Insects are some of the most important organisms on the Earth today. Without them, people would have an exceedingly difficult or nearly impossible time surviving. There are over 1.5 million insects that are already named, and scientists believe that there are even more that have yet been discovered. Though many folks have opinions about nuisance insects of Colorado, here are reasons that insects are vital.
You might ask why insects are so important. First, insects are important because they play an integral role in the food web. They are a food source for many other animals and some cultures. Some insects play an important role in decomposition of various plants and leaf litter. Other insects are decomposers of animal matter like flies and dermestid beetles and these insects can play an invaluable role in forensic entomology. Scientists know how long fly eggs take to mature into maggots and then pupae into flies and this information can provide valuable insight into homicides.
Insects are also important for their role in pollination. Without insects like bees we would not have any other way of pollinating our flowers, fruits or vegetables. Lots of money goes into agriculture and some of that money goes towards invasive weed management and sometimes insects are used as a biological control. The insects chosen will eat a specific kind of weed and only that kind of weed. This can be used to control noxious weeds like leafy spurge. Another biological control is parasitic wasps. These tiny wasps are used in pest control to combat flies. These tiny wasps parasitize the fly larvae, thus killing them and preventing them from pupating into adult flies. These wasps can be used around horse and cattle stalls to dramatically reduce or eliminate the fly population.
Insects are also important when it comes to human health. The most money spent on insect research is for vector transmission of diseases like Malaria. The world health organization estimates that over one million people lose their lives every year because of the mosquito. One can begin to understand why some much of the effort around the world is dedicated to studying the mosquito and the diseases that it transmits.
When it comes to Colorado, we are in a unique portion of the country, where the Rocky Mountains are in our backyard and we are far from either the east or west coast. We are in the central portion of the U.S. and we get a wide variety of insects from the high mountains to the grassland prairies. From our perspective at Northern Colorado Pest and Wildlife Control we are dedicated to the understanding of insects, but we focus in on nuisance insects. These insects represent a ridiculously small portion of the total number of insects in Colorado and around the world. We focus in on those insects that bite people (mosquitoes, bed bugs, fleas and ticks which are not an insect), insects that pose a human health problem like cockroaches, and those that affect our food supply like carpet beetles, Indian meal moths, grain beetles, and flour beetles. We also work with insects that produce venom and those that can kill us or harm us like wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and some ants. Bees are not typically dealt with and are generally referred to a beekeeper as bees are advantageous. Other insects like box elder bugs, cinch bugs, conifer seed bugs, crickets, earwigs and millipedes and centipedes (both are not insects) are just a nuisance and really cause little to no damage.
Our classification of pest control is structural pest control, and we manage insect populations inside and outside residential and commercial buildings and the surrounding areas. We also work with wood destroying organisms like termites, carpenter ants and carpenter bees. Other types of pest control might include ornamental, turf management and right-of-way, but we do not work with these types of pest control.
We are here to help you out with all your pest needs and we are just a phone call away. Call us today at 970-330-3929 and one of our exceptional office staff will assist you in scheduling an appointment with one of our technicians. Do not let the insects in your yard be a nuisance, call us today.