‘Bug bombs’ stand in way of an insect riot resolution

Editor’s note: This is the fourth of eight chapters in The Daily’s original serial story “The Bug Campaign: Just a little respect!” Look for it every Tuesday in the Living section.

Chapter 4

The story so far: A band of cockroaches has raced from a crowd of angry insects to seek revenge on humans. The roaches head for a kitchen inside a house. The insects Nezara, L.W. and others in the yard hear screams, first a human scream and then one that is clearly from an insect.

The insect scream hangs in the air. Nezara falls off his twig as more screams, roach screams, come.

The insect mob waits, breathless. Then the grass parts. One of the cockroaches has crept back.

“It was horrible!” he says, coughing. “The human had a can of some sort of spray. It suffocates! We left two behind, on their backs. Everyone else scattered with a cat chasing them! I barely made it out!”

The termite stands again to address the mob.

“I told you. The humans have powerful weapons. We can bite and sting and smell bad all we want, but they are bigger and have stronger chemicals. They even have things they call ‘bug bombs’ they set off!”

A dragonfly faints, and some of the other insects look at each other in horror.

“No one here seems to have a plan to teach humans respect for us,” Termite says, looking around at Nezara. “Excuse me. I need to get back to my woodworking.”

Termite walks back toward the log after taking a bite of the twig.

A tiny gnat flying overhead pipes up. “But there are so many more of us!”

Nezara finally finds his voice. “Yes, but I don’t really want to die fighting humans. I just want some respect.”

Other voices speak in agreement.

“Respect from humans would mean they understand us,” Nezara adds. “Isn’t that right, L.W.?”

L.W. nods and speaks up. “I’ll bet the humans don’t know that most of us insects don’t really want to go after them. After all, we mostly eat plants or other insects.”

The insect crowd gasps at once.

“Heh, heh ... You know it’s true,” L.W. says. “When we lacewings are larvae, we eat delicious little aphids ...”

The insects grumble. Tiny aphids begin creeping away. L.W. sees the departure and calls, “Hey, I said that our larvae eat aphids. I’m an adult. Don’t go, aphids!”

The aphids speed up their exit. Other insects begin to smack their mandibles and look around hungrily.

L.W. stops talking. Nezara whispers, “Way to go. Do you want a real riot?”

“Sorry,” L.W. replies.

Suddenly, insects chase neighbors, who run to keep from becoming snack food. Others scamper away to look for plants to nibble.

“Wait! Can’t we stay together to talk? Can’t we figure out something?” Nezara calls.

Just then, a mud dauber takes to the air. “I need to feed my family-to-be!” it yells. It aims for a chubby caterpillar, which tries frantically to wiggle away.

Bug Chapter 4: Learning activity

Parents — (Note: If your child is able to read the story independently, modify these activities to reinforce your child’s reading skills.)

Read the chapter aloud, having your child make sound effects to go with the story. Draw a line down a piece of paper. Work with your child to jot on one side some facts about insects from the story — things that are true.

On the other side, jot some fictional elements of the story. Talk about which insect your child likes least from “The Bug Campaign” so far. Is it because of the insect’s real nature or its made up character?

(Alabama Course of Study: Distinguishes between fact and opinion.)

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