Bugs are the base of the food chain,
food for just about everything else,
but to start the process, they too must eat.
Just like the bigger animals of the plains,
there are grazers, scavengers and predators that hunt them.
In their feeding behaviors, creepy-crawlies shape
and enrich their environments.
And their quest to eat has led
to the most spectacular diversity of weird,
dramatic and beautiful species.
Some we love, some we hate,
and some we don't know anything about.
But regardless, all are fascinating and vital.
So pull up a seat and join us for The Bug Buffet.
(dramatic music)
Being small can be challenging.
It's a dangerous world of giants.
Everything eats bugs.
They feed families and individuals,
and it can take a lot to satisfy an appetite.
It's easy to underestimate the importance
of the little guys, but they are at the base
of the food chain.
All life walks a fine line of being productive
and trying to stay alive.
And each is linked by what it eats and who eats it.
Seaweed, algae and sea grass thrive thanks to nutrients
in the water and food they make
by harnessing the power of the sun.
The creepy-crawly world of crustaceans
specializes in life in the sea.
And shrimps take advantage of the plant growth,
the first rung of the ladder.
It's Eden with food everywhere.
But there's a snake in the garden.
(dramatic music)
A Pipefish, a straightened out version of a seahorse
with a shrimp-sucking snout.
Its independently moving eyes lock on
to give binocular vision.
With target acquired, it uses patient stealth to hone in.
The ability to expand its jaws creates a vacuum.
(suspenseful music)
With this sucker snout, no shrimp is safe.
The nutrients the shrimp gathered from the plants
is passed onto the Pipefish.
But that's not the end of the line.
Shrimp killers become easy pickings for a Tern.
It's running a food delivery service for its little ones.
Of course, nothing lives forever.
And when the chain stops,
the body will rot back into the ground,
providing nutrients for plants
and feeding the chain anew from the ground up.
And of course, it is helped by bugs.
All living environments are a Pass the Parcel of nutrients,
but the chains nearly always begin and end
with the creepy-crawlies.
To fuel the food chain, insects and other invertebrates
must feed themselves, and many go straight to the source.
We think of browsers and grazers, the planet's vegetarians,
as being the great beasts we see on the African Plains.
But beneath their feet, there are far more grazers,
both in numbers and mass.
It's just they are a little harder to spot.
There can be more than 4,000 termites per square meter.
And their combined mass can outweigh all of the vertebrates
in the same habitat.
They play a vital role in consuming plants and dead wood,
breaking them down, unlocking the nutrients
and releasing them back into the environment.
(whimsical music)
With symbiotic bacteria living in their stomachs,
they're able to digest tough cellulose
that's beyond the reach of other species.
They can't function without the bacteria,
so to feed, they must acquire some.
Their solution, to eat each other's poop,
passing on some of the goodies from each other's guts.
Their poop is nitrogen rich, helping to fertilize the soil.
And where they've been working,
their tunnels aerate the soil and trap moisture.
Their presence can help make landscapes
more tolerant of climate change.
Many other insects enjoy the grass too,
though it's not easy to digest.
Grasshoppers and crickets excel.
They have been munching plants
since the first days of the dinosaurs.
The earliest group of herbivorous insects
with the ability to chew.
Their mouth parts are directed downwards so they can graze
and keep it look out for danger at the same time.
Specializing in grass munching, they have an enzyme,
cellulase, to break down the walls of plant cells
so they can absorb the nutrients within.
Grasshoppers, crickets and locusts are not much loved
by farmers; they are voracious.
They can multiply quickly and swarm,
and with each bug eating half its body weight a day,
can quickly damage crops.
As a defense to graze safely,
they have a quick exit strategy.
With their legs folded, the joints are pulled tight,
like stretching an elastic band.
When the tension is released, they catapult the bug.
They can travel 20 times their body length from one spring.
But it's a good idea to look before you leap.
Not all creepy-crawlies are harmless vegetarians.
There are many ready to make meals of their kin.
Nutrients pass from prey to predator on a tiny scale.
Like ancient humans having brought down a mammoth,
ants need teamwork to butcher their kill.
Some ants are plant eaters, but not these.
Bulldog ants and have menacing jaws.
(suspenseful music)
And worse still, stings at the other end.
It's a full-on and aggressive attack.
They have one of the most toxic venoms in the insect world.
