why can't we kill all the bugs?

     A question still asked more frequently than you might think--"why can't we kill all the bugs?"  We can't kill all the bugs because we need the bugs to survive. Without them all the life on Earth might die. You may have heard on a nature show that bugs dispose of decaying organic (stuff that used to be alive--dead plants or animals) matter, and that by doing this they clean up the planet. That is what some of the bugs and insects do. Others pollinate (help make new plants grow) the flowering plants--including all fruits and vegetables--and probably the flowering grasses, too. This doesn't just mean a few flower gardens. It means everything but some ferns and mushrooms. Insects aren't always given credit for pollinating the grasses, but many people believe that they do. That doesn't matter, you might say, because you don't eat vegetables or grass--but you do. Wheat and rice are cereal grains (basically grass)--and all the bread or pizza crust or hamburger rolls you have ever eaten was made from them. All the meat you have ever eaten was fed on the grains and grasses. We don't "manufacture" food, although large factories may make it look like we do. We grow food and "process" it--milling the wheat into flour for bread, drying and grinding the corn for tortilla chips.
     We know that the bugs and insects make many crops grow. If we decided to kill all of the bugs, we might find out too late that they made everything grow.