Through my articles, I like to highlight organisms that have been overlooked in general and regarded as unimportant to humans and our environment. I also like to highlight the roles they play in our environment.

This week I am highlighting the role of insects. Most people cringe at the sight of insects, which has earned them the nickname "creepy crawlies". But these tiny animals play a very important role in our environment, such as pollinators, biological control agents, as a food source to other animals. Other roles that insects play include eliminating waste matter and recycling material.

Some beneficial functions that insects fulfil include acting as a source of food for other animals, for example, despite their ability to act as the vector of diseases like Yellow Fever, Malaria and Dengue, the larvae of insects like mosquitoes provide food for animals like frogs and fish. Therefore, ensuring one of the factors needed for these animals to survive, and add to the overall biodiversity of the planet. But their survival also means that they will be able to contribute to the environment in their own way.

Secondly, insects also act as pollinators without which many of our major crop species would cease to exist, as too would the flowers in our gardens. This is evident by the fact that approximately 80% of flowering plants are dependent on pollinators in order to transfer their pollen. Pollinating insects include wasps, bees and butterflies.

Insects are also great as biological control agents and getting rid of non-beneficial insect species. Some beneficial insects include praying mantids which are very efficient predators among a variety of insect species. Lady beetles are quite pretty to look at and are great biological control agents as they feed on soft-bodied insects. Beetles such as ground beetles feed on a variety of soil dwelling pests, such as, snails and slugs, but also feed on pests that are found on plants.

Other beetles like bess bugs, also called passalid beetles, Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules) and harlequin beetle (Acrocinus longimanus) feed on decaying wood thereby helping to break it into smaller particles, and help it to decay faster. Breaking down decaying plant material means that the nutrients contained in it will enter the soil faster and serve to fertilize other plants. Therefore they carry out two functions, breaking down organic matter and recycling nutrients in the soil.

Insects also produce many products which are used by humans, for example, bees produce honey and wax. Butterflies supply natural silk in their caterpillar stage. Certain insects produce structures called galls on plants. Galls are outgrowths caused by the invasion of a variety of organisms including insects. These structures contain substances that are used in a variety of sectors, like pharmaceuticals, as dyes and in the tanning of leather.

Humans are not the only organisms that depend on insects to get rid of unbeneficial insects. Some plants, such as Heliconia hirsuta produce food from extrafloral nectaries (special sugar-producing organs on the stems and the exterior of flowers) so that they stay on the plant which deters herbivores. Animals also use insects, for example aphids. The aphids secrete a substance called honeydew which is obtained from feeding off the sap of plants, which is a high energy food source to some ant species. This encourages the ants to stay around them and deters predators of the aphids.

Of course not all insect species are helpful to humans and the environment. Some species are major pests of crop and ornamental plant species, therefore they affect our food supply and influence the amount of income received from the trade of crops and ornamental plants. Other insect species are also vectors of diseases.

However, beneficial insects face many threats. One such threat includes the use of pesticides and insecticides. Most of the chemicals attack a wide range of insects including those who help to control pest populations. Another threat is the loss of habitat.

These pollinators are quite mobile animals, however, if the habitat they frequent is destroyed so are the plants they are accustomed to for food and shelter. Some animals may be relocated to a new area like bee hives, which are placed in areas where the bee species are not found naturally, this may result in the introduction of new diseases into the population.

If you want to attract beneficial insects there are many small steps you can take, for instance, growing plants which will provide shelter for insects. These animals also need water, a shallow dish is ideal but the water should be changed regularly every two to three days in order to prevent mosquitoes from using it as a breeding site. One could also place small stones or sticks in the dish to give the insects something to perch on.

However, it must be remembered that having beneficial insects resident in your garden is not a solution to your pest problem. This is simply because in order to have a steady food supply, the insect must let the pest species survive and reproduce. Therefore it is up to us to select pesticides that will not kill the beneficial insect species. Also, when selecting plant species for your garden, attention should be placed in choosing species that are pest resistant. Therefore, we can see that no matter how small or apparently insignificant some organisms may seem, they each play a role in the functioning of our ecosystems and to the other organisms found in them.