Why Are Some Bugs Better Than Other Bugs?

Every notice how pretty much everybody loves Lady Bugs? We pick them up, we let them crawl all over us, we take pictures of them … Heck, we even make jewelry designed in their image. But man, let some people spot a cockroach, or even one of those rhino beetles; you know the ones with the big horns; and they about have a heart attack. What makes Lady Bugs so much better?

Even with little kids, there are certain bugs that just universally “good”. I know kids that are correctly scared of spiders, bees, and yes even the dreaded cockroach. But, introduce those same kids to a “rolly polly” and they’ll sit and play with the thing for an hour.

Even when I was here last time, we all briefed in advance about the dreaded “camel spider“; which, upon closer examination wasn’t really all that scary. It kind of reminded me of a beetle, with 4 pretty sharp pinchers on it’s front jaws. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t go around trying to pick one up and play with it … but at the same time, I never quite understood why people get so freaked out either.

Last, but not least, my favorite example of how we treat specific types of bugs in different ways …

Everybody Hates flies. They’re dirty, noisy, and just plain annoying (side note: the flies over here in Iraq are just down right “rude”. They don’t just buzz around your head, they think nothing of landing right on your nose, eyes or even mouth). Okay, back to the story.

But, make them a little bit colorful, extend the tail, make the wings bigger, and suddenly you have a “Dragon” Fly … which just like the lady bug, almost everybody seems to love.

Happy Thursday!