4033: Bugs! Don't Bug Me! 1-2 pm Sat April 8, 2017
David Stokes, Educator, Humorist, Naturalist
Frog Chorus Nature Education
New Berlin, Wisconsin
www.dwstokes.com
Using songs, sign-language, live insects and their relatives, toys, puppets and audience
participation we will share in the wonder of the most common animals on Planet Earth. This
session is not for the "squeamish!” Bring a device to record all the action!
Child Development (DEV)
BUGS! B-eautiful, U-nbelievable, G-reat, S-ensational
Using live animals like insects, spiders, etc., we will learn in a fun way why they are so important
and how to teach young people about their place in nature. Puppets, songs, stories and door
prizes will be on hand to make you happy.
I must put forth is that every living thing has an inherent right to live. Every creature, regardless
of its perceived “usefulness” to humans, has a right to exist. I believe that every plant, animal,
fungi, alga, etc. has a right to live on the planet even if we humans have not found its’ place.
Aldo Leopold said it in his “A Sand County Almanac”; the first rule of intelligent tinkering is to
SAVE ALL THE PARTS! Whether you believe in creationism or evolution, we must allow creatures
a right to exist; we must give them the benefit of the doubt.
Now this does not mean that when a mosquito bites you we should not swat it. Self-defense is
also a given right. But just because some creature bothers us, does not mean that it should die.
Sometimes my son bothers me; it does not mean that he should die!
We are going to take a serious yet comical “look” at the world of the Arthropods (Insects *&
Spiders) those creatures that people fear, or hate or would rather kill first and then ask
questions. I remember a program given by a friend of mine in the 70’s. It was called “I didn’t
know what it was so I killed it!” This paradigm must shift. We must learn to assume the best
not the worst. We can learn to expect people to do the right thing; I feel we must transfer this
respect to other life forms. Even if some individual (human or otherwise) harms us we must
learn not to make a leap to the species level. Just because one person harms another, doesn’t
mean all people are bad. Yet when one spider is dangerous to humans, many are ready to kill all
spiders they see.
Keep in mind insects like mosquitoes have a place too. Many people like their Friday night fish
fry. Guess what young fish eat in fresh water? Mosquitoes and other aquatic insects.
Everything is connected to everything else, as Barry Commoner once said. John Muir said it too,
“When you tug at one thing in Nature we find it hitched to everything else”.
Insects in general, and bees, mosquitoes, locusts are often persecuted. I suggest we can dislike
what they do but not who they are. Attack the behavior not the individual. Honeybees are the
primary pollinators of most of our food crops. Who likes honey? Fruit? Vegetables? We must
learn to appreciate the honeybee, the Italian honeybee no less. You could be allergic to a
honeybee sting and many are. My friend’s husband was allergic. He was stung once, when he
was 55 and he died. It was very sad, but it doesn’t mean the honeybee is bad. It means he was
allergic. Many people in Wisconsin are allergic to cheese, but nobody runs around saying, “Kill
all the cheese!” Caterpillars, locusts, ladybird beetles are just doing what they were created or
evolved to do. Eat and reproduce! Most of the problems we have with insects and other
arthropods today are directly attributed to something humans have done to disrupt the
“balance of nature”.
Spiders have a bad reputation indeed. Little Miss muffet …decided to stay in my version.
Spiders can do things we cannot. I sure admire athletes for doing things I cannot. Spiders can
spin silk, walk on the ceiling and fall huge distance without damage to themselves. Yes spiders
are venomous or poisonous, but most are not poisonous to humans. If you have spiders in your
house, you are lucky. They are not there to eat you, your rice crispies or your houseplants.
They are there to eat other arthropods that are there to eat you, your rice crispies or your
houseplants. Humans are so big that most spiders can’t even break our skin. Spiders eat large
numbers of other pests that could cause many problems.
Here are some guiding principles I think we should live by:
1) We are not alone, nothing lives alone. (My Grandma lived alone…NOT!)