There have even been a few recorded human deaths
attributed to these brutes of the bug world.
Though ants are not impervious to attack.
The antlion, the voracious larva of a fly
that has a giant appetite.
Sand is like a boulder field to the busy little ants,
a place where accidents can happen.
And the antlion learns it.
It builds a pitfall trap.
All it has to do is wait.
An avalanche of sand tells it a victim
has misjudged its step.
And it's ready to greet it with terrifying jaws.
(suspenseful music)
With the loose sand, there is little chance of escape.
A literal death trap,
one creepy-crawly becoming food to another.
The antlion deploys cunning and deceit.
But other tiny terrors are more direct,
the tigers beneath our feet.
Aptly named, the tiger beetle stalks it's insect prey.
With long legs, it can sprint or pounce.
With such energetic hunting,
it's soon ready for another helping.
Though there can be a lot of competition for food,
the insect world can be brutal.
The competition is rife.
Among creepy-crawlies, predators abound,
and some have truly unique tricks of the trade.
None more extraordinary than spider silk.
The eight-legged freaks are often misjudged.
They are the finest craftsman and designers
of the animal kingdom.
Creating some of nature's most beautiful structures,
yet with astounding mechanical properties.
Glands in the spider's body mix a chemical cocktail.
The silk is a gel at first with stickiness applied
as it's ejected through spinnerets.
As it's stretched out, the silk begins to solidify.
A collection of silk glands can produce silk
with different properties.
Some lines are tougher to support the web,
others more elastic to ensnare prey.
The webs can be damaged by the weather,
passing animals, or dust and pollen covering the glue.
So spiders often rebuild them every night,
having to lay out tens of meters of line.
But once built, they have the perfect traps.
Unsuspecting insects fall foul of the almost invisible lines
and are caught with sticky blobs of glue.
The more the victim struggles,
the more lines it comes into contact with.
Sensing vibrations on the lines,
the spider is quickly there, throwing a net
and cocooning its prey to restrain it,
and then biting to inject venom and enzymes.
The enzymes digest the prey from the inside,
and soon the spider can suck up a protein smoothie
from the silk container.
Not all spiders need to make webs to score a meal.
Cute but deadly, to bugs at least, wolf spiders freestyle.
They have bigger eyes
to give them exceptional depth perception.
In an instant, they can cause a massive buildup of fluids.
Spider high blood pressure in their bodies,
and they can release it into their legs.
One jump can take them 50 times their body length.
As they go, they launch a bungee,
a lifeline of silk in case things go wrong.
But that can be used to slow their fall just before impact.
Of all invertebrates,
spiders cause stronger reactions in us,
but the tiny terrors are more scary in our minds
than in their weird and wonderful reality.
Though it can be easy to confuse creepy-crawlies,
spiders are not insects, but arachnids.
A family they share with some other odd
and certainly creepy cousins.
Solpugids, sometimes called camel spiders, are unique.
They look like our worst nightmares, spiders on steroids.
But to humans at least, they are entirely harmless,
interested only in hunting down other creepy-crawlies.
Like spiders, they have eight legs.
But also a huge pair of leg-like organs called pedipalps.
This fine set of legs make them the cheetahs
of the arachnid world, enabling them to run down pray
at 16 kilometers per hour.
They don't have venom, and instead shear through their prey,
shredding it with their giant jaws.
These solifugaes don't have chemical weapons,
but their cousins do.
Scorpions.
They hunt insects and other small creatures.
And this one has a praying mantis in its path.
A similar body plan to a solifugae,
but with pincers at the front and a terrifying tail
armed with a venom gland and a needle-sharp sting.
But is it enough?
The scorpion has met its match.
The praying mantis is one of the most effective hunters
of the mini beast world,
and also one of the most charismatic.
A hunter with theatrical flair.
Their eyes are unlike any other creature on earth
with concentrated areas of photo receptors
that look like beady pupils
that can follow you around the room.
With a wide field of vision, they see in 3d
for excellent depth perception.
Insects with extraordinary agility and precision,
like tigers on a tiny scale.
Instead of stripes, they have leaf colors
and the slender waist of a stick insect
to blend into the vegetation.
Their weaponized forearms are carried
in their praying position,
but unleashed at the crucial moment to impale their victims,
and then hold them like a carving fork as they feed.
