We face an insect apocalypse, and the eco-left doesn’t care
When I was a student in the 1970s, roaring about Britain on my motorbike, I had to stop at least once on the journey from Cambridge to London during summer months. The visor of my helmet needed cleaning – it was revoltingly splattered with bugs. Now, driving the same route in a car, the much bigger surface area of the windscreen barely needs a squirt of the washer or swipe of the wipers. Something dramatic has happened. The buzz and drone of insects, as a person fell asleep in his deckchair, used to be the summer norm. Now the air has emptied and fallen silent.
The excellent insect charity Buglife has the statistics. Since as recently as 2004, insect numbers have plummeted across Britain. The fall is worst in England, a 65 per cent decline. This is a catastrophic development, but the response to it has been entirely misguided.
As every parent and grandparent knows, children are taught about the environmental crises facing the planet from an early age. But the nature ramble with string and jam jar is archaic. The result is that the younger generation’s relationship with the environment is one of continual anxiety, fretting about phenomena over which they have no control. It is a fundamentally Left-wing perspective that neglects what is occurring in our own gardens in favour of global “causes”.
Yes, climate change is taking its toll. The mayflies that provide a feed frenzy for trout and paradise for fishermen in our chalk streams are sensitive to small changes in the temperature of the water, for instance. If trends continue, such insects will have to migrate, putting Britain’s chalk streams (around 85 per cent of the world’s supply) at risk of being overtaken by lesswelcome residents.
But the reality is that there’s a cocktail of causes for insect decline. No single one may be responsible by itself but, like trees, insects are weakened by the number of threats coming at them together. Admittedly, agriculture – the biggest land use in the countryside – is one of the key culprits. Generally, bugs and farmers don’t mix. The worst insecticides have been banned, however, including neonicotinoids which do not lie on the leaves of the plant but are taken up through the roots into all its parts: flowers, roots, stems, pollen, nectar.
In all our debates over how to protect the natural world, we mustn’t lose sight of the fundamental problem, which is that habitats have not only been depleted but broken up. While a dragonfly which is capable of flying a thousand miles may be able to make it, the range of many other insects is limited. And what is the answer to broken habitats? Conservation. We need to rebuild corridors to join the remaining fragments of habitat together.
The good news is that at least something can be done at home, in your own garden. Don’t tidy all the autumn leaves off the flower beds or cut back all the plants. Grow simple flowers, rather than double ones because bees cannot get past the froufrou of petals. Herbs like lovage, angelica, sage, thyme and mint are all brilliant for insects, which for some reason particularly like purple flowers.
The local approach may not excite the more obstreperous environmentalists, or earn you political brownie points, but you will soon see more butterflies. Which will be both good for the planet and good for your soul.