In this episode, I examine a terrifying reality that’s taking place around the globe, a precipitous drop in the number of insects around the world and a dizzying increase in extinctions of these most numerous and critical of the planet’s inhabitants. It’s a scary story, but let’s get to it!
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If you’re a regular listener to this podcast, then you understand the need for wildlife conservation. Every day, we see news story after news story detailing the plights of some of our more charismatic species at risk; animals like the American badger, burrowing owl, grizzly bear, and woodland caribou.
Unfortunately, these headline stealing species often hide a much more imminent problem; the disappearance of immense numbers of the world’s insect populations. Scientists are only beginning to get an understanding of the enormity of the problem because quite simply, most of the species disappearing aren’t even known to science.
It’s estimated the planet is home to some 5.5 million insect species, but only one-fifth have ever been described or identified. This means that any estimate of the number of insect species at risk is merely speculation due to a lack of understanding of the number of undescribed species. In the February, 2020 issue of Biological Conservation, there is an amazing article titled: Scientists’ warning to humanity on insect extinctions.
Without insects, most of the world's ecosystems would simply collapse. They form the foundation upon which an almost infinite number of species interact. Without insects humanity, along with countless other species would struggle to survive.Click To TweetWithout insects, most of the world’s ecosystems would simply collapse. They form the foundation upon which an almost infinite number of species interact. Without insects humanity, along with countless other species would struggle to survive. The article states:
“With insect extinctions, we lose much more than species. We lose abundance and biomass of insects, diversity across space and time with consequent homogenization, large parts of the tree of life, unique ecological functions and traits, and fundamental parts of extensive networks of biotic interactions. Such losses lead to the decline of key ecosystem services on which humanity depends. From pollination and decomposition, to being resources for new medicines, habitat quality indication and many others, insects provide essential and irreplaceable services.”
Insects are critical to our everyday lives. For instance, if just one group of insects, bees disappeared, the impacts would ripple through global ecosystems. Bees are one of the planets most important pollinators. In fact, the bee was recently declared the planet’s most important living being because of the dependence all ecosystems have on the pollination services provided by these often overlooked insects.
Many of the world’s flowers co-evolved with specific bee species making them not only reliant on bees for pollination but often of just a single bee species. In the Canadian Rockies, the beautiful Calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa), is pollinated only by bumblebees, and more specifically, only by Queen bumblebees. Globally, bumblebee populations have plummeted and this puts both the bees and the orchids that rely on them, at risk. If you’d like to learn more about bumblebees and Calypso orchids, check out the story at Episode 60.
Calypsos are only one of many orchids and other plants that have evolved so intimately that they can only be pollinated by one or a few species of bees. With drops in bee populations, even plants pollinated by numerous bee species will still suffer from fewer bees pollinating fewer flowers. Seed production will be reduced and the ability of the plant to survive competition from other plants is also limited.
Hundreds of species of birds and animals also rely on bees as a food supply. Without bees, these species are also at risk. Bees also host their own ecosystem of smaller insects like mites, and are in turn the prey of many types of parasitic insects. These species are also placed at risk as bee numbers plummet.
While most of the world's calories come from crops like wheat, rice, barley, and other wind-pollinated grains, there are still many species in your grocery's produce aisle that rely on bees partially, or in whole for their pollinationClick To TweetWhen it comes to agriculture, a loss of bees would be catastrophic. While most of the world’s calories come from crops like wheat, rice, barley, and other wind-pollinated grains, there are still many species in your grocery’s produce aisle that rely on bees partially, or in whole for their pollination.
Here is just a small list of plant crops pollinated by bees:
- tree fruits like apples, pears, plums, grapes, cherries, apricots, avocado, Kiwifruit, papaya, and mango,
- strawberries, blueberries, blackberries
- melons like cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon
- oranges and other citrus fruits like lemons and limes
- nuts including brazil nuts, cashews, almonds
- root vegetables like potato, onion, carrots, and beets
- leafy greens like lettuce and cabbage
- green vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, celery, and Brussels sprouts
- most squashes, pumpkins, cucumber, and zucchini
- bell peppers
- kidney and other bean species
- sunflowers
- coffee
- forage crops like alfalfa and clover
- Oil crops like Canola and all of the related mustards
- fiber plants like cotton, and finally, and in many ways most importantly
- honey. While not a plant, it’s a product of the pollination of all of the above plants. When bees pollinate, they trade nectar for their service in spreading pollen. The byproduct is one of the most widely traded products in the world.
Without bees, most of the produce aisle at your local grocery would be as empty as your backyard garden. As much as I wished this was merely a hypothetical situation though, globally it’s estimated that bee populations have dropped by almost 90% with the percentage varying by region.
