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Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Can scary insects inspire a story?

Squashing those little creatures are our friends, not foes.

But their looks inspire great stories...

By Carola Kolbeck @chameleoninhighheels




With Halloween just gone, how many spider web decorations did you see? We saw a fair few and also lots of giant spiders and creepy crawlies for an extra spooky and scary effect.  It made us stop and think why we appear to be so much more accepting and tolerant of those six or eight-legged creatures during Halloween, but we’re quick to swat and shoo them away when we meet them in real life.  At best, we carefully trap them and catapult them back outside if they have come into our homes, at worst, we kill them.  


Whilst it has been scientifically proven that us humans have an inbuilt fear of snakes and spiders, we must not use this as an excuse to dispose of them as if they were worthless.  We may call them creepy, but they are essential players in our ecosystem.  In fact, without them, our natural world would collapse.  






Invasive Insects


If you search for invasive insects, you will find a barrage of negative publicity.  They are described as pests, nuisances, most-wanted, most-hunted and destructive.  Upon further inspection, it becomes clear that all those attributes exist because they mess with humans’ systems, crops and farming.  There is talk of them invading our lands and threatening our food crops and livelihoods.  However, as mentioned in a previous blog, the UK’s diversity of wildlife has diminished to extreme levels, mainly because humans are claiming every last bit of untouched land for themselves.  It is in fact humans who invade nature and continue to build houses, rob wildlife of its habitat and erase their sources of food.  Humans pour tarmac on what was once a field and flatten hedges and woodlands.  Millions of animals, including insects, are displaced.






UK Insects


In the UK alone there are a staggering 27,000 types of insects.

Today we want to talk to you about them and their importance in our ecosystem.  If we’re having a little biology lesson first, let’s recall that insects are also called invertebrates.  This means they don’t have a backbone, multiple legs and three body sections.  Most of them also have wings and certainly don’t look as cuddly and cute as a standard pet we’d invite into our homes.  Flies, beetles, bugs, butterflies, earwigs, grasshoppers, bees, wasps and ants - we know them, we see them, and, for whatever reason, fear them or are disgusted by them. However, there is really no need for it and they actually need our support and help to thrive.  As a matter of fact, many of our insects and creepy helpers in the ecosystem are threatened with extinction and many kinds have already vanished.  


Reasons are manifold.  Pesticides are incredibly toxic and don’t just kill off those bugs that eat our crops, but also harm insects that are essential for our plants, food and healthy nature around us.  According to Community Action Works, “one in every three bites of food we eat depends on bees”. Of course, it is not just bees we have to be worried about, but many other animals, many of them insects, are as crucial for a fully functioning nature as well as ecological diversity: “Pesticides can also contaminate our food, harm pollinators, and threaten our ecosystems. Pesticides, specifically neonicotinoids (or neonics), are killing the pollinators we depend on to support our food systems: bees, butterflies, bats, hummingbirds, and more.” (Community Action Works).  Poisonous pesticides aren’t the only contributor though: the loss of natural habitats through excessive housing developments has a huge role to play.  In addition to this, some nocturnal insects can’t live in cities as they are put off by bright lights.  






Using photography to save insects


Clare Newton (2021) used the powerful medium of photography to highlight the raw beauties of our fragile nature. In fact, photography is a perfect medium to discuss the issue of threatened species.  Colourful and detailed photos can raise awareness of the most endangered ones.  


Newton recalls her own frustrations with the limitations of the human eye and its inability to really see and appreciate the beauty of anatomical forms and the intricacy of detail. She began to specialise in macro photography, which involves producing photographs of small objects to larger-than-life size. Her aim is to raise awareness of the UK endangered species of insects featured in the IUCN Red List (Red data book). She is hoping to aid conservation by providing the public with visual tools to identify these species, in an attempt to elevate their importance. Aside from appreciating their beauty, in many respects insects are the unsung heroes of the ecosystem. They play a pivotal and very diverse role that is often not recognised. In some areas of the world eating insects is a novelty,  but in others they provide an essential and much-valued source of nutrition. They are an integral part of many food chains and are essential to pollination as many flowering plants are reliant on insects to transport their pollen and ensure fertilisation. Bees are our most important pollinator and we are reliant on them to help us pollinate our food crops. To put this into perspective, 70 out of the top 100 human food crops are pollinated by bees. 


A particular area of interest in Newton’s macro photography has been discovering and celebrating indigenous wasp species of the UK. She shows how beautiful and precious those insects are and how they deserve so much more than our irritation, impatience and disdain.  Insects also escalate the decomposition of organic waste. Even in death insects are contributing – as their nitrogen-rich bodies decompose, they return this important element to the ground.



