All I know is that on that bright day when I finally get to heaven, God will explain the rationale behind chiggers to me!

anneliese_32, luv your quotes and also your puzzle question.
"Nature does nothing uselessly."
Aristotle.
Glad you questioned Aristotle's quote.

Ticks are here to tic everybody off!!!
Snort!

I can relate to that, dug the second one out yesterday -

Careful! Careful! ....Some of those ticks can really "tick you off" if they make you sick (but I know you know that)....Here we have several cases of Lymn's Disease every year and it can be very bad. Maybe ticks weren't around when Aristotle was around! A couple year's ago our little Poodle died of Lymn's Disease which was advanced before we realized it.

Ticks help keep you out of the woods thus protecting the bigger wildlife.

See?

They are just one of Mother Nature's little whims...like sagging boobs and gray hair.

Don't need to go in the woods, ticks find me walking down the sidewalk or mowing the grass. Kathyjane has it right, they are here to tick us off.

Anyone want to talk about gnats and what the mission is in the life these creatures? I can't imagine.

I guess I should have said something like I know that the mission in life of the gnats is to survive. But how do they further human life?

They feed birds and amphibians, whom we eat somewhere up the food chain or directly in the case of pheasant under glass or frog legs, or enjoy in some other manner. ;-)

I loved the quote and it sunk in immediately. Life is so finely spun and interwoven. I really do believe there is little in nature an accident.

The quote proves that we think that anything in nature is supposed to be here for our benefit, but, as Calliope says, everything is interwoven and everything is food for something - some of our practices seem to avoid that, but don't underestimate the microbes - if you avoid the vultures and the worms, they have a go at us anyway, LOL

I don't intend to be a food chain for anyone but the undertaker. No gnats,vultures,ticks,chiggers,mosquitos etc...
I think I'll get back to this subject later.

How about tiny bees that invade human pupils? The Brazilians call them "eye lickers".

This has been posted before, but I think it fits this discussion:

Oh, Carrion eaters,
you are welcome to my body.
Turkey Vulture, take my eyes.
When you soar on the wind
I can see the trails I rode,
the Oak groves I love,
the Eel River of my blood.

Coyote, take my feet
so I can run in the blowing grasses,
walk on the secret paths
known only to deer and me.

Fox, eat my ears.
so I can hear the sweet song of frogs,
the dreams of song birds at dawn.

Bear, eat my nose,
so I can smell the musty sweetness
of Blackberries in late summer,
the Steelhead and Salmon
in the river,
the first rain in a dry forest.

Raven, eat my mouth,
so I can deliver my eulogy with the poetic beauty
you sent to the spirit of the Fox
who was run over by a car.

Composters, you are welcome to my body.
Flies, there is a rotting crevice,
a safe place to lay your eggs.
Your children will balance
the worlds of the flesh and the microbes.

Earth Babies, scrape these bones clean.

Wind and rain, grind my bones into sand.
So the Blue Eyed grass, Meadow Foam, Elegant CatÂs Ears
I always enjoyed will grow.

When I walk the Earth again,
I will pick a bouquet for myself
Forgetting my part in the creation.

J. Sims

I'd rather donate my usable organs to humans than my body feeding animals. And the rest of me can be buried beside my family.

"When I walk the Earth again,
I will pick a bouquet for myself ".
J. Sims
I don't see any mention of promoting humanity other than his own.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

J is Joann, a very good poet, and someone who posts not nearly enough.

I feel anybody who happily gives over their remains for all things which eat, can eat, can gnaw and devour and nibble, and lay their precious eggs in small dark places to hatch and start the cycle again, whould certainly be most welcomed by the Earth to pick some flowers on another day in time; flowers which they helped nourish, perhaps.
---and so the flowers die and it begins again......

I like the poem of J. Sims. I admire someone who can write a poem.
If I could write a poem, I'd write about the hot, smoking, clean smelling, light as a feather, black gold, free compost pile that I have been contributing to for many years.

According to Wikipedia, the Ichneumon wasp lays its eggs in ticks. So they serve as a host for wasps, as well as a snack for guineafowl, as you mentioned.

Sorry about the bites.