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Insects: Pesky, but Essential

While sky- and stargazers are trying to figure out the source of the latest invasion of unidentified objects recently shot down over US airspace, I’ve been looking down.

Down at my feet, that is.

No one has ever accused me of having scientific interests, skills, or abilities, especially when it comes to insects and critters.

In college, I took a geology class for the required science credit rather than deal with a biology class and anything living, such as a frog that might have to be dissected.

And even thinking about a spider is enough to make my head and scalp feel itchy.

Noticing What Is Different

Yet I find myself paying more attention to critters here in France. Perhaps it reflects a primitive animal instinct that when confronted with a new environment, visual attention is focused on what is different or potentially dangerous.

I didn’t always look down. First, I noticed green parakeets flying overhead in the nearby neighborhood park. My French companion didn’t remark on them because, as she told me, she thought that exotic birds flying overhead was perfectly normal.

Invasion of Asian Flatworms

A few days later, as I was leaving my neighborhood park on a well-trod path with Poochi, our dog, and Attenderella, my daughter-in-law, I almost stepped on a snake. Or what I thought was a snake. Then I did a double take.

No! It wasn’t a snake. It looked like a worm on steroids. It was well over a foot long with the girth of a crayon and an oddly shaped head.

Searching on the internet, I learned about the invasion of this Asian flatworm in southern France and how damaging they are to the environment. They eat valuable earthworms and prey bigger than they are.

My favorite: Food imported from five continents including North America

While sky- and stargazers are trying to figure out the source of the latest invasion of unidentified objects recently shot down over US airspace, I’ve been looking down.

Down at my feet, that is.

No one has ever accused me of having scientific interests, skills, or abilities, especially when it comes to insects and critters.

In college, I took a geology class for the required science credit rather than deal with a biology class and anything living, such as a frog that might have to be dissected.

And even thinking about a spider is enough to make my head and scalp feel itchy.

Noticing What Is Different

Yet I find myself paying more attention to critters here in France. Perhaps it reflects a primitive animal instinct that when confronted with a new environment, visual attention is focused on what is different or potentially dangerous.

I didn’t always look down. First, I noticed green parakeets flying overhead in the nearby neighborhood park. My French companion didn’t remark on them because, as she told me, she thought that exotic birds flying overhead was perfectly normal.

Invasion of Asian Flatworms

A few days later, as I was leaving my neighborhood park on a well-trod path with Poochi, our dog, and Attenderella, my daughter-in-law, I almost stepped on a snake. Or what I thought was a snake. Then I did a double take.

No! It wasn’t a snake. It looked like a worm on steroids. It was well over a foot long with the girth of a crayon and an oddly shaped head.

Searching on the internet, I learned about the invasion of this Asian flatworm in southern France and how damaging they are to the environment. They eat valuable earthworms and prey bigger than they are.

Asian flatworm (Photo by: Sebastien Sant, CC BY-SA 2.0)

As a result of the increased international trade in goods, their invasion was, perhaps, inevitable. Although the one I noticed was smaller, the worms can grow to three feet in length. Seeing one that long would have terrified me!

I succeeded in putting the image of the single worm out of my mind, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking at the ground more carefully whenever I walked outdoors.

The Caterpillar Conga

A few days later, when I left the tennis court for my walk home, I had another surprise. A caterpillar conga line was slowly working its way forward on the path. This time, I had the good sense to take a picture.

Caterpillars with no space between

Sleuthing on the internet uncovered an explanation for what I’d witnessed: pine processionary caterpillars moving together in a head-to-tail line.

When I described what I’d seen to a neighbor, she cautioned me not to touch the caterpillars. The fine hairs sting and can cause allergic reactions. Additional articles on the caterpillars confirmed my neighbor’s good advice.

Again, these critters aren’t all that welcome in the area. They are considered one of the most destructive forest insects because of their ability to defoliate large numbers of pines.

Turns Out We Need Insects to Survive

Entomologists warn us that an insect apocalypse is approaching. Before I moved to France, I knew about the declining bee population because of diseases, pesticides, pollutants, and climate change.

To do my small part, I’d planted over a hundred lavender plants on my property in California because I knew the plants attracted both bumblebees and honeybees.

But the decline of bees, it turns out, is only the tip of the iceberg. A special feature in the New York Times was devoted to the loss of insects in both numbers and diversity.

God Must Love Insects

In the article, geneticist J. B. S. Haldane is reported as saying that God must have an inordinate fondness for insects because he made so many and so many different kinds.

Entomologists have identified and named over a million kinds of insects (for example, over 12,000 ant species and 400,000 beetle species).

Given these numbers, it seems impossible that they could be declining at such a rate that humankind could be at risk. But that’s what the studies show.

To give you an example from one of the most highly regarded studies, entomologists confirmed that the total number of insects caught in one nature reserve in 2013 was nearly 80 percent lower than the number caught at the same spot in 1989.

Enter the Age of Eremocine, the Age of Loneliness

E. O. Wilson, a naturalist and prophet of environmental degradation, gives a name for the period we are now entering: Eremocine, the age of loneliness. He argues that the loss of insects will ultimately result in humankind’s demise because insects are, in his words, “the little things that run the natural world.”

I’m still going to look down when I walk. But when I see my next insect surprise, I won’t view it as a negative. I’ll give a word of thanks that even the insects I find pesky are still present and alive.

Cover photo by Pixabay, CC