Humans determine if an insect is beneficial, benign or pestiferous. Even when an insect is classified as a pest, it can have, under different circumstances, a beneficial role. A fly in a house is a ...

Many areas of agriculture depend on pollinators. Scientists estimate that 200,000 - 350,000 different animal species help with pollination, from birds to bats, marsupials to monarch butterflies. But ...

Pollinating insects like bees, butterflies and flies have had a rough time of late. A broad library of evidence suggests there has been a widespread decline in their abundance and diversity since the ...

In fields, forests, and backyard gardens, insects are quietly at work securing ecosystems and global supply chains. Over 75 percent of all flowering plants, including many fruits, vegetables, and nuts ...

Gardeners are getting the message that they can help birds, bees and nature in general by planting more native plants. But that message sometimes has converted into a call to plant nothing but native ...

Many plants, from crops to carnations, cannot bear fruit or reproduce without bees, beetles, butterflies and other insects to pollinate them. But the population of insect pollinators is dropping in ...

Residents living in towns and cities can play a major role in ensuring insect pollinators survive and thrive around them, a team of international scientists has said. Residents living in towns and ...

Honey bees aren’t the only insects that pollinate crops, but we often overlook or lump together all other, non-bee pollinators – flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, and bats, just ...