My fascination with insects has been a constant throughout my life. I can remember as a child, finding a pair of yellow-and-black caterpillars eating weeds on the school's playground. They were put in my empty lunchbox and I took them home. They transformed into handsome black and magenta moths. It seemed like magic to my eyes, and it still does. I was hooked.To find insects, I've traveled the globe from the deserts in Patagonia to the glaciers of Fjordland in New Zealand to the forests of Bhutan. I've seen thousands of fireflies dancing in sync at night in the Thailand swamps, as well as clouds of birdwing butterflies drinking minerals from the banks in Borneo. In my garden in Sussex, I've spent hours watching grasshoppers compete for mates, earwigs care for their young, and leaf-cutter honeybees trim leaves to line their nests.However, I am still haunted by the fact that these beautiful creatures are in decline. It's been 50 years since the first time I collected caterpillars from the school playground. Every year that passes there are fewer butterflies and fewer bumblebees, as well as fewer of the many other creatures that make the world spin. Day by day, these beautiful and fascinating creatures are disappearing ant by ant, honey by honey. Although estimates vary and are not exact, it appears likely that the number of insects has decreased by 75% or more in the five years since I was five. This is backed up by studies that describe the decline of monarch butterflies in North America, the death of grassland and woodland insects in Germany, and the seemingly unstoppable shrinking of hoverflies and bumblebee populations in the UK.Profile Dave GoulsonHe is the author or several books, including A Buzz in the Meadow, and A Sting in the Tale. This book was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.He was born in 1965 in Shropshire and completed his PhD in butterfly ecology at Oxford. He became interested in bee behavior while a Southampton University lecturer.He founded the Bumblebee Preservation Trust in 2006 to combat bumblebee decline.Photograph: Jeff Gilbert/https://www.alamy.com Was this helpful? We appreciate your feedback.Rachel Carson warned us in Silent Spring, 1963, that we were causing terrible damage to the planet. This was two years before my birth. It was a terrible sight to see the extent of it. Many habitats that are rich in insects, like hay meadows and heathland, have been bulldozed or burned to the ground. She said that the problems associated with pesticides have become more severe, with 3m tonnes of pesticides being released into the environment each year. These pesticides can be thousands of times more harmful to insects than those used in Carson's day. The soils have been destroyed, the rivers are clogged with silt, and they have been contaminated with chemicals. Climate change is a phenomenon that was not recognized in its time and threatens to further destroy our planet. These changes all occurred in our lifetimes, and they are continuing to accelerate.This is a devastating problem that few people realize. Not only are insects essential for our health and wellbeing, but also for the survival of larger animals like birds, fish, and frogs which depend on them for their food. They are essential for the pollination of wildflowers. Our world will slow to halt as insects become scarcer. Without them, it can't function.Most of us now live in cities and see very few other insects than houseflies and cockroaches. Many are afraid of them. They are sometimes called creepy crawlies, or bugs. They are unpleasant, scuttling creatures that spread disease and live in filth. It is not easy to appreciate the importance of insects in our survival. Even more difficult, how fascinating, intelligent, mysterious, and beautiful they are.A leafcutter bee from Hertfordshire. Photograph by Nature Picture Library/AlamyInsects are a long-established species. Half a billion years ago, their ancestors emerged from the primordial ooze of ocean floors. They are the largest known species of ants on Earth. Ants alone outnumber humans by one million to one. If we lost many of these insects, our overall biodiversity would be greatly reduced. In addition, because of their abundance and diversity, insects are integrally involved in all terrestrial food chains and food webs. For example, grasshoppers, caterpillars, caddisfly larvae, and aphids are herbivores. They transform plant material into delicious insect protein, which is much more readily digested than larger animals. Other insects, like mantises and ground beetles, are the next in the food chain as they are predators of herbivores. They are all prey for many birds, bats and spiders as well as reptiles, amphibians small mammals, fish, and reptiles. The top predators like sparrowhawks and herons that prey upon the insectivorous starlings (frogs), shrews and salmon, would also go hungry without insects.It would be devastating for wildlife and not only for the insects themselves. It would have direct implications for human food