In case you don’t have enough to concern you with climate change, there is another major environmental emergency happening in our time – the mass extinction of insects.
Do you remember when you were younger, all the insects that used to splatter on the car windshield? Has that happened to you recently? No one really cares, because bugs are icky, but when our fruit and vegetables don’t get pollinated, then we’re suddenly going to care an awful lot.
To try to do my bit, I’ve stopped mowing the lawn, apart from the bit out by the road because of the neighbours – although the grass on my verge is the longest in the street, rebel that I am. The lawns within the gates, however, have gone wild. Lawns are terrible for the climate but if you don’t mow, water, fertilise or deweed it then it’s not so bad. That’s my take on what I’ve read, anyway. The insects seem to love it.
On the other hand, there are only so many screams from house guests that I can tolerate, when they find cockroaches crawling in drawers, scurrying up walls, and even hiding under pillows. This week I abandoned my principles and called in pest control. The active ingredient is called deltamethrin, which sounds like something fabricated by Elves, so that can’t be too harmful to nature, surely? Anyway, it’s done it’s thing. If even my insect loving offspring thought it was the right thing to do, who am I to argue?
