Book Description

Now in paperback -- a fascinating work of popular science from a world-renowned expert on mosquitoes and a prize-winning reporter.

In this lively and comprehensive portrait of the mosquito, its role in history, and its threat to mankind, Spielman and D'Antonio take a mosquito's-eye view of nature and man. They show us how mosquitoes breed, live, mate, and die, and introduce us to their enemies, both natural and man-made. The authors present tragic and often grotesque examples of how the mosquito has insinuated itself into human history, from the malaria that devastated invaders of ancient Rome to the current widespread West Nile fever panic. Filled with little-known facts and remarkable anecdotes that bring this tiny being into larger focus, Mosquito offers fascinating, alarming, and convincing evidence that the sooner we get to know this pesky insect, the better off we'll be. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Don't bite on this superficial treatment!
I wanted to like this book, and the first chapter, I admit, was . . . well, infectious! But after chapter 2, the writing (col)lapsed into repetition, general assertions,vague hand-waving, and lack of descriptive, telling details, both scientific or anecdotal. The tone and diction are inconsistent, now scholarly, detached language, now cautionary common slang. Unbelievably,one of the key terms -- "disease vector" -- is never even defined!! This book reads like a C+ term paper hastily pulled from the internet, which is especially puzzling and disappointing considering the impressive authorial credentials (one is a leading researcher on mosquito-borne diseases!). What's more, Hyperion appears to have released what appears to be the same book under ***two different titles***: "A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe" and "The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe" (and shouldn't that be "Humanity's" or "Our" deadliest foe??), except that this "Story of ..." title doesn't have photos. Don't waste your time on this one.

Okay, but there are better books on microbial disease
Perhaps I was merely spoiled by the book I read right before reading this one (Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif), but I found this book thoroughly mediocre both in content and style. The author constantly shifts between 3rd person narrator/teacher, man-on-the-scene, and editorializer, without spending sufficient time as any one of them. In fact, I was often disappointed by the brevity with which each of the book's subtopics was explored. It weighs in at a sparse ~225 pages, large print.

Unless you have a particular interest in mosquitoes, I instead recommend Microbe Hunters, a classic (1926?) book on some of the important scientists and discoveries in the early history of microbiology.

Interesting though not always fun
This book was written by a scientist and a journalist yet it was never clear to me what the contribution of the journalist was. The book writing showed knowledge, but not skills. The few attempts to make the reading captivating felt forced.

The content was great however and it was never tedious. It is just that some books really get you captivated regardless of the topic and this is not one of those books.

I wish it had covered a bit more about the different types of mosquitoes, and a bit more about their lives (only first 2 or 3 chapters do so). But it is still a worthwhile read. It talks a lot about the deadly diseases that are spread by mosquitoes and humans' long lasting battle against them.

A Great Read!
This book is a must for students of history and disease,
natural history, and popular history. It is especially timely in
light of the spread of the West Nile virus and can help the
reader to understand humanity's long struggle with disease
and the agents that can carry it. Well-written and informative, it reads more like a novel and is the very best
kind of popular history. Buy it - you'll like it! ... Read more

Book Description

Insect overwintering is a fascinating process involving many physiological, epidemiological, biochemical and behavioral changes. The study of the overwintering process can offer an insight into the development of insects, as well as help us predict the patterns of disease epidemic and crop destruction caused by some species.This book provides a comprehensive account of the various forms of insect overwintering and highlights important areas of economic interest. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Butterfly House Companion Guide
If you love visiting of the new year-round butterfly houses popping up around the U.S., you can't live without this book. It is an excellent companion to your walks through the conservatories.

Butterflies of the World
If you want to know the anatomy and physiology of butterflies this is the book to get. It tells you EVERYTHING about butterflies and has beautiful, colorful pictures to add to this great book. It has so much detail... a very comprehensive addition to your library. And it looks so nice you'll want it on top of your cocktail table! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The pickle-jar ploy.
This book is a marvelous pictorial guide to bugs, some of whom occasionally get an urge to check out one's abode. But before stomping any such audacious intruders, you might consider that, since the author evidently felt that they deserved a spot in his book, perhaps they also(dare one say it?) deserve to live. Given this, it would be nice if he had mentioned that a simple and easy enough way of removing a visiting critter is to promptly trap it under a rinsed-out pickle jar, slide an index card underneath, and return him to the great outdoors. After all, he's probably just trying to find his way back there anyway.

A guide to diverse marvels close at hand
It seems that one of Nature's unspoken rules is that the smaller things get, the stranger they become. Quantum mechanics, for example, which describes the activities of particles at sub-atomic levels, challenges our understanding of the universe as our senses receive it: even our knowledge of the trajectory of a sub-atomic particle, for example, means that its position cannot be known, and light, depending on how one observes it, behaves as either a particle or a wave. The universe as described by quantum mechanics is a much stranger place than the one postulated by LaPlace and Newton.

Similarly, in the field of biology, the world revealed by the microscope is much stranger than anything that we could have derived from observations of those organisms visible to the naked eye. This denizens of this realm include various and marvelous creatures: species which defy classification as either plant or animal; genera which contain within them certain species which reproduce sexually, while their close relatives procreate by division; creatures which spend part of their lives as independent single celled units, and other parts of their lives as part of a multicelled organism, with certain cells acting as the stalk on which others form a fruiting body. Our understanding of classification, sex, and the very distinction between single celled and multicellular organisms is challenged by this wonderful microscopic world which lies all around us. Though man is still the measure of all things (by virtue of having invented the yardsticks by which we observe the universe), the cosmos were not made in our image, nor we in theirs, and though the universe is a wonderful place, it is also a strange and disconcerting one.

