One regular segment we do on Texas Standard is all about insects – a topic a lot of kids are naturally interested in and have a lot questions about.
I turned to my own kids, ages 7 and 5, for theirs, and it turned into a whole thing. In fact, we’re going to do a series on kid insect questions. Here’s the first one:
Why should I care about insects?
One reason to care about them is that they’re living organisms, says Wizzie Brown, a program specialist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and our go-to insect expert. Another reason is to think about insects’ role in food webs.
“You have your plants, and they’re getting the sunlight, and they are growing,” she said. “But insects are going to be feeding on the plants, and then what’s feeding on those insects? And so if those insects went away, those food webs would collapse.”
It’s also important to think about what Brown calls the three basic groups of beneficial insects and arthropods, starting with pollinators.
And they’re more than just honeybees: Native bees, wasps, many flies, mosquitoes and beetles are all types of pollinators.
“There are just all of these different things that are gonna transfer that pollen from flower to flower, and that can lead to not only the next generation of plants, but also it helps to create the fruits or nuts or seeds or whatever that we may utilize as food,” Brown said.
» MORE: What is this bug? Tips for identifying insects
Also among beneficial insects are decomposers – some of which, like cockroaches, feed on and help break down decaying vegetation.
“Everybody gets cockroaches a bad rap, but they’re actually good,” Brown said. “So if you have a compost pile in your backyard, think about what arthropods you have in there. They’re helping to break down that material.”
Other decomposers, like flies, help break down dead stuff, like dead animals on the road. Others, mainly dung beetles, break down poop.
“If we didn’t have these decomposers, we would be up to our eyeballs in decaying vegetation, poop and dead things,” Brown said.
The last big group of beneficials, Brown said, are predators and parasitoids: insects that help us control other insects that are feeding on crops or backyard plants.
“I think insects are overall beneficial,” Brown said. “I think a lot of times with insects they get a bad rap because we hear about the bad stuff that they do, but overall the majority of insects that you see are either going to be a beneficial or they’re just kind of hanging out.”
Do you have a bug question for Wizzie Brown? Drop us a line, and we’ll pass it along.
