You’d think from the cover and subtitle that this is mostly about how creepy and icky and scary parasites are. And they are. But it’s also about how amazingly adaptive they can be, how influential on other animals (and plants) including humans, even how beautiful they are when viewed up close by someone appreciative (the author). Some parts of this book get really detailed about microbiology at the cellular level, which made me have to read every page a few times over because I just didn’t get it. Most is easily understandable and fascinating. Especially all the interconnections that I was never aware of. Parasites are complicated. Many of them still not very well understood, or even identified. Lots are very specific to their host, so if that host animal goes extinct, so do the numerous parasite species that live within it. I’d heard of the parasites that can control the actions of insects, or make rats unafraid of cats, in order to facilitate getting into their next host to continue their lifecycle. I had never before read about how parasites can make male crabs act like pregnant females, or do any other number of things that hold sway over the rise and fall of various animal populations. I loved the story about how an entomologist solved the problem of the cassava mealybug in Africa, that threatened to destroy the main food crop of 200 million people in the 1970’s. He thwarted that by introducing a very specific parasite, and the details of that were a great read. Unfortunately, there’s lots of other mentions on attempts to control pest species by introducing a parasite that went wrong. This book certainly made me feel creeped out and itchy at times, I’d have to put it aside for a bit. But it was also captivating. One I’ll probably want to read again someday.
Borrowed from the public library.
One Response
What an interesting book. I love the title, and I’m curious (and a little nervous) about the subject of parasites, so I’m going to have to take a closer look at this one. I’ve been in a few parts of the world where they can be a real problem, so it’s a thing that’s always kind of been in the back of my mind. Fascinating, too, are the well intentioned attempts to introduce a “benign” parasite into a situation to stop a problem only to go horribly wrong in the longer term.