That is why mosquitoes, black flies, wasps and gnats are important – news Nordland

– I actually tried to take them home with me! We have two cats that eat flies. But when I entered the door, they disappeared. I was so disappointed, says Ole Dalen. He was on a mountain trip in Bodø, and became very popular with the flies. – They wanted to get into the ears and nose. Some are more fond of insects than others. For insect researcher Jan Erling Wasmuth, they are one of the most beautiful things there is. – We must think positively about the insects, without them it goes straight to hell. All insects are important for the entire ecosystem. So the next time they whiz around your ear and poke you in the shin, think about what you’re about to read now. We start with the most common: Blackflies are, as you may know, food for other insects and animals. They can also be helpful during autopsies on people (!). We’ll get back to that. – The reason why insects swarm around you is that you breathe out carbon dioxide and excrete lactic acid and other odorous substances, explains Wasmuth. Also, they love salt. A sweaty summer body is therefore top notch. What do you think of the insects? Just annoying Annoying, but they are important – so it’s fine Rarely bothered Show result But flies are also extremely important cleaners in nature. Among other things, they break down dead animals and faeces. – The plants would have been suffocated if the insects had not broken down the dead material. As the flies flock immediately after something dies, they can be useful during human autopsies. They can give a good indication of how long people and animals have been dead. – You know how long a larva takes to develop in different temperatures, so if you know the temperature you can say something about when a person or animal died, says Wasmuth. We have many mosquito species. In Norway alone, approximately 1,500 have been observed. It is only the female mosquito in certain species that stings, and it is probably those that cause the most trouble to humans. – But we just have to put up with that, says Wasmuth. Mosquitoes often lay eggs on water. As a larva, the mosquito is a particularly important food source for both insects, fish and birds. In addition, it is also important for pollination, also called pollination. Mosquitoes spread seeds from plants and flowers. Very annoying fellow, this. But like so much else; an important food source. The knob can bite a bit, but Wasmuth doesn’t mind that much. – The knob is extremely important as food. Both as a larva and egg, and as an adult, he says. The kleggen and blinding are in many ways quite similar and belong to the same family. According to Wasmuth, the insects have the same effects on both humans and animals. The female, I’ll gladly take a bite of you, but unlike the mosquito, she doesn’t depend on blood to lay eggs. – It’s a bit calm, and you can brush it off before it bites. Like many of the other insects, the most important thing that the cuckoo and the blind do is pollination. Limits the amount of insects Pollination Watchdog? If you still haven’t become so fond of the insects on the list, you should love the wasp. It helps to limit the amount of the other insects. The wasp is a hunter and its main food is other insects, says Wasmuth. If we hadn’t had the wasp, there would have been far too much of other insects, such as gnats. – Humans are not on the list of what the wasp eats. Then if you leave it alone, it won’t do anything to you. According to Wasmuth, the wasp can also act as a kind of “watchdog”. – There are some studies that say that if you have a wasp nest in your house, it will rarely attack you. It gets used to the people who live there, says Wasmuth and continues: – But if the neighbor or a scary burglar comes, it will attack. In addition, the wasp is also very important for pollination. What about Ole who was on a trip, does he think it is worth thinking about the function of insects? – For my part, I’m just glad it was flies and not mosquitoes or ticks. That’s a nightmare, that. But flies are fine! Ole Dalen previously worked at news Nordland.



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