F. Lynne Bachleda, a resident of Fairview, Tennessee, is a freelance researcher and writer who has contributed to many national publications over the last two decades.

This is the deadliest chapter. If you are going to have a fatal or life threatening encounter with another creature, save another human, it will likely be an insect, or an arachnid. Some of this probability derives from the sheer number of these creatures. In the United States, there are approximately 91,000 known, or described, species of insects, plus an additional estimated 71,000 unknown species. What does this mean in terms of insect proximity? ¿A whole lotta crawlin,¿ creepin,¿ and flyin¿ goin¿ on.¿ // Soil samples in North Carolina five inches deep yielded an estimated 124 million animals per acre. Similar studies in Pennsylvania produced an estimated 425 million animals per acre. Likewise, if you walk through a grassy field you will likely be sharing the great outdoors with literally thousands of arachnids, spiders in this example, who, we hasten to add, almost definitely will not harm you.// Before the idea of these creepy crawlies overwhelms you, keep in mind several things. The vast majority of these creatures are not only beneficial to life on earth--they are absolutely essential to it.