David Macneal

This book pretty much fits into the category of "accessible" science. Written for the interested amateur..and written by a non specialist "science journalist" who has travelled around speaking to various experts. Nothing wrong with that I guess but it does mean that you lack the critical insights (and biases) that a real expert entomologist might bring to the subject. In fact, much of the book is devoted to folksy descriptions of the people interviewed, for example: "Cesar DeLeon sips from a blue and white Anther coffee cup whilst gesticulating with a pinched cigarette. 'The thing about bed bugs is that they don't discriminate', the pest control operator says matter of factly". OK, it does make for easier reading, I guess, but not critical to the content.
The underlying theme is the importance of bugs of various sorts to our world (and to humans). Pest controlling insects saved about $4.5 billion in the United States alone.And insects contribution to wildlife nutrition is an estimated $50 billion (presumably in the US). According to Vaughan and Losey's paper "The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided br Insects," dung burial prevents a whopping $380 million yearly loss to the cattle industry by busily disassembling feces and, as a result, recycling nitrogen. Mammals defecate about 40 percent of what they eat. Based on recent cattle head inventory from the National Agricultural Statistics Service and solid waste research from Losey and Vaughan, there's about 2 trillion pounds of poop a year. Therefore we must be grateful for these processing agents who eliminate 10 percent of our nation's refuse". In Australia the dung beetle has effectively eliminated the famous Aussie salute....and I can remember what it was like to try and eat outdoors in the country ....your food was covered in bush flies ...really covered....so you had to use your lips to try and remove the flies as you slid it gingerly into your mouth. That seems to be a thing of the past.
MacNeal moves around from expert to expert. Not all are professional entomologists....some are like the pest control guy..... basically doing a job that involves insects.
He learns about the concern of professionals that we are rapidly losing species: "True or exaggerated, the threat of extinction raises an interesting idea: bugs-those creepy crawlies keeping the worlds ecology humming along -might be abundant. But despite their fecundity and ubiquity, or perhaps thanks to it, their extinctions surpass those of any vertebrate. In 2005, biologist Robert Dunn peered over what meager calculated extinction figures existed and inferred in his Conservation Biology paper that over the past 600 years there have been 44,000 species lost. Only 70 of them were actually recorded. "The biodiversity crisis," he writes, "is undeniably an insect biodiversity crisis. "'So, how will they fare in the future? If Dunn's crystal ball is any indication, it's not looking good. A conservative ballpark predicts that there will be "57,000 insect extinctions per million species on Earth" by 2050, of which less than 1,000 are currently listed as endangered worldwide. Other biologists claim a quarter of all insect species are threatened. Due to bottlenecking from population growth and chemical extermination, those bugs in decline will most likely slip away unnoticed". He talks about insecticides, and the Varroe mite infecting bees, and the use of insects in history...producing cochineal dye. He talks to experts about behaviour of hive insects like bees and, especially interesting, he talks of increasing the use of insects in our diet: "Mealworms, for instance, have a mushroomy taste," he informs me, "so they're great mixed in with sauces." Not so much on ice cream, as others have tried_ "that's not a savvy pairing". I recall walking in a Mexican market in Cuernavaca in 1972 and seeing a guy eating live insects from a rolled up newspaper cone (the way they were sold in the market) and they were crawling over his hands and face but it didn't seem to faze him in the slightest. They looked like wood lice or slaters.
Did I learn something from this "Pop-science" book? Yes. Did I enjoy reading it? Yes though I am left feeling that the surface of this vast subject has just been scratched. But he has raised a few big issues that I should know about and didn't. Happy two gove it four stars.… (lisätietoja)

I really enjoyed this one. It delivers exactly what it say on the wrapper: talking about insects and the people who love them. This approach has gone wrong for me in the past (Forensics by Val McDermid), but MacNeal got it right – I never felt like there was an imbalance between the people and the bugs, and it was always obvious that the insects were the focus. The writing is engaging and the author's personality shines through in a candid writing style that I found refreshing.

I don't know a whole lot about insects, although probably more than the average non-reader of science, and MacNeal kept me interested with plenty of science along with the narrative anecdotes. I admit to plenty of "Ewwwws"... especially during any mention of cockroaches ::shudder:: – my personal phobia – and for pretty much the entire chapter that centers on insects as a food source. All I'm going to say about that is he must have very good friends, or else he has a bucket load of dirt on them all.