Across North America, colony collapse disorder has destroyed countless commercial beekeeper’s hives, hives that are hired by commercial farms to enhance pollination of important food crops. Globally, 70 of 100 food crops are pollinated wholly or partially by bees.
While there are many theories surrounding the disappearance of bees around the world, one of the most current trends in research is around the use of neonicotinoid pesticides. These nicotine-like chemicals are the most widely used insecticides worldwide. According to a Cornell University study, neonics, as they are often called, were developed in response to the challenge of insect pests becoming resistant to other commercial insecticides. They are also general enough to be able to target a diversity of insects such as aphids, beetles, caterpillars, and butterflies.
Neonics are popular because they don’t have the same toxic impacts on mammals that may come into contact with sprayed plants.
Unfortunately, they’re persistent in the environment and can leach into the soils and water supplies. They also have dangerous implications for pollinators like bees.
Neonics are used in over 120 countries and sprayed on some 140 different crops. While they are sprayed on crops, the vast majority are used as seed treatments, meaning the pesticide is taken up in the plant tissues, nectar, and pollen as the plant grows. It can also spread to neighbouring non-treated plants. Because they persist in the soil, they can be absorbed by non-targeted species.
Some types of neonics are more toxic to bees than others, and some species, such as bumblebees are particularly susceptible to neonicotinoids. There is still some controversy in the research, with some studies showing the following impacts on bumblebees.
- increased mortality
- reduced colony growth
- reduced brood production
- reduced nest construction
- impaired feeding
- contradictory evidence for impacts on movement and lifespan.
Anything that impacts colony growth and brood production is particularly challenging for bumblebees because every colony has to start from scratch, with a single queen, every spring. At the end of the summer, every bumblebee with the exception of some newly hatched queens dies. The queens burrow into the ground to avoid the cold and emerge in the spring to start their own colony.
Honey bee colonies have exhibited the following:
- impaired foraging
- reduced immunity
While some studies disagree, the following effects have been described in addition
- increased mortality
- impaired feeding
- impaired movement
Strangely, bumblebees and honey bees preferentially drink sugar solutions spiked with neonics as opposed to those without. Perhaps like people, they crave a little nicotine fix.
In April of 2018, the European Union banned the use of all neonicotinoids, although Canada and the U.S. still use them extensively. While Canada has proposed a ban, they keep dragging their feet under the guise of examining new research and have postponed their decision on a ban now until the fall of 2020. I’ve linked to their most recent update in the show notes for this episode.
As we look beyond bees to the wider collapse of insect populations, the recent study published in the Journal Biological Conservation determined that 40% of the insect species globally are at risk of extinction.
Insects serve so many different functions that they've become, in a way, the blood flowing through the veins of most ecosystems.Click To TweetInsects serve so many different functions that they’ve become, in a way, the blood flowing through the veins of most ecosystems. The services they provide to ecosystems are often the foundation holding those ecosystems together.
According to an article in SciTech Europa:
“Human survival and well-being depend on ecosystems for provisioning services (such as food, fiber and fresh water), cultural services (such as recreation and spiritual retreat) and supporting services necessary for resource production (such as primary production, pollination, decomposition, soil formation and biological control of ‘pests’). These services are provided at no cost, but their value is difficult to assess because only provisioning and some cultural and supporting services have market values. However, global value of ecosystem services has been estimated at US$33 trillion annually.”
Unfortunately, we usually ignore the daily contributions insects make to our lives until those benefactions are threatened, as in the current dangers of the loss of bee populations.
On the one hand, we absolutely need insects to help all aspects of ecosystem survival. On the other, we attack them to maximize today’s crop even though that may compromise tomorrow’s.
Now here’s a thought that most people in the new world have never considered. Insects are made of protein. They are nutritious and form critical parts of the diets of more than 3,000 ethnic groups in 113 countries. More than 1,500 different species are on the menu and these insects are critical trade products in many parts of the world.
I know, protein is protein…give me my burger. Well, not all protein is created equally. Insects don’t require nearly as much energy for metabolism as a cow, so they produce protein 300 times more efficiently. If you want to reduce your contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, then replacing beef with insect protein would not only reduce emissions, but would also reduce the amount of grain fed to cattle, and thus make it available for human use.
Insects also play an important role in modern medicine. Surprisingly, when it comes to medicine, what’s old can often become new again. When you watch old medieval movies with doctors applying leeches and maggots to wounds to help them heal, it turns out they may have been on the right track.
