If you’re like 64% of Gen Zers who believe that improving their environmental impact is very important, then helping out creepy crawlies—six-legged critters like bees, beetles, and butterflies—must certainly be a top priority for several reasons. Even apartment dwellers can lend a hand to help stop the insect apocalypse on their patio.
Here are five actions you can take on your patio to help reverse the massive decline in insect numbers.
Everything to know about the insect apocalypse
Numerous scientific studies conclude that over 40% of all insect species are declining and one-third of them are endangered, largely because of habitat loss when industrial agriculture takes over natural ecosystems to make way for monoculture crops and cattle grazing. Other reasons include heavy pesticide use, invasive species, and the climate crisis. The increasing use of neonicotinoid pesticides is especially detrimental to insect survival.
According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), “pollinators are also threatened by the decline of practices based on indigenous and local knowledge. These practices include traditional farming systems; maintenance of diverse landscapes and gardens; kinship relationships that protect specific pollinators; and cultures and languages that are connected to pollinators.”
It is difficult for scientists to place an exact number on the insect apocalypse because they believe there are more undiscovered insect species on earth than already-named species. In fact, insects make up more than two-thirds of the estimated 1.5 million animal species on earth, with millions more still unnamed.
At any given time, scientists estimate there are 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) insects alive. You may think, with numbers like that, the world can spare insect losses of a few million individuals here and there.
Not so fast.
Why does the insect apocalypse matter?
Bird watchers are already keenly aware of why the insect apocalypse matters. In North America, for example, populations of insect-eating bird species dropped by roughly 10 million since 1970, while other species not reliant on insects for food suffered no such declines.
In other words, since insects serve as the primary food for many other animals, a drop in insect numbers will result in heavy losses of many other life forms. “Insects are the food that makes all the birds and makes all the fish,” said David Wagner, University of Connecticut entomologist, as reported by Reuters. “They’re the fabric tethering together every freshwater and terrestrial ecosystem across the planet.”
And it’s not just animals that are negatively affected by the insect apocalypse. Over 90% of flowering plants—including 75% of agricultural crops humans need to survive—absolutely depend on insects for pollination (seed production). The pollination services of insects, principally bees and butterflies, are worth more than US$577 billion in crops annually. Without our six-legged friends, human civilization wouldn’t be able to feed itself as it currently does.
Another essential reason why insects matter relates to their ability to break down dead and decaying plant and animal tissue and recycle nutrients by forming new soil. Without them, we’d literally be dwarfed by macabre piles of cadavers everywhere.
5 actions to help stop the insect apocalypse on your patio
For people who wish to improve their environmental impact, here are five actions you can take right at home to help stop the insect apocalypse.
1. Pollinator container gardening with native plants
As the IPBES suggested in the preceding section, maintaining diverse gardens is one action you can take to help stop the insect apocalypse. This is possible on an apartment patio with a container garden featuring native plants with which insects have co-evolved over millennia. In this way, you’ll help pollinators feel right at home, provide a preferred food source, and often a nesting site.
The nonprofit Pollinator Partnership has created a series of native pollinator garden recipe cards for all major ecoregions of the US to make the process of designing and maintaining a patio pollinator container garden with native plants easy. Even a small 3’ by 6’ space works!
But for those extremely limited on space, just one native plant in a pot is a welcome addition. If every household in the US did so, there would be over 120 million plants providing essential habitat to pollinators.
When you do, proudly map your location as a member of the Homegrown National Park whose mission is to restore native plant habitat for insects and other wildlife one household at a time.
2. Turn out exterior lights
White exterior lights confuse flying nocturnal insects, exhausting them as they fly in endless circles around these false moons, often leading to their death. The best thing is to turn them off. Amber lights set on a motion sensor are somewhat less lethal, but do not totally eliminate the risk of needless insect death.
Scientist Jessica Deichmann who studies this phenomenon concludes “by using amber-filtered LEDs, the number of species attracted to the light was reduced by 34% and individual insects were reduced by nearly 60% as compared to white lamps. Among the lamps tested, amber-filtered light that had no blue and less green light content than the yellow filter is the best of the tested options for reducing overall insect attraction to illuminated areas and thereby minimizing the impact of this activity on biodiversity.”
3. Use a mosquito dunk instead of insecticide
Mosquitoes are no fun to be around when they’re looking for a blood meal. Plus, they may transmit harmful diseases. In a quest to eradicate them, desperate people may turn to chemical foggers.
Unfortunately, insecticides kill only a small percentage of mosquitoes, but they also kill scores of beneficial insects. For their sake, avoid using insecticides.
There is an inexpensive and extremely effective product called a mosquito dunk that kills practically all and only mosquito larvae. Just add to a bucket of water with a handful of hay and wait. No mosquitoes!
4. DIY bee hotel
Roughly one-third of the 19,000 bee species are cavity (tunnel) nesters. They need proper nesting sites to reproduce, but most commercial bee hotels appeal more to humans than bees. So, make your own! By simply providing hollow tubes in a safe location, you can set up a bee hotel right on your patio.
No need to fear a bee swarm if you provide a bee hotel. Bees are busy foraging or storing food, or tending to their young, and generally not interested in you. If you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone.
5. Participate in insect-focused citizen science projects
Tragically, the human-caused sixth mass extinction is well underway and insects are the most numerous victims. You can assist scientists studying this phenomenon by participating in any number of citizen science projects. Collect valuable data on insect sightings right on your patio, day or night, year ‘round.
If you enjoy insect photography, post your photos on inaturalist.com and engage with other insect enthusiasts. The mobile apps work even without cell reception or wifi, so you’re free to click and send whenever and wherever you spot stunning six-legged wonders.
