Wicked Bugs, Amy Stewart
Wicked Bugs, Amy Stewart
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
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Wicked Bugs
The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects

Author: Amy Stewart

Narrator: Coleen Marlo

Unabridged: 5 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/25/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, Nature, Animals


Synopsis

In this darkly comical look at the sinister side of our relationship with the natural world, Stewart has tracked down over one hundred of our worst entomological foes—creatures that infest, infect, and generally wreak havoc on human affairs. From the world's most painful hornet, to the flies that transmit deadly diseases, to millipedes that stop traffic, to the Japanese beetles munching on your roses, Wicked Bugs delves into the extraordinary powers of many-legged creatures.

With wit, style, and exacting research, Stewart has uncovered the most terrifying and titillating stories of bugs gone wild. It's an A to Z of insect enemies, interspersed with sections that explore bugs with kinky sex lives, creatures lurking in the cupboard, militant ants, and phobias that feed our (sometimes) irrational responses to bugs.

Wicked Bugs is a fascinating mixture of history, science, murder, and intrigue that begins—but doesn't end—in your own backyard.

About Amy Stewart

Amy Stewart is the bestselling author of several books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world: From the Ground Up, The Earth Moved, Flower Confidential, and Wicked Plants. Her essays and commentaries have appeared on NPR, in the New York Times, and in Fine Gardening and other magazines. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the American Horticultural Society's 2010 Book Award. Amy lives in Eureka, California, where she and her husband own an antiquarian bookstore.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Terence on March 24, 2012

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......more

Goodreads review by Jesse on July 25, 2011

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 colour......more

Goodreads review by Jen on September 09, 2012

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 r......more