Insects, the creeping conquerors and human history

by Carson I.A. Ritchie

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0840766068
• ISBN13: 9780840766069
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Elsevier/Nelson Books
• Length: 139 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Insects and Humans

Carson Ritchie's, Insects, the Creeping Conquerors and Human History is a fantastic, didactic, enjoyable read. This literary piece focuses on insects and their past and present relations and influence to humans, and their importance to man. Not only is Ritchie's book informative, it is atypical with amusing facts and historical sources. Ritchie organized his book in six parts where he begins to talk about insects as "Pests, Plagues and Predators," with in-depth historical evidence, and then he enthusiastically talks about silk and how it is produced by silkworms. Ritchie then focuses on entomology, and the insects' capability of singing and how insects are vital to man in terms of food. In the last two remaining parts of his book, Ritchie informs his readers how insects play a major role in medicine and art, and how insects are "Friends and Teachers" to the human species. Ritchie's work is not complex but rather straight forward, but it is written on a scholarly level that best suits interested individuals in history and entomology. Nonetheless, Ritchie seems to write for all sorts of readers, and despite one's preference to certain subjects, any reader will enjoy this unique, interesting book that will definitely enlighten. To humans, insects are vermin because they are annoying, generally unattractive, and they can do a lot of damage internally and externally to numerous things. To the general human population, insects cause phobia, distraction, frustration, discomfort, illnesses, and deadly diseases. To entomologists and other people that have a greater open-mind perceive insects from an insect point of view, and notice that insects have great effects on human history. Ritchie, in part one of his book called "Pests, Plagues, and Predators" mentions how many insects have wiped out thousands of humans by the spread of diseases and illnesses, but also how these insects helped a certain population of man in terms of protection from angry armies and war victories. Yellow Jack [Yellow Fever] caused by the insect Aedes aegypti was such a feared disease, that that this plague protected the Spanish American colonies of Latin America from attack by Britain and North America because these fleets would not dare to invade in harmful "Yellow Jack" regions (Ritchie, 32). Nonetheless, Napoleon Bonaparte confidently invaded Haiti of the American Continent because the Haitian slaves had revolted against their French masters during the French Revolutionary wars, and because Napoleon and his assistants wanted to regain sugar cane as a dear source for France. As this occurred, the Haitian Leaders and the citizens of Haiti fought the invaders for their potential justice and independence, and as a result, the French Army's [led by Napoleon] twenty-two thousand men died out of twenty-five thousand (Ritchie, 32). Haiti was victorious due to the invaders withdrawing, but the victory occurred thanks to the Yellow Jack plague caused by a specific insect.