects have thrived and proliferated due to our actions and behaviours.
  
  One star, and while I guess interestingly enough penned to an extent, I for one absolutely will not be recommending Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Bugs (and really, Amy Stewart must be totally lacking in basic common sense if she considers the many insects that consume carrion and break down dead tissue as and I quote her horrible creatures, because guess what, these insects, and just like any carrion consuming animals, while how they make their living, how they eat and reproduce, might well look disgusting and perhaps even smell disgusting, they do in fact provide to the earth, including to us humans, an important and essential service, namely cleaning up rotting flesh, vegetation etc. and thereby preventing the spread of disease).
• 
  Jesse Broussard

  I feel like the wine taster at the wedding in Cana: the best was saved for last. The best, in this case, being zombie bugs, bugs that take over an unwilling host (such as a cockroach, grasshopper, snail, etc) and use it for their own nefarious purposes, such as turning its antennae iridescent colours and waving them around to attract the nearby Nazgul, or perhaps causing grasshoppers, drunk with vino del mar, to fall violently in love with a particular passing fish. Alas, leaping to the water like Jean Valjean does not preserve them from perishing in it like Agamemmnon: they can't swim, and die in a bliss of ardent, wet-gilled fervour, doubtlessly delivering poignant love poems with their last breaths. Of particular warm and fuzzy feelings for me, who have peeled back ceilings and watched them scurry away, opened ovens to the sight of cockroaches two inches deep, and found the scientific way (trial and error) that a roach's head is entirely unnecessary to the survival of the rest of the roach (for a few days: plenty of time to reproduce) is the delightful insect that stings a roach, then inserts its stinger into the temporarily immobilized roach's brain, and then, steering via the antennae, walks the now docile behemoth back to its own home like it was leading an elephant, where it lays its larvae on the roach's abdomen. They proceed to eat the roach from the inside out, turning it into a disposable incubator, and I applaud them.
  
  Other, more well-adjusted humans will probably loathe this book. But those of us that delight in the misery of others, or at least those who can find admiration for their creative methods of dying--seriously, how many autopsies come back with "caterpillar" filled in under "cause of death?" That's impressive--those humans like me, in other words, will greatly enjoy this book. In fact, we'll probably convince our roommates to bathe in raid and never leave the home (safe save for bedbugs, the lice that killed half of Napoleon's army, the black-widow's kiss of death, and numerous other delights).
  
  As it is a dictionary of types, it's not the smoothest read. But who cares? It's not a novel, it's a catalogue of ants whose bites resemble gunshot wounds, of black flies that kill animals by the tens of thousands, of parasites that through itching inspire suicide, of bugs that shoot acid at the rate of a heavy machine-gun, even of a super-society of Argentine ants stretching from San Diego to Eureka, Ca. And as such it is awesome. Enough to raise up a new generation of entomologists, who can then write more books like this one, inspiring the Jesse to heights of ecstasy as yet uninspired by aught but bugs.
• 
  Sesana

  So now my head seems strangely itchy and I can't help but jump at the slightest tickle. Too many bugs in one book for me. But morbidly fascinating, anyways.
• 
  Kaethe

  The publisher assumes this book is for adults, but if you know a plague or bug fan of tender years, they would probably love you for hooking them up. Lots of the diseases and infestations are described in gruesome detail, but Stewart is writing for a broad audience, so the text isn't dull, even though she provides the proper Latin names for everything. If anything, I would say Stewart uses a snarky tone that would particularly appeal to the young. The teen who wants to read this would have been just as eager in fifth grade, when she became fascinated by the CSI kind of science. Certainly she tolerated me reading short passages aloud with good grace.
  
  Two hours ago I was still reading this, stretched out on the sofa with a couple of cats, whilst the other teen is screening sci fi flicks for a friend at the other end of the house. Lots of explosions down there, with no noise but the whir of computer fans and purrs down here. Outside it's 88 and sunny with 35% humidity. I prefer to read in the coolth, unless I can actually be in a pool. So, a funny compendium of horrible pests is just the perfect thing to be in here reading.
  
  I'm having a good summer vacation so far.
  
  Library copy
  
  
• 
  Ann☕

  DRUGSTORE BEETLE Stegobium paniceum Entomologists call this a “cosmopolitan species” because of its wide-ranging and sophisticated preferences—it enjoys books and leather, antique furniture, chocolates, spices, and prescription medications, including opium. A tiny reddish beetle not much larger than a flea, this reviled creature is an enemy of rare book rooms, museums, and pharmacies. It once infested the Huntington Library in Southern California, requiring truckloads of books to be placed into a vacuum fumigator and gassed with a mixture of ethylene oxide and carbon dioxide, killing even its tiny eggs.
  
