Should we help maggots and caterpillars?

CrowdScience

We all know insects are important, but one CrowdScience listener worries that they don’t seem to have equal billing when it comes to human love and attention.

In Scotland’s capital Edinburgh, listener Ruth loves to sit and listen to the birds, the bees and the hoverflies as they go about their daily chores. And it’s got her wondering why bees and butterflies seem to get all the conservation efforts. What do we need to do to protect butterflies as less beautiful caterpillars, and ladybirds as less glamorous larvae? Are people even aware that insects exist in multiple stages of a lifecycle, and that around the world, insect populations are facing perilous levels of decline.

Presenter Alex Lathbridge is on a mission to identify the other unsung insect heroes. Along the way we meet Dr Caitlin Johnstone and Dr Nick Balfour at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, who help listener Ruth find out about the lifestyles and lifecycles of hoverflies.

We meet the midge that pollinates cocoa crops in Ghana, as well as Dr Tonya Lander from Oxford University and Dr Acheampong Atta-Boateng from the University of Arizona who have been studying them. And Marc Vaez-Olivera from the company Polyfly introduces us to the billions of hoverflies helping to double avocado yields in Spain.

We also learn what we can all do to help keep insects in our gardens… even if that may involve sacrificing a cabbage or two.

Presenter: Alex Lathbridge

Producer: Marnie Chesterton

Editor: Ben Motley

(Photo: Caterpillar eating flowering plant with pink background - stock photo Credit: Raquel Lomas via Getty Images)