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Some people wouldn't give a second thought to squashing them underfoot but entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste predicts a doomsday scenario in a world without bugs.
Known here and internationally as "The Bug Man", Kleinpaste says insects consistently get "bad press" but he can't imagine life without them.
"About 80
per cent of plants are pollinated by insects and imagine if bugs didn't clean up all the crap from cattle, people or whatever.
"Dung removal is a really important job and if you didn't have it, in two months' time you'd be up to your neck in shit."
Kleinpaste spoke to the Weekend Herald ahead of receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Waikato on Monday.
He said the recognition for his years of work in the field of entomology, and heightening people's awareness and understanding of insects, was "totally humbling".
"You never think about these things and then suddenly a university comes up to you and says, 'You're doing a good job, here's an honorary doctorate'.
"Bugs always get bad press so you try to communicate things for people to understand more about insects but you're still actually quite stunned when it happens."
Still speaking with a Dutch accent despite migrating here in 1978, Kleinpaste said he never trapped insects in jars as a child nor did he do any experiments involving magnifying glasses and ants. In fact, his foray into the study of insects was "completely by accident".
"I actually wanted to study biology but when I went to university in 1969 we were all given a large frog and a brick and with the brick we had to smash the shit out of the frog," he said.
"That's the way they did things in those days. I studied forestry because you couldn't do those things to trees."
Through his studies in the 1970s, Kleinpaste became interested in moths. "I actually got quite good at moths."
But his formal entomology training began when he started working for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1981.
His enthusiasm for bugs has seen host internationally syndicated television programmes for the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, including The World's Biggest and Baddest Bugs.
Among the baddest were the bullet ants he found in South America.
Kleinpaste thought he would find out what it was like to be bitten by one.
"It felt like you'd been shot. I thought it wouldn't be that bad, but it feels like you're having your hand slammed in a car door for 24 hours."
Despite the hugely painful experience, Kleinpaste is still an advocate for the creepy-crawlies.
"I didn't like the title of that show because most people still see bugs as bad although they've got a place in this world.
"If you take a really good look at it this world is not run by the stock market or politicians, it is run by bugs."