  Maybe a more apt title for this book could have been Creepy, Poisonous and Destructive Bugs as I don't know that any insect is capable of purposely being wicked. Their actions are likely more instinctively driven by a biological need to survive long enough to reproduce. Still, I get the idea the author was trying to get across with the title and it is a catchy one at that.
  
  Bugs generally do not freak me out. I am usually the person in charge of household bug removal and I think jumping spiders are cute. Bees don't bother me either and I don't mind if they crawl on me to get warm, but then I am not allergic to them. This book did create some "eeeeew yuck" worthy moments though and made me glad many of the critters included in the book aren't native to the US. I think the blood sucking insects bothered me the most, as it seems they often are capable of transmitting some type of disease. If you are a reader who generally is squeamish around spiders, worms and flying insects, I don't know if reading this will make you feel empowered by knowledge or feel even more fearful.
  
  I do wish the author had included photographs for easier bug identification, instead of black and white illustrations. Still it was an interesting book that I decided to use for my annual October creepy read. I think this book qualifies.
• 
  Jen

  Things you should not do while reading this book:
  
  -sleep in a hotel room
  -see a bug
  -get touched in the middle of the night in a dark room by something that is obviously going to lay its eggs beneath your skin...only it was only your cat
  
  This book gives me all new reasons to think bugs are both really really gross--and amazingly cool. Like the chigoe fleas who like to lay their eggs beneath toe nails, where the pain and itching get so bad, some of Columbus's soldiers when first landing in the Caribbean would cut off their toes. Or the giant caterpillar who will hang from the tops of caves and catch bats...mid flight. Or this kind of wasp that will sting a roach's brain, and use the roach as a living incubator for its larvae--until the larvae eats it.
  
  The book is pretty much a dictionary on this sort of thing. My calmness was aided that they didn't include photos, instead there are stunningly beautiful drawings.
  
  It's a fun romp filled with disgusting facts, scary creatures, and the power of nature.
• 
  fleurette

  I'm afraid of insects, so I wondered if this was a book for me. But it turned out to be a pretty good and funny book.
  
  It has this playful tone, which I like very much in non-fiction books. And which makes the book easy to read. Thanks to this, you don't feel like you are reading an academic textbook. This is a very nice book. Most of the time I didn't have any problems with my phobia. And I had a lot of fun.
  
  Examples of bugs are well-chosen and interesting. They are grouped by subject. There is usually one species of bugs that is described in more detail, followed by a short mention of other bugs that behave similarly or live in a similar environment. I liked this arrangement. I think it worked well. Distinctive parts are not too long so the topic does not tire you and does not bore you.
  
  Have I learned a lot of interesting things that I will remember for a long time? Not necessarily. There are some interesting things here that I may remember. There are also some things I haven't heard about before. But although I'm not particularly interested in insects or spiders, it turned out that I know quite a lot about them in fact. I knew many things I read about in this book before. It wasn't particularly bothersome, but I think I'd like to be surprised more often. Perhaps this is a book for people who have less knowledge in this topic than I do.
  
  Most of the examples and anecdotes given by the author refer to the United States. I am European and I think I sometimes missed some interesting examples from the Old World. It wasn't a big problem, but it's something I've noticed.
  
  All in all, this is a good book. Even for people who are generally afraid of insects.
• 
  Woodge

  After reading
  Wicked Plants a couple years ago and gobbling it up, when this book appeared it was a foregone conclusion that it would be mine. This is a handsome book with many cool illustrations (if you're interested in bugs). I found it to be endlessly interesting and a little bit horrifying (screw-worm flies that burrow into you; foot-long centipedes with painful bites, a swarm of locusts bigger than the state of California, etc.) Also, I think the French must be a little weird. Their term for pubic lice is papillons d'amour (butterflies of love.) Ah, love.
• 
  Lindsay

  This is a second read of this catalogue of creepy crawlies and human misery for me. It's short and informative, focusing on the harm and mitigation around many "bugs" as well as dispelling quite a few myths.
  
  
• 
  GoldGato

  Do not read this book while using public transportation...I missed my train stop because the subject matter kept me completely engrossed.
  
  Needless to say, I will never eat pork again and I am slathering myself in mosquito repellent nightly. I have a whole new respect for these mighty bugs and the mayhem they produce. Certainly the chapter on the Brazilian Wandering Spider brought me to rapid attention when the author explains that a passenger almost boarded an international flight with hundreds of these aggressive creatures in his carry on bags. No more aisle seats for me.
  
