Insects may sometimes seem like a scourge on humanity, but without them, our lives would look very different. The quintillions of insects that inhabit our world help feed us, clothe us and have changed the way we interact with one another.
A new book called The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture explores this ancient relationship between humanity and insects. Author Barrett Klein is an animal behavior biologist and entomologist at UW-LaCrosse and he says that exploring this relationship can help people better understand the importance of bugs.
"All it takes sometimes is a snippet of wonder and some imagination, and some real-life examples of how insects have interacted or related with humans throughout history, to really inspire and alter people’s perspectives about insects," says Klein.
The book is full of fun facts about insects, separating them into three sections: working with them, making them, and becoming them. The first section looks at the different products created by bugs, including honey, wax, and silk.
“[Silk] is super strong and somewhat flexible, and of course, it has that luster. So people have used it in ways that involve optics, little guides—whether it be observational equipment for astronomy or for the military,” says Klein. “If we depart from silkworm moths to black widow spider silk, there were farms in the U.S. during World War I and II to produce the silk to use in those ways.”
Insects were not only the first earthlings to go to space when fruit flies travelled there in the 1940s, a cockroach was the first earthling to give birth in space. Insects could also be the key to future space exploration and colonization, as Klein explains, because of a chemical compound called "chitin" found in the exoskeletons of insects.
“[Chitin is] abundant, strong, and versatile... Some labs have even gone to the extent of trying to create or predict what life could be like—building materials and all—on another planet, say Mars,” says Klein.
"My not so hidden agenda [in writing this book] is that people not only tolerate the quintillions of insects around us... But that we begin to deeply appreciate them."
A lab was able to make a concrete-like material combining chitin with materials from Mars, and was able to create a working wrench, according to Klein. There's also speculation that chitin could be used to protect the outside of ships, and even space suits. The insects could then be used as both food and building materials in space exploration.
Whether it's how we build our homes, how we create art, or even how we structure our governments, Klein says insects have changed how we do it.
"My not so hidden agenda [in writing this book] is that people not only tolerate the quintillions of insects around us... But that we begin to deeply appreciate them, taking the time out to observe, so that we can celebrate these marvels all around us," says Klein.
