Some of you may have wondered where the insects that used to wander, fly and crawl around you had disappeared. The truth is that several insects have disappeared from the surroundings and the world will see a third of its insects disappearing in another two decades.
Top insect experts in a new paper point out that the declining number of insects is bad news for humans. The experts note that climate change, deforestation, light pollution, insecticides, habit loss, herbicides and invasive species threaten the insects, which come to around ten million. These led to a decrease of about two percent decline in insect population every year.
The researchers made the conclusion in a 12 studies by 56 scientists. David Wagner (University of Connecticut), lead author of the study, termed the study as insect apocalypse.
Wagner stated that insects are the fabric by which nature and the tree of life are built. The loss of insects is a problem for the human race as they are needed for pollinating the world’s foods, which is crucial for the food chain.
The researchers noted a large decline of honeybees and monarch butterflies, which are important pollinators. These insects lost their habitats and food sources because of insecticides, the researchers said.
Despite the decline, the experts still hope of a reversal. They say that people can do a lot for reversing the trend by keeping away from using pesticides and planting flowering plants. All these help the pollinators in thriving, they added.
The researchers say that modernisation of agriculture paved the way for removing the natural habitat of the insects. It also increased the use of pesticides that was a death knell for the bugs. Moreover, urbanisation and tropical deforestation destroyed teh natural habitat of these pollinators, the scientists say.
