The Upside of Pests?
Part of an integrated approach to pest control is acknowledging that many pests have a vital role to play in the natural world. Many people may wish that a certain species of animal would be wiped off of the face of the earth forever, but if this were to actually happen, the consequences could be dire. The greater the numbers of one creature, the bigger the roles it usually plays within nature (the exception being humans) even if that role is just feeding an incredible large number of other creatures.
In writing the articles for this website, I have come to a greater understanding of many of the animals that we would commonly think of as pests. I would like to make one thing clear; I can absolutely empathize with a desire to get rid of some of the species covered in these pages, at least within the home. Cockroaches, fleas, lice, and house flies may have their place, but I am certainly not above killing them when I see them and wishing them to stay away from me and my property forever. In fact, the same thing goes for rats and mice, although I can understand their upside in the natural world.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why we don’t want many of the species we consider pests to be wiped out completely. It might make it easier to accept the fact that we can’t wipe them out anyway!
They serve the Great Food Chain. Without a doubt, this is the number one reason in my mind not to wipe out all the individual members of a species. Almost every pest serves as a staple for some creature that as humans, we tend to value. This includes even the extreme pests such as cockroaches and mosquitoes; pay careful attention to the number of birds found in an area that has undergone extensive campaigns to rid themselves of mosquitoes. Bird numbers plummet every single time!
They help plants to grow. Many pest species actually help plants to spread, creating more organic matter and therefore resupplying the earth with vital nutrients. They do this through the spread of pollen, through their own carcasses after they die, and through the carrying of seeds. Without large numbers of “pests”, vegetation on the earth would be rare, and that includes the plants that we count on for food.
They help keep each other in check. Almost all our common pests are continually at war with each other, keeping themselves in check. Ants, wasps and spiders kill each other and other pest insects whenever they get the chance, more proof that nature is perfectly capable of handling itself.
The only time that pests really become a problem is when their numbers grow to large. In these cases, they are apt to eat everything in sight. Even huge infestations of pests, though, can be found to occur naturally in the world; locust swarms are common in warmer climates, and in colder ones the rabbit population is supposed to explode every four years. The problem with controlling even these infestations is that we do not know what part they play in nature’s balance.
Of course infestations within civilization are another story. More often than not, however, an infestation occurs not naturally but due to some kind of interruption of the natural world that humans have made. If we were all to understand pests a little bit better, the odds are that these infestations would never occur.