Beneficial bugs - life wouldn't be the same without them
Insects can be annoying. They can even make you ill. But a lot of bugs are incredibly useful - they provide use with things to eat, they keep the planet clean and protect us from danger.
Can't live without them
They eat aphids and mosquitoes. They pollinate fruit trees and vegetables. They even dispose of trash. If you could only let yourself get close enough, you might discover how beneficial insects can be.
Busy little helpers
The best known example of a beneficial bug is the bee. Not only do they produce honey, but without their ability to pollinate, trees and plants would be virtually fruitless. But bees are an endangered species - worldwide. In some parts of China they are already extinct. Pesticides and mites are to blame.
Loveable greedy guts
Ladybugs tend to mainly eat aphids and scale insects. Perhaps that's why we love them so much. One ladybug eats about 50 such insects a day - and many thousands over its entire lifetime.
The benefits of ladybug larva
Its eating habits mean the ladybug is also highly-prized in pest control. They are popular with farmers, who use ladybugs to control aphids and scale insects without the need for chemicals. Even its larva helps in the fight against pests.
Parasite on parade
Scorpion wasps are absolutely harmless for humans. But for some insects, a meeting with a scorpion wasp can end horrifically. The wasp is known to insert - or drill - its large ovipositor (an organ used for laying eggs) into moths, beetles and lice, where it lays an egg. The egg becomes a larva and the hungry larva then eats the insect from the inside out.
Remarkable predator
Ground beetles are predators. They tend to hunt all the things we don't want: woodlice, caterpillars and slugs. Even the nimble and resistant potato beetle stands little chance against the ground beetle's strong jaws. They are found all over the world - but many are a protected species.
Dark crawler
This is a beetle - even if it looks like a worm at first. The rover beetle has very short wing cases (elytra), which hold intricately folded wings. Worldwide, 50,000 variations of the rover beetle are known to exist. They like to eat bark beetles and fly maggots, but will also tuck into dead animals and the remains of plants.
Friendly giant
Hornets command respect - but their poison is less dangerous than a common wasp. The grown-ups prefer to sup the juices of plants, while the young feed on all kinds of fresh meat: they can catch up to 500 grams of insects per day.
The best till last…
… spiders. Given their eight legs, spiders aren't strictly speaking insects … but they are still very useful. They catch and eat every kind of insect that's annoying to us. Mosquitoes, moths, flies, and aphids are all a delicacy for spiders.
So let them live
Don't be scared, don't step on them, or reach for your nearest rolled-up newspaper. Just be happy they're there!