Insects need to be studied carefully to distinguish the beneficial fromthe harmful. People have often gone to great trouble and expense to destroyquantities of insects, only to learn later that the insect destroyed wasnot only harmless but was actually engaged in saving their crops by eatingdestructive insects. Most entomologists have had correspondents send inthe larvae of lady beetles with the complaint that they were injuring plants;at the same time overlooking the smaller aphids which were causing theinjury and which these larvae were continually devouring.
Insects are beneficial to the gardener in several ways:
Insects aid in the production of fruits, seeds, vegetables,and flowers,by pollinizing the blossoms. Most common fruits are pollinized by insects.Melons, squash, and many other vegetables require insects to carry theirpollen before fruits set. Many ornamental plants, both in the greenhouseand out of doors, are pollinated by insects for example, chrysanthemums,iris, orchids, and yucca.
Parasitic insects destroy other injurious insects by living on or intheir bodies and their eggs. Insects also act as predators, capturing anddevouring other insects.
Insects destroy various weeds in the same ways that they injure cropplants.
Insects improve the physical condition of the soil and promote itsfertility by burrowing throughout the surface layer. Also, the dead bodiesand droppings of the insects serve as fertilizer.
Insects perform a valuable service as scavengers by devouring the bodiesof dead animals and plants and by burying carcasses and dung.
Many of the benefits from insects enumerated above, although genuine,are insignificant compared with the good that insects do fighting among themselves. There is no doubt that the greatest single factor in keeping plant-feeding insects from overwhelming the rest of the world is that they are fed upon by other insects.
It is easy to see how the industry of insects and their devotion to purpose, when coupled with almost unlimited numbers, can benefit us when they seek and devour a myriad of pests scattered over a farm or forest.
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