The grim demise of a 'dominant life form'

'FOR centuries we have waged war on insects. Clearing and draining habitats, burning breeding grounds, swatting, baiting, electrocuting and spraying.'

Insects at the park in Torquay. Picture: Toni Darlington

FOR centuries we have waged war on insects. Clearing and draining habitats, burning breeding grounds, swatting, baiting, electrocuting and spraying, all ensure our lives are comfortably insect-free.

We now even deliver lethal bursts of poison through our homes without having to run for the spray can.

It should be no surprise then to learn that the war might almost be over, with indications globally showing insects are in trouble.

Insects have been the dominant life form since time began, which should alert us to their vital place on the planet. Aside from their basic role as fodder for higher order animals, insects pollinate a broad spectrum of plants, provide a disposal service for carcasses and other decaying matter, create, aerate and add nutrients to soils to feed the plants. It is estimated that services by insects to the US economy alone is around US$57 billion annually. They would be similarly valuable for Australia. Yet still we kill them.

Brilliant butterflies, Christmas beetles around the verandah light, an occasional huntsman spider on the wall, procession caterpillars diligently crossing the road, and even daddy long-leg spiders hanging in a corner of the room, are now infrequently seen.

But nowhere is the decline more marked than by our vehicles, which no longer need washing after a night-time drive

Australian insects typically are destroyed by agricultural pesticides, land clearing, under-scrubbing ("cleaning out the rubbish"), general forest disturbance, and increasingly by soaring temperatures, prolonged drought and violent storms. However the greatest terminator, which leaves no survivors, is fire. Countrywide hundreds of fires are lit each year, conversely with the intent of reducing fire, and each and every one takes out insects.

The likelihood of insect extinction should worry us all, because with insects will also go the animals. Yet the answer is simple. Introduce firm controls to phase out whatever we do to kill them, and leave the 500,000 or so species of microbats, amphibians, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals to control insect numbers - as they did for eons, before we came rocking along.

Originally published as The grim demise of a 'dominant life form'