For the Love of Insects, Bugs, Spiders, & Other Creepy-Crawlies

If you know me, then you’ll know that I love bugs, insects, spiders, and any other various creepy-crawlies. I truly love insects and anything related. I just think they’re so cool and fascinating! I’ve loved them ever since I was a child, a little girl. Growing up, a bit before cell phones and technology had taken over, my younger sister and I would always play outside A LOT. That probably explains both of our love of animals and creatures and critters. I have a distinct memory from when I was about 4 years old I’d guess. I picked up a walnut “pig-nose” (Google it and you’ll see what I mean) that was dug partway into the moist earth, and it was apparently home to a colony of tiny ants. These ants swarmed all over my little hand when I picked up the pig-nose. They bit and stung (whichever it was) all over my hand, and my hand itched A LOT. This was how I learned that ants can bite and/or sting.

Here’s another memory of me loving insects and bugs and such. I was in elementary school, and during the school day, we were allowed a certain amount of time to read books of our choosing for fun. We could choose any book to read during this time, the only requirement was to be reading, so we could make it fun. For me, I brought this book from home to read during this time at school. The Big Bug Book was one of my favorite books growing up. I enjoyed reading it so much. I remember that the teacher was having us students do an activity with partners and/or small groups about our chosen books we were reading for fun. The activity was asking some questions to our partners about the books we were reading. I remember one of the questions was something like “how does your book start out?” Of course, I was kind of a strange kid reading a non-fiction book while almost everybody else in class was reading fiction for fun. I think that the teacher was basing these questions based on how nearly everybody was reading narrative-driven fiction books, because when it came time for me to talk about my book, my answer to the question was “it starts with spiders.” That moment turned into a funny memory for me.

This love of insects has stayed with me for a long time. When I was in high school, and it was time to start looking at colleges for education after graduating from high school, I was interested in many different areas of study, and I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. One of the many majors and colleges I was considering was Entomology or Insect Biology from Purdue University. At the time, I still loved insects so much that I was seriously considering entomology. However, I ended up deciding against studying insects because what I was really truly interesting in doing with that degree was simply studying insects and similar creatures to learn more about them. And a lot of the jobs out there for entomology graduates were more pest-control oriented, and I didn’t want to study and learn so much interesting and fascinating information about insects just to kill them! That didn’t sit very well with me. What I really wanted to do with an entomology degree was a more research-based approach, but so often, if you want to go an academic research route with your career, that involved gaining more college education beyond a bachelor’s degree, and I knew I didn’t want to do that. So I ultimately decided against studying insects professionally, because it wouldn’t have worked out with what I wanted to do with that degree. But my love of insects hasn’t gone away, it’s still alive and strong, among my many other interests!

Here’s one last memory of how much I love insects and other similar creepy-crawlies. When I was about 11 years old, the Science Channel came out with a show called Monster Bug Wars (look it up, it’s great!), and I love it! I have fond memories of watching that show when I was young. I was so fascinated and interested in all of the exotic bugs they showcased. And then to have them fight! It was amazing to see these incredible creatures in action. I still love this show to this day, and I can still enjoy watching it to this day. It’s just another way I’m still fascinated by insects and bugs even nowadays. I keep many of my interests strong.