Precis

Remember when a country drive ended with the windscreen covered in smashed insects? Ever wondered why that seems to happen less these days?

Now a landmark German study has come up with a possible explanation. Conducted over thirty years, scientists in the city of Krefeld have documented a collapse in that country’s insect population. Those findings are backed up by another study across the border in the Netherlands which concludes a sharp drop in wildlife populations.

The scientists are warning that a crash of insect numbers could directly threaten not only the birds and other animals which prey on them but also, the plants that rely on them for pollination.

“About 80% of our crop depends on insects for pollination. 80% of the wild plant species as well”, explains Professor Hans de Kroon from the Netherlands’ Radboud University. “If we are losing that, we are losing the ecological foundation of ourselves.”

The impacts on agriculture could be dire. Ironically, the culprit is believed to be farm-based insecticides. At its worst, this may be the realisation of US biologist Rachel Carson’s famous 1960s “Silent Spring” prediction of eco-system decline.

But the good news is that the Europeans are fighting back. In Germany, after a citizen-led petition to protect insects, the state of Bavaria mandated that a third of all farmland must be organic by 2030. And ordinary people are paying farmers to plant flowers instead of crops.

In the Netherlands, scientists are planting wildlife corridors to create safe passages for our flying friends. “You can really get it back quite rapidly”, says Professor de Kroon, “but you have to help it a little bit.”

Foreign Correspondent’s Eric Campbell meets the passionate characters chronicling our bugs’ lives. He joins entomologists trapping and counting insects in Germany, biologists measuring the effects on bird and frog populations in the Netherlands, and tweedy British nature lovers chasing butterflies and bumble bees in the woods of Kent.

All have a passion for their tiny subjects, and a sense of urgency about the steps needed to avoid...Insectageddon.

Aerial over Rhine, castle. Super:
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Music

00:00

Title: Insectageddon

00:10

Eric driving through countryside

00:14

Super:
Reporter
Eric Campbell

00:19

Aerial over farmland

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Flying insects, by definition, get around -- along forests, over fields, and if they’re lucky, through insecticides.

00:23

Insects on flowers

But for decades, people have had a nagging sense that insects aren’t travelling well.

00:35

Bees

Now, some scientists suggest their numbers are crashing; we could even be facing Insectageddon.

00:43

Eric driving Beetle

So how bad is it, and can it be stopped? I’m in Germany on the trail of disappearing bugs.

00:53

Eric to camera, driving

Now one of the reasons for the concerns has been dubbed the Windshield Phenomenon. People remembering that when they were kids and went on family drives across Europe or North America that the windshield would be literally covered with insects. And these days it seems you can drive for days and never have to clean it. We’ve been travelling in this Beetle and haven’t hit a single bug.

01:04

But how do you prove it? Well, that would have meant people spending literally decades collecting and counting millions of insects to see if there really had been a drop. And who would have the time or inclination to do that? Thank goodness for the Germans.

01:27

Music

01:46

Aerials over countryside

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: I’m heading to the small north-west town of Krefeld near the Dutch border. It’s home to a startling discovery that’s rung alarm bells around the world.

01:54

Entomology society display

The local entomology society has been quietly collecting and sorting insects for more than a century.

02:08

Eric in society museum

Music

02:19

Eric with Martin Sorg

Eric:  So this is where you keep all your insects, Martin?

Martin:  Yes, these are parts of the rooms where the collections are stored. For instance, here.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Martin Sorg started hanging out here when he was 13. He’s now a PhD in entomology.

02:32

Insect specimen files

Eric:  How many insects do you think you have altogether in this building?

Martin:  We don’t know the real numbers. But we think far more than 80 million.

02:52

Eric with Martin

Eric: Eighty million insects in this building here! Wow!

03:01

Martin shows insect case

Music

03:04

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:   In 1989 he and some young colleagues decided to do something extraordinary.

03:08

Photos. Martin and colleagues.

