Would you be happy to learn that insects have invaded your home or garden? Chances are you aren’t. These tiny crawling critters are not exactly known for their cuddly potential, nor are they likely to be considered pet material. It is a shame. They deserve so much better.
Insects: We Can’t Without
Recently, a paper was released that showed the way forward. It proposed some initiatives that could help the industry, land managers, governments, and individuals in protecting insects as the global population declines.
We are more inclined to help species that we have warm, happy feelings towards. Enter the panda or the elephant. Yet we have to be aware of the importance of the insects, regardless of them suffering from a slightly more negative rep. They might even be critical to our future survival. Integrating insects in our way of working and living ensures that we enrich ecosystems while working on biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.
Bee covered with pollen
Insects
Life is what it is thanks to the tireless, hard work of insects. You could say that life is not possible without insects. They are responsible for some crucial processes, including pollination, breaking down of waste, cycling of nutrients, moving of seeds, and keeping all ecosystems and habitats around the world healthy and thriving.
What insects help pollination?
Insect pollinators include beetles, flies, ants, moths, butterflies, bumble bees, honey bees, solitary bees, and wasps. Butterflies and moths (Lepidopterans) are important pollinators of flowering plants in wild ecosystems and managed systems such as parks and yards.
It was already back in 1987 that famous biologist E.O. Wilson wrote: "The truth is that we need invertebrates, but they don’t need us. If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the world would go on with little change … But if invertebrates were to disappear, I doubt the human species could last more than a few months."
Photo by: Sandy Millar
This is why you should be concerned that their populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. Recent numbers have shown that insect populations are decreasing by close to 1% per year. This means that we will lose half of all insects in the next 50 to 60 years if we do not take action today.
Thankfully, some renowned scientists from around the world are one step ahead of you. They came up with a list of tips and tricks that could help the insect population in your local area thrive.
Everyone Can Grow A Garden: Build an Insect Hotel
Insects Protection Tips & Tricks
Nine of their suggestions are pretty easy to implement, yet will be hugely successful in helping out your insect friends. Perhaps you could try some of them.
- Keep lawn mowing to a minimum, or get rid of it altogether.
- Plant native plants in your yard - these are invaluable for your native insects.
- Avoid pesticides, making your yard fully organic.
- Create homes for your insects by not removing stumps, logs, and leaves.
- Or, one step further, welcome them in your insect hotel.
- Reduce your carbon footprint by becoming more sustainable.
- Volunteer for local conservation organizations.
- Do not bring ‘exotic’ plants or animals in your area, as they will harm the native species.
- Become aware of the smallest forms of life around you. Let’s discuss this some more.
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Insects Have No Charisma
As mentioned before, insects do not have that je ne sais quoi that some fuzzier, cuter, or more imposing animals have. This means that the conservation efforts are not as well-known or, let’s face it, well-liked and supported. According to the authors of the paper, there should be a way of bringing humans and insects closer together. Some of the more likable species could function as poster children, like the butterfly or bumblebee, to raise the profile of those conservation efforts.
Photo by: Brice Nihiser. Typical green bottle fly face. They 'say' I have no charisma :-(
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Insects; We Can’t Without Conservation.
But what would those conservation efforts entail, aside from making people aware of the 9 points above? Well, the best part is that it would not require much more than keeping ecosystems and habitats intact. The conservation of anything from forests to grasslands and polar ice caps is crucial in maintaining insects thriving;. However, encouraging ‘healthy’ growing of native plant and animal species in residential or industrial areas could go a long way as well: be it at train stations, airports, alongside roads, or in villages.
We would do well to stop sweeping our parks and keeping them picture-perfect. Insects thrive in an area that is compost-rich, which may mean leaving trees, logs, and leaves just where they are.
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Insects: Climate Change
This is, unfortunately harder than it may seem. Insects are not just suffering from our urge to keep everything clean and neat; they are also falling prey to climate change and habitat destruction. “As insects are braided into ecosystems, their plight is essentially integrated with more expansive movements such as global biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and in an alliance with them.”
This means that all and any efforts to combat climate change will instantly benefit insects as well. So we are not just cutting back on pollution for our own sake, but ought to do so for our insects’ sake as well. Only then will they help us further our earth-saving quest. The paper of these guys is excellent, but there is one caveat: science has much to improve as well.
