Some Important Facts about a Bug Habitat
Although many people don’t like to consider it, a bug habitat is an important and vital role in the circle of life. While we may consider them to be pesky irritants, insects do carry out extremely beneficial functions within the environment that would suffer without their presence.
Insects comprise a very large life form; in fact, there are more insects on the earth than humans. The exact number of different types of insects is unknown; however; a fairly accurate estimate by entomologists gives credence to the fact that there exists on earth over eight million different species.
This number is mind boggling, but consider the fact that insects live in every single type of environment, no matter how harsh. It is true, though, that the majority of them live within the warm, moist atmospheres of tropical climates.
Anyone who has experienced a minute fruit fly or a tiny “no see-um” flitting aimlessly and persistently around their eyes and mouth will attest to harboring a deep dislike for insects. These creatures do possess a great responsibility in the maintenance of our ecosystems; one that could greatly suffer without their interaction.
The pollination of flowers, the decomposition of dead animals, people and plant life, soil aeration, soil fertilization and even the control of other insect populations all occur due to the role that insects play. Their benefits are too numerous to detail in a single document, yet we witness the effects of their existence on a daily basis.
Insects and crops So important is the presence of insects in the world that gardeners and farmers actually provide a bug habitat in their fields, gardens and orchards to encourage their populations. Different types of insects will naturally have different types of needs to satisfy their appetites and their reproductive cycles.
Fruit growers, for example, must have a variety of beneficial insects in order to pollinate their fruit trees. Beneficial insects are not the only ones attracted to specific crops, however. Bugs which feed upon the plants or trees as well as their fruits will find these crop areas to be a magnet and their populations, left unchecked, could mean the ruin of an entire crop as well as future crops.
For this reason, natural predators of the destructive insects must also be part of that particular ecosystem to keep them in check. These predators are often birds, rodents and other insects. The check and balance system is the very basis of the habitat.
Insects and other life forms Everyone has heard of the “circle of life.” Insects participate in this same necessary ring as all other types of creatures. Many bugs eat plants and the nutrients and energy they possess transfers to creatures that eat them.
In this way, insects also provide a valuable food source for other life forms. It is a fact that many life forms, including birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians would soon become extinct without one of their main sources of food, the insect.
Larger creatures in the food chain eat these small animals, which are in turn often eaten by even larger animals, such as humans.
Preserving the bug habitat
It is evident that everyone must respect the importance and preserve the habitats of insects. The use of pesticides can greatly inhibit the populations of bugs, which in turn endangers the populations of creatures higher on the food chain. It can also decrease the yield of fruit trees, garden plants and grain fields, which would endanger the very survival of humans.
Organic gardening uses the power of insects for good rather than nullifying them from their natural bug habitat; a practice that should be embraced in greater numbers for the benefit of earth itself.
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