Blowfly maggots are well known for feeding selectively on dead tissue, making them effective at cleaning infected wounds while leaving the healthy tissue intact. Using maggots is much more selective, and much less intrusive than using scalpels and surgical interventionsClick To TweetBoth leeches and the maggots of blowflies are still used in medicine today. Blowfly maggots are well known for feeding selectively on dead tissue, making them effective at cleaning infected wounds while leaving the healthy tissue intact. Using maggots is much more selective, and much less intrusive than using scalpels and surgical interventions. In addition, according to the SciTech Europa article:
“Insects also provide several important pharmaceutical compounds, such as cantharidin (from blister beetles) for wart removal, alloferon (from blowfly larvae), a powerful antimicrobial compound, and promising anti-cancer compounds from wasp venom. Insects are also a source of several important industrial products, especially silk and cochineal (red) dye. Silkworms are the only source of commercial silk, still among the most valued and widely-traded commercial products.”
For commercial crops like Canola, insect pollinators increase the seed weight by 18% and add 20% to the market value of each plant. This helps to put a financial price on the value of insects in their unpaid role as pollinators. It’s one of the crazy realities of farming, use chemicals to try to kill one insect that may damage a crop while trying to protect those that are critical to the same crop’s production and yield.
One of the realities of life is that all things live and eventually die. Once they die, they provide food for many organisms whose role it is to break down dead material and release the nutrients to other species. It also helps remove disease organisms from carcasses. In addition to dead materials, excrement also needs to be dealt with, and like dead items, insects are integral to all of these tasks.
Commercial cattle operations provide prodigious amounts of poo and animals like dung beetles are integral in removing and redistributing the fecal matter and burying it to prevent pastures from being damaged by an overabundance of excrement. To dung beetles, cow patties are an essential resource, while to ranchers, they are a potential source of contamination. Insects remain our partners in every aspect of agriculture.
Finally, like all ecosystems, some insects prey on other insects. Insect predators and parasites are fundamental to keeping populations in balance. Many insects are designed to hunt other insects. These include dragonflies, some beetles, mantises, and members of the true bug family, like the giant water bug. Wasps, in particular, are the perfect insect control program. They are one of nature’s most efficient natural regulators of insect populations. Wasps parasitize their prey. Their sting paralyzes them, and they lay their eggs inside the now helpless insect. When their larvae hatch, they’ll consume the host insect or spider from the inside out.
As you look into the almost endless list of things insects provide to ecosystems and agriculture, it begs the question…what are these services worth? If you’re going to ask a farmer to stop spraying chemicals that may impact honey bees or hoverflies, than what’s the actual benefit to balance against potential crop loss?
According to a 2006 study in the Journal BioScience, the value of ecological services provided to the U.S. every year can be valued at $57 billion. That's the equivalent of about 25% of Canada's annual healthcare costs.Click To TweetAccording to a 2006 study in the Journal BioScience, the value of ecological services provided to the U.S. every year can be valued at $57 billion. That’s the equivalent of about 25% of Canada’s annual healthcare costs. $57 billion is a vast amount of money. Now nothing comes without someone having to pay something…oh wait, except this. The services that insects provide humanity are essentially free.
Receiving all of these free services from insects should be seen as nature’s gift but alas we spray poisons to kill some insects and expect that those same poisons won’t also kill essential ones like ladybugs and bumblebees.
Before we can protect our 6-legged biome, we need to understand the myriad of ways that humans have been hampering their survival.
Surprisingly, whether we’re talking about woodland caribou or fireflies, habitat loss is always at the top of the list when populations struggle. Often, as the habitat shrinks, it also becomes fragmented so that small habitat patches are dissected again and again until little functional territory remains.
While some insects are more mobile than others, they all still need enough patches of habitat if they are to survive. Monarch butterflies are a great example. While they cover vast distances in their multi-generational migrations between Canada and the U.S. and overwintering spots in either California or central Mexico.
Monarchs are suffering in many ways. They eat only a single plant, milkweed, and throughout much of the 20th century, intense use of herbicides like Roundup has destroyed much of their native food supply. In addition, their overwintering range in the Mexican state of Michoacán is under attack by gangs of illegal loggers. Over the past month alone, two activists were murdered by these loggers. Thousands of other insect species are suffering similar losses of habitat every day.
While I’ve already covered the rampant pesticide use on insect populations, fertilizers can also have a similar impact by changing the local ecology and by adding to the acidity of the soil. In addition, the use of antiparasite drugs in livestock has a toxic impact on the many dung beetles that help to dispose of excess manure.
Light and noise pollution are also becoming more and more problematic. Many insects are drawn to lights and streetlights and other urban illumination can disorient them and also interfere with the strategies of insects like fireflies. Other insects, like cicadas, use audible communication and excessive noise can reduce their ability to communicate.
Invasive species are also a constant threat to insect populations. Invading insects may outcompete, prey upon, or bring diseases to native species. In some cases, the loss of a single insect can cause co-extinctions if there are parasitic insects that rely upon the insect that is lost.
European fire ants (Myrmica rubra) are an invasive insect that is moving into Canada from areas further south. Not only does it compete with other ant species, but they are very aggressive and often feed on other insects and even small animals.
