Insects Chew More Than Scenery

For viewers who have been left scratching their heads after a Learning Channel program, here’s fair warning: Tonight’s documentary may leave you scratching everything.

“Living With Bugs: A War of Two Worlds” (9 p.m., TLC) is abuzz with disturbing facts (a pasta and broccoli dinner contains 270 insects and 23 maggots) and disquieting images that you may carry with you to your grave (the time-lapse film of ravenous crawly things making short work of a dead fox).

The documentary, done with keen humor and startling photography, plots insects’ relentless campaign for world domination (the unchecked spread of fire ants and Africanized “killer” bees across the U.S.), even while we attempt to use them for our own purposes (a locust is forced to watch “Star Wars” to learn about the insect’s collision-avoidance techniques--I kid you not).

Sometimes we pit one insect against another. In a science lab, a fly divebombs a fire ant’s head, implanting a tiny maggot that will eventually eat its way out.

But just don’t cross these bugs. A scientist wearing beekeeper togs shows how squashing a single “killer” bee releases a signal that can be detected by all other bees within a hundred yards or so. Alas, he has to cut the show-and-tell short when the swarming bees start getting inside his outfit.

Regardless, this is an hour that flies by.