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Why are invertebrates important?
Why are invertebrates important? This is a very good question.
According to National Geographic (n.d.), invertebrates are animals without a backbone or bony skeleton. This sounds a bit like madness. For example, a squid does not have a backbone, and you won’t find a squid in your garden. True, but you will find a slug in your garden and that does not have a backbone.
I know what you are thinking. A slug is not essential and will devour all my plants. True, slugs may eat some of your plants. However, most plants survive a few nibbled leaves. But what if I told you a slug is your friend in the garden? How? I hear you ask.
Think of the slug as the low-paid worker in your garden. You may pay it with the odd nibble of your Hosta or maybe a bit of rhubarb leaf, remember not all slugs eat plants, in fact many slugs will feed on dead matter in the garden. However, in return, slugs will work hard, processing organic waste in your garden. For example, did you ever wonder where the cat poop on your lawn vanished to? Slugs devoured it during the night. Yucky but true.
Okay, they eat poo, so what!
What about your garden waste? Do you put it on a compost heap and then use the composted waste for your garden? Slugs help with composting garden waste and turning it into a lovely additive for your borders.
If you have a problem with slugs, and you insist on reducing the population, you can use nematodes. However, in our opinion, it is easier and better for the environment to simply pick them off the plants and deposit them in the local park or fields.
Do flies pollinate flowers?
Absolutely. Also, flies do not have a backbone or skeleton.
While flies buzzing around your food are not pleasant and frankly annoying, they still offer a valuable free service in the garden.
Take the hover fly. What do they do?
The hover fly often mimics wasps or bees with their colours or patterns. This is for its own protection, not to scare you! They will not harm or hurt you at all.
Okay, so what do they do?
They fly from flower to flower, feeding on nectar and helping to pollinate flowers. What, I thought only bees pollinated flowers? No, don’t be silly. Other insects help pollinate flowers too.
Guess what? Hover flies develop from larvae. Like you care! But this larva is also useful in the garden. Huh, how?
Some larva feed on insects that damage your plants. For example, sap sucking leafhoppers, whiteflies, scale insects and even aphids. Some larvae will munch through dead wood. This is a big help in a garden where small branches or bits of wood may lie rotting.
Orange Hawkweed is a great plant for attracting hover flies and other important invertebrates.
Even moths and butterflies help.
Moths and butterflies are a diverse range. Some may look a little drab, while others are in a wide range of amazing colours. Some are even endangered.
Moths may not sound special, and everyone knows how artificial lights attract moths. But they are special. Moths are important pollinators. They have hairy bodies which help with the pollination process. I won’t go in to the science of it, but simply put the pollen sticks to the hairs, and they carry it to another flower. You could say they are just as essential as bees for pollinating flowers.
Do butterflies do the same? In a way they do, but they are not as good at pollinating flowers as moths or bees because they do not collect as much pollen on their bodies. However, they are good cross pollinators and valuable in all gardens.
What about bees?
Bees are probably the best known pollinators.
The bees range from the humble bumblebee to the farmed honeybee. A bumblebee, according to Askham and Hendry, (n.d.) ‘Can vibrate their bodies to dislodge pollen from a flower. The bee then combs the pollen off its hairy body into little baskets on its legs, called corbiculae. This way of gathering pollen is called buzz pollination. Most of the pollen collected will be taken back to the nest to feed young bumblebee larvae, but some grains will transfer to the next flowers the bumblebee visits.’ Wow, what an amazing fact, thanks Askham and Hendry. Therefore, this makes the bumblebee extremely important to the keen gardener.
A fantastic plant for attracting bees is the Common Spotted Orchid.
What about wasps?
While most people will try to avoid wasps, and they can be a pain when having a picnic, they are useful to the keen gardener. Because, according to Askham and Hendry, (n.d.) wasps are valuable pollinators. In fact, Figs need a certain type of wasp to pollinate them, called a fig wasp. Also, according to Osterloff, (n.d.) wasps are a natural pest control. Why is this, you may ask? Osterloff, (n.d.) states ‘Each summer, social wasps in the UK capture an estimated 14 million kilograms of insect prey, such as caterpillars and greenfly.’ That is truly incredible and makes them a friend to gardeners! When you are trying to whack a wasp, think how useful it is alive rather than whacked invertebrates!
Surely I can kill annoying beetles?
Sorry, you are out of luck. Beetles, not the pop group Beatles from Liverpool, are also great pollinators. Some beetles may eat pollen, Askham and Hendry, (n.d.) state ‘Beetle-pollinated flowers tend to make extra pollen, so there is some left over to be carried to another flower on the beetle’s body.’ While not all beetles are pollinators, the ones that pollinate flowers are often beautiful to look at. For example, the rose chafer beetle shown in the image.
While we cannot cover every pollinating creature, we hope you found this article useful.
References
Askham, B. and Hendry, L., n.d. Seven insect heroes of pollination. [online] Nhm.ac.uk. Available at: <https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/insect-pollination.html> [Accessed 23 June 2022].
National Geographic. n.d. Invertebrates Pictures & Facts. [online] Available at: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/> [Accessed 23 June 2022].
Osterloff, E., n.d. What do wasps do?. [online] Nhm.ac.uk. Available at: <https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-do-wasps-do.html> [Accessed 23 June 2022].