supply. Europeans and North Americans are both disgusted by the idea of eating insects. This is strange considering that we are used to eating prawns, which are very similar in terms of being segmented and having an external skeleton. It is likely that our ancestors ate insects, and eating insects is a common practice worldwide. About 80% of the world's population regularly eat them. This practice is very common in South America and Africa, as well as among Oceanian indigenous peoples.It is possible to argue that humans should farm more insects than pigs, chickens, or cows. Insect farming is more efficient than other methods and takes up less space and water. Because they are rich in essential amino acids, lower in saturated fats, and much more likely to contract disease (think bird flu and Covid-19), insects are a healthier source for protein. If we want to feed the estimated 10-12 billion people on the planet by 2050 then we need to consider the possibility of farming insects as an alternative to traditional livestock.Although insects are not something that western societies eat, they are still a part of our food chain. Freshwater fish like salmon and trout eat a lot of insects as does game birds like partridge and pheasant.In addition to their food role, insects provide a variety of vital ecosystem services. 87% of all species of plants require insect pollination. The majority of this is done by insects. To attract pollinators, the flowers' colourful petals, nectar and scent evolved. Wild flowers wouldn't set seed without pollination and many would die. There wouldn't be any poppies, cornflowers, foxgloves, forget-me-nots, or poppies. The loss of pollinators could have far greater ecological consequences than the loss of wildflowers. About three quarters of all the crops we grow require pollination from insects. If the majority of plants died, every community would be severely altered.Burying beetles transport the remains of small animals underground and lay their eggs on them. They then care for their offspring.Many insects are valued for their ecosystem services, which can be assigned a monetary value. This is why the importance of insects is often justified. The annual value of pollination is between $235bn to $577bn worldwide. These calculations are not very precise, which explains the large difference in the figures. Despite the financial aspects, pollinators are essential for feeding the increasing global population. Although we could produce enough calories for everyone to live, wind-pollinated crops like wheat, barley and rice would provide the majority of our food. However, a diet based solely on bread, rice, and porridge would lead to deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals. Imagine a world without tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers and blackcurrants. If everyone on the planet had a healthy diet, there is already a smaller amount of fruit and vegetables that they produce. It would be impossible for the world to produce five days worth of fruit and vegetables without pollinators.Insects also play a vital role in the reduction of organic matter such as timber, fallen leaves and animal faeces. This is a vital job because it recycles nutrients and makes them available again for plant growth. Many decomposers go unnoticed. Your compost heap and garden soil, if any, almost certainly contain millions of springtails (Collembola). These tiny, primitive insects are often less than 1mm in length and named after their ability to shoot themselves up to 100mm high in the air to escape predators. These tiny high-jumpers do a vital job by consuming small pieces of organic matter and breaking them down into smaller pieces that are then broken down further by bacteria. This allows plants to get the nutrients they need.The undertakers of nature, other insects, are also efficient in disposing of dead bodies. Bluebottles and greenbottles, which are flies that locate dead bodies within minutes of their death, lay masses of eggs that turn into maggots in hours. The flesh flies are a better choice than their relatives. They give birth to maggots directly, and skip the egg stage. Carrion and burying beetles are next to arrive and consume both the carcass and the maggots. Burying beetles drag small animal corpses underground and lay eggs on them. They then care for their offspring. Even though the circumstances of death may be suspicious, this sequence is predictable enough to allow forensic entomologists use it to determine the time at which human corpses died.An adult springtail. Photograph: Nigel Cattlin/AlamyBurrowing soil-dwelling insects and other soil-dwelling bugs help to aerate soil. Ants disperse seeds and bring them back to their nests where they can eat. However, they often lose some which can be germinated. Honeybees provide honey and silk moths provide silk. The ecosystem services provided to insects by insects alone are worth at least $57bn per year in the US. However, this calculation is pretty meaningless since, as EO Wilson once stated, without