As we look at organisms which are somewhat closer in size to our own, they lose some, but not all, of that strangeness which the quantum and microscopic worlds contain, and Charles L. Hogue's _Insects of the Los Angeles Basin_ makes this strangeness accessible to us all. Hogue was Curator of Entomology for the Natural History Museum for 30 years, and this guide has its origin in part in those questions asked by Angelenos during his tenure there. This guide was another of those books which our West Coast friends gave to my wife Fayaway and myself, in an effort to convince us to move out to California, and we have come to know many of the strange and wonderful species described in these pages: the beautiful butterflies which visit our gardens, the speedy dragonflies and the mosquitoes on which they feed, the multiform beetles which live beneath our feet, our houses, and our lawns. It was in these pages I first took note of the California Sister, a butterfly species which lives among the oaks of the Santa Monicas; I ran to this book to discover the name of that strange beast that had crawled into our bathtub during the night, and had caused my wife, who is not easily frightened, to scream out (it was the Jerusalem cricket, a creature whose virtues do not include beauty or grace); I used this book to identify the strange beetle larva which was content only when travelling on its back. These and many other creatures have become better known to me through the pages of this book.

The guide is very easy to use, once one knows the difference between a cricket and grasshopper, a cockroach and beetle, and the book will help the reader learn that. It is full of drawings and photographs, many in beautiful full-color, of most of the species described, as well as information about their habits, ecology, and life history. The author is also candid about what is not known about certain species, such as the larval stages, their feeding habits, or their modes of reproduction. Nothing is known of the early life of the California Glowworm, for example. Each description contains a list of its sources as well.

These excellent descriptions are preceded by an introduction to basic entomology: there are sections on insect body structure and function, growth and development, and classification, and a chapter on the Los Angeles Basin environment and ecology. Another fine feature is the full color map, computer-generated from Landsat photographs, of the region covered by this book. There is also a very good glossary, a general bibliography and resource list, and an index. One need do little more than walk out the door with this book in hand to find it immediately useful: it is full of information for those interested in the insect life around us. Indeed, I have found that whenever I go out to the garden to read some other work, it is wise to bring this book as well, since inevitably I will feel compelled to go back into the house to find the answer to some question about some creature or other whose path I happen to cross. The value of this book to amateur entomologists is inestimable: it will not only drive the curious out into the gardens, forest, and hills to seek those creatures listed here, but provide information to those whose first instinct is to kill any such creature they might find in their domicile, and help them learn that the natural world is not as frightening as it might at first seem, even though it might never lose its strangeness. Recommended to anyone interested in learning more about those insects and arachnids with whom we share the Los Angeles Basin, and who are essential parts of the local ecology, strange and frightening though they might seem at first glance.

Face Your Fear!
If you want to know more than just the names and habitat of Southern California insects, then this is the book for you. If the insect is non-native, what is its origin and when was it introduced? If it stings or bites, what does it feel like and does the toxin affect the nerves like a black widow or just dissolve the local tissue like a brown recluse? Do they jump or dart? Why is it always showing up in a certain room or part of the yard? "Insects of the Los Angeles Basin" will answer these questions. Read this book and become the lone rational mind in a roomful of hysterical screaming humans recoiling from the sight of one of these magnificent little creatures.

Insects in L.A.
A magnificent book. Hogue details all of the more important insect species, and some the of the lesser known, as well. Did you know that L.A. is home to 3 species of fireflies? There are numerous photos, black and white, and color, along with several line drawings.

Great Indentification Guide
There are pictures of every insect (and spider) featured, and this makes it very useful in identifying the critters in the yard. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (15)

Excelent book!
This is an excellent book. If you love ants, or you are starting to study them, or simply like to read excellent science books, this one's for you. It is very well written, and, although it is technical in many aspects, it is a delight to read it. It is full of pictures, diagrams and graphs of almost any aspect you can imagine. Almost any subject that the book addresses is explained at length in a clear and understandable way. However, there are some parts of it where you need some background in biology and mathematics to understand the book.

Both Holldobler and Wilson, who have a strong background in ant studies, have outdone themselves. In this book you can learn about virtually any aspects concerning ants, from their anatomy to their classification and more. And besides this, the book also teaches a lot of things not only related to ants but more general, like evolution and kin selection (applied not only to ants but also to eusocial insects). Learning so much about the ants makes you change your viewpoint about this little animal and makes you think about how incredible nature (or God) is to create such beautiful, incredible animals.

The definitive ant book
I received a copy of this book back in the early 1990s and have gone back to read it on several occasions. The book is massive consisting of over 730 pages in a large 12 x 10 format. It contains hundreds of illustrations including several color plates and some really amazing paintings of various types of ants and hive culture.

The information is exhaustive ranging from the extremely technical to the conversational. Parts of the book will be mainly of interest to the hardcore entomologist but the majority of the book is easily understood by the layman, well maybe not always easily but it's not too difficult and it's worth the effort.

I can't imagine a better or more complete text on the subject of ants. Anyone with any real interest in the subject should not be without this book.

Everything you would ever want to know about the Ant
I have always had an interest in insects from an early age. As a child I was always capturing ants and trying to setup ant colonies. So when I saw this book at the store I had to buy it. Just looking at it in the bookstore I was drawn in by the many pages of detailed drawings and photographs.