  Book Season = Spring
• 
  _och_man_

  Bardzo fajna rozrywka na wieczór, góra dwa - rozumiem, że nie wszyscy są w stanie łyknąć 300 stron pająków, karaluchów i mrówek "na raz".
  Malutki minus za lekko chaotyczną kompozycję (nie wszystko da się ogarnąć alfabetycznie, uspokój się Oliwka).
• 
  Ed Erwin

  A quick, easy read that gives me nightmares! I'm so glad most of these bugs don't live near me, though many are unfortunately expanding their ranges. In most cases the bugs themselves are not as dangerous to humans as the parasites they transmit.
• 
  Sam

  This is another beautiful little book from Stewart that is packed with a devious collection of bugs, beetles, spiders and other crawlies that have made a name for themselves as a scurge to local humans (again mostly in the US but there are still some examples from elsewhere, not to mention a shout out to the Old World inverts taking on the New World) through poisons, toxins and good ol' fashioned destructive behaviour. Once again the short entries and chapters make this a great book to dip into as well as to read outright and the etchings and illustrations are as beautiful as ever, again adding a sense of Victoriana. Not a comprehensive guide by any means (nor does it set out to be) but it does cover the most common/famous species and even has a few surprises that will have you keeping a suspicious eye on every 'bug' that comes near you for days (possibly weeks) after. A great little read!
• 
  Nina The Wandering Reader

  Bugs both fascinate and terrify me, so obviously this was a 5 star read! If you're looking for an informative book that'll make you squirm like a worm, this is it!
• 
  Judy

  This book is a surprisingly fun and engaging read. I will admit to a lot of grimacing and having to cover the drawing on the page a few times so I could concentrate on the text. Some of the drawings were so creepy, I felt like the bugs would crawl off the page and into my lap :) I loved the scary anecdotes and truly interesting historical bits. Amy Stewart really has the knack of conveying factual information in a conversation and engaging way. The descriptions and examples of how insects have been used in war were really amazing. The Japanese developed fleas with bubonic plague as a weapon during WWII and tested them by dropping them on two Chinese cities, Ningbo and Changde. There were outbreaks of plague in both places and approximately 200,000 Chinese people died. There was a plan to release them over California, but thankfully it never happened. Interestingly, the US granted immunity to the Japanese doctors who worked on that project in exchange for their research information. The information wasn't made public until the 1990's. The section on assassin bugs was gruesome also -- pits filled with these bloodsuckers were used as torture in Uzbekistan in the 1800's. There were also some extremely grisly chapters on bugs that lay their eggs inside other bugs, animals, or humans, bugs that kill their mates, bugs that take over another bug's brain... Wow!
• 
  Redsteve

  Interesting, but not nearly as good as The Drunken Botanist. This one seemed lighter somehow; just a collection of entertaining, disgusting, and frightening facts about various insects, arachnids, and the like. The bugs in question are arranged in alphabetic order, each classified as destructive, painful, or dangerous. There are also some specialized sections ("Bugs of War", "Bookworms", "Corpse Eaters", "The Gardener's Dirty Dozen", "Zombies", etc.). 3 stars.
• 
  Nazarii Zanoz

  Не радив би цю книжку людям, які й так бояться к��мах або потенційно можуть почати боятися, якщо досі ні. Також людям, котрі бридяться комах і котрі мають бурхливу уяву, в сенсі уявляють те, що чують. Так само не радив би таким чутливим людям їсти під час читання/слухання цієї книжки)Добре знати, що зі знашною частиною із цих комах тобі, ймовірно, не випаде зустрітися. Хоча не факт, зважаючи на глобалізацію і потепління, тож всі ці представники теплих кліматів можуть перекочувати в наші, колись холодні широти. Тим паче, що вже тепер і в нас багато видів перестають вимерзати при зимових холодах. Ну, коротше кажучи, можна трохи накрутитися. Але насправді один із важливих висновків цієї книжки, що чимало проблем (і хвороб, як наслідок), пов'язаних із комахами можна подолати завдяки постійному прибиранню в будинку і гігієні тіла.
• 
  Anna

  3.5 stars
  
  I liked the book about plants more (although I read it a long time ago so perhaps I shouldn't compare) but this is definitely the stuff from the nightmares. I skipped the parts about ticks and centipedes because I'm a coward and I'm not ashamed of it.
• 
  Pan Bucik

  Przerażające, obrzydliwe ale zarazem fascynujące ! To niesamowite jak wiele mogą zrobić robaki. Malutka istota może pokonać jedyny ugryzieniem istotę od siebie tysiąckrotnie razy większą. Co tu dużo pisać - strzeż się robali ale książkę przeczytaj wpierw !
• 
  Kamil

  Świetna książka, napisana przystępnym językiem i mega ciekawa! Naprawdę można się wciągnąć i dużo dowiedzieć!
  Polecam! ❤️
• 
  Sarah