insects, the environment would be in chaos and billions of people would starve.Paul Ehrlich, an American biologist, compared the loss of species in an ecological community to the random popping of rivets on an aeroplane's wing. The plane should only need to be removed one or two times. You can take out 10, 20, or 50 and, at some point we are unable to predict, the plane will crash from the sky. Insects are the glue that keeps ecosystems working.Despite warnings like this, insects are much less studied than vertebrates. We know very little about the biology, distribution, and abundance of the 1m species we have named so far. We often only have a single type specimen, which is usually pinned in museums and accompanied by a date and the place of capture. We have yet to discover at least 4 million species. It is a sad irony that while we are still many decades away from identifying the incredible insect diversity of our planet's surface, these creatures are rapidly disappearing.These numbers are staggering. The Krefeld Society was an entomological group that has been trapping flying insects in nature reserves all over Germany since the 1980s. They contacted me in 2015. The Krefeld Society had nearly 17,000 trapping days across 63 locations and 27 years. They had 53kg of insects. I was asked to help them prepare their data for publication in a scientific journal. The overall biomass (ie, weight) of the insects trapped in their traps decreased by 75% over the period 1989-2016. The decline in insect activity was more noticeable at midsummer in Europe, when we experience the peak of the season. It fell to 82%. This seemed to me too drastic to be credible. Although we knew that wildlife was declining, the rapid disappearance of three quarters of all insects suggested that there had been a significant decline.A different group of German scientists published in October 2019 their findings from a study on insect populations in German forests, grasslands and grasslands. The study covered a period of 10 years between 2008 and 2017. These results are deeply concerning. The worst results were for grasslands, which lost on average two-thirds their arthropod biomass (the invertebrates, spiders and other insects). The biomass in woodlands fell by 40%.And what about in other countries? What about elsewhere? It seems unlikely. The UK's butterflies are perhaps the most studied insect population in the world. The Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is the longest-running and largest scheme of its type in the world. Volunteers record them. It is alarming to see the trends. The abundance of butterflies in the countryside, which are common species in gardens, farmland and other areas, fell by 46% between 1976-2017. Habitat specialists, which are more rare species, like fritillaries or hairstreaks and other fussier species, saw their numbers drop by 77% between 1976 and 2017.Peacock butterfly in Oxfordshire garden. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex/ShutterstockAlthough the majority of insect species, including flies and grasshoppers, is not monitored systematically, data are often available on trends in the population of birds that depend upon insects for food. The populations of insectsivorous birds, which hunt in the air, have declined by 40% in North America between 1966 and 2013. In the last 20 years, numbers of common nighthawks (nightjars), barn swallows, chimney swifts, and common nighthawks have all declined by more than 70%.Between 1967 and 2016, the population of the spotted flycatcher in England fell by 93%. Other once common insectivores, such as the grey partridge (-92%), nightingale (93%), and cuckoo (77%), have also suffered similar declines. In the 1990s, the UK lost the red-backed shrike (a predator of large insects) which was a special species. The British Trust for Ornithology estimates there were 44 million fewer wild birds in the UK in 2012 than 1970.All of the evidence is based on populations of insects in industrialised, advanced countries. There is little information available about the insect population in the tropics where most of them live. It is difficult to know what impact deforestation in the Amazon, Congo or south-east Asian forests has had on the insect life of those areas. We won't know the exact number of species that went extinct before our ability to discover them.Stopping and reverseing the decline of insect populations, as well as tackling other environmental threats, requires action on many levels. This includes farmers, food retailers, other businesses, local authorities, and government policymakers. The environment is a topic that has been neglected in Britain's recent elections and Brexit debate. