Skip to main content
The Wild Pest
Book
Tall Tales

Western legends, starring real bugs.

Long-form, narrated, illustrated. Apex Outlaws each get a tale. Read like a campfire story; cited like a paper.

Illustrated portrait of a bullet ant on a rainforest leaf, painted in editorial Western style.
Tall Tale · 4 min read

The Legend of the Bullet Ant

On the smallest outlaw with the loudest sting in the rainforest.

Read the legend→
An atlas moth at rest in a Bornean forest at dawn, wings spread, snake-head wing tips visible.
Tall Tale · 4 min read

The Week of the Atlas Moth

On the largest moth in the world and the seven days it has to make a life.

Read the legend→
Illustrated portrait of a peacock mantis shrimp at the entrance to its coral burrow, painted in editorial Western style.
Tall Tale · 4 min read

The Shrimp That Saw Twelve Colors

On the rainbow you can't see, and the punch you can't dodge.

Read the legend→
Illustrated portrait of a death's-head hawkmoth at the entrance of a beehive at dusk, painted in editorial Western style.
Tall Tale · 5 min read

The Thief Who Smelled Like a Bee

On the moth that walks into the hive and walks back out with the honey.

Read the legend→
Illustrated portrait of a human botfly mid-flight in a Costa Rican rainforest, painted in editorial Western style.
Tall Tale · 5 min read

How the Botfly Earned Its Name

On the bug that doesn't bite you. It just hires somebody else to.

Read the legend→