Useful insects for growing vegetables


When we think of growing our own veg, we are also concerned to protect it from unwanted visitors who nibble or destroy it before we can harvest it.  Of course, our gardens are natural places for insects. It is true that some insects harm the plants in our gardens, and we already know that spraying toxic pesticides is not the answer. Moreover, plenty of insects are really good for them and actually increase the growth of plants.  It’s therefore really important to stop using harmful pesticides to kill insects. It is much better to use biological control.  The following insects are deemed best for your garden, according to Morning Chores Blog: 


Ladybugs: 


“Ladybugs are probably the most well-known of all the beneficial bugs in the garden. Part of the reason they are beneficial is that they eat quite a few of the bad bugs. Each ladybug can eat fifty to sixty aphids per day and over five thousand in a lifetime. In addition, they also like to munch on mealworms, leafhoppers, and mites.


Their larvae don’t harm your plants while being born and will eventually eat more bugs too. If you have enough of the items that attract them and enough food, you can have many generations in one season.

Best of all, we don’t have to worry about them being eaten by predators because they secrete an odor that most other bugs do not like.”


Green Lacewing:


“These bugs are beautiful. Their wings genuinely look as though they have a lace design on them. As gorgeous as their wings are, they serve a mighty purpose for any garden. Lacewings will eat aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers and mealybugs.  They are also easy to get into your gardening space. Plant dill, angelica, or coriander to catch their attention.

Ground Beetles:


“Diversity is something that, in some respects, we seemed to have lost over time in the garden. The ground beetle seems to have not noticed this as there are over twenty-five hundred different species. The ground beetles are nocturnal and get all the bugs that are on the ground (it does what is says on the tin). They will get rid of some bad bugs such as slugs, snails, cutworms, cabbage maggots, and caterpillars. They have a huge appetite! One beetle larvae can kill up to fifty caterpillars.”

Hover Flies:


Another good variety to have hanging around your garden are hoverflies. They will prey on aphids, scale insects and caterpillars.  This variety of fly is only drawn to a few items, though. You’ll need to grow common yarrow, fern-leaf yarrow, dill, or basket of gold to attract this type of fly to your garden.


Spiders:


“Spiders are fabulous creatures for the garden.  They eat aphids, caterpillars, grasshoppers and fruit flies.  In order to get spiders to your garden, you need a place for them to spin their webs. This means that larger plants, such as corn, will do really well at attracting these bugs.”

Soldier Beetles:


“Soldier beetles are another helpful variety of beetle you want in your garden. They eat grasshopper eggs, aphids, and soft-shelled insects.  They are also easy to attract to your garden by planting goldenrod, zinnias, marigolds, or linden trees. If you have these plants in your garden, the soldier beetles will come.”

Wasps:


“Like the fly, these wasps attach their larvae to the tomato hornworm, as shown above. The larvae start out eating the hornworm alive and by the time the wasps are fully grown, the hornworm is dead. Considering the fact that the female will lay anywhere from fifty to four hundred eggs at one time, their impact is felt throughout the garden. Before you know it you will have beautiful tomatoes without a single hole from a tomato hornworm eating your precious produce before you can pick it. This means if you see a hornworm in the state the one above is in, leave it alone, it is soon going to die anyway.  In addition, the adults will eat aphids, codling moths, garden webworms and many different caterpillars, beetles, and flies.  Worried about the fact that these bugs are wasps? They don’t sting unless they have to and even then their stings are considered medically harmless.”

Bumble Bees and Bees:


“This is an animal that everyone should want in their garden. Bees are wonderful in helping to pollinate fruit trees. They also help pollinate other plants such as tomatoes, raspberries, cranberries, peppers, squash, along with pollinating flowers.  One of the best ways to attract bees is simply to have the items mentioned above. You could also purchase a beehive which would help you be able to collect local honey as well.”

There are many more, but for now we’d like to keep an eye out for them and thank them for the fantastic work they do.  Leave them be, be kind to them and watch them be your ally in growing your own veg.


Time is running out


We are running out of time.  We have overstepped the line so far already, that it’s nearly too late to turn around.  The world is at a tipping point. Every little bit can tilt it a bit further over the edge.  

Just because parts of nature are ugly and unsightly doesn’t mean they are bad.  Just because they don't fit into our carefully curated cookie-cutter lives, doesn’t mean we should destroy them.  Nature does not fit into a cookie cutter. It is raw, wild, ugly and weird, which is exactly what makes it so precious and beautiful. There is no time left. We need to act now. Start today, right now. Let those flies and wasps, worms and creepy crawlies live. Exist next to your house spiders.  Pick up the beetle.  Think and act greener to reverse Code Red.

What will you change today?


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