Insects, including ants, spiders, and flies, help keep the world free of discarded food waste. Research in Manhattan found that insects can eat 2,100 pounds of food waste each year, equivalent to 60,000 hot dogs. Arthropods ate 32% of caged food in 24 hours and 80% of food left in open traps. Certain types of food waste were more popular than others.
Don’t be so quick to hate those creepy bugs and spiders that share our world. They are on our side. Research conducted in Manhattan, led by a North Carolina State University entomologist, found in 2014 that dozens of insect species — including ants, spiders, centipedes, cockroaches and flies — help keep our world free of discarded food waste. . In fact, researchers have found that along Manhattan’s Broadway/West Street corridor, insects can eat 2,100 pounds (950 kg) of food waste each year, the weight equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs. “If the bugs didn’t eat all this food, they would just pile up and be dirty,” said study leader Elsa Youngsteadt.
Insects and bedbugs:
The researchers used caged food traps in urban parks and along Manhattan midtowns filled with fast-food waste. They also left traps outdoors for larger animals, such as mice, pigeons, squirrels and birds.
The researchers found that the arthropods ate 32% of caged food in 24 hours. In the traps left in the open, they noticed that the animals (including arthropods) devoured 80% of the food.
Certain types of food waste were particularly popular. “Arthropods definitely preferred chips and cookies to hot dogs,” says Youngsteadt, whose research is published in Global Change Biology.
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