How scientists are trying to save the insects that make life possible

There are more than a million insect species, but entomologists say they’re declining at alarming rates. Scientists are trying to determine how to save these tiny creatures that prop up life on Earth.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Insects often get a bad rap – like mosquitoes, roaches and flies – even if there are ones that people seem to enjoy like butterflies and lightning bugs. There are more than a million insect species on the planet, and entomologists say some populations seem to be declining at alarming rates. Now scientists are trying to determine what needs to be done to save these tiny creatures that prop up life on Earth. Harvest Public Media’s Teresa Homsi reports.

TERESA HOMSI, BYLINE: It’s pretty rural just an hour south of Detroit. That’s where Tom Wassmer is crouched down on a farm in a pasture in Adrian, Mich., staring intently at some insects in cow manure.

TOM WASSMER: See? That’s tiny. That’s one that becomes very numerous later in the year.

HOMSI: Wassmer is a biology professor at Siena Heights University. And he’s pointing at a nondescript dung beetle no bigger than a grain of rice, with a shiny black head and a matte brown body. Wassmer says the beetles help turn useless poop into nutrients, improving soil quality and preventing diseases. Without them, he says, dung could sit on the ground surface for years.

WASSMER: And it would pile up. You would probably see no grass anymore.

HOMSI: This valuable but often unrecognized service saves the U.S. cattle industry an estimated $380 million a year. But Wassmer says he’s concerned to see how vulnerable the beetles are to threats. Reports detail staggering declines of all sorts of insects, even those thought to be abundant, while other studies suggest insect losses may be exaggerated. Even so, the data has now caught the attention of the National Academy of Sciences, which plans to launch a study on insect populations next year. Robin Schoen, the head of the…