They began collecting flying insects from 63 nature reserves and tracked the changing numbers for 30 years.

03:15

Man looks at insect under microscope

Music

03:26

Martin interview 

MARTIN SORG:  We have standardised the methodology because we wanted to compare each year’s results.

03:30

Eric and Martin into jeep, drive to trap sites

Music

03:40

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  It’s taken extraordinary perseverance and obsessive attention to detail.

03:46

Martin:  That’s the trap, das is die Falle.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: They’ve placed identical traps in identical locations year after year after year.

03:53

Eric and Martin in field with trap

Eric:  So the insects fly up to the top of the tent and get caught in that bottle.

04:03

Martin:  Yes, that’s the idea. Insects normally orient themselves to the brightest point and that’s the principle of this trap.

Eric:  They go to the brightest high point and you’ve got them.

Martin:  Now we'll go and change the bottle.

04:08

Martin changes trap bottle

Music

04:26

Martin carries insect sample into lab. Drains, weighs, etc

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:   Each sample was brought back, drained, sorted and weighed in exactly the same way. And in October 2017 they were able to report a stunning finding. In the course of 16,900 days of standardised sampling, flying insect numbers had crashed by three quarters.

04:30

Aerial. Trap tent in field

MARTIN SORG:  It was a drop of 75 per cent

04:57

Martin interview

during a timeline of 27 years.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: That’s shocking.

MARTIN SORG: Yes that’s shocking.

05:04

CU Insects on plants

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  And it’s shocking because a healthy environment depends on a healthy insect population. They keep weeds in check, dispose of dead animals, pollinate plants, and feed birds and frogs and other animals right up the food chain. Our very existence depends on creepy crawlies.

05:10

Martin interview

MARTIN SORG: Declines in biodiversity are a very serious thing and we should be worried, yes.

05:36

Martin launches drone

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  So what’s been killing so many insects? The data ruled out changes to weather or vegetation. The project’s drone footage shows a more likely culprit. 

05:47

Drone footage over farmland

Music

06:03

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  The nature reserves are protected from land clearing and chemicals. But they’re surrounded by farmland that’s enemy territory for bugs, with huge stretches of monoculture, absolutely no flowers and regular spraying of pesticides.

06:11

Martin interview in field

MARTIN SORG:  The farmland is inside the daily flight activity of many of the species flying inside of these traps.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  So could the problem just be modern farming?

"What do you suspect is a big reason for this…?"

Martin Sorg says speculation is not his department.

Martin:  I do not suspect.

06:31

Driving shots

Music

06:52

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:   To meet people who do suspect, he suggested we drive across the border to the Dutch city of Nijmegen.

06:58

University exteriors. Student on bikes

Music

07:06

Eric into university building

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  For some years, researchers at Radboud University had also been noticing a big drop in wildlife numbers. The Krefeld study confirmed their worst fears. 

07:13

PROF. HANS DE KROON, Radboud University:  All of a sudden we had a percentage,

07:28

De Kroon interview

a scientifically proven percentage, of how much this whole bulk of insects was going down.

07:30

Eric:  "I mean how concerned should we be about that?"

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Ecologist Hans de Kroon has little doubt that farming is responsible.

07:35

PROF. HANS DE KROON, Radboud University: Agriculture can have effects on the living conditions in the nature reserves and we know for example that very low levels of insecticides can already disrupt insect life and these traces have been found spreading around.

07:41

Drone shot. Farmland

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Since World War Two, pesticides have been used to kill organisms that are bad for crops,

07:59

Pesticide spraying

like cockroaches and grasshoppers.

08:08

City. Fruit and veg

But what if their overuse is now threatening insects that are good for crops, like bees? Farmers need pollinators to grow apples, onions, melons, broccoli, celery, cabbage, watermelon, cucumber, lemon, carrot, buckwheat, eggplant, strawberries…

PROF. HANS DE KROON, Radboud University: Well you must realise that about 80 per cent

08:14

De Kroon interview

of our crops depends on insects for pollination. Eighty per cent of the wild plant species as well. A major part of the insects is being eaten by birds and by other animals being essential in the food chain. So if we are losing all of that, we are losing the sort of the ecological foundation of ourselves.