The book can be a bit technical at times. It used advanced (to me anyway) entomological terms that can sometimes make understanding some of the topics difficult. Though it is clearly targeted at an adult audience, I would not hesitate to give this book to a bright child who is particularly interested in ants.

Just about anything you might want to know about the ant is covered. The book did a good job of explaining some questions that I had always had of ants. For example, how can the queen continue to lay fertilized eggs endlessly without a "partner".

The only topic I might have liked seen described at greater length would have been keeping ants. How to excavate a colony. How to obtain a queen. And son on.

Not for the amateur
Of course this is a great book. But it's also very big...and very technical. I know more about insects than the normal person and I was lost after the first couple pages. If you want a neat ant book read Journey to the Ants. It's more down to earth and easier to read and written by the same people. I wouldn't try to tackle this until you got a few entomology courses under your belt....

Excellent
This is a book that makes you want to drop everything and dedicate all your time to the study of ants. There are not too many books out there that are so well-written that they induce such emotions. It is a sizable book, and for those outside the field of myrmecology, it probably would not be read cover-to-cover. But every page of this book is fascinating, and considering the time and effort the authors put into it, it is no surprise that it has been the target of numerous awards. The authors dedicate the book to the "next generation of myrmecologists", and no doubt they have convinced many individuals to take up the field. The authors convey to the reader that the study of ants is a thriving field, and there are lots of research questions unanswered in their study.
Space prohibits a detailed review, so I will list instead the parts of the book that I consider most interesting: 1. The variation in the mode of colony founding among the different species of ants. 2. The mating habits of ants, in particular the female-calling and aggregation syndromes. 3. The description of the experiment showing the role of male pheromones in carpenter ants. 4. The statistical analysis of the time of swarming. 5. The comparison between different hypotheses for polyandry. 6. The universal occurence across species of 'nanitics' or 'minims' in the first brood and their ergonomic advantages. 7. The parental manipulation and offspring consent hypotheses for the origin of worker castes. 8. Eusociality and chromosome number as a strategy for reducing genetic variance. 9. The role of learning in colony-level recognition. 10. The presence of conflict between queens and workers in the management of new queens and males. 11. The existence of modulatory communication in ants (this was definitely the most interesting discussion in the book ). 12. The steps in the evolution of physical castes. 13. The result that colony-level selection is the opposite of what one would expect from individual-level selection, the later tending to improving phenotypes. 14. The use of allometric space to model evolutionary optimization. 15. The capability of associative learning in ants. 16. Ant-termite warfare. 17. The entire chapter on army ants. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Solid, well written, easy to read
Erich Hoyt's work sets forth tons of interesting ant information (and some information about the myrmecologists who study ants) in a readable, useful format. This is lighter reading than Wilson and Holldobler's classic The Ants, but it is still chock-ful of good information about ants and about Professor Wilson. I found myself wanting to know more details about more types of ants, and a bit more coverage of the domestic US ants than this work provides, but it's still a fine work. If you want to read something insightful about ants but don't want a hard science tome, this is a good pick.

This is a great book and I'm not a myrmecologist
This book was very entertaining and I learned a lot about a few types of ants. The ant perspective was kind of a cool way to present the information. He does a good job of presenting ants and their ecological importance without getting so technical that it sounds like a paper in ecology. He did focus on Costa Rica but how can you blame somebody for doing that. I really got into it. The way he divided the story between the ants and the ant guys, E. O. Wilson namely, was a nice change of pace. It reads fast and the glossaries in the back help with any terms that aren't familiar. I really enjoy it. Buy the book, you'll learn lots and you will be entertained at the same time.

Excellent in general, but falters at times.
As a lifelong myrmecophile I get quite excited at the rare appearance of a new ant-book in any local bookshop. Thus, I opened this one ready to be impressed immediately. In general, I was not too disappointed. The perspective of the book, which shifts from that of the ants to that of the professional myrmecologist, is a little different from that of the usual tome. When written from the perspective of the Costa Rican ant species, which are its central study, the book works well and gives an insight into the lives of the Carpenters, Leaf Cutters, Fire and Army ants which is both entertaining and informative. However, the book also observes the lives of the eminent scientists involved in an exhaustive study of Costa Rican ant species. I found these diversions less interesting. I wanted a book on ants and for eighty per cent of the time that is what I got. Buy it.

