Jonas Salk, the American virologist who made the Polio vaccine, famously said, “If all insects disappeared, all life on earth would perish. If all humans disappeared, all life on earth would flourish.” Food for thought as we enter spring and summer and the local insect populations unearth to make their annual appearances after a long, harsh winter. Given that (hopefully) humans and insects are going to be around for a long time, it is up to us to find the means to coexist in ways that respect a symbiotic dynamic rather than one of domination and destruction. One person that has a better grasp than most about how to best do that is Blake Dinius -entomologist for the Plymouth County Extension.
Dinius was hired by the Plymouth County Extension to help curb tick and insect-born illnesses in Plymouth County as well as educate the public on prevention, awareness, and responsible environmental stewardship. After nine years with the county, Dinius is well-known in the community through his many public outreach and education programs and for going out of his way to be accessible for questions, learning, and curiosity about the natural world. With a degree from UMass Boston in biology and previously working at Smithers Viscient, an ecotoxicology testing facility in Wareham, as a biologist/study director of the Insect Department, Dinius is committed to helping the public navigate prevention and preservation with our tiny cohabitants.
“I work to provide science-based information and make it practical to the public through education and exposure to the natural world around them,” Dinius explains. With over 150 outreach programs a year through the Plymouth County Extension, Dinius is going to great lengths to accomplish just that. In addition to traveling all over the South Shore to give talks, Dinius also hosts free educational walks in forests, trails, wildland trust areas, and preserves. Dinius insists that the best and only real way to learn about our natural world and the insects in it, is to have first hand experiences. “The best way for people to come to understand insects is to get to know them”, Dinius explains, “People are not going to protect what they don’t care about, and they aren’t going to care about something they don’t see or understand.”
In addition to tick and mosquito education, Dinius specializes in pollinators. Anyone can easily catch wind of this topic via discussions and topic-presence on the news, social media, in our schools, and anywhere people are chatting about the outdoors. “Save the Bees” is a very basic and broadly applied sentiment, but how can we actually materialize this goal and who/what, exactly, are we trying to save?
In case a reminder is needed, pollinators do us the favor of assuring our survival and existence as a species. Roughly 85% of the worlds flowering plants, including a great deal of our edible food crops, rely on pollination. Pollinators also promote genetic diversity -which is mandatory to survive and adapt to a changing climate and shifting environments. The United States spends over $10 billion a year on pollination services for edible crops and over $3 trillion is spent on pollinator services globally. Our entire food system is dependent on the existence and health of pollinators -we simply can’t have food security or biodiversity without them.
But what about the pollinators at home? Dinius explains, “Our local pollinators are basically following the same trends as the national and some global trends. There are changes happening, but not all of them are the same or considered a decline in the way we think of it. In some areas, there is an overall decline of pollinators, but in others areas there is a decline in the variety of pollinators, but not their overall numbers. It is very complicated and there are many factors that contribute to these changes. The drought, for instance, is a large part of pollinator decline locally. If the flowers are in drought, they produce less nectar which affects the pollinators. It isn’t all about chemicals and loss of habitat. There are many contributing factors.”
When it comes to geography, pollinator populations are faring differently depending on the country and continent. “It is interesting to see that pollinator populations in some countries are actually increasing in spite of drastic decreases in others. One idea being studied is that countries who use pollinators as part of their agriculture systems, meaning to pollinate their crops by hiring out for hives to come sit in their fields, are showing a decrease in pollinators and increase in their diseases, whereas countries who are mostly using the products of the pollinators -honey and honeycomb, are showing increases in populations. Something interesting to think about in terms of what they are being exposed and subjected to and how it is different even in Canada for a pollinator compared to the United States.”
One of the most beneficial things humans can do to care for, protect, and enhance their local pollinator populations is to plant things that are found in our native habitats. The honeybee is not a native insect to North America (it originated in Asia and Africa), and many native bees and wasps are not catered to or noticed in comparison to the ambiguous honeybee.
With a loss of natural habitat as humans over-develop without replenishing or renewing, native pollinators are in a constant struggle to find the food sources their bodies are designed to break down and use. Plants that are not native to the area do not offer the same floral-traits or nutrition to the insects of that area that spent thousands of years evolving to subsist on those specific plants and flora. One of the worst offenders each spring, for countless reasons including its detriment to local pollinators, is the horticultural horror, the invasive Bradford Pear tree. That said, we all love our roses and vegetables, so it would be unrealistic and ineffective to ask people to only plant native species.
Dinius offers a more balanced perspective. “Mix the native plants into your existing and beloved plants. You can have your tomatoes, but perhaps add some spice bush or annual fleabane to your yard amidst the things that are there for ornamental or enjoyment purposes.” Dinius says that once you are aware of the need for native plants and cognizant of the local insect health and populations, other wise and sound environmental choices will fall into place. “Other focuses that help pollinators, like using less or no toxic chemicals in your yard, will usually naturally follow because that is just what happens when you learn to care -you learn to be careful and responsible for how you affect your environment.”
