Pantry insects are those creatures that you find in the cupboard where you store your food. Moths, beetles, weevils...everybody seems to live inside your pantry, and some of the stored foods look really awful as a result of their activity. Bugs have been living with us ever since we started to practice the art of keeping food items in a "safe place" for later consumption. It especially became a great habit when we got into agriculture and horticulture, producing far more than we can consume in the near future.
The bugs have simply adapted from their ancient habit of feeding on fallen fruit and nuts, which were lying around in forests. These days, helpful humans have stored all these wonderful food sources in nice paper bags in a pantry. How convenient! It may not come as a surprise that, on average, a fifth of all our stored food is somehow damaged by bugs.
Would it be bad for our health if we inadvertently ate an insect or two in our food? Not at all! We've all done it, without being aware of the fact. A bit of extra protein doesn't hurt anyone.
 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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