'I've learned to see beauty instead of a beast': the house pests we've grown to love

Ants are clever, moths are fun to stroke and spiders can protect you from even worse horrors ... readers on the vermin that won their heartsFor a good while I have been indulgent of the spiders and wasps that live outside my home, but my biggest about-face has been with house centipedes, which can be horrifying to look at for many people, given their plethora of whiskery legs. However, they are also the tigers of the insect world, effective predators of many household pest species. I'm a bibliophile living in a century-old building, so silverfish are always a danger. Having a house centipede in residence is the surest, and cleanest, way of suppressing a silverfish plague. So when I see one making its nocturnal perambulation across the wall, I give it a smile and thank it for being such a good housemate. Howard Kistler, technical manager and software developer, Virginia Continue reading...