Don't Bug Out! Insects Are Important

Learn More About The Tiny Creatures That Scare The Squeamish

(CBS)  Crickets, cicadas and katydids together can form a mighty choir. In fact, with many of these insects, the song changes with the temperature.

That is just one of the many interesting thing about bugs.

Many people are afraid of bugs. Others think they are disgusting pests that should be squashed. But now, Sunday Morning correspondent Serena Altschul found, bugs are getting some new respect.

After all, arthropods, creatures with skeletons on the outside of their bodies, far outnumber all other living things. And across the country, museums are trying to get them out of the realm of horror.

Nancy Greig, the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences' insect curator, says even cockroaches are important.

"Without things like cockroaches that are scavengers cleaning up dead vegetation, etcetera, yeah, we'd be piled deep in garbage," she said.

Learn more about bugs by watching the Sunday Morning segment here.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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