I especially liked the last chapter covering bees; MT got me hives as a Christmas present and I soaked up all the information in this chapter like a sponge. I have several topics to google in the coming days before the bees arrive thanks to MacNeal's information.

The primary goal of this book, according to the author, is to get people thinking differently about insects. He doesn't pretend a yuck factor doesn't exist, but I think he does an excellent job illustrating just how absolutely necessary insects are to our continued survival. Except roaches - I'm sorry, but they all need to go the way of the dodo.… (lisätietoja)

4 Stars: Very good

From the back cover: 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. Bugged takes us on an offbeat scientific journey that weaves together history, travel, and culture to explore our relationship with these mini monsters. Mac Neal introduces a cast of bug-lovers, from a woman facilitating tarantula sex and an exterminator nursing bed bugs on his own blood to a kingpin of the black market insect trade and a "maggotologist" who obsess over the crucial roles insects play in our everyday lives. ... Demonstrating bugs' amazingly complex mechanics, he investigates the varied interactions we humans have with them, from extermination and epidemics to biomimicry.

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I read this book earlier enough in the year, that I don't have many distinct impressions of it. As the synopsis describes, the book has lots of facts about insects, but also how they fit into various cultures and how hobbyists and entomologists get passionate about various aspects. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot. Entertaining, particularly as someone who also likes (most) bugs.

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Some quotes I liked:

Ants, who alone equal our biomass on Earth, could burrow through our noses and suffocates us to death.

Dung beetles base their navigation on the Milky Way. Biologist Marie Dacke tested beetles compass orientation skill in a planetarium, fitting tiny hats over their dorsal eyes as they hauled dung. Their routes with an obstructed, moonless starry sky were chaotic, whereas an exposed Milky Way garnered straight lines.

A squeak emerges from the back of my throat as I rip the tail off. My eyes bulge out of their sockets. Its grey! Gray innards stare back at me within this red hollow reed of skin! Reclaiming my eyeballs from the floor, my jaw does this thing where it moves up and down to turn this gray crusty thing into smaller bits of gray crusty things that are small enough to swallow. Giriko and Eri crack up at the photo they've taken of my face midbite in all its goofball agony.

Given time constraints (and perhaps its too much to ask my friends to eat cockroach samosas) I end up serving Wax Moth Tacos and cricket cake.... I get them shipped overnight. With both crickets and euthanized waxworms in my parents' garage freezer, bug night is under way.

Insect allergies sensitivity is a rarity for those who haven't been exposed to bugs on the reg. But some have asthmatic responses to Orthoptera. Others react poorly to waterbugs. One study found those overexposed to dust mites grew "sensitive to seafood tropomysins." And by overexposure, I mean people who regularly breathe in cockroach crap infested dust particles.

Insects are married to specific plants. Research local ones i your area, then lay down a diverse garden. In 10-20 years, it could make a significant difference.

"Love bees as if they were your mother or child or yourself. If you love something, you take care of it. What humans can offer is to move bees to hot places with food."… (lisätietoja)

I have mixed feelings about this book. Some of the information was interesting and informative (if superficial), some less so. However, the writing style was overly chatty and erratic, with various anecdotes jumping around all over the place and no real flow to the book. It reminded me a lot of a Mary Roach book, with the forced humour, over chattiness, disjointed subject matter and too much interview details in comparison with actual information. This is especially problematic with the first 3 chapters which tend to read like a collection of random facts. Later chapters are an improvement but could still use some work and less forced humour. I found the final chapter on bees and apiculture to be very interesting. This book also contains a vast number of, usually irrelevant, footnotes.

MacNeal focuses more on the "people obsessed with bugs" than the actual bugs, so if you are looking for information on insects specifically you aren't really going to find it in this book. If you are looking for information on humans and their strange interactions with bugs, then this book may be for you. The author covers such topics as genetically modified mosquitoes, cyborg cockroaches, assisted spider sex, insect taxidermists, insect farming and processing for human consumption, insect smuggling, bedbug extermination, dung and corpse "removal" services of bugs, and medicinal uses of bugs.

So, in conclusion, the book is interesting but could really use an editor, better structuring and focus, and less chattiness.






… (lisätietoja)