This week is National Insect Week! Now I’m the first to admit that I’m not mad keen on insects in general, but as such as an important part of our ecosystem, I felt I should do my bit to help them out.
But first, I realised that I couldn’t define an insect, a bug and a beetle. Are they different words for the same thing? Or are they all different? So to start off, I decided to find out the answers to these questions!
The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines an insect as:
a type of very small animal with six legs, a body divided into three parts and usually two pairs of wings
The same dictionary defines a bug as:
a very small insect
and a beetle as:
an insect with a hard shell-like back
So this suggests that bugs and beetles are actually insects.
I then went on to look into the Taxonomic Orders of insects (and creatures we sometimes call insects). With the aid of this helpful website, I’ve discovered that ‘insecta’ is a taxonomic class under the phylum of ‘anthropoda’ and that bugs and beetles are orders under the class of insecta.
So to answer my questions, yes, bugs and beetles are insects, but not all insects are bugs and beetles. There are also some common creepy crawlies which aren’t actually insects such as spiders, centipedes, millipedes and woodlice. They are all in the same phylum, but not the same class.
After that brief bit of scientific research, its on with today’s insect adventure!
Today I decided that I was going to make a bug hotel. I’m not a fan of bugs, beetles, spiders and such like, but I do understand their importance. What better way to make them feel welcome (and give them a home in my garden without having to go too close them) than making a bug hotel!
Its a very simple construction, I made a frame with a back from some scraps of wood we had lying around the sheds and filled it up with bits of wood, dried plant stems, hollow stems, bamboo stems, the odd pine cone and anything else that looked like an insect might like to make its home in it! Its not the greatest bug hotel you’ll find, but I’m sure our resident insects will like it nonetheless.
After setting this up in a sheltered corner of the garden I decided to have a brief hunt for some bugs.
Before I go, a brief haiku about our creepy-crawlie helpers.
They scuttle and hide.
Treats for birds.