Not Just Nature’s Nuisances

Search terms: Insects, Bugs, Junebugs, “June bugs”, beetles, “Japanese beetles”, grasshopppers

Insects are often seen as unimportant or inconvenient. Many people shy away from bugs and it is easy to overlook their impact. In the digital archive, HistoryMakers share the stories of the little critters that made up their memories and shaped their work.

A cricket

“The crickets--I, I used to write poetry when I was a teenager, and I would talk about the largest choir in the world--you know, going to sleep to the sounds of the crickets and the frogs down at the pond; and you know, bugs that you know, you don't know exactly what they are, but they were just strange sounds in the night--the whip-poor-will--some, some sounds that we never could identify, but yet they occurred every night, you know, out in the woods.”

This quote from journalist Hazel Trice Edney describes her memories of the beauty of insects that surrounded her in childhood. She grew up in the rural town of Louisa, Virginia surrounded by woods, she recalls, “There were lots and lots of insects where we lived. There were June bugs, there were wasps' nests that sometimes made its way into our houses--into our house, you know, where we lived.”

Nursing professor Regina Williams discusses her childhood in Sandusky, Ohio with similar insect memories, “I also remember that in the summer there, there would be this influx of June bugs. Now, since I now live in Detroit, Michigan, and live across from Canada, they're called, in that area they're called, they're Canadian flies or something, but there are, they are these fish flies they're known as. But they would come in overnight, and the next day you would see these fish flies all over the street and windows of stores and that kind of thing.”

A june bug on a string

June bugs are a catch all term for over 100 species of scarab beetles. King of Comedy and actor Cedric the Entertainer mentions playing with June bugs as well as other bugs while growing up, ”So, cousins around this corner and aunts over here, and, you know, and just places to walk and go and stop and hang, and--so that was, you know, just really kind of a romanticized, small, southern city the way it felt, you know, at that time to me as a kid. It was just someplace, you know, you really liked growing up--learning to throw rocks; and catching, you know, fireflies in the jar and, you know, and grasshoppers. Put a June bug on a string and let it fly around. Like, those kinds of things were what we did.”

Award-winning choreographer and director Charles Randolph-Wright reminisces about the sounds of bugs, “I remember the sound of crickets only 'cause it's so quiet at night, you know, I just did hear crickets. You know, that, that would make you go to sleep. You know, that that's such a--the buzz Ju-, what we call June bug lightning bugs. No June bugs are different, June bugs had a real buzzing sound the idea of lightning bugs at night seeing them. I don't think I've ever seen a lightning bug up here [New York, New York], you know”

Praying mantis

Cab Calloway’s daughter and nonprofit executive Camay Calloway Murphy offers a humorous anecdote about her first encounter with a praying mantis, “But sometimes people would go up to hang their clothes out on the roof and I remember the first time I ever--my mother went up to the roof, I went up with her to help her to do--put up the clothes. I guess I was about eight or nine years old. I saw a praying mantis on the roof. You know I was just catatonic. I was just stunned. I didn't know what this thing was. I had never seen it before. It was just as if I saw something dropped down from space. My mother didn't know what it was. I remember we had those wooden clothes pins and we kept throwing these clothes pins at it, but we never quite hit it. And it--the clothes pins didn't seem to bother it. It just kept moving in this, you know, how a praying mantis moves in this funny, slow motion way. And we were screaming and calling to people--it was, you know, it was really weird. And so finally someone came upstairs and said, "That's just an insect, it's called praying mantis." And I mean the thing was, you know, about that big, but we were just petrified. But I do remember that--that incident with that praying mantis.”

A green worm on a tobacco leaf

Like Murphy, Leona Barr-Davenport has memories of feeling squeamish around bugs. Corporate executive Barr-Davenport recalls helping her share-cropping father harvest tobacco during her youth, “Now one of the things about the tobacco that was really disgusting for, for me in particular, even though you would fertilize it and do what you needed to do to get rid of the insects, there were these big green worms that would grow on it, and it was just a disgusting, I cannot describe, but the thing that was funny about it, is that the boys knew how much the girls really didn't like it and they would try put, put a worm on you, or do, because they would grow larger than a thumb, and it was just, it was just, it's one of those things that you really can't describe, but that was one of the worst aspects of that entire process is the fact that no matter how much they did you could not control that. You know you could control it to some degree because they could actually destroy the crop if you didn't continue, because there's a process also where you would go into the tobacco field while it's still green and remove those worms from the product so that, it was just an interesting, overall an interesting process and it was, you know, very pointed.”

