By Nicole Rivard

Caterpillars, especially those of moths, are the most underappreciated part of nature out there, if you ask author and University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy. If you have a landscape that does not produce a lot of caterpillars, you have a failed food web.

Insects overall, Tallamy explains, are critically important because they transfer energy from the native plants, which they share an evolutionary history with, to wildlife.

So, if you care about wildlife like we do, it’s incumbent upon you to put out the welcome mat for caterpillars, moths, lacewings and other misunderstood and undermined essential arthropods.

“Plants capture energy from the sun and turn it into food. If you don’t pass that on to wildlife, you won’t have any wildlife. And if you don’t have wildlife, you don’t have functional ecosystems,” Tallamy tells Friends of Animals.

Tallamy points out that caterpillars conduct the process better than any other type of plant eater, and it’s the caterpillars of moths who are essential because butterfly caterpillars for the most part don’t taste good. So, they aren’t being eaten by wildlife as much.

“That’s why oak trees, and 84% of the counties in which they occur, are the most important land in terms of supporting the food web because they support the most moth species,” Tallamy said.

The moths themselves are not only bird food, but some are important to pollination. They, along with beetles, bees and bats are our nocturnal pollinators. There are around 11,000 species of moths in the U.S.

Tallamy has documented 1,337 species in his own backyard in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, where he lives his “go native and go natural” mantra. He authored a book aimed at encouraging others to follow suit and change the face of America’s backyards: Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.

Tallamy acknowledges that not all homeowners enjoy the sight of caterpillars munching on the leaves of their plants and trees. For them he recommends what he calls his 10-Step Program: “Take 10 steps back from the trunk and all your insect problems go away,” he told Smithsonian Magazine

Lacewings, earwigs, and hoverflies—oh my!

The irony of many underappreciated insects is that they can be a gardener’s best friend.

Take the lacewing—an unsung hero of nature. The delicate, eye-catching adults consume nectar and pollen. However, the larvae, which resemble tiny alligators, are nicknamed “aphid lions” because they devour those tiny soft-bodied insects that suck the nutrient-rich liquids out your plants.

Rather than spraying your aphids with toxic pesticides, encourage the presence of their natural enemies, like lacewings, to take out the larvae, advises Tallamy.

What’s also fascinating about lacewings is that the eggs the females lay are each balanced on the end of a slender stalk, creating an ethereal landscape. And they are crepuscular, which means they come out just after dark, and then again just before dawn. They aren’t fast fliers, but they can hear the echolocation calls of bats and avoid them by folding their wings (presenting a smaller target) and dropping to the ground.

Hoverflies

Despite their typical fly head with bulging eyes appearance, adult hoverflies are mistaken for wasps because of the bright bands of color on their abdomen. Interestingly, they mimic them to protect themselves from predators. Rest assured they don’t have stingers and their larvae is a valuable tool in the fight against aphids, whiteflies, mealybugs, scales and thrips.

Earwigs

Earwigs not only feed on aphids and spider mites, but on decaying leaves, dead insects and other organic debris, breaking them down into smaller pieces. This makes them a part of the ecosystem’s cleanup crew. While their pincers might look intimidating, they are there for grooming, catching prey and communication.

“The thing is, they aren’t harming us. They aren’t spreading disease. They are not eating your house. There is just no reason to wage war on them,” Tallamy said.

Carpenter Ants

Likewise, carpenter ants aren’t going out their way to hurt your house, he added. But they do like to live in rotting wood. So, they might leave a tree in your backyard to come to your house to forage.

“Typically, people don’t have a nest in their house unless they have water damage and dry rot. Then carpenter ants will hollow it out and live there. But here’s the upside of carpenter ants; they are what pileated woodpeckers feed their young, and also flickers and red-bellied woodpeckers,” Tallamy said. “So, if you eliminate carpenter ants you’ve gotten rid of those three birds.”

Summer is a suitable time to realize how important nature is overall, not just insects.

“Some people think nature is fine, but that it’s someplace else, and they’re not connected to it. That’s why there’s still that need to have the perfect lawn, a sterile landscape that doesn’t support insects or wildlife,” Tallamy said. “We need an upswelling from the public to create new status symbols. So now the person with the big perfect lawn is the social pariah. It’s everybody’s responsibility to keep the earth running.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Nature is right outside our door, and it’s our duty to protect it.

Take Action to protect insects

You can protect night shift insects like moths by switching to yellow LED bulbs, since yellow wavelengths do not attract nocturnal insects.

“It’s a serious environmental issue, that has a really simple solution. I wish they all had simple solutions like that. Just change your lightbulb,” Tallamy said.

Other simple things to do: Turn off unnecessary outdoor lights, especially during summer when many insects are breeding. Use motion-activated lights to reduce light pollution. Close curtains to give nocturnal insects a chance to navigate by starlight.

●To attract moths to your backyard, it’s necessary to have keystone native plants. One way to find them in your area is to visit the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder. https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org/Plants. Type in your zip code and the best woody and herbaceous plants for supporting moths in your county will pop up.

● Never use insecticides or herbicides in your backyard and advocate for local and state pesticide bans. More than 150 communities throughout the U.S. have passed policies to restrict the use of toxic pesticides, according to the national nonprofit Beyond Pesticides. In 2021, NYC became the nation’s largest city to ban synthetic pesticides and herbicides on all city property, except golf courses and playing fields, under legislation Friends of Animals advocated for passage.

● Never use UV light traps, aka bug zappers in your quest for a mosquito-free yard. They take a heavy toll on non-target insects. A study by the university of Delaware at Newark analyzed 13,789 insects zapped and found that only 31, less than one-fourth of 1%, were biting bugs! Through the 40 nights of the study, the kill per night was 445 insects per zapper.

● Humanely relocate bugs. Use a cup and a piece of paper. This is the oldest trick in the book, but it works (almost) every time. Start out by grabbing a piece of paper and then, place it so the bug will inevitably crawl onto it. As soon as it does, put a glass cup over the bug, trapping it in a “dome.” With the cup still on the piece of paper, slide your hand underneath the paper, which still has the cup trapping the bug on top, and pick up the paper. Bring it outside, and lift the cup up from the paper. Now, you can let the bug go free.