A CLOSE-P LOOK AT THE "THE LITTLE THINGS THAT RUN THE WORLD"
Wonder is in no short supply in The Earth Dwellers: Adventures in the Land of Ants. Author Erich Hoyt tells us from the outset that this is going to be an ant's-eye view of things: "I have sought the perspective of viewing from less than an inch off the ground, as well as tunneling twenty feet below the earth and looking out from the inside of a hollow tree." A tribe of leafcutter ants becomes, not so much a brown river flecked with bits of green, but a MayDay parade of workers with leafy banners. The leafcutter ants are among the most fascinating of the incredible number of ant species. The leafcutter's tiny brain, amazingly, is capable of storing information on local landmarks to orient it's foraging (the chess-playing Deep Blue was nothing --let's see the gnomes at IBM replicate an ant's skills on a chip the size of a dot). The leafcutters, like all ant species, use pheromones -- chemical signals -- to communicate. This is sometimes exploited by other creatures: "Certain beetles, like highwaymen, wait to try to rob the ants of their food by giving them the ants own 'feed me' signal." The ants lay down trails with pheromones that allow others of their nest to follow. Hoyt chances upon once such trail -- "the long line of leafcutters now extends for hundreds of yards through this forest, along this ant highway swept clear of all debris. Two lanes, a regular speed land and a passing lane, lead toward the colony nest, while the third lane is for ants venturing out from the nest to cut more leaves." Ants aren't the only interesting characters in The Earth Dwellers. Hoyt spent several years in the field, tagging along with Harvard ant man Edward O. Wilson in the latter's effort to catalogue new species. The author gives an affectionate portrait of the gentle Wilson, whose love for living things found it's text in "the gospel according to Charles Darwin". Wilson "refers to the tropical rainforest as a cathedral, a place where the biologist makes pilgrimages, goes to worship and gape in wonder at the full flowering of evolution, the place where life is more diverse than anywhere else on earth." A biodiversity expert, Wilson is the most quoted scientist on our decimation of earth's life: according to his estimates up to 70 species are being killed off a day, for a sickening total of twenty-five thousand species a year. After the rancorous debate in the seventies on sociobiology, the science of genes and behaviour that he founded, Wilson is back with his "little things that run the world". Ants, to the Harvard prof, are DNA on the move, little Darwinian machines in exoskeletons. Hoyt quotes the professor : "The foreign policy of ants can be summed up as follows: restless aggression, territorial conquest, and genocidal annihilation of neighbouring colonies, wherever possible. If ants had nuclear weapons, they would probably end the world in a week." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very complete book
This book was over my head (I don't have any sort of biology background, just more of a backyard naturalist who is hungry to learn) but nonethless I appreciate it for all the incredible information documented here. Its a very big book - 550 pages long and seems more like a serious reference text book for the student studying insects. In that context I think it'd be perfect. There are great drawinging, very detailed and indeed pretty too. There are insect family trees, drawing of nests and eggs, etc. I find the information in here fantastic. I enjoyed the chapter on behavior since that was what I originally was interested in learning about. Wilson talks about mazes with blind alleys and other neat things that ants do. Anyway, great book just be prepared for it to be very very technical.

Here are some of the chapters:
- Intro: the importance of societal insects
-degrees of social behavior
-the social wasps
- the ants
-the social bees
- the termites
- the presocial ants
- caste: ants
- caste: social bees and wasps
- caste: termites
- the elements of behavior
- communication: alarm
- communication: recruitment
- comminucation: recognition, food, grooming
- symbiosis
- population dynamics

Very good
An outstanding book, very enjoyable. Discusses ants, wasps, bees, termites, etc. A little bit dated now, but it still has one of the best overviews of social insects and their evolution of which I am aware. It is also very readable, with numerous illustrations. ... Read more

Book Description

Northeastern Tiger Beetles: A Field Guide to Tiger Beetles of New England and Eastern Canada is the first book to draw together information about adult and larvae of tiger beetles of New England and Eastern Canada. Details are provided about key characteristics of adults and larvae; habitat; range; and life history information of the various species, including notes on conservation status of rare or endangered species. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This is an Excellent new Tiger Beetle volume!
This is the second exceptional volume to come out recently on a regional tiger beetle fauna, providing an outstanding companion to Knisley & Schultz's volume on the tiger beetles of the South Atlantic states.Thevolume is well-written and includes much basic information that would behelpful for the beginning cicindelist on tiger beetle biology, the natureof species, and collecting and preparation techniques.Cautions are alsoincluded against collecting endangered or protected species, with strongand specific advice on photographic techniques for these. Moreadvanced materials include keys to both adults and third-instar larvae. Each species is described, and key identifying characteristics areunderlined for easy reference; distinguishing characteristics from similarspecies are included for each, which is a big help for a beginner.Thevolume is profusely illustrated with line drawings and a black-and-whitereference photograph of each species; color photographs of all speciesincluded in the study area are also included in separate plates.Mapsshowing distributions in the New England States and adjacent Canada aremore detailed than those of Knisley & Schultz, and include major riversand lakes. This is an obligate addition to the library of any seriouscicindelist. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Far from being just an itchy annoyance, a mosquito bite can also mark the transmission of a deadly disease. Millions worldwide die of malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile virus every year. Scientist Andrew Spielman tells the story of the tiny, ubiquitous insect, the diseases it carries, and the fight against them both in Mosquito.

Spielman, who has spent much of his career battling mosquitoes and mosquito-borne illness, knows his subject intimately--perhaps too intimately, as the section on the different species drags a bit. Better is his handling of various historic epidemics, from the malaria outbreak that caused the French to abandon the Panama Canal to the 1999 West Nile virus outbreak in New York City.

Spielman also recounts stories of how the tiny pests were thwarted, including the way DDT came to be used as a weapon in the cold war (take our side and we'll get rid of your mosquitoes)--and why these efforts ultimately failed. Most important, Spielman details how cities should prepare themselves for the inevitable epidemics ahead. --Sunny Delaney ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Dispatches from a Losing War
What animal presents the greatest danger to humans? With our predilection for blood and guts (and scary movies) we are likely to answer sharks, or lions and tigers and bears. This is wrong by a factor of millions. You yourself have hunted, and sometimes killed this most dangerous animal, but most of the time it has attacked you in stealth and escaped to attack again. It is the tiny mosquito that endangers us far more than the big, scary beasts. They caused 500 million cases of malaria last year, and a million deaths from it, and that's just malaria. We can swat a few, but for all our knowledge, large-scale control of the scourge eludes us. Just how big a problem mosquitoes pose is made clear in _Mosquito: A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe_ by Andrew Spielman and Michael D'Antonio. A good deal of the book is told in the first person, for Spielman is a tropical disease specialist and a particular expert on mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit. (He has been bitten so many times he no longer gets welts.) D'Antonio is a journalist who has won a Pulitzer. The combination of the two has resulted in a surprisingly readable, scary, and humbling volume.