A Japanese beetle on a rose

Writer and former United States Poet Laureate Rita Dove shares how she helped her father as well, “Now my father [Ray Dove] loves to garden and so--though he never trusted us to weed, thank goodness--he would occasionally, he raised roses too, and occasionally we would have to help in, you know, help him with the roses, which I really hated. Because in, in the '60s [1960s] there was a plague of Japanese beetles that infested roses particularly, also other kinds of things like blackberries and things like that. So, and I was terrified of these Japanese beetles. And so it was no fun to have to help my father to hold the jar of kerosene while he would drop the beetles into the kerosene.”

She reads the poem she wrote about the experience called Roses, “It's time you learned something. Halfway outdoors he pauses, the flat dark fury of his jaw, one eye, a shoulder in torn blue cloth, the pruning shears, a mammoth claw resting between meals. I scramble up terrified and down the drive, the gravel's brittle froth and stand completely helpless as he parts a thousand pinkish eyelids to find the beetle's nested at the root teeming disease. They came from Japan, 1961. They were nothing like the locusts we hadn't noticed until they were gone. The husks, sheer tuxedos snagged on bark, the rafters, the dying bayberry. It's easy, pop them between your nails. In the tool shed's populous shadows, I hold the Mason jar instead with both hands as he shakes the flowers above the kerosene which is shivering now like the ocean I have never seen. And I, and I bear on a tray in doors the inculpable blushing prize."

For Tyrone Hayes his insect memories include his grandmother. He is a biologist and biology professor and credits his early exposure to field guides and his grandmother’s garden for cultivating his interesting in the discipline, “And my grandmother was really into flowers. So she was always planting flowers, and we'd talk about fertilizers. And I remember I had a little guide to insect pests, and I would go around and inspect the flowers and try to figure out what pests she had on her flowers, you know, Japanese beetles on her roses and things like that.”

Ants

For some, bugs are a crucial part of their careers and projects. Robotics engineer James McLurkin discusses how his pet ants inspire his work with multi-robot systems, “So the insects are really, they give you an existential proof of that, of the fact that these systems do work, and they do solve these problems. And they do them in ways that are, sometimes surprising, sometimes unexpected. They use far less information than we think. They have less mobility, they make all these mistakes. They, they sometimes communicate in very subtle ways. They leverage tremendous variation between individuals to their best advantage. So all the ants don't make decisions, do something at the same time. Some ants do some things, some ants something else--I'll wait until it gets five degrees warmer before I leave the nest, right. So you have this natural smooth, you know, the temperature increases and the ants colony responds slowly. Then the temperature decreases, and they respond slowly as each individual worker gets to their different threshold. So you have all these, you know, honey bees, when they go out and find their new nest sites. They come back, and they need what's, they've figured out, is a quorum to make a decision. They don't vote. It's not a majority thing. They need a certain number of bees to like something and then off they go. That seems to be the model. And so now, algorithmically, how are they doing this?”

An earthworm

 Biologist Edwin Cooper uses earthworms to influence his research on PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyls. “These are pollutants found in the environment. And there was a young fellow at the University of North Texas in Denton [Texas] who was interested in environmental problems. So what better animal to look at the environment of the soil or earth than the earthworm that lives there. They live well. They've got a good immune system. So he contacted me, and said, "Oh, I'd like to come out and visit you, meet you and see if we can't create a collaboration." So I said, "Oh, well, of course (laughter), please come." So he came and we published about four papers on the effects of PCBs, which are, I don't understand them too well there, at the chemistry of them. Apparently, they're waste products from refrigeration and that can get into the environment, eventually get into the soil. And what better animal to see what the effects are than the earthworm that lives entirely, its entire life in the soil. So they could be a monitor of changes in the immune system as a result of exposure to environmental pollution. So we did a series of studies together, one of which was quite nice. And that was to show that if you mixed the cells of the earthworm with PCBs--one of them was called Aroclor 554 [Aroclor 1254] or something like that. You mix it, take a look at the scanning electron microscope. You've seen these. Scanning electron microscopes shows its images in 3D. The transmission electron microscope shows the inside but at high power. So you've seen on the cover of, oh, let's say National Geographic, the head of an insect, blown up and it's in three dimension. This is SEM, scanning electron microscopy. So we did a scanning electron microscopy of these same little cells that killed grafts in earthworms, exposed and not exposed to PCBs. Not exposed, they throw out their--oh, they're quite active alive, and alive. On the other hand, one exposed to PCBs, they're completely withdrawn. They're round. They don't show any activity.”

