Agriculture Canada scientist Jeff Skevington, who
works with the Canadian National Collection of Insects, says Canada’s insect
population is declining and “the whole ecosystem’s going out of balance”.
In an interview on CTV, he said Canada has lost a
significant amount of its insect biodiversity in recent years based on the
results of annual collection samples.
“There are hundreds, probably thousands of species
that have just disappeared from the collection – things that haven’t turned up
for years,” Skevington told CTV’s Your Morning.
While most people think of insect pests, Skevington said
they are a minority of the overall population.
“Most insects are benign or actually beneficial,” he
said, Many will keep other pest insects, such as aphids, in check. Without
those predator insects, an out-of-control aphid population could mean major
trouble for Canada’s agricultural industry.
Skevington said there are many reasons for the decline,
including loss of habitat and new insecticides.
Climate change might be the biggest reason, he said,
providing an example of temperature fluctuations in spring.
“Quite often you’ll have really big warm spells so you
get a flush of insects coming out, followed by a cold snap,” he said. Those
cold snaps can interrupt a bug’s lifecycle and severely impact their
populations.
“These are huge declines,” Skevington said.
