[MUSIC] In the award winning documentary film, Honeyland, a poor Macedonian woman struggles to make a living as her family's done for generations by harvesting honey from wild bees in remote places. To ensure the survival of the bees and of her livelihood, the woman follows a rule known to beekeepers everywhere, take only half the honey. Leave half for the bees. When a new family settles on land nearby, the father becomes interested in the honey business. The woman generously teaches him what she knows, but he lacks her respect for the bees and he breaks the time honored rule that keeps honey harvesting sustainable. Eager to make money, he produces 20 times the amount of honey the woman normally harvests. He exploits the bees and undoes a delicate ecological balance. Our lives are entangled in relationships with insects, and our greed and ignorance can easily destroy what we take for granted. Insects account for more than half of the animal species on Earth, making them the planet's silent majority. In terms of living individuals, insects outnumber humans, 200 million to one. The insect species that have been identified surpassed one million. These creatures we lumped together as bugs are remarkably diverse. Just among the ants, 22,000 species exist throughout the world, with only about half of these currently classified. Insects have adapted to live everywhere. They survive deep underground and 18,000 feet high in the Himalayas. They live in snow, on ice, and on oil slicks. They live in computers, in books, and in the ears, nostrils and pores of other creatures, including humans. Globally, insects are responsible for the pollination of a vast number of agricultural crops, with bees providing most of this service. Currently, the United States is engaging in its own version of honeyland, through the annual pollination of California's almond trees. Over a million beehives are transported by truck across the country to pollinate almond trees at a time of year when bee colonies would normally be dormant. The growth of the almond industry allows bees no offseason because commercial beekeepers can't pass up the lucrative opportunity. They make their bees constantly productive by feeding them sugar and protein. The expectation of year round pollination is working bees to death. Although, we appreciate honey and almonds, not all contact with insects is beneficial. Some insects are vectors of disease caused by viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and parasites. Annually, over 1 million people die just from viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Millions more suffer from insect borne infections such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and West Nile encephalitis. Insects transmit diseases to other animals too. The economic loss resulting from insect borne diseases of livestock is considerable. The status of insects can help us think about the socio zoologic scale on which we rank species on the basis of what they mean for us. What most people know about insects amounts to splitting them into categories of beneficial and destructive. According to whom? Well, us of course. We define the circumstances under which insects are considered good or bad, using anthropocentric standards. We find butterflies beautiful, and honey bees pollinate food and flowers, so they are good. In contrast, we find wasps and mosquitoes annoying. So, why do they even exist? Honey bees illustrate how usefulness earns a species a high status on the socio zoologic scale. Evidence of the human appetite for honey appears in the 8000 year old paintings in the Arana cave in Valencia, Spain. These early cave paintings depict human figures using a ladder and basket to harvest honey from a beehive. By 3000 BC, the Egyptians had made beekeeping into a sophisticated practice. Honey bees earn such a high position on the socio zoologic scale that the Egyptians regarded them as the tears of the sun God Ra. They also venerated dung beetles, known as scarabs, as symbols of immortality. Species end up on the low end of the socio zoologic scale because they pose real potential or imagined threats to human activities or property, to other animals, or to the environment. Insects do all of these when they fail to recognize that the picnic basket, the vegetable garden, or the exposed skin are off limits. Although, insects in general are on the low end of the socio zoologic scale, many insects can be both beneficial and destructive depending on time and place. Consider the locust for example. From an agricultural perspective, the locust is purely destructive. A swarm can quickly strip an entire field of crops. But from a gastronomic perspective, the locust has long provided a valuable source of protein in many parts of the world. So, the answer to the question of whether locusts are beneficial or destructive is, it depends. Many human activities and practices reveal a fascination with insects, and even affection for them. Between November and March of each year, visitors flock to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in the Mexican state of Michoacan to see the millions of monarchs who overwinter there resting in massive clusters on fir trees. Fireflies are the star attractions in some places, especially during the mating season, when the males synchronously emit their glow for as long as a minute. For some people, witnessing synchronous fireflies ranks on the bucket list. Along with insect based tourism, insects are also the theme of leisure activities such as visits to indoor butterfly houses where people can walk among free flying butterflies. Exhibitions sometimes offer hands-on educational encounters with species such as the Madagascar hissing cockroach. These also serve as gateway experiences, prompting less fear of insects, if not genuine interest in them. We often see little value in the existence of insects, but they don't exist solely to serve our interests. Their world seem alien, yet their lives and ours are intricately connected. Their presence touches on countless dimensions of social life. They pollinate our food, and give us honey, wax, silk and other products. They've made genetic and biological research possible. The cleaning services they provide recycle tons of organic matter and enrich soil. Of course, they can also spread disease and destroy crops. Moreover, they sting and bite, but the insects we swat, slap and spray and step on matter for some aspect of nature. The Egyptians had the right idea. Rather than killing insects, we should consider them sacred. The least we can do is leave them half the honey.
