Gilbert Waldbauer, emeritus entomologist (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), continues to teach us why we should not indiscriminately destroy life's little annoyances. His most recent book (being added to my reading pile), What Good Are Bugs?: Insects in the Web of Life, would seem to be required reading in an age when we can contemplate the genetically engineered extinction of entire species.

I have a fascination with ants. I picked up a "SIMcollection" about ten years ago which had a bunch of the early SIM games, including SIMAnt. After playing a virtual ant for a week, I went out and started studying the real ants in the courtyard. Then I went back in and played some more - and found that I was doing much better. The game is quite fun, but it soon paled beside the real critters, and I've spent many hours contemplating anthills since.

A little education is also a good salve for fear as I pretty much got over the entophobia our clean, clean, clean culture instills. Which is a really good thing as I now find myself travelling places where the bugs are big and playful.

One ant story: In a hotel in Indonesia, the staff put out a sugar bowl when you came down for breakfast. The local dining room ants pretty much knew when people would be sitting down and they were already up on the table, prepared to dive right in to the sugar. This meant that people who took sugar in their coffee and tea had to stir in some ants. It was unavoidable. The ants also got into the food as plates were placed on the table. Yum, crunchy formic omelettes! The guests in the hotel quickly broke into two camps: those who ate breakfast and those who slept another half-hour (if the chirping cockroaches didn't wake them up...).