Save even the smallest creatures, like the Asian Lady Beetle

As the leaves fall from the trees, Collegeville becomes a landscape of reds, oranges and yellows that captures the attention of camera lenses and visitors alike. While gorgeously unique in each season, the beauty of the Arboretum turns into the backdrop of St. John’s game days, a staple of SJU. These features that may have otherwise been overlooked in the greener months now illicit little moments of peace and tranquility from busy-bodied Bennies and Johnnies.

Although I enjoy the scenery during these all-too-short autumn months, I have become more aware of the tiny flying nuisances that I thought were ladybugs but happen to be their off-brand relative, the Asian Lady Beetle.

Because of certain qualities, this species was brought from Asia and spread throughout the south to help control pests that disturb crop health. Essentially, ladybugs of all varieties have a huge appetite for insects farther down the food chain; thus, they make for a natural pesticide. Bugs eating bugs; who knew that they helped our ecosystem so much? This human-influenced symbiotic relationship provides benefits for the agricultural systems, so why don’t all farmers use ladybugs?

Simply put, when farmers’ lifestyles are dictated by corporations, they are put into a bind because natural remedies like ladybugs do not conform to the standards and timetable of those at the top of the agricultural hierarchy. To fully understand this issue, a few important claims must be addressed.

First, some believe that introducing foreign species into environments that aren’t suitable for them creates entomological chaos. Insects can carry disease, are often hard to control and introduce an irreversible effect on the ecosystems they infiltrate. All this disturbance has a ripple effect that reaches those who benefit the most from these insects’ agricultural work: us. For these reasons, folks argue against using Asian Lady Beetles as a farming practice.

Second, since the demand is so high for crops that feed both animals and people, there’s a growing debate about how farmers are to manage their crops when plagued with hordes of hungry bugs, and this leads to taking matters “into our own hands” with the use of chemical pesticides. While this practice is not 100% effective, these products are applied directly to crops to ensure that nothing, not even the good bugs, is living on our future food. This genetically modified method may seem aggressive, but it does what farmers need it to do, and that is enough to have this population argue against the natural release of ladybugs.

Lastly, due to the unintended effects of both over-tilling crop land and pesticide use, the health of our plants has been compromised. Tilling the land every season disturbs the soil which releases carbon into the atmosphere, which, for the most part, isn’t as bad as it may seem. Like the water cycle, there is a natural recycling of carbon that works its way from the microorganisms in the ground into the air and back into the ground again through plants that take up the carbon (from carbon dioxide) and transfer it into the soil through their root systems.

Sadly, pesticides disturb this cycle by killing almost all the good bacteria and microorganisms that make up healthy soil. Without healthy soil, carbon has less of a purpose within the ground, tilling releases that carbon into the air, plants don’t take up as much carbon as they used to (less carbon in the ground equals less carbon reuptake) and, therefore, carbon lingers in the atmosphere where it acts as an insulator for the earth’s temperature (i.e., global warming).

With this in mind, populations such as climate activists suggest resorting to natural healing techniques and are all for using geographically sustainable ladybugs to save our crops. Figuring out a way to cure our planet is too big a task for one person, but what we can all do is get involved in efforts that are working toward revitalizing mother nature. Now, ladybugs may not be the first in line to save Earth, but we need to start somewhere, and starting somewhere small could have something to do with the insects that surround us. If we want to see change, we must work from the ground up, literally.