The Good Bug

Have you ever wondered why large parts of Scotland remain wild and beautiful? Imagine how many more golf courses, holiday homes and the like there would be if the midge were ever vanquished. To my mind, midges are a price worth paying.

But with a little more understanding and a little less hysteria, we can get along with them just fine.

The large black-and-yellow species that make paper nests in sheds, attics and hedgerows are generally disliked.

It is claimed that feeding our growing population will require the use of even more chemicals, but this ignores the fact that we already waste one-third of everything we grow.

Since the beginnings of agriculture, it seems that humans have been engaged in a never-ending battle against the bugs that these days involves the use of huge quantities of pesticides.

After all, insects were the first animals to colonize the land and the first to take to the air.

known colloquially as bugs

The biomass of all arthropods is more than 40 per cent of all animal biomass and represents 1 billion tonnes (1.1 billion US tons) of carbon.

Our success as a species has affected planetary ecosystems and has brought about a major extinction event that may yet rival some of the other mass extinctions that have shaped life on Earth.
Like it or not, most species on Earth have six legs and are crucial to our survival. There’s never been a more pivotal time to understand their brilliance and appreciate their worth. I do hope this book can play a part in changing attitudes.