They have more flexible necks than other insects,
turning through 180 degrees, adding to their personality.
Oh, and there's one other thing, they fly.
It's hard to imagine a more perfect villain.
There's no doubt that bugs can freak us out,
especially when they branch out,
not only preying on each other, but larger prey.
When baby turtles scramble from the sand,
the odds are stacked against them.
They will have a lifetime of battling the elements
and trying to escape danger,
and never more so than now.
They are so small
that even little creepy crawlies become monsters.
Red ghost crabs.
The little crustaceans are mouse size, but fast, agile,
and with built-in butchers knives, their powerful pinchers.
The turtles have just hatched.
They are naive and vulnerable.
The shells that might offer them some protection
are yet to harden.
All they can do is follow their instinct
to get to the water.
The claws of the crabs are deadly.
Most of the newborns will fall
before they even reach the sea.
Killer crabs are pretty creepy, but it gets worse.
This field digger wasp is living up to its name.
(whimsical music)
Excavation complete, it heads out to hunt.
Something she's extremely good at.
But she's not hungry.
She is stocking a larder.
The bodies stacked, she'll lay eggs into them.
And when they hatch, the pupa will consume.
Though the victims got off lightly.
This caterpillar, in the clutches of an ichneumon wasp,
is in for a very gruesome future.
The caterpillar is being buried alive.
A tombstone is placed over its grave.
The wasp has laid eggs inside and when they hatch,
they will eat this prisoner alive from the inside.
Parasites are fascinating,
but far less appealing members of the creepy-crawly gang.
In their gruesome ways, they sometimes even target us.
The way parasites feed are hugely varied,
but most are vampires.
Though best suited as horror film extras,
leeches are abundant and diverse and widespread.
Most are aquatic though they can loom in humid forests.
With gripping suckers at both ends,
they clamber to vantage points that prey might brush past.
The narrow end is the mouth.
Three slashing blades cut their way through the skin.
Anticoagulant is injected into the victim
to keep the blood flowing,
and the leach can relax and fill up.
When full, it will drop off.
Unless a leach eater spots it first.
Most animals are plagued by ticks during the warmer months.
Deer try to soothe the itch with a mud bath.
But for African Buffalo, another solution presents itself.
Ticks are tiny tormentors,
parasites that are related to spiders.
Warmth, smell, or even movement
can portray the presence of prey
and the ticks climb aboard.
Their mouth parts drill into their victim's bodies
and then lock them in place
so they can simply let their soft bodies engorge with blood.
Oxpeckers appear, at first glance, to be heroes.
They specialize in eating ticks, and are always found on
and around the plagued big game.
In truth, they have a guilty secret.
They are bloodsuckers too.
They just want the contents of the ticks,
but they are not above having a nibble of the hosts too.
Still, any pest control they can do
must offer at least some relief,
especially in those hard-to-reach places.
There's a whole other gang of creepy-crawlies
that feast on other animals, but these are far more amiable.
They do it after the animal has died.
It's not pleasant to look at,
but the world couldn't function without this cleanup crew.
(fly buzzing)
We'd all be up to our necks in rotting flesh
if insects didn't dismember the remains
and help to return the nutrients to the soil.
The same is true of feces.
(upbeat music)
We'd quickly become a planet of poop
were it not for the heroic band of coperphages,
the poo munchers.
The best known toilet cleaners,
true pooper scoopers are dung beetles.
Dung is full of the undigested cellulose
and other plant matter, that the beetles will use,
consume, or bury it to help unlock all of the nutrients.
This toilet treasure is such a precious resource
to the beetles that they are willing to fight for it.
They cart it off in balls into which they lay their eggs.
But they also take the occasional break
to have a good mouthful themselves.
When it comes to the cleanup job no one else wants,
they are incredibly efficient.
Most of the time.
Of course not all bugs have repellent feeding habits.
There are some that seem totally gentle, harmless
and incredibly beautiful.
(whimsical music)
There are many sugar addicts in the bug world,
but butterflies steal the show.
They delicately probe with their proboscis,
or curled tongue, to sip sugar from overripe fruit.
Sometimes sap or pollen, but mostly nectar.
Flitting from flower to flower, they insert their tongues
to lap up the energy drink.
Like their drinking companions, the bees,
they help to pollinate the plants,
carrying pollen from one to another.
