Insects: Six-Legged Nightmares

Assassin bugs are amazing creatures that use their long mouthparts to kill their prey. These ambushing bugs wait on flowers, where other bugs will land while looking for a meal. Unfortunately for them, however, they become the assassin bug's meal. Assassin bugs snatch their prey and drink their body fluids as if through a straw. With vivid photographs showing these creepy killers in action, readers experience the wild world bugs live in where no potential meal is safe.

There's no way around it, botflies are super gross. These winged insects start as larvae that need a host to live, and sometimes that host is human. Readers learn how these maggots live their parasitic lives with the help of some hosts that certainly don't appreciate their company. With full-color photographs showing these gross creatures up close and personal, readers will enjoy, or maybe revile, these creatures at work, laying eggs that become the next larvae burrowing into flesh before they become full-grown botflies.

All hornets are scary, but Japanese giant hornets are downright deadly. These massive flying insects are much bigger than the hornets in your backyard and can turn an ordinary day outside into a fight for survival. Readers will marvel at these horrible hornets, how they live, and how other animals try to fight them off. Full-color photographs show these terrifying creatures up close and personal, displaying just how large they are and what makes them so deadly to animals of all kinds.

The jewel wasp is a unique creature that is not afraid to take advantage of the bugs around it. This creepy insect, also known as the emerald cockroach wasp, actually takes over the body of its cockroach victims to make them zombies. Jewel wasps use their unique venom to control a cockroach and use it as a nest for their eggs. With full-color photographs of these jewel wasps showcasing their amazing abilities, readers learn how they survive with the unwilling help of other creatures.

Giant wetas can't jump, which is a good thing because they're gigantic. This ancient animal is the heaviest insect ever found and can weigh as much as a mouse. Its name means 'God of ugly things.' Though these creepy-crawlies are huge and scary-looking, readers learn they aren't dangerous to humans. In fact, these giant insects mostly love carrots. Through colorful photographs of these supersized insects, readers get an up close and personal look at these oversized but harmless bugs.

Ouch! Bullet ants cause a sting that actually hurts like a gunshot. If that is not scary enough, these feisty ants can live in a colony of 3,000. Full-color photographs show off in vivid detail how these insects live, with maps and other amazing graphics to wow every one of your readers. Readers get to explore the science of why the sting hurts so much and why it lasts for hours.