Growing up in hill-country in California, I had a few early informative encounters with insects. Let’s start with a lesson I learned about respecting wildlife in its territory.

(Image from: http://animalia-life.com/beetle.html)

Lesson #1: Listen to your parents. When I was young I used to play in the backyard, which lined the edge of a hill teeming with lizards, small mammals, and wild plants. I would routinely leave my dirty shoes outside. One morning I ran out to fetch my shoes, first shoving my left foot into a shoe. As I slid my right foot and stomped it on the ground I heard a loud crunch as my foot fell. I quickly pulled out my bare foot (I foolishly ignored my parents’ instruction to wear socks that morning), but it was too late. My foot had pieces of exoskeleton stuck to the sole and I poured the remains of a large beetle out of my shoe. That day I learned a little about insect shells, and have always remembered to wear socks and bring my shoes inside since.

(Image from: http://www.atlanticpestsolutions.net/learning-center/pest-identification/wasps-bees/)

Lesson #2: Don’t be annoying. I love teasing my sister. I used to pick pebbles and small seed-like objects off trees and lob them in her direction. One time I tossed a seed and quickly realized my mistake. The projectile hit a wasp, which then sped toward me and punctured my skin with its stinger. Since then, careful to avoid a painful encounter, I have been more cautious in my interactions with nature. I also learned that if a wasp doesn’t lose its stinger, it can sting again.

From these two encounters I learned early on that insects are everywhere. Although we like to separate ourselves in our own spaces from other creatures, we share many spaces with these small animals. We must be wary of how we affect insects in our daily interactions and activities.