Ruud Kleinpaste: More brilliant bugs with fabulous jobs - Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Last week we started to look at the jobs bugs do on Earth. This topic was launched by some teachers during the Blake Inspire sessions, out there in Nature. It became a bit of a game to question what their role is in ecological systems – especially critters that are usually perceived as a pain in the bum. 

Gardeners often complain about almost every creature that inhabits the soil; holes and tunnels, little hills of clay, and messy poos in vegetable gardens, lawns, and orchards are often not seen as beneficial; but many certainly are!  

These insects are the larvae and pupae of Crane Flies. Soil cleaning and dead wood in the soil – recyclers maintaining soil health.  

Pollinators are everywhere: butterflies, flies, native bees, wasps, parasitic wasps, hoverflies, beetles, thrips – it’s a huge gig on the planet!  

These laay eggs in their hosts. Population control. 

Geotrupes spiniger – the Paua dungbeetle, introduced in New Zealand to put dung back into the soil. It not only puts fertiliser where it is most efficient but also returns carbon back into the soil where it is most needed (rather than in the air!).  

Then there are Mosquitoes! One of the most hated insects in our garden: some species bite humans.  Males do not bite – they are great pollinators of our flowers. Mozzies are food for native birds, dragonflies, spiders, etc. 

Those famous mosquito larvae (often known as “wrigglers”) go up and down the pond and other water habitats. The very cool and useful thing they do is cleaning the “bacterial soup”.   

Wrigglers are also food for native aquatic insects: backswimmers, water-boatman, water striders, native fish, etc. If you think about it: Mozzies do some great jobs. To fuel this ecological system, all we need to do is make a tiny donation…  

… and be a bit more tolerant!  

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