Friendly Insects
"To have a cricket on the hearth, is the luckiest thing in all the world!" ~ Charles Dickens
By Dell H. Grecia
Women’s Journal
(In memory of the late journalist for five decades)
Before you grab the fly swatter or reach for the can of Baygon or Raid, think of creepy crawlies as part of Nature’s healing system. Here, read on and learn why some insects are here to stay.
Like herbal plants, some insects possess their own medicinal value. Or so says our friend, Dr. Abe V. Rotor of the University of Santo Tomas and St. Paul University, Quezon City.
Bee sting, for example, cures arthritis and rheumatism. In fact, the number of doctors and clinics that use bee venom as an alternative medicine is increasing in the United States and other parts of the world.
The treatment is as simple as introducing the excited bee over the affected area, say, the knee or elbow. By holding the struggling bee with forceps, its posterior needle is aimed at the infected area. Once the needle is deeply imbedded, the bee is removed. In the process, the sting with the attached poison sac is torn off, resulting in the insect’s death. (This is the same reason a male bee dies after mating with the potential queen during nuptial flight). The poison sac contracts rhythmically, as more poison flows into the affected muscles and nerves.
A. The Mealy Bug
The mealy bug (Dactylopius coccus), which produces cochineal, is another insect that has medicinal value. It is presently cultured commercially in the Honduras, Canary Island, Mexico, Peru and Spain.
Extensively used as dye, cochineal was later discovered to possess properties that allay pain. It is reported to be effective as well against whooping cough and neuralgia.
B. Fly Maggots vs. Deep-seated Wounds
During the First-World War, relates Dr. Rotor, a certain Dr. W. S. Baer noticed that wounds of soldiers who had been lying on the battlefield for hours did not develop infections such as osteomyelitis, as compared with wounds treated and dressed promptly after they were inflicted.
The reason: the older wounds were found to be infested with maggots. These maggots are larvae of flies; commonly houseflies and the blue bottle flies. The adult flies can detect the smell of blood. They deposit their eggs around the wound, anticipating that their larvae are assured of food provided by the injured tissues.
This led to the practice of rearing maggots under sterile conditions and introducing these surgically clean maggots into wounds to eat the microscopic particles to putrefied flesh and bone. The practice, however, ended with the introduction of modern drugs and surgery. To show how effective this practice was, a survey revealed that 92 percent of 600 physicians who had used this treatment reported favorably about it.
A renowned researcher, Dr. William Robinson, was able to isolate a substance from the secretion of the maggots which he believed to have a healing effect on infected wounds, acting like antibiotics. This material – allantoin - soon became commercially available, as its importance began to be recognized.
Allantoin is a harmless, odorless, stainless, painless, and inexpensive lotion which, when applied to chronic ulcers, burns, and similar pus-forming wounds, stimulates local- rather than general- granulation. Thus, it is of special value in treating deep wounds such as bone marrow infection, where the internal part of the wound must be healed first.
Allantoin solutions cannot be as efficient as using living maggots in the treatment of bone infections, however. This is because the maggots actually eat out the necrotic tissues and kill the pus-forming bacteria by digesting them. In the process, the maggots continuously secrete minute quantities of allantoin in their excreta to the very depth of the wound, especially where the use of surgical instrument is limited if not dangerous.
With the advent of computers and other gadgets, modern medicine (except, perhaps, in very remote situations) has finally shelved the practice of using maggots on wounds, and it is likely to remain there.
C. Cantharidin*: A Cure-All Drug and Aphrodisiac
Dr. Rotor explains that a professor, discussed in his class, a way to harness and calm down a cow that is in heat so that she can be brought to the corral for breeding. This was in the sixties, when artificial insemination was something new in animal science.
There is an injection that comes from the blister beetle, the so-called Spanish fly or Lytta vasicatoria. This insect occurs in abundance in France and Spain, a relative of the American blister beetle.
The beetle carries in its body cantharidin. It was used as folk medicine during the 19th century for all sorts of ailments and also much as an aphrodisiac. At present, it is used in treating certain diseases of the urinogenital system and in an animal breeding.
*Cantharidin is an odorless, colorless fatty substance of the terpenoid class, which is secreted by many species of blister beetles. It is a burn agent or a poison in large doses, but preparations containing it were historically used as aphrodisiacs.
