The rising sun peered between the thick green pines that spanned as far as I could see. As I walked along the leaf-covered path, I was serenaded by a chorus of robins. I recalled the feeling of the cool, humid air filling my lungs -- and the bites. The unrelenting itch. Then the sticky strands that hung from my face. And -- ugh -- the big black critter that crawled up my arm!
I would like to think that I love nature, but every time enter into it, I am confronted with the reality that bugs rule nature. At any given time, there is an estimated 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 10 quintillion) bugs in the world! For every one person, there are 1.5 billion bugs! We can stay indoors, use bug repellant or pesticides, or have inspections, but we can't hide. Trying to get rid of all the bugs would be like catching rain in a cup to keep the streets dry. We can't win that battle, but we can win the battle in our minds.
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We must first understand why we don’t like bugs. Jeffrey Lockwood, author of The Infested Mind: Why Humans Fear, Loathe, and Love Insects, proposed a convincing theory. He asserts that as we make our homes less natural, we tend to see the creatures of nature as invaders when they chill on our windowsill or have a party in the pizza box we left out. Thus, our experiences with bugs are mostly negative. Positive experiences with bugs, such as watching a butterfly suck the nectar of a wildflower, are rare in our urbanized societies.
Fortunately, you don’t have to move into the woods to change your perspective on bugs. I'll admit, I can be a bit of a wuss sometimes when it comes to bugs. But I’ve realized that my experience with bugs hinges on my perception of them. While I don’t particularly like mosquitos, I can’t get mad at one for biting me. I know it didn’t choose to be a mosquito anymore than I chose to be a human. It's just on its journey through life, trying to make a living -- like you and I. When I walk into a spider web, I can’t blame the spider for making a web there. But I can feel sorry that I just destroyed its masterpiece. When I see a snail on the sidewalk, I can’t call it gross. It is what it is -- a living creature with ecological value and an awesome shell on its back. Bugs can be intriguing rather than annoying if you choose to think they are.
Nature is an integral part of your life. Don’t avoid it just because you don’t want to be bothered by bugs. We’re not much different after all -- just a bunch of small life forms sharing the same big planet.