The first section of the book is entitled "The Magnificent Enemy." It is clear that Spielman, after decades of trying to understand mosquitoes and battling them, holds them in admiration as finely tuned specimens produced by the pressures of evolution. (He is also able to refer to them as "the little devils" when they turn up where they are not wanted.) You knew that only females draw blood (this is to produce the eggs of the next generation), but did you know that they mostly eat rotting fruit? Much of the book is concerned with the illnesses that mosquitoes convey, and the symptoms make unpleasant reading. Mosquitoes have changed history, and many instances are included here. DDT saw wartime use in the WWII Pacific, and scientists thought we could have eradicated mosquitoes by now, but here are the war's results: "Today, a map colored to illustrate the worldwide distribution of malaria does not look much different from one drawn in 1955." The authors argue against the ban of DDT which various ecological groups are calling for. It is no longer dangerously overused, it is cheap, and it saves lives. It can't work very well if we keep transporting mosquitoes to new populations, as international travel is making it easier to do.

The book gives a useful summary of what works against mosquitoes and what doesn't. Repellants work, especially those with DEET, as does any oily substance spread on the skin. Screens are one of the main ways malaria was expelled from the United States. Bug zappers kill very few mosquitoes; ultrasonic devices do nothing; and sadly, culturing bats and mosquito-eating birds seems to have little effect. We are, for all our knowledge, making little headway against this tiny, dangerous enemy. This book effectively sums up the problems, and in an entertaining way brings us up to date on an important war we are far from winning.

damned pests
Prison life brings home to a man how nature carries on its quiet, care-free life quite unconcerned,

and makes one feel almost sentimental towards animal and plant life--except for flies; I can't work up any sentiment about them! -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Prisoner for God : Letters and Papers from Prison

If I were to say to you that this book tells you everything you need to know about mosquitoes, your initial reaction, like mine, would likely be that you already know too much : they are damned annoying pests. But Andrew Spielman, a Harvard professor, and his coauthor, Michael D'Antonio, have produced a concise and very interesting volume about the mosquito that is well worth reading. The secret of their success lies in the fact that though Professor Spielman obviously feels that the mosquito is fascinating in its own right, the book focusses more on the deadly interaction between the bugs, the various diseases they transmit, and humankind. At a time when the whole Northeast braces to see where birds are dying of West Nile virus, this makes the book quite topical.

In a sense, the book has a tragic, or potentially tragic, arc to it. After some introductory material about mosquitoes, the authors go on to discuss the truly heroic efforts that were made to identify the cause of malaria, and once mosquitoes were identified as the culprits, to combat this pest. Eventually, this led to a wholesale effort to eradicate the disease entirely, an effort which obviously failed, despite some marked successes. In this section of the book Spielman is refreshingly forthright about the reasons for the ultimate failures and about what worked and what didn't. Essentially, success was predicated on : draining water sources that in the past had been allowed to stagnate; installing screens in homes and using netting at night; pouring oil on the standing water where mosquitoes breed; and brief but aggressive use of insecticides, like DDT; made it possible to limit and in some cases eliminate malaria outbreaks in human populations. It was not actually necessary to wipe out the mosquitoes, merely to deny them easy contact with already diseased humans.

But in recent decades a number of factors have combined to deter the application of these techniques. The most obvious has been the hysteria over DDT and other insecticides, much of it stirred up by Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. The wild overreaction to potential problems with the way in which these chemicals were being used fifty years ago has made it difficult to deploy one of our most effective weapons in the fight against mosquitoes. Problems have also arisen because eradication programs are seen as interfering with the rights of natives and have been perceived as part of the broader imperialist, racist, hegemonic, imposition of Western will on Third World nations. Also, though the book does not discuss it, the current fetishisizing of wetlands seems as if it must inevitably create situations where human populations are once again living in close proximity to the miasmic waters where mosquitoes breed, a frightening reversal of the long and arduous drainage process that had done so much to limit this kind of contact.

Meanwhile, man has continued to expand his reach into the remotest corners of the globe, in the process being exposed to rarer and less well understood diseases than malaria. At the same time, air travel and shipping (particularly of old tires, as the reader will be fascinated to find out) have served to spread both mosquitoes and these diseases throughout the world. Such are the elements that went into the appearance of West Nile virus in New England over the past few years.

Mosquito discusses this history and the many issues involved in a clear and fair fashion. The authors avoid easy blame-casting and are generous--perhaps overgenerous--in assessing folks motives, but they make it quite obvious that we've placed ourselves in a dangerous situation. After a years long struggle against the mosquito, we seem to be quite consciously ignoring everything we've learned, to have surrendered our most effective weapons in the struggle against one of nature's most potent disease vectors. The book concludes with a series of eminently sensible steps that we can all take, and steps that public health officials must take, in order for man to coexist with mosquitoes, without putting ourselves at unnecessary and potentially disastrous risk. Even if most of us will feel that some of the motivation for these measured steps stems from a little to great a respect and fondness for the mosquito on Spielman's part, it is nonetheless true that by the end of the book, he's made a compelling case that, even if we won't all love them as he does, we are likely to have to accept the idea that, however bothersome, they will always be with us. His suggestions are sensible and moderate enough that it seems like that we should be able to do so.

