Cockroaches carry an old stigma of "bad housekeeping." It may come as a bit of a surprise that roaches have been on this planet now for more than 300 million years! Humans only arrived a mere million years ago and settlements based on agriculture began springing up about 12,000 years ago.
Roaches have always been the very best recyclers in the world. They eat almost anything, anywhere and in any state of decay. Cockroaches can survive under the most appalling conditions. They adapt, survive, and are great at improvising. It makes sense that the world’s very best recyclers have chosen the messiest mammal in the world as a housemate, i.e., humans.
The irony is that of the 4,000 or so different species of cockroach in the world, only about 10 species can be considered as pests associated with human living quarters. All the other members of Blattodea (the order of cockroaches) live under tree bark or in damp leaf litter where they do the best job on earth of recycling dead organic matter.
 Pollinators are just as much part of my "favorite" list of invertebrates. After all, they are the ones that tirelessly visit flowers, one after the other, with the idea of extracting nectar and pollen from these showy plant genitalia.
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 Bugs are and will continue to play a big role in the development of future human technology:
Looking for a great new air-conditioning system that doesn't require power to run? Some African termite species build huge mounds of clay and dirt especially for that purpose. Their invention is millions of years old and has stood the test of time.
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 Ants are often thought of as a real nuisance. These creatures gather their food in your garden or even your house — it all depends on what type of food they feed on and what you provide them with. Some species feed on protein debris, thereby cleaning the earth of miscellaneous dead insects and other animals, so these bodies don't lay around for years and years.
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 Maggots have been put on this planet to recycle waste material. These babies of houseflies tunnel through organic waste and slimy rubbish 24/7 and break it down to much smaller bits that are perfect fodder for smaller bugs and bacteria.
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 Predators and parasites are those bugs that eat other bugs. Why are they important? It has to do with the way we grow our food crops and timber species in the most sustainable way. You see, all creatures on our planet belong to a web of life, or ecological system. We are all familiar with the following simple relationship: antelopes eat grass and lions eat the antelopes. In other words, there'...
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 Family Lamponidae There are many species of white-tailed spiders and they are found throughout Australia. Some species are common in urban areas and are often seen in houses. White-tailed spiders usually wander at night, hunting and eating other spiders. The two common species, the Southern and Eastern White-tailed Spiders, Lampona cylindrata and L. murina, are similar in appearance and have overlapping distributio...
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