Without insects, human beings can't live.

"Some habits of insects seem to be incompatible with the habits, morality and psychological state of the whole human race. They seem to come from another more bizarre and vibrant hellish planet, but they have no feelings and are extremely cruel. " -Belgian playwright maurice maeterlinck (1862- 1949)

There is little reason to be so hostile to insects. There are about 9 million species of insects on the earth, most of which have not been discovered or understood, but only 1.5% of them are harmful to us, and the rest have no direct impact on us or provide some obvious and indispensable benefits to mankind.

Without insects, human beings ...

According to Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson's prediction: "If insects disappear, a large part of the food chain will be destroyed, a large number of birds will starve to death immediately because of lack of food, other animals that feed on birds will also disappear, and some small mammals that feed on insects on land will also become extinct. A catastrophic chain reaction will occur throughout the earth. "

If there were no humans, insects ...

Insects are far less dependent on humans than we are on them. However, without the food supply provided by human beings, some insects could not appear in large numbers in their current forms. Cockroaches, which are generally despised by people, follow the trail of human beings and bread crumbs to every corner of the earth, and even the actions of cockroaches can be observed on the Apollo 7 spacecraft; Body lice began to exist in human clothes as early as 72,000 years ago when humans learned to dress. Before feeding on human blood, temperate bedbugs probably lived in caves and ate bats or birds. From 10000 years ago, humans learned to store food, and insects such as locusts, weevils and aphids found their own living environment after 5500 years. As for domestic flies, beetles, moths, fleas and other insects, they have also established their own homes with humans.

bee

At least 3000 years ago, people began to keep bees, and since then people have started to enjoy honey and beeswax. Western bees also provide other uses: about one-third of human food needs come from crops pollinated by bees. Once bees are on the verge of extinction, we will first lose apricots, oranges, apples, blueberries, eggplant, tea, garlic, carrots, onions and other foods. Bee venom has long been famous for treating arthritis, probably because it contains melittin, a potential anti-inflammatory substance. Honey itself has the effect of sterilization. Rose Cooper, a microbiologist at the University of Wales, found that honey is four times as effective as brown sugar solution in killing antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (a common wound infection bacteria in hospitals), which may be because honey contains phytochemicals that inhibit the growth of bacteria.

bedbug

In human history, bedbugs have always been an insect that is difficult to destroy. /kloc-Kamaleddin Damiri, an Egyptian theologian in the 0/4th century, wrote: "It is said that bedbugs originated from warm-blooded animals and have a special preference for humans." He made a mistake about the origin of bedbugs. The most common temperate bedbug crawls out of the walls and bedding of the house at night and sucks enough blood to complete the unhairing process from larvae to adults. In this way, they seem to be human partners, because we originally lived in caves. At least 12 species of blood-sucking temperate bedbugs are parasitic on bats, and birds nesting in caves are also the base for many kinds of bedbugs to live. DDT (DDT, an insecticide-editor's note) can drive away bedbugs, but soon they come back with old furniture from the flea market. Although bedbugs don't spread diseases, babies are prone to anemia if they are bitten too much. In the absence of relevant knowledge, ancient people mistakenly thought that bedbugs had certain medicinal value. For example, Pliny, an ancient Roman elder, used them to treat wounds bitten by poisonous snakes. Glenn herrick mentioned in the book Insects Harmful to Human and Family published in 19 14: "* * dosage: 7 bedbugs mixed with water; Child dose; No more than four ... its smell can also relieve excitement and suffocation. "

mosquito

Mosquitoes have been hated by people for a long time. Vampires, the most common arthropods, are graceful and light, but they are also deadly. It is the number one carrier of human diseases, spreading malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, west Nile fever, encephalitis and other diseases; It also carries tiny worms that cause elephantiasis. However, 3550 species of mosquitoes naturally have their living space on the biological network of the whole earth, and birds, bats, fish and many important swamp species, including dragonflies, depend on them for food. There is enough evidence that Anopheles (one of them, Anopheles stephensi).

Changed the course of human history. For hundreds of years, malaria has spread a malaria parasite called plasmodium and injected it into human blood through saliva. In fact, before quinine was widely used, it was mosquitoes that spread malaria that saved Africa from the death of European colonists, so that the west coast of Africa was called the "white man's grave". Yellow fever, another species of Aedes mosquitoes, was brought to the New World by slave ships, which just contributed to the transfer of 1803 from France to Louisiana (1803, France sold Louisiana from Spain to the United States for150,000 US dollars-editor's note).

body louse

There are three kinds of lice that settle in the human body: hairy lice, head lice and their offspring. Among them, human lice (pediculus humanus corporis) live in human clothes and feed on human blood. People can't leave the human body until they are dead and cold. 1 170 Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered by the henchmen of King Henry II of England, was famous for being covered with lice. The next day, his body was solemnly wrapped in a robe and displayed to the public. When passers-by saw that "lice crawled out of their bodies like boiling water overflowing from a stew pot", everyone was shocked by this scene and then couldn't help laughing. Lice can't survive in new clothes, so body lice are the most common in crowded prisons where clothes can't be washed often, which is also the reason why various diseases are most likely to spread in wartime-typhus, five-day fever, relapsing fever and other diseases are spread through lice excrement. Typhus is caused by a bacterium called rickettsia. Because of this disease, countless battles have failed. The first 14 * * moors fought against the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in Granada.17,000 soldiers died of this disease. In the Russian Bolshevik Revolution of 19 17, many people died of typhus, which seriously threatened the new Soviet regime at that time, so that Lenin lamented: "Either socialism defeated lice or lice defeated socialism."

Medicinal beetle

Why don't you eat insects? This is the title of a short article published by Vincent in 1885. In his article, he pointed out that insects are not only nutritious and delicious, but also easy to provide. The only reason that prevents them from being widely eaten by human beings seems to be that most people still feel sick about swallowing insects. However, in many areas, eating insects is not only common, but even a fashion. For example, in Thailand, salted silkworm chrysalis is a delicious dish, and mangdand (or snail) is often decorated as a salad. In fact, insects are very nutritious: according to the statistics of Iowa State University,100g of locusts contains about 20g of protein, but only 6g of fat. Whether we admit it or not, we are always eating insects unconsciously. Since the Egyptians invented the method of storing food 4500 years ago, grain elephants, moths and ladybugs have been hidden in our food and swallowed by us. Herb beetles eat not only flour, spices and slightly toxic drugs, but also tinplate and lead plate-as someone joked, "Everything except cast iron." The US Food and Drug Administration found the uniqueness of these pests, so it relaxed the regulations to some extent and did not completely prohibit people from eating these insects. Take seedless jujube as an example. Only when more than 5% of dates in each batch are contaminated by dead insects or their excrement can they be punished. The allowable insect content in gold extract is 35 Drosophila eggs per 8 ounces.