Beautiful butterflies seem helpful to plants,
but looks can be deceptive.
They are strict sugar suckers.
But they, like many insects,
go through different life stages.
And their pupa, better known as caterpillars,
can be a gardener's worst enemy
because of their ravenous appetites.
It's only after the magic of metamorphosis,
when the caterpillar undergoes its miracle transformation,
that things change.
The entire animal is remodeled.
Shearing jaws become a nectar-lapping,
more plant-friendly mouth.
(water bubbling)
Many insects have these massive dietary shifts.
Caddisfly, mayfly and stonefly larvae live underwater.
They are usually carnivores, hunting small invertebrates
or scavenging carcasses.
But once mature, they clammer from the water
and shed their skins.
(soft music)
Revealing adult fliers,
which will have only a few days to live.
Their only purpose is to find mates
and lay eggs before they die.
They won't eat at all.
The same cannot be said of dragonflies and damsel flies.
They are born and die deadly hunters.
For several years, a dragonfly larvae
will stalk the river beds,
menacing any creatures that share the space.
With jaws like a movie alien,
they can munch through pretty much anything they can catch.
A tadpole nightmare.
But they are in for a radical transformation.
From stealthy stalkers, they become exceptional fliers,
some of the fastest and most maneuverable aerial acrobats.
These impressive animals
are not as long lived as the larvae.
Some only lasts a few weeks.
Others might make a year, but all remain carnivores,
and thank goodness for us they do.
They specialize in hunting mosquitoes and other pests,
which they do with remarkable precision
and perhaps a 90% hit rate on hunts.
Insect's behavior and variety is driven by food.
(bright music)
And their varied approach to diet is the backbone
that keeps landscapes functioning healthily.
Though the drive for food
can get the creepy-crawlies into trouble.
A lobster can detect traces of tasty, oily fish particles
wafting through the water,
but they are leading him to his doom.
While many crawlies are welcome additions to our diets,
our interactions and exploitations are a balancing act.
If we don't respect their importance,
we will get ourselves in trouble too.
Through their feeding, insects play vital roles
in fertilizing and maintaining the soil we need
to grow plants.
They break down organic waste so it can be recycled.
(upbeat music)
(bees buzzing)
Are very important in pest control.
They pollinate almost all of the plants we need
for our own food.
(birds singing)
If we lose insects, we will have nothing to eat.
Most species have already massively declined
due to pesticides, monocultures, and habitat loss.
(bright music)
We need to love and protect the little guys,
no matter how much they creep us out.
(bright music)
(birds singing)
(birds chirping)
Birds do it.
Bees do it.
So apparently do educated fleas.
Finding a mate is not merely a human pursuit,
and few creatures put more vigor,
variety, and unexpected twists into their love lives
than creepy crawlies.
(light music)
They fill the air with their music.
They write it in the sky.
Some battle it out,
others embrace in tender caress.
And once the deed is done, there are even caring parents
in the micro world of mini beasts.
Stand by as they prove sexual prowess
has nothing to do with size
as the creepy crawlies start breeding.
(bugs chirping)
(birds chirping)
(light dramatic music)
Kabourophobia is a fear of crabs.
(ominous music)
Like spiders, some of us are creeped out
by the clawed crustaceans.
The monster mini beasts can send shivers down our spines.
(birds chirping) (ominous music continues)
(waves crashing)
On Christmas Island in the tropical Indian Ocean
crabs are getting frisky.
(light music) (bugs chirping)
They are land crabs, and their sex life is based around
the lengthy migration from their homes in the hills,
down towards the coast.
But as the journey nears its end,
the marching behavior changes.
The males dash on ahead to get to the coast first.
(frantic music) (ground rustling)
And then lay claim to a bit of seafront real estate.
They battle for the best spots.
(light dramatic music)
Not valued so much for an ocean view,
but because they want to be in the path
of the advancing females.
(light dramatic music continues)
With site secured, they tunnel.
(light music) (sand rustling)
A little bachelor pad for the breeding season
into which the male hopes to lure a companion
for a holiday romance on the beach.
(light jazz music) (sand rustling)
At or in the burrows the crustaceans couple
face to face in a warm embrace.
(light music)
Though a male crab is easily pleased,
that's him done for the season
and he begins his trek home.
(light music) (birds chirping)
In the tunnel he's left behind
the female will lay and guard her eggs for several weeks.
