Have you ever noticed that bugs land on their back when they die?  I mean….  it seems that way to me… at least.  I can’t recall ever seeing a dead fly sitting squarely on its feet.  Even spiders, who have eight flippers, tend to turn over on their hairy backs.

This… keeps me up at night.  Well, it used to.  But I got to the bottom of this.  Finally.

There are a couple of theories by the bug experts to explain this.

1.  Most are poisoned.  Not by a money-hungry relative.  No.  Most succumb to bug spray, that we humans have squirted about to and fro.  The poison ravages the bugs’ nervous systems.  Spasms, convulsions, and such.  And… cough, cough, sputter, spew…. cough.  Spasm.  Dead and gone, keeled over…. onto their little spines.

2. A dead bug doesn’t weigh much.  Any little breeze will flip it over on its widest base of support… the back.

Now my theory.

Bugs are HUGE worriers.  So, they resort to daydreaming as an escape.   They spend hours, and hours… lying on their backs… gazing off into to space… dreaming of a world without Raid, and spider webs… and most certainly… without frogs.  Bug Utopia.  But… when they decided to recline and dream a bit… they forget that it is terribly difficult for them to right themselves.

So… they try and try… but no luck.  They eventually die of dehydration… which doesn’t take long for a little bug.

Help.  I’ve’ daydreamed and I can’t get up.

And that, my friends is how this sad, sad scene…. happens.

I overheard a couple of spiders talking… during this final phase.   They looked lovingly at eachother… and said…

“Can you believe we met on the web?”

There were also a couple of Fireflies near them.  They were speaking their last words too.  And  what did one firefly say to the other?

“I got to glow now!”