So I’ve been taking photos of bugs, now that I can trust my phone to not chew up any macro or zoom photography I take, and sharing them onto iNaturalist. it scratches my look I took a photo itch, it scratches my talking about cool things itch, it often tells me what bug I took a photo of, and it connects me with a whole lot of other people who occasionally also look at my photo of a bug and say yep that’s that bug. it’s a really great motivator is what I’m saying. but the best thing about this is that it has completely changed the dance my brain does when it sees a bug.
for context, I am a twitchy and tense person who doesn’t see very well in dim light or out of my peripheral vision, so I am usually very surprised by bugs flapping or running into my field of view — or if I’m very unlucky I hear them first. and because I’m twitchy that often makes me jump, flail, and in general just be stressed. but now, while I might still yell and flail once if I am surprised by a bug, the secondary instinct of taking its photo and putting it on inaturalist to find out what bug it is completely takes over my brain almost immediately. and all of the adrenaline and fear response that I’ve spent a lifetime training myself for just leaves.
The other night I let this little moth climb onto my hand and it let me carry it outside and it was the sweetest interaction I’ve had with a wild animal maybe ever? and while I extremely do not expect to have that kind of interaction with a house centipede or any of the many wasps in my yard, I don’t think I could have had it with a moth either before improving this loop in my brain.
which is to say, if you too do a lot of yelping and freaking out over bugs despite wishing you were not yelping and freaking out at every bug, maybe try taking a photo of more bugs. going out and opting into finding and looking at a bug has made being surprised by them much, much less awful.
Here, also, have some cool bug photos:
August 2024 update bonus!
Yesterday I watched a small ant wander around my patio table, pause, give herself a good scratch, take a solid look (or smell) around the area, and then go about her day. Relatedly, this tumblr post spoke to my soul:
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