by Roland D. Hallee

While sitting around a campfire a couple of evenings ago, someone asked the question: Where have all the bugs gone?

We began to discuss how few black flies, mosquitoes, June bugs, etc., we have seen so far this spring and summer.

Bugs are an interesting subject.

If a dollar value was put on the services insects provide, this would equal roughly $70 billion in the U.S. alone.

With an estimated 5.5 million species, insects are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. More than one million have been named by scientists — and many more have yet to be discovered. In fact, insects account for 80 percent of animal life on Earth.

But, both the number and diversity of insects are declining around the globe due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change. Without widespread action, many of these important creatures face extinction within the next few decades.

For instance, worldwide declines in insect populations have sparked considerable concern. To date, however, significant research gaps exist, and many insect threats remain under-investigated and poorly understood. Example, despite their charismatic bioluminescent displays and cultural and economic importance, the 2,000-plus species of firefly beetles have yet to be the subject of a comprehensive threat analysis.

Writing in BioScience, Sara M. Lewis, of Tufts University, and her colleagues aim to fill the gap with a broad overview of the threats facing these diverse and charismatic species – as well as potential solutions that may lead to their preservation into the future. Lewis and colleagues catalog numerous threats, foremost among them habitat loss, followed closely by artificial light and pesticide use. The future is not bleak, however, and the authors describe considerable opportunities to improve the prospects of bioluminescent insects, including through the preservation of habitat, reduction of light pollution, lowered insecticide use, and more-sustainable tourism.

By making a few small changes in your life, you can help curb this worldwide problem. Insects are crucial to life on Earth and what you can do to help save these amazing creatures.

The question that is always raised is why should I protect insects?

While many insects can seem like pests, they provide a wide range of services to other plants and animals in our environment. In fact, a diverse range of insect species is critical to the survival of most life on Earth, including bats, birds, freshwater fishes and even humans! Along with plants, insects are at the foundation of the food web, and most of the plants and animals we eat rely on insects for pollination or food. For example, 96 percent of songbirds feed insects to their young.

According to the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, roughly 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators to reproduce. That means you can thank a pollinator for about one of every three bites of food you eat. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than 100,000 different animal species play roles in pollinating the 250,000 kinds of flowering plants on Earth, with insects like bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, flies and beetles being the most common. Additionally, some insects are natural predators to pests that may harm food crops.

Some insects are known as decomposers, meaning they break down dead materials like fallen leaves and animal carcasses and turn them into simpler materials, making nutrients available to primary producers like plants and algae. In other words, decomposers are nature’s own recycling system.

Only a very small fraction of insects in the world are considered by humans to be pests, meaning they cause harm to people, plants, animals and buildings. While insect pest control costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars annually, this number would be much higher if it weren’t for the countless beneficial insects that serve as natural predators to pest species, like fire ants and mosquitoes. Additionally, some parasitic insects like small wasps lay their eggs inside pest species, driving their population down. To adequately control pests, we need beneficial insects.

Insects are the primary menu item for many reptiles, birds and amphibians. If insect populations continue to decline, some food webs might collapse entirely.

We also depend on insects for silk, dyes, honey and medical and genetic research. But, aside from the services insects provide, they are simply fascinating animals that spark curiosity in humans, especially children. These incredible creatures exhibit many extraordinary behaviors that are unthinkable in other forms of life and have inspired technology that we use today, like drones! Take some time to really observe the insects in your backyard, what behaviors do you see that captivate you?

Since many insects have yet to even be discovered, there may be benefits we don’t even know about yet!

So, the next time you think about swatting, spraying or crushing, maybe, just maybe, that creature can serve more benefits to you alive than dead.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

A large brown bear named Blades is the mascot of what Boston professional sports team?

The common slug

by Roland D. Hallee

Slugs! They can truly do a lot of damage to your plants, like they did to mine this past spring. They like damp places, feed at night and prefer tender new growth and seedlings.

Last week we learned about slugs, this week we will talk about how to control them.

Here are a few general tips on how to deal with slugs:

• Seedling protection: Protect your seedlings with 2-3 liter plastic soda bottles. Make sure no slugs are around the seedlings first. Cut the bottoms out of the bottles, sink them into the soil around the seedlings and remove the caps. You can reuse them over and over.
• Mulch: Keep mulch pulled away from the base of your plants. Consider waiting to apply mulch until the soil temperatures have warmed to above 75°F.
• Garden debris: Keep all decaying matter cleaned out of your garden beds. Clear all dead leaves and debris from the garden on a regular basis and put it in the compost pile which is best located in an area away from the garden.
• Slug havens: The shaded areas beneath decks can be a slug arena. Keep them weed and litter free.

You can also build barriers around your garden:

• Use cedar, oak bark chips or gravel chips which will irritate and dehydrate them.
• Try a barrier line or an overall sprinkle of powdered ginger.
• Use wood ashes as a barrier around plants, however try not to let the plant come into contact with the ashes. The ashes act as a desiccant and dry up the slugs.
• Spread well crushed eggshells around the plants. The calcium released from the eggshells is an extra benefit that “sweetens” the soil. The sharp edges of the shells will kill slugs.
• Talcum powder works as a barrier but must be replenished after rainfall or watering.

Finally, there is always the slug trap method:

• Beer or yeast traps: A traditional trap that seems to work well is to place containers of beer or yeast and water at one inch above the ground level in the garden to entice and drown your prey. Empty traps as needed. For the yeast trap, use one package of yeast to 8 ounces of water.
• Grape juice: A new rendition on the beer trap is to use grape juice. For some reason slugs really have a taste for this. Use just as you would in the beer method and buy the cheapest grape juice you can find.
• Beer batter bait: Mix 2 tablespoons of flour with enough beer to make a thick batter. Put 1 teaspoon of this in a small paper cup and lay the cups on their sides around your plants. Slugs will flock to this, get snared in the flour and die. When the trap is full toss the whole thing in the compost pile.
• Comfrey: This perennial is a preference of slugs and can be used as a trap. Comfrey is considered to be an invasive plant, however, it has so many uses for the garden and medicinally that it is worth having around. Comfrey has more protein in its leaves than any other vegetable, perhaps explaining its appeal to slugs.

I have comfrey around my garden at home and have had very little problems with slugs. So, I might just transplant some to the garden at camp.

Taking into consideration everything we have learned about slugs in the last two weeks, the more I think about it, slugs remind me of college students: They suck up available resources, give very little in return, and they like to drink beer. They even prefer the same beers (a study conducted by students at Colorado State University concluded the slug’s favorite beers are Budweiser products).

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

How many New York Yankees players have recorded 3,000 career hits with the team?