Buzz, Sting, Bite Quotes

“As far as we know, our planet is the only place in the universe where there is life. Many would say that we humans have a moral duty to rein in our dominance of the Earth and give our millions of fellow creatures a chance to live out their tiny, wonderful lives, too.”
― Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects

“If you’ve heard the deafening wall of sound cicadas create in southern climes, bear in mind that it would be twice as loud if the ladies joined in. But as an ancient Greek saying has it, “Blessed are the cicadas, for they have voiceless wives.” Controversial as we may find this statement in modern society, let me just add that it may be pretty smart of the females to keep their lips zipped. Lovesick fellow cicadas aren’t the only ones attracted by the song. Scary parasites lie in wait listening, then sneak up to lay a tiny egg on the soloist. And although it might look quite innocent, it’s game over for the singer. The egg hatches into a hungry larva, which eats up the cicada from the inside out.”
― Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Extraordinary Insects: The Fabulous, Indispensable Creatures Who Run Our World

“Just listen to this: take two fruit flies and leave them in ideal living conditions for a year - equivalent to 25 generations for fruit flies. Every fruit fly mother lays 100 eggs. Let's say that they all grow to adulthood, and that half of them are females who mate and lay another 100 eggs. Once the year is over, you will be left with the 25th generation and that alone will amount to almost a tredecillion sweet little redeyed fruit flies. A tredecillion is the figure 1 followed by 42 zeros. To make this figure more meaningful, imagine packing these flies together densely, as densely as possible, into one enormous fruit fly ball. You'd end up with a sphere whose diameter exceeded the distance between the Earth to the Sun! It's a good thing these insects have so many enemies, because otherwise there wouldn't be any room left on Earth for us humans.”
― Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects