Insect decline spells ecosystem catastrophe

A major decline in insect numbers could lead to a “catastrophic” collapse of the ecosystem, a wildlife official has said.

Buglife director Paul Hetherington says the wildlife charity is deeply worried by the latest Bugs Matter survey, which show a massive drop in insect numbers in the past 20 years.

He said: “If you just took away pollinators, all of which tend to fly there amongst these flying insects, the impact is massive, you would lose virtually all of our fruit and vegetables that we come to think of because you need pollinators for them to set seed.

“Alternatively, we will be paying people to go around and hand pollinate these things. And that would put £2 billion a year on the cost of pollinated plants in the UK alone.

“So imagine how that would lead to price inflation in our shops. It's absolutely catastrophic.

“Everything would become very, very bland and dull. There'd be a lot more dead animals, there'd be a lot more dead plant matter just lying around, not getting decomposed, because the things that break it down, have gone.

“We do actually have quite a bit of power as individuals to make a difference – and you don't need to have some giant space to create habitat for insects.

“If you can put a window box up, you’re creating the equivalent of a motorway service station where these animals can pop in refill themselves and move on to somewhere else.”

Mr Hetherington added: “The government needs to step in and make a real difference in supporting rewilding. I think a ban on the domestic use of artificial grass would certainly be a good move – there is no need for that, particularly with some of the turf mixes you can get nowadays.

“And of course, also, by having a normal lawn, you've got much better drainage going on. We're all hearing about flooding right now, so the more you can do to improve the drainage in your area, the better.”

“We do actually have quite a bit of power as individuals to make a difference – and you don't need to have some giant space to create habitat for insects