Helpful Insects!

Hello everyone, this is Miss Madeline with the Children's Hands-On Museum of Tuscaloosa. Today I'm here to talk about how helpful insects can be. One of the most well-known helpful insects is the honeybee, or bees in general. You've probably heard about saving the bees because, well, bees aren't just super cute, they also are great pollinators. They help lots of plants to grow. Lots of plants that we like to eat, such as apples, blueberries, melons, almonds, lots of different crops that people grow, need bees to pollinate them. Bees pollinate by catching the pollen off of plants in their tiny little hairy pockets on their legs. It's really cute. Other pollinators that you might have heard of include butterflies and moths. Butterflies and moths are important pollinators for lots of wildflowers. They also pollinate by catching the pollen in the little hairs on their legs and bodies. As pesky as they are, adult mosquitoes act as pollinators for orchids, which are beautiful flowers. Earthworms are incredibly beneficial. They improve the soil wherever they go. As they squirm through the soil, they leave these tracks that aerates the soil. Now, plants' roots, they need oxygen, just like we need to breathe, and those little tunnels help aerate and lead oxygen down to the roots. These tunnels also allow water to get down to the roots easily when it Earthworms also like to eat lots of gross little things in the soil that other bugs won't eat. The earthworm's bodies break down all of the nutrients and they poop it out on the other end, leaving the soil fresh and fertilized. Now, some insects help in other ways. Ladybugs, you've all seen them, they're very cute, very popular bugs. A lot of people who say they don't like bugs still love ladybugs. Ladybugs help out by eating lots of bad insects. Now, they like to eat aphids, which are tiny insects that like to chew on plants that we like to eat. They can destroy crops, but ladybugs help. Another insect that likes to eat aphids and other insects that like to hurt our crops are praying mantises. Now, praying mantises, they might look kind of scary close up, but they are really good at snagging and killing the bad insects in our gardens, such as aphids and grubs. Now, another insect that people who say they hate insects still might really like are dragonflies. They're beautiful and acrobatic and they love to eat mosquitoes. So, we like to have them in our backyards because no one wants to get eaten up by mosquitoes. Now, let's move on to a kind of gross creepy crawly. Let's talk about cockroaches. Cockroaches live where waste from other organisms accumulates. They like to eat that waste and they break it down, increasing some nutrients in the soil. This helps our plants to grow. This is very important for our forest ecosystems. Last but not least, let's talk about creepy crawly spiders. Now, did you know that spiders are not insects? Now, insects have to have six legs, but how many legs does a spider have? That's right, eight. Spiders fall under the category of arachnids. Other arachnids you might have heard of are scorpions. They also have eight legs. We should mention that spiders like to live around our homes and in our gardens and they are really good at eating the pesky insects that we don't want around. They like to eat aphids, which as we mentioned before, like to eat our plants. They like to eat flies. They like to eat wasps and mosquitoes. A spider friend in your garden can help out a lot. Thanks for coming along this helpful insect journey with me today. Don't forget to follow Chum at Home on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Buh-bye!