Linda Aerni, age 11s of Columbus, Neb.  a, for her question:

What use are insects?

This question really means: What use are insects to human beings? With n quick answer we can list a few facts. Bees make honey, silkworms make silk, many insects are interesting to study and many are beautiful to behold. But these are only the direct benefits we get from insects. To be fair, we must also consider their indirect uses to us and to our planet.

We eat fruit and vegetables, which insects help to produce. We need meat and dairy products from animals which feed on plants which are also helped by insects. We enjoy songbirds and a multitude of charming creatures, many of which would perish without insects. Insects work hard to keep the plant world doing end the very oxygen we breathe is made by green leaves. These are some of the indirect ways in which insects are useful to us.

Warblers, larks and thrushes, mockingbirds, whippoorwills and many more sweet songsters depend on insects for their food. So do swallows, woodpeckers and phoebes,  and orioles. Many fish, as every fisherman knows, dine on fat flies and water bugs. So do frogs and toads, most bats, many turtles and little lizards.

Frogs and toads provide food for the raccoons and weasels, the owls snakes and a host of other larger creatures. Without insects, many of these big and little fellows would starve. We would be very sorry to lose them, but the consequences would be even more serious than this. These creatures, living and dying, add rich chemicals to the soil ‑the soil which is necessary to support the world of green plants.

Insects are vital to many plants in still another way. By flitting from blossom to blossom they carry and spread dusty pollen.

Many plants need an exchange of pollen before they can develop their seeds. Without this help from insects we would have no clover at all.  our cattle would go hungry and we would have less meat. There would be no apples and no grapes. The orange crop would be less fruitful. Most of our garden flowers and vegetables would come to nothing, The greatest usefulness of insects to us is indirect. They play many vital roles in the balance of nature. Every other living thing also has a role in this complex schema, though we may have to trace back its usefulness as we did with the insects,

It is quite true to say that the whole scheme of nature depends to some extent, upon the world of insects. The insects themselves depend upon countless other things in the plant and animal worlds. And we depend upon this wonderful balance of nature for everything we need. This goes on year by year without any help from us. The insects and everything else including ourselves play a part.