Hey there and welcome to Life Noggin. I took a visit to your human world the other
day, and was surprised to see so many of these little creepy-crawly things roaming around. Being so tiny, they can’t have much of an
impact on Earth, right? The answer to that just might surprise you. So, just how important are insects and what
would happen if all of them died? At first glance, it may sound like a pretty
good thing. No wasps to sting you when you go outside,
no fleas to annoy our furry friends, and no cockroaches to scare the daylight out of you… man those things look like creepy little aliens!. And there’s even some larger-scale benefits
too. We could say goodbye to insects that are invasive
species, like gypsy moths and the asian longhorned beetle. No more insects should also lessen the spread
of insect-spread diseases, like malaria. According to the CDC, malaria is a mosquito-borne
disease that gives a flu-like illness that, if left untreated, can even lead to death. They estimated that around 429,000 people
died from malaria in 2015, so stopping the spread of diseases like this could go a long
way for our global health! The benefits could also spread to our agriculture,
as it would make it so that farmers would no longer need to use insecticides to protect
their crops. Different pesticides would most likely still
be used though, as there could still be other threats to the crops, like weeds or rodents. But without insects, there would probably
be far less plants and food to protect in the first place. This is because around 80 percent of the plants
in the world are angiosperms, which are flowering plants. They directly provide us nutrition in the
form of foods like potatoes, beans, wheat, and many different fruits, vegetables, and
nuts. They are also indirectly part of our plates
by being commonly used to feed the animals we farm. While these plants can be pollinated by things
like wind and other animals such as birds, insects are often vital for their pollination. Common insect pollinators include bees, butterflies,
and beetles. Without another way to pollinate these flowering
plants, we could lose out on a pretty big supply of food! Losing out on insects would likely have a
widespread domino effect of making it harder for other animals to survive, which would
then make it harder for us to survive. Not just from their pollination contributions,
but insects themselves are also widely apart of the diet of animals like frogs, birds,
lizards, and many more! Adding up all the little things that insects
do for the planet both directly and indirectly could really lead us down a rabbit hole of
awfulness if they all died. That, and according to the UK’s Living With
Environmental Change Partnership, the global crop production attributable to insect pollination
was estimated to be worth about $215 billion dollars in 2005. That’s a lot of money! You could probably buy a couple of avocados
at Whole Foods with that much dough. Losing insects might also make it a little
harder for all my aspiring Sherlock Holmes out there. That’s because insects are drawn to a decomposing
body and may lay eggs in it. Through the study of insects and developing
larval stages, forensic scientists can estimate how long since a person died, changes in corpse
positions, and further insight into the cause of death. It’s super creepy to think about. So did any of this surprise you? Did you know such tiny things could be so
important? Let me know in the comments below! Make sure you come back every Monday for a
brand new video. As always, I’m Blocko and this has been
Life Noggin. Don’t forget to keep on thinking!