GRADE : B+

Don't bite on this one!
As far as I can tell, this is essentially the same book as "Mosquito: The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe." The first couple of chapters are interesting, but after that, the writing becomes vague, repetitious, and inconsistent in tone, diction, and quality. What should have been a fascinating book filled with both technical information and personal anecdotes (one of the authors is, after all, a leading researcher in mosquito-borne diseases) instead is filled with generalities and handwaving and reads like a C+ term paper hastily pulled from the internet (really!). Don't waste your time!

The Deadliest Insect of Them All
Mosquitoes are perhaps the most dangerous of all insects. Somewhere around 2 million people die each year from mosquito-vectored human malaria alone- many more than are killed in traffic accidents (source: WHO.) Andrew Spielman and Michael D'Antonio have now produced a book that documents the life history of and human association with these tiny vampires and they have generally done a very good job. If you want to know some fascinating facts about mosquitoes, this is a good source.

Unfortunately the maps of the distributions of both mosquitoes and the diseases they carry are somewhat out of date. Aedes aegypti is now in Tucson, Las Cruces, and El Paso in the Southwest U.S., and West Nile is in almost every state. Also the information about the vectors of West Nile Virus is an oversimplification. In the western US at least, Culex tarsalis my be a more efficient vector than C. pipiens.

Despite these minor flaws, I highly recommend this book. It is one of the best general work on the subject since J. D. Gillett's book "The Mosquito." Unfortunately both are now out of print.

"If you are really unlucky, you might die"
"The saliva that they leave behind might make you itchy, or if you are really unlucky, you might die".

If you are like me and seem to attract these buzzing beasts you will enjoy this book, although bear in mind it is rather technical and written mainly for the scientifically minded.

Some useful information includes:

-carbon dioxide and heat attracts them, (but it doesn't seem to be explained here why they seem to like some people more than others, or whether it is just that some people react to bites more than others),
-various species attack different parts of the body (eg some the ankles, some the head),
-some don't attack humans at all,
-some attack only humans and monkeys,
-colours vary-some are black and white striped, (these cause yellow fever), others are brown, others dominantly grey.
-the mosquito has had a significant effect on human history through various mosquito borne diseases (eg Dengue, Yellow Fever, Malaria, Encephalitus, and Rift Valley Fever).
-various mosquito-borne diseases are exclusive to birds, some cross from birds to man, some from horses to man, some from monkeys to man, etc.

Some historical plagues and the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are described eg Dengue, Yellow Fever, Malaria , Encephalitus, and Rift Valley Fever. Historically, it was initially ridiculed that tiny organisms could carry tiny diseases, but careful observation and scientific method eventually won the day over 'folk psychology'. Mosquitoes, through recognition of their association with yellow fever and malaria, played a major part in the development of germ theory, and by association much of modern medicine. Pasteur's germ theory, partially based on work done on mosquitoes as disease carriers, contributed much to humankind's better general health in the latter 19th century in particular. Good sanitation and community health went hand in hand with ongoing scientific research, including that done on mosquito-borne diseases.

Sanitation has been surprisingly effective against mosquito-borne diseases. Limiting stagnant water and widespread use of household netting has been proven to greatly reduce disease rates. The presence of marshes and wetlands increases prevalence, but so does the presence of the longer- lived and more aggressive species (Incidentally, Alaska has amongst the most aggressive mossies of all-which anyone who has been there in the summer will tell you).

A useful read, scientifically astute, but perhaps a little dry, along with most other medical-style texts I have read. Worthwhile. ... Read more

Book Description

This text considers forest insects occurring in forest ecosystems, specialized forestry settings, and urban forests, with an approach and coverage that make it suitable for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses in forest entomology and forest protection. Early chapters introduce entomology, middle chapters provide the first comprehensive treatment of the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of forest insects, and later chapters discuss the pest insects according to their feeding group. ... Read more

Book Description

Even in the most industrialized nations, the health problems caused by common and exotic insects pose a serious threat, making quick and accurate diagnosis and treatment imperative. Physician's Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance is the ultimate resource for identifying arthropods - including varieties of insects, spiders, mites, ticks, and scorpions - and their harmful effects on human health. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

New Zealand HIAI Monthly email Newsletter
This is a monumental effort, 220 page plus book well laid out and researched with heaps of references and an easy to follow index of pests and diseases plus biological solutions as the title indicates. Members may recall that John McPartland in fact all the authors were very helpful to NZHIAI some time back regarding MAF's (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) request for information regarding industrial hemp pests and diseases. By NZ standards this book is quite pricey (NZD 150-00 plus landed) That said I would suggest if you are re serious regarding growing industrial hemp this book will become as it is rapidly for me "Your bible." There is so much information my head is spinning. It is attractively bound and could well become a collectors item. No problems with NZ customs. In a word it is BRILLIANT. A credit to the authors. It can be obtained from the website below. Only took a week to get here.

Review from CC Archives
Hemp diseases and pests An amazing new tome on cannabis cultivation. from CC On-line, by Pete Brady

Here's the perfect recipe for a book about cannabis: use three authors who have spent decades studying cannabis horticulture, combine them with an international publishing company, and give them enough resources to create an oversized book with professional citations, illustrations, and binding.