08:34

Eric in reserve, to camera

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Now some people have questioned the whole idea of an insect apocalypse because the study in Krefeld just looked at some reserves in Germany. But it’s also been going on across the border here in the Netherlands and I’m about to meet some other keen entomologists who’ve been counting insects.  They’re more laid back than the Krefeld crowd, but their findings have been almost as stunning.

09:02

Eric greets Paul and meets collectors

Eric:  I’m looking for Paul. Hello Paul. Eric. From Australia.

Paul: Oh, Australia! The guys from Australia. Nice to meet you. Be a guest.

Eric: Thank you very much. This is your crew?

09:25

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Paul van Wielink and his mates are retirees or hobby collectors who meet just one evening a week.

Paul:  Hank.

Eric:   Hello, Hank. How are you?

Hank:   I’m the son of Joriksberg.

Eric:   Excellent.

Paul:  But he knows a lot of moths.

Eric:  He knows a lot of moths. Personally? 

Paul:   Everything.

09:41

Setting up screen

Music

09:57

Man: Do these ones first?

Paul: I'll do the bottom ones.

10:09

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Their technique is simple. They set up a screen…

10:13

Paul:  God damn it. This is incredibly annoying.

10:17

Screen light on/Collection of insects

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: …turn on a light, collect the insects that turn up, and send the results to Radboud University. And it’s all bad news.

10:24

Eric with Paul

Paul:  All kinds of insects are going down.

Eric:  How much are the numbers going down?

Paul:   The moths by about 60 per cent. The beetles by about 70 per cent. And those figures are comparable with those in Krefeld.

Eric:   So the same sort of catastrophe?

Paul:   That is kind of catastrophe, yes, I think so.

Eric: Same thing's happening here.

Paul: That’s happening here also.

Eric:  Wow.

10:38

Paul:  And I saw a study this afternoon in Denmark, there was a study published, with windscreens and counting hits in 20 years and also they had the same thing.

11:00

Eric: So it’s true about windscreens; there are less bugs hitting windscreens?

Paul:  Yes. And it's all over the world.

Eric:  It’s not just an urban myth? It's really happening?

Paul:   There’ll be in Australia also, I think.

Eric:  Okay.

Paul:  Because you have farmers there too.

Eric:   Yeah.

11:14

Collectors cataloguing insects

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  The problem is we don’t really know what’s happening in Australia, let alone most of the rest of the world.

11:28

Paul collecting insects from screen

Paul:  I see something quite interesting here. Yes! That is a caddisfly!

11:34

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  They´ve been counting insects for more than 20 years, but there just aren´t enough projects like this internationally. The world has grown rather complacent since the last warning of ‘Insectageddon’ nearly 60 years ago.

11:38

Paul:  That is truly very beautiful.

11:57

Silent Spring documentary excerpt

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:   In 1962, a wildlife biologist, Rachel Carson wrote a global best-seller called Silent Spring, sounding the alarm on DDT.

12:00

RACHEL CARSON:   Unless we do bring these chemicals under better control we are certainly headed for disaster.

12:14

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  She exposed how the pesticide was wiping out insect populations and contaminating the food chain. And she envisioned silent springs, without bird song in the morning or frog choruses at night.

12:19

RACHEL CARSON:  These sprays, dusts and aerosols, are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests and homes -- non-selective chemicals that have the power to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams.

12:40

Drone shots over farmland

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Rachel Carson’s work led to a near global ban on DDT. But since then, other potent chemicals have taken its place.