D. Ant Secretion
With the decline in the effectiveness of antibiotics as a result of increasing resistance of pathogen, says Dr. Rotor, the search for more potent ones has widened into various fields, which today include plants, fungi, and protists - monerans notwithstanding.
One potential source of antibiotics is the green tree ant, a member of the large order of insects Hymenoptera to which bees and wasps belong. Like their relatives, the green tree ants - locally known as hantik - live in colonies. This social behavior enables them to grow in numbers of hundreds or thousands in a single colony, which can remain active for a long time. Other than its reported antibiotic property, the leaf nest of the green tree ant relieves inflammation when bandaged on the affected area.
According to Walter Linsenmaier, the green tree ant is famed as a weaver ant, not on account of its architecture that consists merely of a pile of leaves pulled, but because of their method of working. When fastening two somewhat separated leaves together, these ants line up on the edge of one of them, holding onto it with legs stretched full length behind them and, working together, pull up the other leaf with their mandibles.
Meanwhile, other ants, with the spinning larvae in their mouths, weave the leaves together. If the distance between leaves is too great for an ant to bridge the gap, the ants form ladders; these not only make it possible to pull the leaves closer together, but also serve as a bridge of the weavers. The larvae secretion may be extended inward to strengthen earlier ties and provide lining to the brood. It is this secretion that reportedly is an effective remedy against wound infection and inflammation.
E. New Frontiers
Dr. Rotor has listed down some new frontiers in the insect world as cures to various pathogens, to wit:
· Anti-venom and poison antidotes are derived from Hymenopterans. Many victims die of insect bite every year that there is a need to develop a ready source of anti-venom vaccine and antidote. Can insect venom also apply to other kinds of poisoning?
Predatory Crane Fly (Tipula)
·
The secret of hibernation among insects can serve as a model for cryonic science in humans. To cross the vast space in future interplanetary travel, man will have to defy time and aging. One means is through planned hibernation.
· Parthenogenesis is an unusual reproduction of immature insects without the benefit of sexual reproduction. Could this “virgin birth” apply to higher animals and humans? When threatened by lack of food and inclement weather conditions, aphids reproduce even before reaching full maturity and without the involvement of gametes.
· Insects highly- resistant to putrefaction such as among Dipterans may be the key to cancer prevention and treatment. Blue bottle fly maggots can survive acidity up to 10 percent. Hence, they are found to breed in vinegar and fish sauce substrate without apparent harmful effect to the process and end products.
· The burning and obnoxious secretions of certain insects, particularly Hemipterans, have yet to be developed as repellant against other pests.
· In the case fireflies and glow worms, the substance luciferin emits virtually 100-percent light without emission of heat. This substance has many possible uses in industry and medicine as tracer.
· The high protein content of certain insects like termites, silk worm larvae, and grasshoppers (three to four times higher than beef, milk and eggs) has great promise in the development of high-value food. Protein capsules, for example, can be made convenient for those who lead busy lives.
· Chitin of insects is the envy of plastic manufacturers. It is much stronger, yet very much lighter. Its many uses include the control of nematodes using chitin preparations. Chinese doctors recommend insect exoskeleton as a remedy for a hundred and one ailments.
Dr. Rotor concludes that insects, the most numerous and oldest of all animals on earth, have reasons for their existence. Although they are generally regarded as notorious destroyers, the truth is that our well-being hinges much on their presence and persistence. They are part of Nature’s healing system.
Gems in Your Backyard
Your backyard may be full of “gems,” if it is planted to various vegetable., ornamental and herbal plants. A mini-pond tilapia , catfish (hito), or the so-called pangasius can also add to the riches of your garden. And your joy will surely increase when harvest time comes.
But there are other gems in your backyard, which you may not be even aware of. These are the different insects which live in your garden.
My friend Dr. Abe V. Rotor, an entomologist by profession, recently shared with me a good lesson on insects, we would certainly miss nature’s sweetest sugar (honey), finest fabric (silk), and mysterious fig (Smyrna fig).
We would be having less and less of luscious fruits and succulent vegetables. As such, we would not have enough food to eat because insects are the chief pollinators. They also serve as cheap food for fishes and other animals. They are a major link in the food chain, the columns of a biological Parthenon.
