Insect Biodiversity

Food for all!

Providing food for insects can be quite simple. Their diet ranging from living plants to decomposing matter, insects can thrive in green spaces where Nature is unbothered. The easiest way is to mowing your lawn less often. Not only will it help provide a source of food for insects, as well as temporary natural habitats, it will promote the growth of lawn flowers and build soil organic matter, and reduce lawn care costs.

Another easy way is to keep a no-mow area, as in letting your garden grow wild, especially in area that are difficult to mow or care. No-mow areas are particularly beloved by larger insects, like butterflies, thanks to wildflowers.

For more active participation, consider adding native plants to your garden, as they provide crucial nutrients to insects to flourish - which doesn't happen with non-native plants, even when flowering (essentially they create food-desert for insects). They also tend to be more resistant to local weather, requiring less care overall. Including a wide variety of plants will help the biodiversity of your garden, especially if you ensure flowers are flowering all year long.

A few native flowers from the Netherlands.

To ensure your garden is pollinator-friendly, check if your plants are accessible to insects. Bees prefer flowers like catnip, campanula, cornflowers, crocus, lavender, pansies, snowdrops and sunflower, as they either are clusters of small flowers or have flat shapes, making it easy to reach the nectar and pollen.

Water for all!

Especially needed during the summer and hotter periods, water sources will also help insect diversity - everything needs water to survive. From simply watering your plants during dry and warm periods, to installing extra water sources in your garden, you can ensure insects have what they need close by.

Water sources come in many forms, such as little bowls of water placed on the ground, birdbaths, fountains, ponds, or streams. An advantage to this means expanding the biodiversitys of your garden to aquatic fauna, such as pest-control species like frogs and dragonflies, and flora. Though, running or moving water (automatic or helped by fauna) is usually recommended, as to avoid breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other unwanted pests.

Another option would be to design your green space around a rain garden, allowing water to accumulate temporarily and to filter through the soil layers and native hardy plants. Rain gardens won't just help provide water and some shelter to insets, but also prevent erosion and flooding, and increase groundwater supplies. And it oftens requires less maintenance and care compared to a traditional garden.

Shelter for all!

You can introduce shelter by building an insect hotel, which is particularly helpful during the winter and colder period. There are different types of insect hotels, with some focusing on nesting facilities for solitary insects (e.g. bees), others designed for insect hibernations (e.g. ladybugs, butterflies).

An additional positive of insect hotels is that it improves its surrounding environment, bettering the soil quality with nutrient, increasing pollination, and decreasing detrimental insects.

Healthy environment for all!

As whatever we put in the ground and water inevitably ends up in insects, it is important to be conscientious about what we use when gardening and landscaping. Swapping pesticides for organic products will take care of pests while ensuring insects won't be affected. For example: crushed egg shells will repel slugs, mulch will for ants and beetles, and both diatomaceous earth and neem oil are general pest repellent.

Another helpful gardening technique is companion planting, wherein you plant specific species to help surrounding plants grow and thrive. For example: alliums and marigolds are great natural pest repellents, sweet peas and tansy attract pollinators, and alfalfa improves soil conditions.

A well known way of improving your soil is to rotate crop, since plants will favour one nutrient over others during their life cycle. In the same vein, adjusting planting with both season and the changing climate will help with the growth of the plants and provide insects with much needed nutrients.

Finally, building your own compost will decrease your need for chemical fertilizing. And in the fall, heaps of composts attract hedgehogs!

No Backyard? No problems!

Any space can be turned into an insect-friendly area, from lush green balcony to a pot by your window sill!

You can create tiny gardens anywhere with container gardens. Plants in pots will provide all the needed food for insects, if you stick to native species and ensure there are always flower blooming!

For added water sources, watering your plants will help, but so will an additional small bowl or flat plate. Don't forget to replace the water!

Since insect hotels come in many form and sizes, there surely is one for any space! You could also consider additional plants, like small bushes, which provide both shade and shelter.

All these are smaller than 40cm!

No space for greeneries? Look outside for community gardens to help insect biodiversity!

No Lights at Night!