First discovered in British Columbia in 2010, they’ve subsequently also turned up in Toronto and Richmond, Ontario.
Recently our news media has been widely focussed on the new coronavirus outbreak that’s spreading very rapidly and killing many of its victims. Well, invasive diseases are also impacting insect populations. An invasive fungi, Nosema bombi, is thought to have played a role in the collapse of many bee colonies across the continent.
Climate change is also taking its toll on insects both on the land and in aquatic habitats. Climate change can cause drastic changes in the timing of events in an ecosystem. For instance, flowers may bloom earlier, or fruits may ripen earlier. If insects rely on the flowers or fruit but are unable to adapt to ongoing changes, they may disappear simply because of poor timing. Similar challenges are seen in bird populations, and even in bears.
Insects like dragonflies spend most of their life as aquatic nymphs and are very susceptible to changes in water temperatures due to warming climates.
Finally, one challenge we often ignore is overexploitation. As I’ve already mentioned, many insects are harvested either for collections as in butterflies, as pets kept in terrariums (very popular in Japan), used in alternative medicine, or even eaten.
Insects are very high in protein and in many cultures, they make up a large part of the protein in people’s diets. As populations grow, so does the demand on insects used for food and populations may collapse under the strain of harvesting that overwhelms even an insect’s ability to produce large numbers of offspring.
Insects really are one of the most critical groups of animals on the planet. Understanding why they are disappearing is only half of the challenge, but there are things we can all do to help turn the tide. Insects reproduce rapidly and people can have a huge impact on helping populations to recover by thinking about how we use the land, harvest its products, change its microhabitats, and react to the impacts of changing climates.
In a companion piece to the warning to humanity study that I’ve been quoting, a second story looks at the many ways that we can help turn the tide. This is a lengthy article, but it is incredibly insightful. I highly recommend you read both of these stories if you’d like to truly understand both the challenges facing us and the many opportunities for solutions.
In order for us to reverse the trend of insect losses, we need to understand that all insects play a vital role in the ecological engine that runs the planet. The article states:
“Stopping insect decline rests on a foundation of appreciating that human and insect survival depends on mutual well-being, while being clear on the difference between financial value in terms of service provision and conservation value in terms of irreplaceable compositional and functional ecological integrity. We then need to understand the threats facing insects, and aim to maintain their various components and aspects. To do this, we require an acute appreciation of spatial scale, most easily communicated through conservation of the landscape.”
If we look at the example of forest management, there are many ways to reduce insect loss. Forests are very complex ecosystems and have many small microhabitats and microclimates. What kid hasn’t flipped over a big rock to find the worms and beetles scurrying away when their secret home is revealed. This is a great example of a microhabitat – a tiny area with unique characteristics and climate.
When we look at forests, we need to understand what makes each forest unique. It’s this uniqueness that hides the habitats. Tall matriarch trees are often the first to fall to the axe, when they are also the source of vast numbers of tiny insect habitats. Leaving some of these trees can help provide refuge and seed populations for many insects.
Understanding natural processes like fire, and how fire has historically shaped a forest can help ecologists to replicate its impact on the landscape and preserve those ecological interactions that have helped to make the forest unique. A good example of this in the Rockies would the be lodgepole pine forests. Lodgepole pines rely upon fire to open their cones and so maintaining natural fire cycles can help to retain habitats.
Once those fires flicker out, white-spotted sawyer beetles flock to the dead trunks to lay their eggs. As the beetles arrive, so do the woodpeckers to ferret out these wood boring beetles. Fires bring insects, which bring birds.
If natural grazers are no longer present, limited grazing by livestock can help to mimic the historic effects on the landscape. Selective logging can help simulate natural tree loss that would open up the canopy and allow new growth.
What is most important is to look at a landscape and look at ways to replicate and protect vital microhabitats and processes like fire and flood cycles. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use the land. It just means we need to use it more intentionally. By better understanding that a forest is much more than a collection of trees, we can plan our usage in a way to preserve habitats and the important services that the resident insects provide us on a daily basis.
We need a strong government to pull this off. We need to understand that it can’t be business-as-usual any more. We are at a tipping point and if we don’t turn the clock around, then we may find entire habitats dying. Even a single tree is an ecosystem. From the roots to the canopy, different microhabitats support different species. Each of those insect species has different predators, parasites, and microbes that depend on them for their survival.
For every kid that once said, 'I hate bugs!' It's time to realize that much of what is beautiful in our world may have been helped along by insects.Click To TweetIt really is a time for us all to become a cheerleader for things that may have made our skin crawl in the past. For every kid that once said, “I hate bugs!” It’s time to realize that much of what is beautiful in our world may have been helped along by insects.
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