Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats

In straightforward fashion, University of Maryland geography and environmental studies professor Biehler produces a lively account (not for the squeamish) of our oft-unseen, unwanted household companions, and what our interactions with them reveal about humans. With a foreword by William Cronon, the book educates the general public about some of the smaller organisms who share human habitations: house flies, bedbugs, German cockroaches, and rats. Both common and annoying, these creatures enjoy the repasts provided by humans, repaying them by spreading disease and filth. Biehler charts the growing efforts to control these pests, and shows how such efforts, in the long term, produce even more robust pests. The struggle to control and shape the domestic environment also illuminates class and race barriers; as the author demonstrates, the consequences of cohabitation with vermin often fall most heavily on the poorest, a fact that doesn’t seem to trouble the upper classes. For readers who want even more detail, a detailed bibliography is provided. 27 illus. (Oct.)