Insect Hotel For Children, Built By Children
Not only is it a fun project for your kids, it’s also beneficial to your garden! Insect hotels provide a place for insects, particularly pollinators, to hibernate during the upcoming winter and are a way to encourage insect pollination in your yard. They also can attract helpful insects who will naturally prey upon pests and therefore keep your garden pesticide free.
Insect Hotel: DYS
- Materials
- Wood box
- Pieces of wood to divide the box in smaller compartments
- Green glue. You can always use the kindergarten teacher’s favorite; flour and water
- Bug friendly nesting materials: newspaper scraps, sticks, bark, bamboo, pebbles/rocks, leaves, dried flowers, straw, yarn, burlap, wool
Instructions
- Step One Ask your kids to go on a hunt for buggy materials!
- Step Two Gather your materials and saw or break them into smaller pieces.
- Step Three Make sure your materials fit tightly in a compartment before gluing them in.
- Step Four Put a layer of ‘green glue’ in each compartment and glue in your objects.
- Step Five Repeat gluing the materials into each compartment.
- Step Six Let the glue dry for a few days.
Hang it and open up for business! I suggest hanging this away from doors or windows as it will attract plenty of visitors. A good idea is to place your bug hotel near a vegetable garden as it will hopefully attract pollinators like bees and pest controllers like ladybugs and earwigs. We already had a resident spider within an hour of gathering materials. I’m not sure if he came with the materials or not but there he was, hiding away!
Tips
- Avoid adding food scraps or nuts/acorns unless you want to attract flies and their lovely offspring. I love almost any bug except fly babies if you catch my drift. Blech!
- If you plan on putting this in a place where it will be exposed to rain/snow, go ahead and apply a finish stain first, or your box will deteriorate. We placed ours on a covered porch.
- Check back every so often to see if you can find any activity in the hotel! Avoid sticking fingers in the compartments in case any biters have moved in. Black widows, bees, and wasps can be frequent guests!
Insect hotels: A little science
Building a DIY insect hotel is a great springboard for discussing the importance of insects in gardens with kids. By making a habitat for different types of insects you can talk about what job each type of bug does in the garden. It’s also an opportunity to talk about the food chain and food webs and how each animal, including the ones many kids find a bit creepy, plays a part in the neighbourhood ecosystem.
You can also discuss where may insects go during the winter. Some insects migrate to warmer location during the coldest part of the year, but many go into hibernation or lay eggs or overwinter as larvae in order to survive.
Tips for building your DIY Insect Hotel
The idea of a DIY insect hotel in the garden is great. Take up a notch read what entomologists have to say about insect hotels and the best (and worst) materials to use for creating one here. A few things we noted from this discussion when building a DIY insect hotel are:
- Avoid plastic materials. They can harbor mold which is detrimental to insects.
- Smaller is better. Big hotels are incredible but run the risk of parasitic insects moving in and their larvae devouring the larvae of other insects (especially bees).
- Pick the species you are building for. When possible, design your hotel around specific insects that you wish to house. Research the materials they need to nesting and use those in your design.
More
Children are fearless when it comes to bugs. Many adults will jump at the site of a caterpillar but children often scoop them up and let them inch up their arm. The same goes for crickets, rolly pollies, and praying mantis’.
Conclusion
So go ahead open that hotel you’ve always daydreamed about. It requires very little capital, a few eager visitors and some curious kids! Make a DIY insect hotel today!
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Insects ‘Red-Listed’
Fun fact. There are many more insects on the planet than all mammals combined. This means that the number of species is staggering as well. One study found that there are more insect species in an acre of rainforest in Panama than mammal species in the entire world. Quite a lot of them are - or were - unknown to science: estimates say that we only identified 1 out of every five insect species.
Photo by: Courtesy of Gamboa Rainforest Resort. Gamboa is home to some natural labs, including a butterfly farm, an orchids center, and a frog pond. The tour of the labs is ideal if you’re a biology enthusiast keen to get to know the lifecycle of some of the most exciting flora and fauna of Panama.
This means that insects are frequently discovered and added to the seemingly never-ending list. Although this is quite a tedious process: only after finding, naming, and monitoring a certain new insect-type, it qualifies for ‘red-listing,’ which in turn grants it certain conservation privileges. Many entomologists consider this to be too much work, which is understandable but a real shame. But only after knowing insects and being prepared to protect them, can we save the planet - one bug at a time. Until then, we better keep the nine tips above in mind.
Before you go!
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