By Ken Blomberg

Who among us doesn’t cringe at the thought of wood ticks and mosquitoes? Especially when they join us in our homes? Outdoors, experts tell us, the list of insects that inhabit our planet include an estimated six to ten million species. Insects represent over 90% of the animal life forms on Earth!

They are no doubt the anchor of Nature’s food chain. Just about everything else up the chain eats insects. Birds and mammals eat insects. Bears are known to tear apart dead trees and anthills to eat insects. Many people in the world enjoy theirs fried or roasted. Insects have saved the lives of many hopelessly lost souls in the woods. Bugs are the foundation of the natural world. Without these important cogs in the wheel, life as we know it would collapse.

June is a month for insects. Perhaps we should celebrate. This time around the sun, it was April and May showers that brought forth a bounty of insects. Many migrant birds arrived before bugs hatched in earnest, and at least here, our feathered friends relied on bird feeder suet, sugar water, seeds, mealworms and jelly. Then June arrived, and an explosion of insects followed. Just in time, as hungry, avian insect eating young-of-the-year hatched.

Fortunately, a long list of insect eaters are on our side keeping their numbers in check.

Dragonflies are one of the best predators holding mosquito numbers down. They hunt the skies as adults, and at larval stage, consume large numbers of mosquito larvae in the water. Adult dragonflies eat up more than 100 mosquitoes per day. We watch our local dragonflies this week patrolling the backyard prairie and cheer them on!

New to our place this spring is a pair of bat houses. Did you know that a single Little brown bat can consume 10 mosquitoes per minute, or thousands per night? Or that American corn farmers save nearly a $1 billion a year with corn earthworm pest control provided at no cost by bats? And that Little brown bats prey on nine mosquitoes species known to harbor West Nile virus, an insect-borne disease that can threaten humans as well as birds? Cheer on our bats indeed!

Moving from air to ground level, wood ticks once again emerged this spring in earnest. Checking for ticks on ourselves, grandkids and dogs is a daily affair. Just the thought of one may cause an involuntary itch. What in the natural world would you guess eats ticks? If you guessed opossum, you’re correct. It has been estimated that a single opossum consumes 5,000 ticks a season while sauntering along forests and fields – hoping ticks latch on. There, they consume up to 95% of those attached! I now mourn every road killed opossum I encounter.

Domestic Guinea hens and wild turkeys are said to relish wood ticks in their diets. I’m not about to give up turkey hunting, but will encourage their presence in our backyard food plot just the same.