You can reduce your own light pollution coming from your house by simply... switching off the lights. No lights, no problems~

Less drastically, following responsible lighting principles is generally a good idea: use only when needed to avoid disturbing wildlife more than necessary, directed only to where it is needed through shielded appliances and position, and no brighter than necessary so surfaces don't reflect back to much. Brighter is not always safer~

Further reduction can be made by using warm-colored lightbulbs, so to avoid the blue/cold light, imitating bright day lighting. As well as installing movement sensors, so lights are not on when actually unused - though timers can be good alternatives.

As for light coming inside your home, consider closing your curtains to block as much of those lights from going outside. Bonus: in winter, it helps keeping in the warmth.

Sustainable Consumption at Home!

Everything has an effect our environment, whether it is before they enter our home or after we take them out. So, let's aim to be a bit more sustainable in our day-to-day!

Transitioning to a plant-based diet, or at least reducing your meat consumption, particularly beef, lowers our agricultural carbon impact and demand for field expansion (especially where meat is produced).

In general, favouring produces from sustainable farming (low/no chemical pesticides, rotating crops, local plants) decreases that impact. As well, focusing on local produces decreases the need for long-distance transportation.

It is also good to avoid single-use plastic or recycle them when possible. If an eco-friendly alternative (e.g. packaging, recycled/able packaging, environmental-compatible components, etc...) is available, consider using it instead.

Sustainability also can come from our closets: avoiding fast-fashion particularly, has it has a huge negative impact on our environment (both processing and discarding it). Instead, consider buying pieces that will last longer, using natural fibers or recycled fabric. As well, thrift- and second-hand stores are good places to avoid adding to the impact of fast-fashion.

Alternatives to sustainable fashion is to properly care for your clothes by washing at cooler temperature and hang to dry (it also saves energy!), as well as mending your clothes with a bit of sewing or needlepoint. That way, you'll get more wear from your clothes.

And when it is time to discard things, recycle them! If these items can still in good condition and be used by other, consider donating them, especially to shelters or organisations catering to those in needs.

Repurposing items can give them a second life in a different shape. Like old clothes into rags, broken pots and plates into gardening containers, table legs into plant stakes...

For food stuff, composting will create nutritious mulch for plants. If you do not have a garden or space, check if local organisations near you accept food waste donations. Otherwise, make sure to dispose of them properly (like in green waste bins).

Finally, for the rest, make sure you're using the correct recycling bin for each of your items.

You Got Green Moves!

With transportation being one of the biggest polluter, it is important to reconsider the ways we move around.

Instead of using a car as a single passenger, consider carpooling to places or using public transport - more people in one vehicle makes energy use more efficient!

For shorter trips, try to avoid using a car completely, preferring walking or using other non-/less-polluting alternatives, like bikes or scooters.

Increase Bio-Awareness

It's easier to make an impact when more people are involved, so talk about insect biodiversity and more generally protecting the environment around you.

In general, you can help advocating for insect biodiversity works by sharing information, both in-person and online, about the current state of things and what can be done to mitigate our impact. Particularly, concrete examples of simple changes one can implement in their lives, even if it's minimal, will help in the long-term.

This can be in the form of promoting green initiative in your place of work, organising workshops in your community (e.g. in a school, through your local library, with your neighbours, etc...).

Join Green Groups!

Sometimes, working in groups towards a common goal is more efficient and impactful. Even something as small as a local gardening club!

Joining larger environmental organisations can help make a bigger impact, as they will often have more resources available.

Voicing your support for green causes can also be done through attending protests, rallies and marches, joining and sharing online campaigns, and broadcast activist voices on social media or even paper medium.

Add Green to Politics!

There's likely few to no candidates or policies with insect conservation at the heart of their campaigns, but supporting general environmental protections and climate change mitigation is still helps insect biodiversity in the long run.

So when you get to the voting booth, consider voting for the environment too! This is especially important for local elections!

For further pressure on governments to act green, consider contacting your representatives and other law makers to push for environmental protection initiatives (e.g. ban harmful pesticides, sustainable agricultural processes, creation of protected areas, etc...).

Of course, there's no better way in cleaning up politics than by entering governmental bodies yourself. By either attending town-halls to voice your concerns or ideas, partnering with local departments to entreprise green projects, or even run for office!