Insect Cleaning Habits
We brush our teeth and our hair. We take showers to wash off all the dirt from the day. So, how do insects keep from staying filthy? Some insects depend on their own energy to clean themselves. Bees have bristled appendages that they use to brush pollen off of their bodies. Fruit flies use the hairs covering their bodies to catapult dust off of them. Others depend on non-renewable strategies to fight back filth. Cicadas use the sharp points on their wings to pop airborn bacteria like a balloon before it even lands on them. This mechanism prevents the insect from being soiled by the environment in the first place.
These methods are similar to how our own eyelashes work against dust and dirt. Eyelashes minimize airflow to our eyes, and funnel particles away from our eyes. Pretty nifty, huh? Who knew we’d been created with automatic cleaners built into our system?
Do you ever wonder how insects stay clean? Did you know we have some of the same kinds of mechanism in our own bodies that help keep us clean?