According to Prof. Rotor, without insects, the earth would also be littered with the dead bodies of plants and animals. Insects are the co-workers of decomposition, along with bacteria and fungi, as they prepare for the life of the neat generation by converting dead tissues into organic materials and ultimately into inorganic forms, thus helping bridge the gap between the living and the non- living world.
Ecologically, Dr. Rotor explains that insects are the barometer of the kind of environment we live in. A pristine environment attracts beneficial insects, while a damaged one breed pests and diseases.
A. Insects Dominate the Animal World
Insects are our best friends. They are little helpers in our vegetable gardens- pollinating flowers and preying on pests.
Prof. Rotor relates that we cannot escape from insects: good or bad, beneficial or harmful. In terms of species, there are seven insects out of ten animal organisms on earth. Insects comprise 800,000 kinds, including their relatives- lobsters, shrimps, spiders, ticks, centipedes, millipedes and scorpions. Phylum Arthropoda would then comprise 80 percent of all animal organisms. To compare, plants make up only half a million species.
How have these minute insects outlived such giants as dinosaurs and mammoths? What is the secret behind their longevity?
Ants, termites and bees, according to Prof. Rotor, are the so-called social insects. Their caste system, intact and strict, has long been regarded as a model of man’s quest for a perfect society. It inspired the building of such highly autocratic civilizations as the Egyptian and Roman Empires, and the monarchical Aztecs and Mayans.
B. Insects are Good Defenders
Take the case of the butterflies and moths. Prof. Rotor says their active time is not only well defined (diurnal or nocturnal), but their food is highly specific to a plant or group of plants and their parts. Their life cycle allows either accelerated or suspended metamorphosis, depending on the prevailing conditions in the environment. This is a feat no other animal can do more efficiently. The young of a dragonfly called nymph is as fearful a hunter in water as the adult is in the air. Apparently this is this is the reason behind its legendary name.
The praying mantis, on the other hand, carries a pair of ax-and-vise. A bee brandishes a poisonous dagger, while a white tussock moth is cloaked with stinging barbs. A stink bug, for its part, sprays corrosive acid on eyes or skin. The weevil has an auger snout, the grasshopper grins with shear-like mandibles, and the mosquito pricks with a long, contaminated needle.
The beetle, according to Prof. Rotor, brings us to the medieval age. A knight in full battle gear! Chitin, which makes up its armor called exoskeleton, has yet to be successfully copied in the laboratory. Same with the light of the firefly, which is the most efficient of all lights on earth.
Imagine that: aphids, scale insects and some dipterans are capable of paedogenesis. That is, the ability of an immature insect to produce young even before reaching maturity!
Indeed, King Solomon was wise, Prof. Rotor affirms, in halting his army so that another army - an army of ants - can pass. Killer ants and killer bees destroy anything that impede their passage, including livestock and humans.
C. Insects Are the Best Acrobats
Because they are small, insects can ride on the wind and current, find easy shelter, and are less subjected to injury when they fall. Also, their small size requires relatively less energy than bigger organisms do. All of these contribute to their persistence and worldwide distribution. Insects can even survive major disasters, Prof. Rotor adds.
Insects, like the crickets, are “musicians.” While their sounds are music to the many of us, they are actually coded sounds similar to our own communication. Cicadas, beetles, and grasshoppers have their own “languages.”
Termites and bees, on the other hand also have their own language, which comes in the form of chemical signals known as pheromones. It is because of them that we are now studying pheromones in humans.
D. Love of Nature, Love of God
As you work in your backyard, nature invites you to be loving; when loves dwells in you, then you begin to feel the spirit of God.
My friend Prof. Rotor was so engrossed in his study of insects that he was inspired to compose two verses for a praying mantis.
Preying mantis (Mantis religiosa)
Mantis
Praying or preying you’re God sent,
You pray for rain, you share our peace;
You prey on the pest that feeds on crops,
Two lives have you all in one piece.
Friendly Killer
Your friendly gaze is for a man’s grim
Kneeling in the art of the strangler,
Yet a friend you are to the farmer,
So welcome, shy, friendly killer.
* In memory of the late Dell H Grecia, veteran journalist and TV commentator.
** Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid DZRB 738 AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday with Dr. Abe V. Rotor and Ms. Melly Tenorio