This perfect recipe has produced a gorgeous new book, HEMP DISEASES AND PESTS - MANAGEMENT AND BIOLOGICAL CONTROL. The authors - Dr. John McPartland, Robert Connell Clarke, and David Watson - are premier marijuana researchers whose credibility and breadth of knowledge are legendary.

McPartland is a medical doctor, botanist and cannabinoid researcher. Clarke is the author of two epic texts, MARIJUANA BOTANY and HASHISH!. Watson runs HortaPharm, the Dutch cannabis breeding consortium supplying specialty cannabis to UK med-pot research projects conducted by GW Pharmaecuticals.

HEMP DISEASES AND PESTS is a fascinating, practical book, and an upcoming issue of CANNABIS CULTURE will give a more complete summary of its features. For the purposes of this brief online review, however, I assure you that this book will significantly increase yield, efficiency and quality for any marijuana grower who follows its advice.

The book includes photos that help growers diagnose dozens of plant dysfunctions, including enemy insects, mites, mammals, and fungi, environmentally-caused problems, overwatering, and nutrient deficiencies. It tells growers how to protect their crops using biocontrols instead of toxic chemicals. It describes ideal soil components, harvesting guidelines, and curing procedures.

Although HEMP DISEASES AND PESTS is not intended as a "grow book" that focuses on lighting, security, and clandestine techniques, its scope, accuracy and detail make it an incomparable textbook that every marijuana grower should have. It is interesting and entertaining, immaculately presented and organized, and features the most innovative and reliable techniques for keeping your plants healthy and happy.

HEMP DISEASES AND PESTS is a large, 251 page, professional book with a professional price. It's well worth it. When I grew my own marijuana, I was often puzzled by plant problems. If I'd had this book, I could have easily eliminated those problems. HEMP DISEASES AND PESTS will likely increase the yield of your garden by at least 50%- if that's not worth, I don't know what is!

overwhelmingly thorough
Having only been able to get an overview of this imposing tome, I came away thorougly impressed. for by far the most comprehensive book on the subject, this book should become indispensable. in a field dominated by the likes of ed rosenthal and jorge cervantes, it's nice to see a work that's more academic than either e.r. or j.c. are inclined to churn out (not that they don't provide a great service to the public as well!) if you've got the time, and are serious about cultivation, this work will resolve a lot of nagging questions and issues you might have in a professional, well-organized fashion. ... Read more

Book Description

Amber has captured the human imagination for centuries, as amulets, ritual cups, and beads dating back 10,000 years attest. It is a fascinating substance, one that offers a unique intersection of the fields of paleontology, botany, entomology, and mineralogy. The fossilized resin of ancient trees, amber preserves organic material-most commonly insects and other invertebrates-and with it the shape and surface detail that are usually obliterated or hopelessly distorted during the mineralization we associate with fossils. To look at an ant or a bee caught in amber is to look not at an organism that has been turned to stone, but at the actual remains of an insect that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, remains that retain an uncanny semblance of life. Amber also offers clues to the evolution of certain behaviors, capturing such interactions as parasitism-a fruit fly with a parasitic mite still attached to it-or mutualism-a bubble of gas indicating the presence of beneficial bacteria in the gut of a termite. Unique to this book are identification keys to the most common insect inclusions as well as practical advice on how to identify all-too-common fakes. Amber will bring the study of this and its inclusions within reach of anyone with access to amber and a good magnifying glass. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A book for Amber Inclusion Fans
This is only a small book of 73 pages. It gives you a concise and well written account of how amber was formed and where in the world it is found. The Baltic area is one of the more prolific locations, but it is also found in places like Dominica and Burma. It also provides information on fakes and how to test amber, with practical instructions on how to do so.

The book is full of beautiful, clear photographs. However the emphasis is heavily on amber inclusions such as insect and plant life. If you have amber and you want to identify the insect/plant in it, then this is the book you want. It's overall content has obviously been heavily influenced by the movie "Jurassic Park".

However, despite these good points it does have some significant weakness'. It gives little information on the colour ranges available in amber. Some sort of colour chart would have been useful. It also does not supply information on the care and storage of amber.

In short, this book is a great introduction to amber and it's inclusions, but does not extend beyond that into amber artwork or some practical areas of amber ownership/maintance.

Great for amature amber lovers
This is a great book if you want to know basics on amber. The further you go through the book, it explains more in detail. Great in depth photos & easy to understand. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. If you like amber, this is the book to buy.

Concise information, beautiful illustrations
I am developing a natural history museum exhibit on amber and I found this book to be the most helpful source of information. This relatively small book abounds with photographs that make the various inclusions found within ambers easy to identify. The concise information is up to date and well suited for those readers without a science background, as well as those with a Ph.D. Compared to the various recent magazine articles and technical journals and books I've read, using this book has been the most efficient use of my time. It also includes a list of further readings and a couple of web sites (one of which has already provided me with important advice for how to protect amber from degrading). I strongly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Butterflies are hot! No one knows this better than butterfly expert, gardener and lecturer Patti Putnam and her butterfly expert spouse - gardener and photojournalist Milt Putnam. Featuring outstanding color photographs with nuggets of important information on each butterfly, the Putnams have assembled an easy-to-use, easy-to-carry field guide to North America's 50 most popular butterflies. ... Read more

