I have spent considerable time pondering the lives of bugs. Big bugs, little bugs, flying bugs, crawling bugs, jumping bugs, pretty much all of them; and I have come to a conclusion:

It’s darn tough being a bug.

They have a tough time finding enough food; they have a tough time keeping from becoming food; and they have a tough time finding a safe and comfortable home. Humans don’t give them much respect, and they don’t seem to think much of us, either.

A big rain precipitates a drop in local bug populations because bugs, like the rest of us, become a mite complacent when life allows it. They begin hanging out and making homes in places that seem dry and safe at the time but fill up with water and drown the bug when a big rain comes.

This is sad for the bug, but then they wash into creeks and become fish food, or they become part of silt deposits, which eventually grow healthy crops. Their remains, therefore, remain useful.

Bugs are generally slow. Slow is a relative term, but crawling bugs can rarely out-crawl a hungry lizard, frog, toad, rodent, or small mammal.

A flying or jumping bug is usually slower than birds, and to evade aviary pursuit must dart into a spot so tight the bird can’t follow. Aerial escape is literally a wing and a prayer.

Like I said, it’s tough being a bug. The exception may be the house fly because the young ones are mighty fast.

One species I have to admire are spiders who build big webs in plain sight and then boldly lounge in the middle of it, soaking up sunshine and taunting every hungry bug-eater in sight. That web offers amazing protection.

Spider webs are really something, and our greatest human engineers have not yet duplicated the bio-engineering of a spider.

Few bug-eaters want to mess with a strong sticky web. Even mid-size birds strong enough to break the web and get away with the meal are hesitant to get the sticky stuff all over them. Yup, spiders are gutsy and amazing.

This wet winter has been hard on bugs, and springtime isn’t much easier because it brings challenges like strong winds and fast storms.

The rains we just had wiped out untold numbers of bugs. The gale-force winds after the storms did damage to the bug population as well.

The warmer part of spring just beginning is when bugs can do what they seem really good at — making baby bugs.

And so, it begins all over again, and that doesn’t bug me one bit.

Capt. David Bacon is a boating safety consultant and expert witness, with a background in high-tech industries and charter boat ownership and operation. He teaches classes for Santa Barbara City College and, with a lifelong interest in wildlife, writes outdoors columns for Noozhawk and other publications. The opinions expressed are his own.