It is one thing to want to protect and promote local insects, but what happens when you want to avoid or hinder them? Dinius spends his days focusing on this public health-centered endeavor. Plymouth County’s tick-disease prevention initiative is largely modeled after Barnstable County’s, where entomologist Larry Dapsis had great success in decreasing infections during the start of the tick epidemic.
Plymouth County also has a financial incentive in pursuing the tick and insect issue. Plymouth County residents spend around $2.3 million per year on tick-related medical expenses, according to data released by County Administrator Frank Basler. It may be tempting to call your local spraying company with the goal of “killing them all” as a large thread on a local social media page recently suggested, but even with the most potent of poisons, ticks will not be eradicated at a level high enough to justify the damage to your local environment.
“The most effective way to deal with ticks and tick bites is through personal protection -meaning on your clothes and body,” Dinius explains. “According to the CDC data the last few years, even the strongest chemicals allowed for spraying for ticks only has about a 60% tick reduction rate,” says Dinius, “A single tick can lay about 3,000 eggs in its lifetime, so it is truly impossible to ‘eradicate’ them -nor do we want to as they are native insects and have a purpose in the ecosystems for other animals and insects as a major food source.”
Dinius points out that personal protection via body sprays and clothing cover and treatment, as well as tick checks when you go inside, provide closer to 100% prevention of tick bites and tick-born illness. “I grew up on 13 acres, I live near wetlands where sprays are illegal, and I am outside in tick-rich environments every day and I have not had a tick bite in 30 years,” Dinius points out, “I make sure I treat my family’s shoes and clothes with EPA Regulated repellants every single time we go outside.” As for the all-natural sprays Dinius says, “They can work in terms of the ingredients they use -they are effective ingredients, the issue is that because they are not regulated by the EPA, the amounts of the ingredients used is often off or not enough to provide adequate protection. It is best to use EPA approved tick and mosquito repellants to have your best chances of avoiding bites.”
In addition to personal protection, it is important to use jurisdiction about yard management. Dinius explains, “Leave the leaves and No-Mow May are great, and they can absolutely benefit insects, but it also benefits ticks. They love leaf mulch. My suggestion is to designate an area of your yard to allow leaf mulch to sit until the weather warms and the insect eggs using the leaves hatch, but you should avoid letting it accumulate where your kids and animals play or go often. I have a specific area that I give to nature -where I keep the grass long and leave the leaves, and I have a great display of fireflies and a healthy pollinator population in my yard, but I make sure it is not the same area my kids play.”
When it comes to the other hot-topic pest of the area, mosquitoes, Dinius explains the need for and administration of large-scale sprays. “The Mosquito Control Project of Plymouth County is a state agency overseen by the Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They use a spray made of BTI – Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis -a naturally occurring bacterium found in soil that produces toxins specifically targeting the larvae of mosquitoes, blackflies, fungus gnats, and related flies. This spray impacts mosquitoes and midges, but largely leaves other insect populations unharmed. It also dissipates in sunlight and is sprayed at night so that by the time the pollinators are up for the day, the spray is gone and there is no effect on them.”
Dinius also explains that the late summer spraying via planes are only used by the state if there is a credible threat to the public via mosquito transmitted illnesses like EEE. “The late summer sprays are meant to kill mosquitoes on a non-targeted, larger scale, but even with these large applications, studies have shown that insect populations pre and post spray are not different. The spray also does not bind well to soil, so there is no evidence that is gets into groundwater systems long-term and has little to no effect on soil health.”
In spite of the overwhelming presence and talk of tick and mosquito-born illnesses, and pollinator and insect crises around the world, it is imperative to not feel powerless or fearful. “We risk getting hit by a car every time we go across the street,” says Dinius, “But we are not afraid to cross the street -we are careful. We need to apply this to our being out in nature. Now it is more important than ever to be outside -to get to know our surroundings and learn about our local environment so that we care about it, and we can’t do that if we are all avoiding it.” The best way to stop fearing or disrespecting anything is to come to understand it. Dinius hopes we can realize our place in our local ecosystems and thereby enjoy them much more. “It is absolutely great outside. There are so many incredible things to see and learn right out in the woods or in your neighborhood. You just have to make the effort to go look and watch and then learn a bit about what you are seeing. It enriches your life.” This summer I, for one, will be making more of an effort to get to know and be good to my neighbors -not the ones ringing doorbells or driving down the street, but the ones flitting from flower to flower in the garden or burrowing under a dead log. There is a tiny little complex world of creatures co-existing right in your yard, and the neighborly thing to do is to look out for them.
For more information or any questions, contact Blake Dinius at:
bdinius@plymouthcountyma.gov or call 774-773-3404 via the Plymouth County Extension.
Visit the Plymouth County Extension Facebook page for a schedule of free, guided walks, public lectures, and events.