The Sting of the Wild cover art

The Sting of the Wild

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Sting of the Wild

By: Justin O. Schmidt
Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt is on a mission. Some say it's a brave exploration, others shake their heads in disbelief. His goal? To compare the impacts of stinging insects on humans, mainly using himself as the gauge.

In The Sting of the Wild, the colorful Dr. Schmidt takes us on a journey inside the lives of stinging insects, seeing the world through their eyes as well as his own. He explains how and why they attack and reveals the powerful punch they can deliver with a small venom gland and a "sting", the name for the apparatus that delivers the venom. We learn which insects are the worst to encounter and why some are barely worth considering.

The Sting of the Wild includes the complete Schmidt Sting Pain Index. In addition to a numerical ranking of the agony of each of the 83 stings he's sampled so far (from below one to an excruciatingly painful four), Schmidt describes them in prose worthy of a professional wine critic: "Looks deceive. Rich and full-bodied in appearance, but flavorless" and "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel."

©2016 Johns Hopkins University Press (P)2017 Tantor
Animals Biology Genetics
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Hidden World cover art
Plight of the Living Dead cover art
Super Fly cover art
David Attenborough: The Early Years Collection cover art
Amphibians cover art
Zoology's Greatest Mystery cover art
Wicked Bugs cover art
A Naturalist at Large cover art
Mother Nature Is Not Trying to Kill You cover art
Life on Earth cover art
Alien Worlds cover art
The Book of the Earthworm cover art
What's Eating You? cover art
The Soul of the White Ant cover art
Reptiles cover art
Nature Underfoot cover art

Critic reviews

"Schmidt's tales will prove infectiously engaging even to entomophobes." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Sting of the Wild

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What a great find!

I have really enjoyed this book. This was my first foray into the world of entomology or at least reading about it.
I found this book by Justin Schmidt very interesting, I was worried I might get bored - but he really has an ability to make the world or insects more specifically the stinging kind very interesting and engaging. His stories are tremendously insightful, at times funny and engaging. I had no problem motoring through this book, which I hadn't expected I would.
I will be buying this as a gift book for family and friends.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Justin's writing style sets the tone brilliantly, bridging storytelling with the natural history of Hymenoptera.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great listen

You can either listen to the whole book, or dip into the various chapters. Either way it is both informative and entertaining.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating

Thoroughly enjoyed the way this book intertwines storytelling and technical biological knowledge. Fantastic, would recommend to any Hymenoptera enthusiasts.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!