Insect populations are declining dramatically

There are various factors, from monoculture farming to habitat loss and pesticides, to blame. We easily forget that insects are essential to agriculture, ecosystems and healthy biodiversity. The widespread overuse of nitrogen fertilizer encourages a few plant species such as corn to thrive, while the majority of species that live in symbiotic relationships with highly specialised insects vanish.

Some Sawfly larvae are commonly called Spitfire Grubs. They feed on Eucalyptus and Angophora and store Eucalyptus oil they regurgitate as thick yellow fluid in defence. They look like they sting but they don’t. They are the most primitive of the Hymenoptera (wasps, ants and bees – and are not flies).

I have to kill them or they decimate their favourite shrub, Callistemon salignus.

Case Moth caterpillar. Twigs protect and camouflage its cocoon of soft silk, spun by the caterpillar. There are over 1,350 species of the family Psychidae, 350 native to Australia and they use different materials.

If you notice anything,
it leads you to notice
more
and more.  Mary Oliver, The Moths