Long live bees and other insects
Many of us eliminate insects with a certain relish, bearing our comfort in mind. Insect spray is the stock-in-trade of the ‘soldiers of comfort’, who make insect repellent organisations rich, and damage the environment to boot.
It is a sobering thought that insects flying and crawling far outnumber humans and animals on this planet, and are possibly more deserving of their place considering the immeasurable damage humanity does to ecosystems.
All living creatures exist for a purpose, so we should consider carefully before killing them unnecessarily. Even the muchmaligned mosquito plays its essential role in the ecological balance of our planet.
Diseases carried by mosquitoes infect millions of people, while their stings and ‘attack mode’ sound causes much discomfort.
But according to Smithsonianmag.com, mosquitoes form an important source of biomass in the food chain serving as food for fish as larvae and for birds, bats and frogs as adults. Some species are important pollinators.
The Wall Street Journal points out that there are as many as 3,500 species of mosquitoes, some of which can be found as far north as the Arctic.
“Fossil records indicate mosquitoes have been here for 200-million years, long before humans. Only a few hundred of these species bite or bother humans. Only the females sting humans and other animals, and they do so to draw protein from blood needed to lay their eggs,” says WSJ.
Of bees, Albert Einstein said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
Proponents of honey cite its health benefits, including that it is effective for healing some burns and other wounds.
There are different views on insect life on our planet, ranging from the ‘God-created creatures which serve a purpose in the ecological balance’; to ‘kill any insect that flies or crawls’.
Finally: “It is not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy the bee is praised, the mosquito is swatted. Mary O’Connor
Long may we respect and cherish bees a most important element in the survival of humankind.