If I didn't understand the negatives to insects and solely focused on their benefits throughout my research, I'd be giving a very bias opinion when it came to developing deliverables. Looking at the topic from this perspective could also lead me to finding a 'bad' that is hugely counteracted by a 'good'
Harmful insects kill millions of people every year both indirectly and directly. Besides deadly insects, mosquitoes and flies transmit diseases that sicken and kill. Malaria is one of the best know of these diseases but there are many more. Insects consume or damage many of our food crops which in the less developed countries leaves to malnutrition and make many people, especially children, less able to fight off many pathogens.
Harmful animals are more direct and affect fewer people. Besides the obvious harm of animals that consume people, Animal can consume crops grown for people or damage stored food. Mice and rats have been a problem in stored grain throughout history. Some animals such as rats also transmit disease such as bubonic plague.
The Impacts of Insects
Because they dominate all terrestrial environments that support human life, insects are usually our most important competitors for food, fiber, and other natural resources. They have a direct impact on agricultural food production by chewing the leaves of crop plants, sucking out plant juices, boring within the roots, stems or leaves, and spreading plant pathogens. They feed on natural fibers, destroy wooden building materials, ruin stored grain, and accelerate the process of decay. They also have a profound impact on the health of humans and domestic animals by causing annoyance, inflicting bites and stings, and transmitting disease.
The economic impact of insects is measured not only by the market value of products they destroy and the cost of damage they inflict but also by the money and resources expended on prevention and control of pest outbreaks. Although dollar values for these losses are nearly impossible to calculate, especially when they affect human health and welfare, economists generally agree that insects consume or destroy around 10% of gross national product in large, industrialized nations and up to 25% of gross national product in some developing countries.
These and other aspects of economic entomology will be our main emphasis in the final section of this course when we focus entirely on insect pests and the tactics used to control them. But despite the tremendous economic losses they may cause, it is not entirely fair to cast the members of Class Insecta as villains who rob us of our food and livelihoods. They are also cherished allies on whom we depend to keep the natural environment clean and productive. They have shaped human cultures and civilizations in countless ways, they supply unique natural products, they regulate the population densities of many potential pest species, they dispose of our wastes, bury the dead, and recycle organic nutrients. Indeed, we seldom stop to consider what life would be like without insects and how much we depend on them for our very survival. To paraphrase William Shakespeare, "The evil that insects do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their exoskeletons."
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/text01/impact1.html
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