  This book is very pretty and nice to hold in your hands. My students were VERY impressed with how cool and ominous looking this book and its title are. I was sharing my current reading life with them and this was one of the books I was reading (to myself--not them) at the time. I used it to try to explain that animals that are harmful and predatorial aren't evil or mean-spirited but rather just made that way as a means of survival. That cute, fuzzy bunnies have their own means of survival--such as camouflage and the ability to stay still like the world. This type of conversation never works. When will I learn? I'm sure when I was their age, I thought wolves were mean and bunnies were nice and I would be angry at the lion and aching-hearted for the gazelle when I was accosted with a nature program against my will. Cartoons don't help, with their animal personification. Still I try, foolishly. I want to free them to be able to love the Bullet Ant, whose name comes from the pain its bite induces,a nd who I learned about in this book. It needs to give that painful of a bite so it and its family can continue to survive and keep its colony safe. It's like the U.S.A. and its tremendous arsenal of nuclear weapons. But I didn't get into that analogy with my students. They're not even ready to accept that a buzzard circling a dying, suffering creature in anticipation of its expiration isn't evil but rather living on instinct. And they're definitely not ready to accept the bugs, Stewart reports, that are living inside of us and on our eyelashes. So while I suggest you read it, (it's great for road trips!) I don't suggest that you read it to kids, unless they're the type who can handle it. I suppose Mike Reynolds' kid would like this book.
  
  And, a word of warning, goodreaders, from the section on bookworms, "Books, to be saved from the worms, must be used."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Sarah Montambo Powell
• 
  Paul

  It isn't a particularly extensive or in-depth examination of the insect world, but it isn't meant to be. It's the sort of book you keep in the bathroom or take with you on a plane flight: quick, entertaining, and light.
  
  Stewart partitions the book into numerous, short entries that blend narrative examples with general scientific information on the subject's life cycle, eating habits, and the like, and these are usually accompanied by artistic renderings. There are plenty of squeamish bits to make you itch, from parasites that lay eggs under the skin to "zombies" that burrow into the brain and control their host's actions. Not every insect discussed is as disturbing, but each inevitably has some characteristic that is like to make you wish you never encounter one, even if it is something as common as the earthworm.
  
  Ultimately, this book taught me that to best avoid these creatures, simply never live near any of the following:
  
  -ponds
  -lakes
  -swamps
  -rivers
  -oceans
  -long grass
  -short grass
  -trees
  -forests
  -deserts
  -cities
  
  Easy enough.
  
• 
  Stephanie

  PROS
  
  Like its companion book,
  Wicked Plants, this book is gorgeous. The drawings are gorgeous, and that's saying a lot for a book about bugs. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love pretty books.
  
  Bugs (and other creepy-crawlies) are truly fascinating. I learned a lot! I liked this book better than Wicked Plants because "bugs" have so much more variety than plants. (Being more mobile than plants, I think they can simply be more creative.)
  
  CONS
  
  Parasites. I hate parasites. No, seriously, an irrational fear. Can I say it again? I HATE PARASITES.
  
  Every time I have an itch now, I fear that I have some horrifying infestation.
  
  p.s. I know that bugs are technically only insects of the order Hemiptera, (thank you high school biology and wikipedia) and the author knows it, too, but it's easier to type than "insects and arachnids, etc."
  
  
• 
  Stewart Tame

  This book made me itch.
  
  As the jacket promises, this book is about bugs (no, it's not about what happens when a certain famous rabbit gets his hands on a copy of 50 Shades of Gray.) Stewart apologizes for her lack of scientific rigor in using the term. Ants, spiders, centipedes, lice, fleas, snails, scorpions, beetles, worms, and more lurk within these pages, so I think she can be pardoned for the catchall term.
  
  Honestly, this book is pretty review-proof. Just by looking at the cover and the description, you pretty much know whether you want to read it or not. Stewart has done her homework, and presents everything in readable, factual prose. She may not go into enough detail for hardcore entomologists, but for everyone else: recommended!
• 
  Bobbie

  Did Know About These Wicked Bugs?
  
  I am not a fan of bugs. Yes I know some of them are beneficial to us , but other just creep me out thinking about them. The title of this book fascinated me, and I was even more interested to learn that they used big bombs in WEI and three them at the enemy. I didn't know that. I'd also never heard of bat bugs similar to bed bugs but more dangerous. I'm all this is an interesting book, and I assure you will learn things about many wicked bugs you probably don't know.
• 
  Kirsten

  This book - and its companion, Wicked Plants - are actually very nice looking editions. Inside you get to hear about all the really horrid, disgusting, and frightening permutations in the bug kingdom. (And bug is in the wider sense of the word. Not just insects, but parasites, and arachnids as well.)
  
  It has illustrations, anecdotes, and even tells you where to go if you want to confront one of these horrid things. Really enjoyed it!