Submitted by Charles Knighton

“Almost a quarter of Europe’s bumblebees are at risk of extinction due to loss of habitats, climate change, the intensification of agriculture and changes in agricultural land.” Study: A quarter of Europe’s bumblebees face extinction, 3 April Barbados Advocate

Insects are under siege not just in Europe but worldwide, including Barbados.

On the first of November last year, when Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead, some also celebrate the millions of monarch butterflies that, without fail, fly to the mountainous fir forests of central Mexico on that day from points north. They are believed to be souls of the dead, returned. This year, for the first time in memory, the monarch butterflies didn’t arrive that day. They began to straggle in a week later than usual, in record-low numbers even when compared to the record-low numbers of 2012. Some experts fear that the spectacular migration could be near collapse.

From 1992 through 1994, my wife and I spent our days exploring Barbados in a quest to determine the butterflies indigenous to Barbados, as well as their critically important larval host plants. Having determined such, we arranged our  plantings to facilitate a thriving butterfly sanctuary, which incidentally attracted other insect pollinators such as honeybees and bumblebees. Alas, while the plants still beckon, these ecologically critical insects have become virtually nonexistent.

While the overuse of pesticides are to me implicated in their decline, even if they were no longer used, bees, butterflies and many other insects would still be in serious trouble because of another major factor that has not been widely recognized: the precipitous loss of native vegetation around the world. While we are apt to notice the plight of the monarch and bees because they are iconic insects, what do you think is happening to everything else?

A change in farming methods, notably in the United States, is cited in the decline of insect populations. As the price of corn has soared in recent years, driven by government subsidies for biofuels, farmers have expanded their fields. That has meant ploughing any earth that can grow a corn plant, including millions of acres of land once reserved for conservation. (Ah, the unintended consequences of the “greening” movement.)

Another major cause is farming with Roundup, a herbicide that kills virtually all plants except crops that are genetically modified to survive it. Millions of acres of native plants, especially milkweed, an important source of nectar for many species—and vital for monarch butterfly larvae—have been wiped out. Essentially, much of the agricultural landscape has been sterilized.

The loss of insects is no small matter. Insects help stitch together the web of life with essential services, breaking plants down into organic matter and dispersing seeds. They are a prime source of food for birds. Critically, some 80 percent of our food crops are pollinated by insects, primarily the 4,000 0r so species of the flying dust mops called bees. And all of them are in trouble.

Around the world people have replaced diverse natural habitat with the biological deserts that are roads, parking lots, strip malls and bluegrass lawns. The plants people choose for their yards are appealing for colors or shapes, not for their ecological role. Considering all this, the shelves are nearly bare for bugs and birds.

Native plants are insect pharmacies as well. Trees and other plants have beneficial chemicals essential to the health of insects. Some monarchs, when afflicted with parasites, seek out more toxic types of milkweed because they kill the parasites. Bees use medicinal resins from aspen and willow trees that are antifungal, antimicrobial and antiviral, to line their nests and to fight infection and diseases.

A home for insects is a matter of food security. If the pollinators were to truly disappear, we would lose 80 percent of the plants. That is not an option.