What will change if there is no insect on Earth? Very much. First, our planet will be clearly lighter, because the total weight of the ants alone exceeds that of all mankind.

Insects at risk

Entomologist Robert Dunn of the University of North Carolina claims that the most species of living nature that have died out in the past and are currently on the verge of extinction comes from insects. Although more than a million representatives of this class are known, experts agree that there is a huge number of yet undiscovered species. Based on empirical analysis, they live on the Earth for about ten quintiles. Despite this incredible variety, Robert Dunn fears he is already in 21. century we can witness the total disappearance of the most famous insect species.

It refers to numerous surveys, according to which hundreds of thousands of species may have disappeared in the course of the next fifty years.This is mainly due to human impact on the environment and climate change. The number of insects is also reduced due to targeted combat using chemical and genetic weapons. The most effective method is the microbiological method, which consists in infecting pests with special viruses or bacteria, but other invertebrate arthropods also die.

Why are we afraid of them

Many do not like insects and even fear them, but we can understand people suffering from this phobia. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 18% of all known diseases are associated with it. The greatest threat is represented by mosquitoes that spread malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever. They are responsible for the death of 2,7 a million people a year. World Health Organization specialists work with statistics, as well as with the potential risks posed by this kind of insect.

For example, the sleeping sickness of the tse-tse fly represents a fatal danger to fifty-five million people. Leishmaniasis is transmitted by mosquitoes, threatening three hundred and fifty million people, and approximately one hundred million Latin American people risk being infected by Chagas' disease with blood-sucking bugs from the Triatominae subfamily. And that's just a very small fraction of a long list. Around two and a half billion people are exposed to such a risk on Earth and every year, the deaths of twenty million people are caused by insects.

Domino effect

There is a strict rule of stenophagia in nature. This is because specific animal species have a clearly defined kind of food, and the disappearance of insects will endanger the entire food chain. If it truly disappears, a pernicious domino effect for the entire animal world can begin. According to calculations by American entomologist Thomas Erwin, he will die from one hundred to thousands of animal species every year, from fish, birds and spiders. But geneticists are convinced that they will be able to synthesize food substitutes to preserve biodiversity.

Processing of organic waste

Without insects, there will be no necrophagia - a protective element in the organic life cycle of the biosphere, since it is essential in the processing of animal excrements. Only insects such as flies, dung beetles and termites feed on faeces. If they weren't, then for five to ten years, forests, steppes, and fields would be covered with a thick layer of animal waste, which would, of course, kill plants and subsequently animals in this environment. And it's not about imagination. A similar situation was observed on Australian pastures in the mid-20. century, when the dung disappeared for unknown reasons.

Plants and insects

If the insects disappear, only the wind and the birds will remain from the natural pollinators. In the plant world, self-pollinating species will prevail. Most of the conifers will grow in the forests, annual plants in the fields and steppes. The forests will dwindle and the number of plants will decrease. There will be real problems without insects. As part of the plant disappears, the cattle will not have enough food, the meat will eventually become a delicacy and the composition of the human diet will change considerably.

In an effort to get ahead of time and prepare for potential problems, geneticists are already looking for polluting plants, and engineers are developing pollination drones. On Harvard University's website, we read that bee robots are a must. The price of food should then be increased by 30% using RoboBees - compared to natural bee pollination. In the future, high prices for artificial pollination can thus become one of the other factors in the opening of scissors between ordinary people and the "golden billion".