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many of humanity's greatest challenges in the 21st Century are related to the unsustainable overexploitation our planets finite resources.Imagine green cities with trees, vegetables gardens, ponds, and wild flowers stuffed into every space.We must act quickly to save them. There are many ways to do this, some easy and others more difficult. We must first instill a respect for the natural world. This is for both its benefits and its own sake. It is best to begin with children and encourage environmental awareness at an early age. Our urban areas must be green. Imagine green cities with trees, vegetables, ponds, and wild flowers stuffed into every space available in gardens, parks, allotments and cemeteries. All this without pesticides.Our food system must be transformed. The most basic human activity is to grow and transport food. It has profound consequences on our welfare and the environment. So it is worth making an investment in improving it. The current system is in dire need of reform. A vibrant agricultural sector could be created, with many more workers, that is focused on healthy food production, soil health, and biodiversity.Despite having seen massive budget cuts in recent times, government organisations responsible for wildlife conservation like Natural England should be adequately funded. The government must properly fund monitoring schemes and research to understand the causes of insect declines. The UK should be a leader in international efforts to combat climate change and biodiversity loss.The UK's most rarest insect, the pine hoverfly. Photograph by Henrik_L/Getty Images/iStockphotoWe need to improve the legal protection of rare insects and their habitats. Most insects in the UK do not have any legal protection. Private forestry, which has no legal recourse, threatens the UK's last remaining population of the most rare insect, the pine hoverfly. Rare insects should be given equal weight as rare birds and mammals. They are not insignificant just because they are small.Although our planet has fared admirably in the face of the tsunami of changes that we have caused, it would be foolish to think it will continue to cope. While a small number of species have been extinct, almost all wild species are now in a fraction their former numbers, living in fragmented habitats, and being subject to an endless stream of human-made challenges. We don't know enough about our ecosystems to be able predict how resilient they will remain or how close to the tipping point where collapse is inevitable. We may be at the tipping point, according to Paul Ehrlich's rivets on an airplane analogy.Vintage (20 has published this edited excerpt from Silent Earth. Averting The Insect Apocalypse. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery fees may applyDave Goulson Q&A - Bees can really complicate our social livesDave Goulson in SussexWhat made you fall in love with insects?It is difficult to know for certain. Although my parents did not have an interest in natural history, they encouraged me and gave me identification books. I grew up in the country, and was able to find insects quite easily. It is embarrassing to admit that I used to collect butterflies and kill them with pins. This was a terrible practice and rightly condemned. Later I realized I didn't like killing them and began breeding them and releasing thousands of butterflies. I didn't doubt that I wanted to be a biology major. It was the only thing I was interested in.You are most well-known for your work with honeybeesOver the years, I tried my hand at many different insects but eventually settled on bees because of their intelligence. Bees can do amazing things that other insects cannot do. They can travel long distances and can memorize and learn.Why did you decide to write this book?As I continued to study bees, it became clearer that their numbers were falling. My research began to examine why this was happening, and how we could stop it. If you publish papers in academic journals that aren't very well-respected, nobody will read them except a few academics. It was a little futile. This book represents my efforts to reach a larger section of society.It's easy to get people to be interested in bees. But, it is harder to find other cute, useful insects.It can be tricky. It is difficult. There are only a few insects that people like, such as bees, butterflies and some moths. But after that, it becomes really hard. The Earwig Preservation Trust will never be started. You need to tell people that these insects do important work and are fascinating. People would be able to spend a lot more time just looking at the insects, and not find them so disgusting. We shouldn't look at insects solely from their perspective. They have the same right to be here that we do.While it is important to make big changes on an international level, there are still things individuals can do locally.Yes. This is a huge difference from many environmental problems where people feel helpless. If you take the time to walk instead of driving, climate change will not be a problem. Planting flowers in your garden will result in butterflies emerging. Although it may seem small, you have done something good and it has paid off. Start with the things right under your nose if you want to save the earth.Interview with Killian Fox