12:56

Sprayer in field

Regulators fear some of the new ones have grown way too lethal. If there is a smoking gun,

13:09

Eric to camera, on back of sprayer

some suspect it’s a popular type of pesticide called neonicotinoids. Now, in 2018 the EU brought in a near total ban across Europe, but they’re still in use in Australia. And the Trump administration has overturned a ban to ensure their continued use in the US. Some scientists believe that’s bad news for bees.

13:20

De Kroon interview. Super:
Prof Hans de Kroon
Radboud University

PROF. HANS DE KROON, Radboud University:  These neonics are usually broken up quite rapidly when they’re out in the air. But when they’re in the soil, or in the soil and water, or in surface water, they can hang around for a long time. Probably in very low concentrations, but these low concentrations really affect insect life. So it’s a very special class, extremely poisonous for insects. And there’s more and more evidence that they are really affecting non-target insect species.

13:47

Eric driving Beetle to Bavaria

Music

14:12

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  So what can be done to prevent a silent spring? I’m heading down to southern Germany to see how an entire State is mobilising.

14:26

Bavaria is usually thought of as the heartland of conservatism. And that includes conserving nature. It’s part of the culture here to protect the forests and look after wildlife in the city.

14:39

Norbert with kids to nest

15:00

Norbert at nest with Eric and kids

Norbert: This is the nest of the red spotted woodpecker. These boys, they spotted this nest…

15:07

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Dr Norbert Schaffer is president of the Bavarian Bird Society. He and his colleagues hit on the idea of a petition demanding insect protection. And they focused on everyone’s favourite insect, calling their campaign ‘Save The Bees’.

15:14

DR. NORBERT SCHAFFER:  It’s of course not only about honey bees, in fact honey bees are a minor part. It’s about insects. It’s about biodiversity as a whole.

15:31

Bee campaigners march

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  The idea captured the public’s imagination. The streets of the capital, Munich, were soon packed with campaigners dressed as bees, braving freezing weather to encourage some of Bavaria’s nine million voters to come out and sign. Now, what happened next took everyone by surprise,

15:39

Eric to camera, at market

because 1.75 million people signed it. It was the most popular petition here ever. And the government soon promised to sign it into law. Environmentalists could hardly believe their success. Farmers could hardly believe what was about to hit them.

16:02

Food market

The news laws call for 13 per cent of the State to be put aside as ecological zones and almost a third of farmland to become organic.

16:20

Schaffer interview

DR. NORBERT SCHAFFER:  It is a target. No one will be forced to go organic. Farmers cannot be forced to do things. The government has to deliver. Most of the legislation is really aimed at the government. The government has to deliver certain targets, and all the government has to put offers on the table.

16:32

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  So going 30 per cent organic is a massive change, isn't it?

DR. NORBERT SCHAFFER:  I hope so. I hope it will change our landscape. It is a massive change, but it is doable, there is no doubt. In other land in Germany, they are talking about 50 per cent organic now. So it is doable. We know this. It is affordable. It's good for our environment and it's good for people. It is, of course, a big change. Well, yes, and it's a change many, many people in Bavaria want, and this is why they signed up to the petition.

16:49

Aerial. Tractor on country road

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Away from Munich, farmers aren’t so sanguine.

17:18

Franz driving tractor

Many, like Franz Lehner, fear they’ll be lumbered with the cost of going organic. We caught up with him as he was spraying his wheat fields with nitrogen fertiliser. He insists chemicals are essential to grow a productive crop.

17:25

Franz showing diseased wheat leaves

FRANZ LEHNER:   At the bottom here, where you see this older leaf, you can see these very small black pustules there. The disease is called septoria tritic and then you have a poor yield.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  That's why you need pesticides?

17:45

FRANZ LEHNER:  Correct. That's why you need pesticides so you can protect this plant for the next eight weeks.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Is it possible to operate without pesticides or plant protection?

