Two entomologists have written a book that will have you checking your kitchen cupboard for flour beetles, your furniture for woodworm, your blankets for moths, your toilet for . . . more of that anon.
If Irish Indoor Insects is anything to go by, your house could be harbouring 150 types of six-legged critter, a selection that makes up just 1 per cent of the 16,000 insect species found in Ireland.
Dr Jim O'Connor and Dr Patrick Ashe love the creepy-crawlies the rest of us love to squish, and their book features everything from tiny bed bugs and head-lice to wasps, ants, mosquitoes, beetles and more. Mr Sean Milne's detailed drawing for each entry conveys more information than a photograph ever could and will help readers identify what lurks in the bath.
Dr O'Connor, an entomologist with the Natural History Museum in Dublin, is often asked to identify species found in imported goods, or unearthed by archaeologists. Some of these finds are mentioned in the book, such as the exotic cockroaches recovered on an aircraft returning from Africa, and a cellar beetle found during excavations of Viking Dublin.
Contrary to common wisdom, Ireland is home to no fewer than 18 species of mosquito. Some can be a nuisance, but thankfully none carries disease now, although this was not always so. Historically they did transmit the ague, a malaria-like fever which was endemic in the damper Irish regions for centuries. True malaria also occurred in Cork in the 1850s when, the authors suggest, infected soldiers returned from the Crimean War.
The book also features one creature you will hopefully never see, the Colorado beetle, a distinctive yellow and black beetle that is a major agricultural pest occasionally found here in imported goods. It has so far been kept in check, but if you see one, sound the alarm.
Dr O'Connor and Dr Ashe will have you marvelling at the tremendous diversity of insects which have evolved to exploit everything from furniture and flour to seaweed and sewage. There is even a urinal fly which thrives in septic tanks and drains.
As well as information on the various species, the authors discuss health risks, how to trap and preserve insects if you want them identified, and how to control and prevent infestations. (Surprisingly for entomologists, they both recommend insecticides.)
There is even advice for companies faced with customers who may have found a foreign body in their purchase. This is an attractive, useful and informative book.
Irish Indoor Insects: A Popular Guide, by James O'Connor and Patrick Ashe, illustrated by Sean Milne. Town House, £16.99 186pp pbk.