Insects and Their Economic Importance

(Ecological survival depends on insects)

Love them or hate them, we need insects for global survival!

In an article that focuses on the vital ecological services provided by insects, authors John Losey and Mace Vaughan tried to focus on the services provided by “wild” insects. They did not want to include services from "domesticated or mass-reared insect species".

Emphasis was placed on the four insect services that provide value estimates: dung burial, pest control, pollination, and wildlife nutrition; because of the availability of data in these areas not because of their perceived "importance".

They based their estimations of the value of each service on projections of losses that would result if insects were not functioning at their current levels.

They estimated the annual value of these ecological services which are provided in the United States to be "at least $57 billion, an amount that justifies greater investment in the conservation of these services."

• This is the "first ever estimate of 'services' provided by wild insects"; which is acknowledged as being very conservative.
• It is actually only a small fraction of the actual benefits supplied by creatures considered by many to be nothing more than pests.
• Without the activities of insects, human life on earth would eventually be extinguished.
• Value of crop production from pollination by native insects (not just the bees): $3,000,000,000.
• Crop losses averted by beneficial insects from predators or parasites of agricultral pests: $4,500,000,000.
• Native pests controlled by other insects: 65 percent.
• Economic losses avoided every year by burial of livestock waste by dung beetles: $380,000,000.
• The number of North American bird species that are primarily insectivores: 395.
—"The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided by Insects" by John E. Losey (Cornell University entomologist) and Mace Vaughan (Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Oregon); BioScience, Vol. 56, Nr. 4; April, 2006; pages 311-323(13); Publisher, American Institute of Biological Sciences.
Also as seen in Scientific American, July, 2006; page 18.

A cross reference of other word family units that are related directly, or indirectly, with: "insects, bugs, worms; invertebrates": aphidi-; api-; ascari-; culci-; Dung Beetle Survival; Dung Beetles Important; Eating Worms; entomo-; formic-; Guinea worms; helmintho-; insecto-; isopter-; larvi-; lepidopter-; meliss-; mosquito; Mosquito, other Languages; Mosquitoes, Pt. 1; Mosquitoes, Pt. 2; myrmeco-; scarab; scoleco-; sphec-; taeni-; termit-; vermo-.