(waves crashing)
The belly to belly embrace of crabs is perhaps
a more romantic gesture than we might expect.
Just one of the many variations
in creepy crawly copulation.
(birds chirping)
Dragonflies and damselflies are long lived invertebrates.
But for most of their lives, sex is not an option.
(birds chirping) (water trickling)
They start out as river monsters,
(light dramatic music)
tiny terrors that do nothing but eat.
With extendable mouth parts they stalk and slaughter
just about any small creature they can find.
(light dramatic music continues)
They are well equipped as killers,
but they are all mouth and no trousers.
In this larval form they have no reproductive parts.
In early summer, things are going to radically change.
(light music)
The aquatic larva drag themselves from the water
and literally pump themselves up to tear through their skin,
revealing a redesigned body beneath.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Like Superman revealing the hero beneath the shirt,
they transform.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
Pumping up their newly formed wings.
They have transitioned from the most terrifying
aquatic predators to the most acrobatic aerial hunters.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
Sophisticated flyers, but they now entertain
some adult themes.
The winged warriors are ready for sex.
(quirky upbeat music)
They need to emerge around the same time
so they can gather and find partners
with which they dance to entice.
(quirky upbeat music continues)
Once coupled, different species form
slightly different contortions so that the males
can place sperm into the females.
The females will then drop to the water to lay eggs,
some injecting them into wood or plant stems
around the water's surface.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Others just dunking their tails and releasing the eggs.
Some females go off alone to perform the act,
but others are escorted or even attached
to their mates throughout.
Having the males tight grip can be useful for females
that dunk themselves beneath the surface.
The males, like rescue helicopters,
can airlift them back out.
The adult dragonflies will just get the one season.
(light dramatic music)
(birds chirping)
But they will live on through the terrors of the deep.
The reproductive lives of the creepy crawlies
are full of surprises, but you have seen nothing yet.
Warm summer evenings are alive with the sounds
of sexy stridulators.
(light music)
Insects like grasshoppers,
crickets, (crickets chirping)
and cicadas make music by rubbing ridged legs
or wing cases together to broadcast their songs.
(cicada buzzing)
When you are knee high to a grasshopper,
it's easy to get lost.
Even a grass lawn is a jungle.
When you are little, you need to find ways
to broadcast your presence.
The songs are dating apps for insects.
When you are so small you need
to find creative ways to hook up.
(light music)
The music needs mood lighting.
(light music) (birds chirping)
All over the world there's a group of insects
with the ability to create ambience.
(bugs trilling) (light dramatic music)
The magicians mix potions in their abdomens,
enzymes that react with oxygen
with illuminating consequences.
(light music)
Some just emit a gentle glow.
These are usually flightless females lighting beacons
to guide males in the dark.
(light music continues)
But other species can light up the sky as they fly.
(light music continues)
They have such incredible self-control
that they can time the intake of oxygen
to create pulses of light unique to each species.
(light music continues)
There are fireworks in the bedroom for these love bugs.
(light music continues)
(bugs trilling)
There are other ways to be found in the darkness.
(birds chirping) (bugs trilling)
The giant peacock moth is a thing of beauty.
So much so that it even Vincent van Gogh,
rarely a painter of animals,
took time to paint its portrait.
It's also known as Aristotle's silkworm
because the famous philosopher was captivated by the moth.
But the enigmatic creature is nocturnal,
making its beauty hard to observe.
And it's not celebrity artists that it needs to attract,
it needs another trick to lure in suitors in the dark.
(crickets chirping)
Females pick prominent perches and then waft their perfume.
(light music)
Delicate fragrances that they produce
that can carry seductively on the night air.
Males are a little smaller than females
but have big, impressive organs.
(upbeat music) (bugs chirping)
Their antenna are huge and feather-like,
and their purpose; to pick up the pheromone
signals from females.
The antenna are so sensitive that they
can detect just a few particles
of scent in the air from several kilometers away
and follow the signals to locate the girls.
(upbeat music continues) (bugs chirping)
Once mated, the females will lay eggs
which will hatch to become caterpillars.
(light music) (bugs chirping)
Fattening themselves up until they are big enough to pupate,
transform and fly forth to discover mates of their own.
(light music)
(birds chirping)
(bugs chirping)
Not all bugs big it up when it comes to sex,
many are quite conventional.
