FRIENDLY INSECTS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1930, Page 2

FRIENDLY INSECTS

The war between insects and the human race, about which we frequently 1 hear, is only half a picture, and therefore false. Insects may be great benefactor? to man and to all animals that contribute to his wellbeing, and, in justice they should he recognised as puoh. So declares Dr. Frank Lutz, entomologist of the American Museum of Natural History, in a radio talk under the auspices of Science Service, quoted in the Service’s “Daily Science News Bulletin.” Calling attention to the impossibility of having our present supply of fruit without, insect aid, Dr Lutz proposed a hypothetical question: “Suppose we had never had any apples, pears, plums, peaches, oranges, strawberries, or' anything of that sort. Suppose, however, that a group of strangers brought us delicious samples of a great variety of midi fruits, and told ns that they, the strangers, could make it possible for us to grow all of these things. Suppose that, in return for this possibility, which only they could grant, they asked that a twenty per cent, commission bo paid to their relatives. Doers the court think that this would be an unfair nropositien? I am sure that we would be glad to accept the bargain, and then, later, we would try very hard to beat the relatives out of their twenty per cent.”

However, distributing pollen Is only a. part ot the work insects do for us, The very coil plants grow in, even .plants not dependent on insects for pollination, is in part a gift of the inse ts. Dr Lutz continues. He says: “Darwin rightly praised the soil-mak-ing activities of earthworms and became their most effective Press agent. Risking the false impression that 1 think the value of earthworms- is overrated, I would like to point out that ground-burrowing insects are more widely—in fact, universally—distributed than are earthworms, that they are move numerous in any given locality, and that they are much more active. Furthermore — and this is a gener-aiKly overlooked fact—an additional, reason for their being more effective soil-makers than earthworms is that they carry beneath the surface not only decayed leaves but .rich nitrogenous plant food such as manure and the dead 'bodies of animals. Tim© will not permit even, a sketcy continuation of this line of thought, but perhaps you are already about to ask how land plants of any kind ever existed without insects. Others have asked that question. and,a part of the answer is that 'geological history (shows that there was no extensive growth of land plants and no flowering plants at all before insects became well established on earth.”