2) A building will not stand without a solid foundation. Green plants are the
foundation upon which all life depends, and they need Sun, Air, Water and Soil.
3) Bruce Wallace said (I paraphrase) “If plants and animals all over the earth were to
die, humans would die. If humans were to die, plants and animals would be largely
unaffected.”
4) Some people believe that a creature has value if it helps man (humankind); others
believe a creature has value if it fits into or helps the Ecology; still others say that a
creature has value just because it is! What do you think?
5) Every living thing counts on the loving tender care of Gaia (God) and you.
6) ECOLOGY!
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen, (repeat).
Six legs, two antennas, and usually some wings, what about the compound eyes?
Compound eyes!
Compiled by David Stokes (found on the Sun’s Chorus CD by David Stokes)
 I HATE BUGS…I LIKE THEM, by Maryann Hoberman,
Used with permission of Gina Macoby agency
(found on the Sun’s Chorus CD by David Stokes)
I hate bugs
I like them!
You like them? I hate them.
Well, why do you hate them?
They’re creepy and crawly,
They’re nasty and ugly.
They sting me and bite me,
Make holes in my sweaters
And eat up my garden and
That’s why I hate them.
Some bugs do that but most of them don’t.
Others make honey and silk and shellac
And eat up the bad bugs but even besides that
I like them because there are so many kinds
And each kind is different.
Some bugs are ugly like maggots and weevils
But some bugs are beautiful…
Beautiful? Bugs?
Sleek shiny beetles and bright colored
butterflies,
Ladybugs, fireflies, shimmery dragonflies.
Some bugs are fun to touch.
Fun to touch? Bugs?
thousands
Pill bugs and jumping beans.
Some bugs are fun to watch: web-spinning
spiders,
Hard working ants, and hundreds and
and millions of others.
But even the harmful ones, even the ugly ones,
Once you start watching them,
Learning the ways they live,
Seeing the things they do.
You’ll find yourself liking them too.
Me like bugs?
Insects, I promise.
 ARTHROPODS by Lois Nelson (found on the Sun’s Chorus CD by David Stokes)
AR THRO POD spells Arthropod (arthropod)
Some are big and some are very small (small)
Head thorax abdomen all (all)
Spiders, mites and ants and bees all have jointed knees.
There’s a skeeter on your nose a spider on your toes,
Arthropods for me.
ANIMAL & THEIR CHARACTERISTICS
Fish… 40,000 species
Backbone, wet scaly skin, breathe with gills, most are predators
Lay eggs, ectotherms/cold-blooded
Amphibians…frogs, salamanders,
15,000 species
Backbones, grow up in water and live on land/or water; predators,
Lay eggs, ectotherms/cold-blooded;
young are significantly different from adult
Reptiles…turtles, snakes, lizards;
10,000 species
Backbones, some live on land, some in water, all grow from eggs laid on land, or
hatched inside the mother, predators/carnivores and herbivores, ectotherms/coldblooded; young are like adults.
Mammals…5,500 species
Backbones, warm blooded/endotherms, hair on their skin, nurse their young,
carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, live birth, except 2 egg layers
Birds…10,000 species
Backbones, warm blooded/endotherms, feathers, carnivores, herbivores and
omnivores, live everywhere, lay eggs
Annelids…30,000 species
Earthworms, no backbones, no legs, segments, vegetarian
Mollusks…
200,000 species
Mussels, clams,
Fungi…1.5 million species
Arthropods…jointed legs includes the following: over five million species
Insects…over 5 million species
Exoskeleton, head, thorax, abdomen, six legs, three body parts, antenna,
Wings, compound eyes, ectotherms/cold blooded
Spiders…arachnids, 600,000
species
Ectotherms, two body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), make silk, 8 legs, most
have 8 eyes, all have venom to eat, lay eggs, all are carnivores/predators
Crustaceans…150,000 species
Crabs, etc.
Millipedes/Centipedes…
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!