18:03

FRANZ LEHNER:  Yes, it's possible of course. Our forefathers also did agriculture without using pesticides, but it has to be said that we have eight billion people on earth and without pesticide, without fertilisation, it is not possible to feed these people

18:16

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Franz Lehner says if greenies in the city really want to help to change farming, they have to do more than sign petitions.

18:43

Franz making sponsorship signs

They need to open their wallets. He’s started a program for people to sponsor bee friendly crops and get their name on a stick for it.

18:50

Franz and Eric in field. Eric to camera

This is interesting. Farmers like Franz and now leasing land for people in the city to sponsor growing flowers to help bees and other insects… rather than potatoes or something.  People have to pay – or can pay -- farmers to grow flowers. So instead of just signing a petition they actually give money as well. Okay. Is it a good idea?

FRANZ LEHNER:  Yes, good for farmers, good for the environment, good for people in the city.

19:04

Hardware store/Plant sales

Music

19:39

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Other businesses are cashing in on the concerns. German and Dutch hardware stores are now featuring bee friendly flowers and bee hotels. But much more will be needed to help make farming more sustainable.

19:45

Meadow plants

Music

20:03

Eric and Hans climb over field fence and walk through wildflower strip

Hans de Kroon:  What we see right here is that flower strips are created in the landscape…

20:12

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  In the Dutch border country, Professor de Kroon and his team are also starting to tackle the problems of intensive land-clearing.  They’re working with farmers to plant wildflowers on the edges of their fields, creating a network of bug friendly corridors between the nature reserves, allowing insects to avoid the dangers of farmland.

20:15

PROF. HANS DE KROON, Radboud University: It should connect bigger nature reserves on that side with bigger nature reserves on that side.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  So these are like highways for bees.

PROF. HANS DE KROON, Radboud University: Highways for bees, yes exactly.

20:41

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:   Hans de Kroon says they’re already seeing results, not just for insects but for the birds and frogs that feed on them.

20:52

PROF. HANS DE KROON, Radboud University:  It’s somewhat surprising but you can really get it back quite rapidly. In a matter of years. You have to help it a little bit, but it's certainly possible. It’s this landscape that makes me optimistic about the changes that we can make.

21:00

Music

21:14

Dover cliffs, England/Drone shots. Farmland

21:17

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Some scientists are finding it harder to muster optimism. Across the channel in the English counties,

21:24

Dave in garden

Dave Goulson has been studying the Krefeld report with dismay. He’s professor of biology at Sussex University and he fears society is headed for the silent spring that Rachel Carson warned of.

21:32

Chickens and Turkey

PROF. DAVE GOULSON, Sussex University:  It's like deja vu, you know, we're going round in circles here. It's nuts.

21:54

Dave interview in garden

She saw what was happening all that time ago and we banned a whole bunch of pesticides as a result, but then we introduced new ones to replace them, many of which then eventually we banned. So we introduced even more, including the Neonicotinoids, and 20 years on into their use, we're starting to realise that they too are harming the environment. The whole system of having a way of farming which is entirely reliant on chucking on bucket loads of chemicals is not sustainable. We are going to wipe out insect life if we carry on this way.

21:58

Dave shows garden

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  But he’s not giving up yet. His back garden is a showcase of what individuals can do … creating organic habitats for insects and letting nature take its course.

22:28

Dave:  Bee friendly, butterfly friendly. Nature friendly, actually; it isn't just about bees, it's about everything, birds and everything else that makes up a natural healthy ecosystem, if you like.

Eric:  So how do you do that?

22:43

Dave:  Don't be too tidy. Don't mow all the time. Grow lots of the right kinds of flowers.

Eric:  Well, there's a few bumblebees over here.

Dave:  Yeah. So one of the reasons bees are struggling in the modern world is there aren't many flowers.

22:57

Modern farmland is pretty flower free and it's a really nice thing that you can do in your own garden. Lupin is brilliant, lavenders, lots of herbs, things like marjoram and thyme and sage, rosemary, they're all really good for bees and you can cook with them as well, so what's not to like?

