The Silence of the Bugs

                 
“All winged insects that go on all fours are detestable to you.
Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours
you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet,
with which to hop on the ground.
Of them you may eat: the locust of any kind,
 the bald locust of any kind, the cricket of any kind,
and the grasshopper of any kind.
But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you.

Leviticus 11:20-23 ESV 

We have a lovely, fairly large backyard which is too much work but still a pleasure. During these unexpectedly hot May days we've attempted to get out there to tend to flower beds and raised vegetable beds alike. The mosquitoes see it differently. They welcome us alright, as breakfast. Our back neighbours' sump-pumps spew water down to our lot line creating the perfect breeding ground for the flying vacuum pumps. Of course it's now more than the annoyance of being vampired. We're warned about West Nile, when those in the know can grab our attention away from the terror to ticks.



Insects, you can't live with them, and actually we can't live without them. Silence may be golden when you're lying in a tent on a camping trip, but we need the hum of bugs around us. There is both scientific and anecdotal evidence that insects are on the decline, and just about every healthy ecosystem needs them to be creeping and crawling around and on us. A German study published last fall found that there was a 76% decline in bug biomass over the past three decades. The summer percentage is even higher and that is cause for real concern. Bee species pollinate plants and so do blackflies (don't cover your ears.) Birds rely on insects for food, as do bats. Yet insects seem to be on the decline.

Several writers, including Michael McCarthy in his wonderful book The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy, note that vehicle windshields just aren't smeared with creatures of the night the way they once were. He has a chapter called The Great Thinning, which says it all.

The bible is not a fan of insects, to be sure. Locusts and moths and hornets are God's punishment, not our friends. The Genesis creation stories do not mention bugs, although creeping things get lots of press. Still, scripture does celebrate the diversity of Creation and, like it or not, insects are part of our lives.

This  buggy pondering makes me think of the insect discovered recently embedded in one of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. He worked outside a lot, and one grasshopper met its end in a tomb of paint.

Read Curt Stager's Silence of the Bugs in the New York Times. The artwork above is from that article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/opinion/sunday/insects-bugs-naturalists-scientists.html 

Then go eat a cricket and say a prayer for the insects of the planet while you're at it.



Grasshopper embedded in Van Gogh's The Olive Trees