A tree affected with Dutch Elm Disease

 Beetles are the catalyst to botanist and professor Lafayette Frederick’s work, “at the time I entered Rhode Island, a lot of elm trees were dying in citizen towns in New England and in parts of the Midwest. And they were dying because of a fungus that would be brought to those trees by a beetle. And the fungus would then invade the conducting tissues of the plant--the tree, causes leaves and branches to wilt and die and the whole tree would die. So many towns that had had tree line--elm tree-lined streets, elm trees are wiped out. There's a native American bark beetle and there's a European beetle. Those two transmit the fungus from tree to tree…let's say a tree that may be diseased, they will lay the eggs in the bark of that tree, and then when the eggs hatch and the larvae developed between the inner layer of the bark and the wood, then they--as they move about and feed, they leave a series of tunnels, little tunnels, configuration tunnels. And then you see if--then within those little tunnels, the wood, the fungus grows and then when they pupate and the adult emerges then the adult is oftentimes coated with a tiny little sticky spores of the fungus then it flies away to another tree and feeds on the twigs of the tree and that introduces or inoculates that tree, and that's how it spreads from tree to tree. That's the main way. The other way if you have an elm tree growing here that's diseased and another growing close by, their roots may intertwine and graft and you can get a transmission through root grafts by another tree. That's why sometimes if a tree here in the street it becomes diseased and then gradually you see the whole line of trees in the street die and it's not so much because of the beetle activity, it's because of root connection through grafts.”

Insects and bugs are not just nature’s nuisances, they influence childhood memories and current careers in a real way.

Student Ambassador Update:

This week I met with Professor Blair Condoll, assistant professor of Political Science. I demonstrated the archive for him and gave him examples of how he can use it in his class. I also presented for the class Business and Professional Communication during Business Week. I explained to students how it is relevant to them and their academics and I tied it into the elevator pitches that the class was doing.

Me presenting for the Business and Professional Communication Class

 Citations:

Hazel Trice Edney (The HistoryMakers A2013.339), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 3, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 5, Hazel Trice Edney describes the sights, sounds and smells of her childhood

Regina Williams (The HistoryMakers A2004.031), interviewed by Regennia Williams, March 20, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 13, Regina Williams describes the sights, sounds and smells of her childhood’

“Why Are June Bugs Called June Bugs?” Terminix, Https://Www.terminix.com/, 4 Nov. 2022, https://www.terminix.com/blog/education/june-bugs/.

Cedric The Entertainer (The HistoryMakers A2014.192), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 31, 2014, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 1, Cedric The Entertainer describes his neighborhood in Caruthersville, Missouri

Charles Randolph-Wright (The HistoryMakers A2006.129), interviewed by Denise Gines, November 5, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 10, Charles Randolph-Wright describes the sights, sounds and smells of his childhood

Camay Calloway Murphy (The HistoryMakers A2003.225), interviewed by Larry Crowe, September 21, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 2, Camay Calloway Murphy recalls the sights, sounds, and smells growing up in New York, New York, pt. 2

Leona Barr-Davenport (The HistoryMakers A2010.078), interviewed by Denise Gines, July 12, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 7, Leona Barr-Davenport describes the process of cultivating tobacco

Rita Frances Dove (The HistoryMakers A2007.324), interviewed by Adrienne Jones, November 6, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 6, Rita Frances Dove describes her chores

Tyrone Hayes (The HistoryMakers A2011.001), interviewed by Larry Crowe, March 7, 2011, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 13, Tyrone Hayes reflects on his interest in the outdoors and wildlife

James McLurkin (The HistoryMakers A2013.024), interviewed by Larry Crowe, February 4, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 3, James McLurkin talks about his pet ants and the role they play in his robotics research

Edwin Cooper (The HistoryMakers A2011.033), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 30, 2012, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 9, story 5, Edwin Cooper recalls his research on soil pollution's effects on earthworms

Lafayette Frederick (The HistoryMakers A2012.255), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 15, 2012, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 3, Lafayette Frederick describes his research on Dutch elm disease pt. 1