Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart

Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart, 272 pages.
Well-told collection of creepy little facts about some of our insect pals. Black Flies deliver the nematode Onchocera volvulus to human hosts in a complicated series of infection, gestation, and reinfection that ends in onchocerciasis, or river blindness, for the unfortunate humans. In northern Canada, mosquitoes are at such a density that a person can be bitten at the rate of 300 times per minute, at which rate half of ones blood would be drained in ninety minutes. Sand flies, cockroaches, and all sorts of lice, are best avoided. The helpful "Schmidt Sting Pain Index" gives a numerical rating and a nice analogy to help you know what you are in for should you be stung or bitten by a variety of insects: A sweat bee, at a 1.0 on the scale is "Light, ephemeral, almost fruity," while a bullet ant, at a 4.0+ is "like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch rusty nail in your heel."
A book filled with fun and icky facts. Stay inside, and use plenty of DDT.