Bibliophilia: Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Insects – Amy Stewart

Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Insects – Amy Stewart

I read her other book Wicked plants: the weed that killed Lincoln’s mother and other botanical atrocities, and I liked the style of it, and enjoyed this one as much. Very entertaining – well, as entertaining as foot long centipedes that hang from the ceilings of caves and snatch bats out of the air, disease carrying ticks and mosquitos, forest felling borers, biblical swarms of locusts, ants that have a bite so painful it feels like getting shot, flies that lay eggs under the skin, fleas that burrow under toenails and lay a bean sized egg sac, and termites that do more damage to New Orleans than Hurricane Katrina did – can be. There are 10 quintillion insects on the planet – 200 million for every person. Humans! You do not rule the earth.

Until reading this book, I was not aware of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index.