What do bugs teach us?

Long ago, before seven dust, Furadan, Temik, Diazom, and all the rest of the 21st century's arsenal of chemical weapons there was a time when the human animal stared over his food crop helpless to defend it against the hordes of insectae. Did he muse and paw over his squash and beans like a chimpanzee grooming its kin? Maybe picking and eating them (the bugs) one-by-one too, like multi-colored Halloween candy, or perhaps it was more sophisticated; as in, did he scrounge around finding predators to drop into the gardens battlefield? Maybe they just shrugged and went fishing leaving the women to fret over wilting leaves and festering fruit. The latter seems quite amusing.

I contemplate this as I take up my eggplants leaf in my hand while cradling it like a wounded puppy. Top leaves all curled and furled up like it was cursed with a disfiguring form of elephantitis.

A few aphids wander the stems being chased by a long march of ants, and a nearby assassin bug climbs a squash canopy while I consider the crime scene. I peer up at the garden rows to see carpenter bee's, honey bee's, beetles, stink bugs, and all manner of unidentified flying objects darting amongst the bounty of zucchini, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and peppers. Scaled up it would make for a great alien invasion sci-fi opening scene....just add the lasers. You could sense the excitement in the tiny life creeping, crawling, and flying around. Despite this attack my eggplants were bearing fresh pods that grew a little every morning. I have the white version making the fleshy pods dangle like ivory earrings. My cantaloupe vines were racing to the Southern fence and already bearing fertilized bulbs hidden under large green leaves. Long cayenne peppers dangled nearby while tomorrows zucchini swelled to picking size. Except for the effected eggplant all was looking good. Life was surely being drawn here like to a banquet or buffet, and with this drought it was one of the few areas that received regular watering. I could just imagine the life that was crawling unseen in the dirt, through the roots, and under the toiled clay. Surely microscopically there was even more buzz and commotion taking place. There was so much going on it was as if the earth itself was "breathing."

So as the aphids swarm and the stink bugs suck I contemplate our own infestation on a planetary scale. Where is our preying mantis? Where is our lady bug? Where is the seven dust to sprinkle on the human swarm? Now that I think of it, the idea that a xenomorphic mantis; like in the movie alien, chasing us around ready to punch a hole in a few brain pans sounds kinda interesting....scary...but interesting. Can you imagine a human suck head slurping on Sarah Palin's brain, I know it's a small meal for sure, but can you picture it? Maybe some tiny parasite or bacterium is ready to clear the deck of  humans too. Our numbers really haven't soared to these unprecedented levels until the last century or so, so maybe the lady bug man killers are just evolving in some pool hidden in a dwindling rain forest. Some say we'll just go the way of yeast, killing each other over the last spoil of resources until there's none. Well darn, a human hunter killer sounds so much more suspenseful. Could be just a rock from deep space playing pool with the universe. One big galactic fireball that sends a state size plume of rock and earth into the stratosphere. Save us all from the slow misery of starvation. Probably all happen given enough time.

Humans aren't special.....just another bug in the bushes.