Thread by @paraicodonnell

You’ve probably read this week’s stories about threats to insect populations and why they’re alarming (scroll down for spoilers*). Here are some things you can do to help.

*We could all die.

The bad news, to be clear, is almost unfathomably bad. The large scale causes (like habitat loss due to climate change) are extremely difficult to counteract. Also, certain losses (like extinctions) are obviously irreversible.

The good news is that the small scale matters too, and that the effects of small scale changes can be immediate and important. You could, with relatively little effort, save thousands of individual insects and millions of other vital invertebrates over the course of a year.

This is especially true if you live in a temperate climate and have a garden, so that’s what I’m going to focus on. It doesn’t matter if your garden is just a balcony, or if you’re not really much of a gardener. In fact, let’s start there.

Let’s say you have a balcony or some other very small space. You have room for maybe four or five pots. Use them to grow herbs like thyme, rosemary and oregano, and maybe some lavender too.

You’ve now introduced sources of nectar that will be available from January (the rosemary) to August (the lavender). You also get fresh herbs. And there’s more good news. You need almost no skill. These plants are basically death-proof.

Woody Mediterranean herbs like thyme and lavender are adapted to rocky coasts with low rainfall. Give them good drainage (put lots of grit in the compost) and water them when you remember. They don’t give a shit about neglect (or exposure, or wind). They are made of nails.

And here a theme emerges. Sure, there are more ambitious projects you can undertake (like building an insect hotel), but for the most part, gardening for insects is fantastically undemanding. In fact, much of it depends on *not* doing things. Let's look at some examples.

Let's say you have a slightly larger garden, with a small lawn and a typical mix of shrubs and flowering plants. Start by doing less. Cut the grass less often, and don't worry about the weeds. Bees love dandelions. Plus, manicured lawns are for sociopaths.

Do you have common ivy (Hedera helix) growing up one wall? Good. Leave it alone. The mortar will be fine, and the bees will have a nectar source in the depths of winter. Also, wrens might nest in it. And again, what's required of you? Precisely fuck all.

Make a compost heap. In fact, you know what, just make a heap. You may have heard that compost is fiddly, and there's some truth in that. You need a balance of carbon (woody bits) and nitrogen (leafy bits) to make it productive. But heaps are good things in themselves.

So, choose a suitable corner and make a heap. Kitchen waste is probably best confined to an enclosed composter, but otherwise just toss things there. Grass, pruned stems, whatever. After two or three years, you might get some compost anyway, but that's not really the point.

The point is, you now preside over a glittering insect metropolis. Well, okay, maybe not glittering, but thriving. You're no longer just attracting visitors; you now have native populations, and you're keeping them alive all winter. You've still had to do almost nothing.

Adopt a similarly chill approach elsewhere in the garden. Stop tidying things. Seriously, it's a garden, not a hospital ward. Let leaf litter and other detritus build up in the borders. Let things seed where they want to. Don't worry about most weeds. It will all be fine.

You are now sheltering invertebrate populations almost everywhere in the garden. Important pollinators have places to overwinter. Detrivores (animals that feed on decomposing matter) like millipedes and wood lice are living their best lives. You are basically a benevolent god.

Okay, a word on plant species and what you should grow. We're now moving up the effort spectrum, but only a little bit. In general, any biodiversity you can introduce is good, but some plants will help more than others. At this point, we should probably talk about native species.

(For the purposes of this thread, I'm talking about plant species native to Ireland and the UK, and will leave aside those species that are only native to one or the other.)

So, why do native species matter? Well, for one thing, they are adapted to this environment. They *want* to grow here, and will thrive with minimal intervention. They tend not to be invasive or disruptive to ecological balance.

More importantly (for our purposes), other organisms (like insects) have *adapted to them*, and have come to depend on them for food or shelter. Take the hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), for example.

Hawthorn is known for its exquisite blossom, but it's metal as fuck. You can literally just shove a stick in the ground, and it will grow. You can prune your hawthorn hedge with a chainsaw.

In a hard year, it can get by on wind pollination, but its core market is flies, which is why its flowers smell like a mosh pit. On the other hand, bees are also quite keen, and its nectar is said to yield particularly delectable honey. So yeah, hawthorn: What's not to like?

By way of contrast, consider the eucalyptus, which is native to Australia. A eucalyptus from the local garden centre may well:

- reach eighty feet;
- colonise a nearby woodland;
- require a Tasmanian parrot for pollination.

A fucking parrot, I'm serious. We don't have those.

So, yes. Native species. Insect-friendly choices include wild cherry (Prunus avium), silver birch (Betula pendula), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and crab apple (Malus sylvestris). All are tough and suitable for the average garden. Put them in a hole, then do whatever.

You don’t have to be puritanical, though. While some non-native species (like, say, Japanese knotweed) are clearly assholes, a plant like Buddleia davidii is arguably invasive in a good way. It likes derelict urban settings and it’s basically heroin for butterflies.

Finally, a few words on pesticides. Agricultural pesticides are clearly immensely damaging, but they’re beyond our scope here. We’ll confine ourselves to the various sprays you can buy at the garden centre, about which I’ll just say this: Stop fucking buying them.

Seriously, what are you doing, with the clucking and the fussing and the spraying? Sit down. Have a fucking cocktail. You don’t need to be doing that shit.

So, your roses have black spot. It’s unsightly, but it probably won’t kill them. If it does, buy a tougher rose (there are lots) or a wild one like Rosa canina, which looks great in a hedge, supports insects and gives absolutely zero fucks about pests.

Same with aphids. If they’re really bothering you, hose them off, but even that is some uptight bullshit. Again, they probably won’t kill anything, and any insects your garden supports are a good thing. Ladybirds eat them. So do blue tits.

Okay, I’ll leave it there. It’s not exhaustive or authoritative, but you get the idea. It really isn’t hard work. It’s mostly about paying attention. This is an existential crisis, but it’s not hopeless.

Plant some things. Make some heaps. Leave stuff mostly alone. That’s it.

Just saving the world, no big deal.

Thanks for all the replies and retweets, which I’m having trouble keeping up with. I see you, though.