23:12

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:   One thing you won’t find here is insecticide.

Dave:  Just don't, is my advice.

23:30

Dave interview in garden

I've got a big garden that I somehow manage to produce lots of fruit and veg, lots of pretty flowers and I don't use any pesticides. I haven't done for years, and I'm not alone, France recently banned pesticides for use in urban areas.

Eric:  Really?

Dave:  Completely, the whole country. So, you know, Paris from now on, I bet you it'll still look just as beautiful, all the parks and everything. They're not going to be overrun with dandelions and cockroaches. I'm sure. Some cities did this years ago. Toronto banned pesticides more than a decade ago and Toronto is still standing. We could get rid of pesticides completely from our cities and it would be good for bees and butterflies and good for people too.

23:40

Turkey in garden

Music

24:17

Nuclear power plant in distance

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  An hour’s drive away, in the shadow of a nuclear power plant, a band of eco-volunteers is showing the tide can be turned.

24:30

Volunteers gather for bee expedition/Nikki briefs volunteers

Nikki:  Anyone else for tea?... Did you get your tea? Chris and Nick, you’ve got Lydd golf course. You got your clubs?

24:40

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:   Led by entomologist Nikki Gammans, they’re on the trail of endangered bumble bees.

24:53

Nikki:  Dave just got a brown banded, bombus humilis there the other day.  So I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you that you see a few rare bees. These guys are specifically here to see rare bees. So no pressure, you two.

25:00

Volunteers set off into nature reserve

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Their hunting ground is the Dungeness National Nature Reserve on the Strait of Dover. For the past decade, Dr Gammans has been monitoring bees for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

25:13

DR NIKKI GAMMANS:  If you just take the UK alone, we have one in three of our bee species is actually classed as rare or threatened. We've had two species go extinct in the UK, and a further seven are rare and threatened of just our bumblebees.

25:27

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  It’s not just the wildlife that’s disappearing, but the wild land they once depended on.

DR NIKKI GAMMANS:   Over the last 60, 70 years, we've lost over 97 per cent of our ancient

25:38

wildflower meadows.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: As well as counting bees, Dr Gammans is planting bee-friendly flowers. And today, there's an unexpected find --

25:50

Nikki catches bee

a rare bee she feared was gone for good.

Nikki:   Yay! Yeah, if you’ve got another pot. Oh wonderful, brilliant, there we go. This is one of the UK's rarest bumblebee species, it's actually the third rarest bumblebee. A beautiful queen, really fresh.  It’s called the brown banded carder. She’s very beautiful.

26:00

Nikki with Eric. Shows bee

Eric:   This is an exciting moment for you?

Nikki:  Yes. It's really great and I'm really pleased that we found her here. It's been a very slow season this year. The weather hasn't been very consistent. We had some quite hot weather over the Easter period and then it went very cold again. We were concerned how that might affect the emergence of many of our queens.

26:25

CU bee in pot

Eric:  This discovery gives you a little bit of hope?

Nikki:  Definitely. And when we've been looking at our analysis of our data from the last 10 years,

26:45

Nikki with Eric

actually, where we've given advice and where we've done actual improvement of the wildflowers, some of these rare species have doubled in number. This is one of the first experiments that's actually shown it. Because we've had that continuation of 10 years, we've been able to monitor them really well. It's lovely to see this species out and flying.

26:52

Eric:  Great. What happens to her now?

Nikki:  We let her go.

Eric:  Okay.

27:10

Nikki releases bee

Music

27:14

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The first challenge will be finding out how big the global problem is.

27:24

Drone shot over farmland

The ground-breaking study in Krefeld showed the potential scale of an apocalypse in Europe. Other continents are only starting to wake up to the danger.

27:30

Dutch volunteers

Citizen scientists across Europe are helping to fill the gaps. But It may take a global effort to avoid a silent spring.

27:46

Credits [see below]

27:56

Out point

28:25