The beginning of the book was what I expected: animals that are an annoyance to humans and how we deal with them. She went through several species that are well known problems. And the question is raised – partly by Mary Roach and partly by the reader – what gives us the power to decide who gets to prevail in such cases.
Then she gets into trees and other plants and how our societies build poisons from them! This section really seems somewhat unrelated to the overall point, but oh well.
The ending section addresses pests and invasive species. And the same question does seem to arise: what gives us the rights to decide what animals are allowed and who can run the environment?
I like Mary Roach; I own several of her books, and both my husband and I get a kick out of her and appreciate the knowledge and science that she shares. The last section spends a great deal of time addressing humane and nonlethal approaches to controlling – or trying to help control our environment, and I appreciate the fact that she points out that the simplest way, the seemingly most humane way, is NOT always the way to go. Why are there so many different opinions on sso many things? Because nothing's as simple as many would like it to be.