Amazon.com

"Ask yourself how you feel about cockroaches. Do you shiver at the mere mention of their name? Could you kill one with your bare hand? Would you rather not be talking about this?" Even if the answer to all these questions from David George Gordon's The Compleat Cockroach is "EEUGHH" (meaning "yes, indeed"), you might want to get this book for your lawyer, landlord, or 10-year-old. Strong-stomached adults will find it a trove of information on every aspect of cockroach biology, control strategies, literary cockroaches, and cockroach song and dance--not to mention cockroaches in art, as pets, or (gulp) as cuisine. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

PSOCID CORNER
Greetings and salutations once again , before I get to this issue's review I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who have sent in comments or suggestions. At first I was going to review "The Roaches Have No King " by Daniel Evan Weiss A good book but definitely not for children of all ages. It tells the story from the roaches perspective and in fact is narrated by two roaches Numbers and Bismarck. Other roaches are named Ajax , Argo and Julia Childs , which gives you an idea of the wit. Although the book gets your attention if you are terminally proper or sans an open sense of humor you might want to skip it. Ergo I have decided to send you to a book which is kind of like a web site for "roachabilia" it's also how I learned of the a fore mentioned novel. The book is "The Compleat Cockroach" by David George Gordon. I originally met Dave Gordon at a NY Entomological Society meeting back in 1997. At the time he was on a book tour and following his presentation I picked up a copy or four. The book opens with a well presented biology lesson of the insects 340 million year presence. While we have for the most part developed a negative view of roaches we are reminded of some of the other roles they play , such as the removal and recycling of dead plant and animal life in forests. Their vital niche in the food chain as well as their role as pollinators in rain forests and desert areas. With this information in mind we begin to understand how roaches enter the field as key cultural entomological figures. With a presence so varied and international their interactions and escapades easily enter human culture. Several quick references would be, "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka ( yes I know it's probably a beetle but everyone else thinks it a roach) , Don Marquis's famous "Archy" circa 1920 and of course the Mexican revolution song entitled "La Cucaracha". Several years ago a friend of mine had this song played at my birthday party in a Mexican restaurant by a miriachi band , boy did I get some weird looks but everyone knew the words even the little guys under the table. Most recently the MTV movie "Joe's Apartment" demonstrated that roaches out sing and dance Disney's cricket. In addition Mr. Gordon tackles the topics of observation and control dating back to ancient Egypt to some modern methods or fiasco you may recall with the use of fungi (Bio-Path). This book is fascinating with tid bits and references galore. I urge you to pick up a copy , you probably won't put it down. You will also find yourself repeating the phrase " I didn't know that" several times. Well with a good book to read let me take the opportunity to wish you all A Happy and Healthy Holiday season and oh yeah enjoy the roach nog.

Terrific for Research as well as Light Reading
I thought this book was TERRIFIC! It was alot of fun to read. The style was casule and informative. Read it, you'll learn all you ever need to know about cockroaches. Funny, fast paced, great for a report.

Conquer your Blattariaphobia
"The Complete Cockroach," by biologist David George Gordon, is an exceptional reference on cockroaches: from etomology to popular culture. Two pages are devoted to "Kafka on Cockroaches" (129-30); students found this information useful when writing on "The Metamorphosis."

Horrible little beasts, by fermed
It takes a combination of strength of character, sheer curiosity and a touch of madness to spend hard earned dollars on a book devoted to blattaria, which is the family name of cockroaches. Most people have an absolute and total abhorrence towards these little beasties: they believe that no cockroach, not even a dead cockroad, can possibly be a good cockroach.

Once the initial repulsion to the book and its title has been overcome, it does not mean one is going to love the critters, or even tolerate them in one's life space; but a reluctant amazement about these complex and bizarre creatures is likely to develop. If one's only interest on the subject is how to be rid of them, this book reviews the history of the attempts to exterminate them and the modern methods now in use. But perhaps you would like to become a collector, or a breeder...no? Well, if you change your mind you will find the addresses of others interested in catching, swapping or breeding the insects. Reading the 170 odd pages of this book will not make you a scientific expert on blattaria, but it pretty well guarantees that you will not be lost for words at the next cocktail party. If the subject of cockroaches happens to come up.

The book contains a good index, a section on cockroach supplies and resources (food, rubber cockroaches, museums of cockroaches) and a 5 book non-fiction bibliography.The book's title reflects precisely its contents, and for that reason, as well as the other attributes mentioned, it earns my five stars.

A good psychological book for people, who dislike cockroache
This book is very fantastic. All about history,species, humor, songs,art, museums etc. It describes the cockroaches so clearely and exact, that you are never afraid of them! I was shocked by the first big American Cockroaches on the Azores, where I am regulary for holidays. I bought this book for psychological therapy at my own. I was impressed by the humorfully title. It is only a pity, that there are only small black and white photos on it. If you want to understand "uggly" animals by a book of them to understand them more. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Fun Book!
The main format of this book follows the same pattern as "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." In addition to that story line, the book has flaps that you open to reveal more text and pictures. This is where the concepts of metamorphosis, as well as some extra information, are written. I purchased the book for my four-year-old nephew who wants me to read it to him over and over again. He loves to lift the flaps. We also look for the squirrel and other items that are repeated on each page. It's very fun for him now, and when he's a bit older, he'll be able to read this book for the factual information and learn from it. As a teacher, I would recommend it for an elementary classroom. ... Read more