“Kids: Don’t try this at home” warns McGee, depicting earwig hatchlings preparing to chow down on their mom. Matriophagy, though, is just one of the gruesome practices highlighted in this rousing grossfest as the author describes with exaggerated relish how assassin bugs inject their prey with an innards-dissolving poison (“Yum! Cockroach smoothie!”), depicts with crunchy sound effects a female praying mantis biting off her mate’s head, exclaims over how the “slimy shapeshifter” flatworm uses the same orifice as a mouth and a butt, and regales readers with similar need-to-know facts about other back-garden creepy-crawlies. Underscoring his educational motives for all this, the author opens each chapter of all-too-clearly drawn comics panels with, for example, scene-setting references to monster movies or detailed information about how ancient Egyptians prepared mummies, then ends with a close-up photo and a roundup of additional facts. The backmatter includes instructions for a homemade “Pooter” and “Beat Sheet” that will give young backyard naturalists the tools to gather more little monsters of their own. Human observers in the pictures are racially diverse.