Never Home Alone
Rob Dunn
Basic Books, $28
As I write this in my basement office, a sticky trap lies beneath my desk catching whatever insects wander by. Its current haul is pretty typical: a cricket, a spider and some small flies. But as Rob Dunn writes in his intriguing new book, Never Home Alone, I’m missing a lot if I think that’s all that lurks beneath my slippers.
Dunn has carved out an unusual niche as an ecologist, studying the myriad fauna that inhabits houses. These creatures are mostly small, such as microbes and insects, but that’s only one reason they’ve gone largely undocumented.