Most people have an exaggerated hatred of insects. In particular people who live in towns and cities. People who live in the country are a little more understanding of them. But why are we like that with insects?
Why are we forever squashing them and poisoning them? Ok, we do not like to share our homes with them, I think that is fair enough, but I also think that we go too far usually.
As an alternative to just destroying them on sight, it might be better to try to prevent them gaining access to the home in the first place. A lot of people appear to suppose that all insects are troublesome, but this is just not the case.
Just imagine how many more flies we would have buzzing around us and landing on our food, if it were not for spiders, but I do not know anybody who really likes spiders. They do not seem to get much credit for doing a good job. We are on the same side against flies.
But then flies help to speed up the decaying of dead animals too. Their maggots eat the decomposing flesh of dead animals, which keeps disease and bad smells down.
Ants do the same for dead insects and cockroaches do it for bits and pieces of food left lying around. I have not discovered a justification for mosquitoes, fleas or ticks yet though.
One thing is for certain, this inbred or acquired hatred or dread of insects does not do the makers of pesticides any harm money-wise.
Perhaps it is time to take a step back from our paranoia about insects. It is well past time to become more judicious in our slaughter of insects.
For example, when you spray your beautiful rose bushes with a chemical insecticide, you would like to get rid of greenfly (aphids), but you are also destroying the ants, the ladybirds, the spiders and perhaps any bees or butterflies that come to feed and pollinate. Whereas, if you had sprayed the bushes with old, filtered washing up water, you would only have killed the greenfly.
Where would we all be if everybody killed all the pollinators? Cropless? In fact, the shortage of bees is already a global catastrophe. Although the reason for their rapidly declining numbers is not quite obvious, it cannot do any good having their immune system or nervous system attacked by the deposit of pesticides whenever they take a drink of nectar.
Similarly with butterflies. Gardeners do not like caterpillars, but everyone like butterflies and where would we be without them? In a much duller place, I am sure.
Some species of wasps kill thousands of caterpillars. so, it is better to encourage them rather than kill the caterpillars yourself with a nuclear weapon of a chemical spray.
Some useful natural ways of controlling insects are the use of washes containing Neem, Tobacco or Pyrethrum. These natural treatments discourage them in small doses but will kill if used in a strong solution.
Look out for products that contain them and read the directions carefully to see if they suit your needs. Borax will help control insect pests that consume their way around your home and so will corn flour.
There are many ways that people can be more discriminating whilst attacking insects. The foremost problem is that it is far easier to go buy a spray, but if you do some research, you will find loads of methods of eradicating insects with natural insecticides.
Why are we forever squashing them and poisoning them? Ok, we do not like to share our homes with them, I think that is fair enough, but I also think that we go too far usually.
As an alternative to just destroying them on sight, it might be better to try to prevent them gaining access to the home in the first place. A lot of people appear to suppose that all insects are troublesome, but this is just not the case.
Just imagine how many more flies we would have buzzing around us and landing on our food, if it were not for spiders, but I do not know anybody who really likes spiders. They do not seem to get much credit for doing a good job. We are on the same side against flies.
But then flies help to speed up the decaying of dead animals too. Their maggots eat the decomposing flesh of dead animals, which keeps disease and bad smells down.
Ants do the same for dead insects and cockroaches do it for bits and pieces of food left lying around. I have not discovered a justification for mosquitoes, fleas or ticks yet though.
One thing is for certain, this inbred or acquired hatred or dread of insects does not do the makers of pesticides any harm money-wise.
Perhaps it is time to take a step back from our paranoia about insects. It is well past time to become more judicious in our slaughter of insects.
For example, when you spray your beautiful rose bushes with a chemical insecticide, you would like to get rid of greenfly (aphids), but you are also destroying the ants, the ladybirds, the spiders and perhaps any bees or butterflies that come to feed and pollinate. Whereas, if you had sprayed the bushes with old, filtered washing up water, you would only have killed the greenfly.
Where would we all be if everybody killed all the pollinators? Cropless? In fact, the shortage of bees is already a global catastrophe. Although the reason for their rapidly declining numbers is not quite obvious, it cannot do any good having their immune system or nervous system attacked by the deposit of pesticides whenever they take a drink of nectar.
Similarly with butterflies. Gardeners do not like caterpillars, but everyone like butterflies and where would we be without them? In a much duller place, I am sure.
Some species of wasps kill thousands of caterpillars. so, it is better to encourage them rather than kill the caterpillars yourself with a nuclear weapon of a chemical spray.
Some useful natural ways of controlling insects are the use of washes containing Neem, Tobacco or Pyrethrum. These natural treatments discourage them in small doses but will kill if used in a strong solution.
Look out for products that contain them and read the directions carefully to see if they suit your needs. Borax will help control insect pests that consume their way around your home and so will corn flour.
There are many ways that people can be more discriminating whilst attacking insects. The foremost problem is that it is far easier to go buy a spray, but if you do some research, you will find loads of methods of eradicating insects with natural insecticides.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on numerous topics, but is at present involved with Insect Removal. If you want to know more, visit our website now at Pest Management at Home.
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