Southend-on-Sea RSPB Group

IS THE UK LOSING ITS BUZZ?
RSPB LAUNCHES SPLATOMETER SURVEY

This summer thousands of people across the UK will be counting bugs in a bid to discover if insect numbers are declining.

The RSPB’s Big Bug Count runs from 1 –30 June 2004 and will encourage people to count the number of insects ‘splatted’ on their car number plates after a journey.

Participants will be armed with a splatometer [note 1] to help them count the splats and it’s hoped the data will help build a picture of insect populations across the UK. (Template for the splatometer will be available for downloading from June 1st - see RSPB main link below).

Richard Bashford, RSPB Big Bug Count co-ordinator, says: “Some insects are particularly important and provide food for birds such as swallows and house martins. House sparrows also rely on insects to feed their chicks yet sparrow numbers have declined by 62% in the last 25 years. [note 2] By taking part in Big Bug Count you’ll be helping the RSPB look at how insect declines may be affecting some of our best-loved birds.”

The reasons why there are fewer insects around [note 3] are not yet known - theories include habitat loss and pollution. RSPB Big Bug Count won’t identify causes of insect declines, but it will provide that first step in helping to monitor future changes in the abundance of flying bugs across the UK.

To take part in the survey call the Big Bug Count hotline number 0870 787 5577 (calls charged at national rate). The hotline will be operational from 17 April until 21 June 2004.

You can also visit the RSPB website www.rspb.org.uk/bugcount for further information. An online survey form will also be available from 1 June.

The following fact files on our species of concern are available:
(note that these are Microsoft Word documents - right click on the link and select 'Save Target As' to download).

For further information, please contact:
Caroline Osborne, RSPB press officer 01767 681577 or
Mobile: 07743 841440
Richard Bashford, Big Bug Count co-ordinator 01767 680551.

Additional notes:

1. A splatometer is a cardboard grid to aid the counting of insect splats on a number plate.

2. Source: The state of the UK’s birds 2001. The RSPB, BTO, WWT and JNCC.

3. There are more than 23,000 insect species in the UK and they are essential for pollinating crops and plants, recycling and of course, as a food source for other creatures, including birds.

There’s lots of anecdotal evidence reporting insect declines – just a couple of decades ago you could go on a long summer’s drive and return with a whole range of dead insects stuck to your bumper and windscreen. But now, there are significantly less and although the car washing job has become much easier the loss of insects has serious consequences for the environment.

And with some bird species also facing declines, conservationists are concerned the countryside is losing its buzz, as well as its birdsong.

No-one yet knows why there are less insects around, although the root of the problem could include habitat loss, habitat degeneration and pollution. But the fact remains, whether you love or hate those multi-legged, flying creatures, they are essential to the ecosystem and if you remove one part of the cycle, everything becomes less stable.

Insects are already widely accepted as biodiversity indicators and in polluted or disrupted systems, invertebrate populations are often smaller and less diverse.

There are more than 23,000 insect species in Britain alone – more than eight million worldwide - and we need them to pollinate crops, as well as plants in gardens and in the wild. They are also recyclers doing an essential – if dirty job – in natural cycles by breaking down dead organic matter and recycling the nutrients.

We have insects to thank for honey, silk and beeswax and for their role in genetic research, but they also play a vital role in the food chain providing nourishment for birds, reptiles and amphibians.

And this is where the RSPB comes in. Insects are a particularly important and nutritious food for growing chicks and yet numbers of some bird species which rely on bugs are declining – could this be due to a reduction in insect numbers?

House sparrows, for example, rely on insects to feed their chicks and yet numbers have declined by 62% in the last 25 years with an estimated loss of 9.6 million birds. Skylarks have also been affected - there are now less than 10,000 pairs in the UK and they too have seen numbers more than halve. Both species are now on the red list of Birds of Conservation Concern.

RSPB Big Bug Count won’t identify causes of insect declines, but it will provide a baseline against which to track future changes in the abundance of flying bugs across the UK. It will also look at regional differences - we hope to find out which are the best and the worst regions of the UK for flying insects.

It’s the first step towards solving the mystery, but there’s a long way to go before the reasons behind declining insect numbers will be fully understood.

In the meantime, rather than seeing insects as creatures to be reviled, if we look more closely we’ll see species of beauty and fascination - our summers would be poorer without butterflies to admire against the background buzzing of bees and chirping of grasshoppers.