(birds chirping)
Longhorned beetles also use their oversized appendages
to pick up a date,
or at least the scent of one.
(upbeat music) (birds chirping)
He uses his legs to stroke her back to get her in the mood.
And then doggy style like most of the animal kingdom,
he mounts her.
For insects, the ins and outs are a little different.
He inserts a package of sperm into her abdomen,
then he's done.
She'll store it and use it as she starts up
an egg production line.
(birds chirping)
She injects her eggs into trees where the larva
can munch on the wood.
The little beetles can do a lot of damage to the trees,
and this ant seems to know it.
Trying to stop an invasion of its home.
(light music)
(birds chirping)
Milkweed bugs, like the aptly named black and red bugs,
take a similar approach.
But instead of an intimate party for two,
they go for a bit of speed dating with dozens
of hopeful singles joining in.
(light music) (birds chirping)
They store toxins from their food in their bodies,
making them unpalatable to most predators,
which is perhaps why they can afford an open air orgy.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
They mate back to back.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
Like most couples, they don't agree on everything.
Like which direction to walk in.
But they don't need to stay paired long.
Soon the satisfied crowds will disperse.
(upbeat music)
Of course, sex isn't always fun.
For some it can be downright terrifying.
(light dramatic music) (birds chirping)
If jumping spider males try to put the moves
on the wrong girl,
it can lead to all out war.
(dramatic music) (birds chirping)
It couldn't end badly.
(dramatic music continues)
But one has the good sense to hop off.
(dramatic music continues)
But it's not just competition that generates threat,
it can be the act itself.
(light dramatic music)
This is the praying mantis,
among the most effective of insect predators.
A master of stealth with uniquely sharp eyesight,
killer claws, and can unleash its weapon
faster than John Wayne.
(dramatic music)
Praying mantis are famous for eating their mates.
Though sex doesn't always need the unhappy ending,
a cautious male watches the much larger female
stuffing her face with grasshopper.
(birds chirping)
The perfect time for a cheap date.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Very cautiously he approaches from behind.
He doesn't exactly seem to wow her with throes of passion.
Perhaps he doesn't want to get her too excited.
One false move could have cost him his life.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
(leaves rustling)
The world of gender identity can be confusing at times.
(light music)
But snails have all bases covered.
They are all hermaphrodite, they can be both girl and boy,
so any two snails can get together.
They just need to decide on their role.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
They find each other by sensing the slime left behind.
(birds chirping)
They follow their way down the snail trail.
(light music)
One will attempt to be the male in the mating
by firing the creepy crawly equivalent of Cupid's arrow.
A love dart, known as gypsobelum, into the other.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Sometimes both have a go at penetration,
wanting to be the givers, not the takers.
(light music)
The gypsobelum pumps hormones into the other's body
to prepare it to receive a package of sperm.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
Then penises from both find their way into each other.
Both will insert sperm into the others' genital pore.
But the love dart ensures that the one
with the most assertive manliness will be the father.
(light music)
With strong vision or hearing,
the experience is governed by touch.
(upbeat music)
Making snail sex a slimy, sensual experience
that can go on for many hours.
(upbeat music continues) (birds chirping)
It's much easier in nature to be a father,
a wham bam thank you ma'am is all it takes.
Motherhood requires a lot more investment.
But the sperm donor in snails does offer a departing gift.
The love dart is hard, sharp, and big,
doing a lot of damage to its partner.
But it also brings a so-called nuptial gift;
a little package of nutrients to boost the partner,
helping them nurture their eggs and give the next generation
the best possible start in life.
(light music continues)
(waves crashing)
Marine mollusks crank up the courtship.
(upbeat music)
Cuttlefish Casanovas compete around potential breeding
grounds by displaying intimidating body language
and flashing colors of their rivals,
which is usually enough to avoid violence.
(light dramatic music)
Females choose their mates and tango, tentacle to tentacle.
(upbeat music)
Each have two tentacles for hunting
and eight arms for the embrace.
(upbeat music continues)
One of the male's eight arms has a specialized tip
to insert sperm into the female's head.
If he's not the first, it's possible for him to flush out
the sperm from previous partners.
And for that reason, after mating,
the male stands guard over the female
until she has finished laying her eggs.
Only then will the jealous boyfriend depart.
(water bubbling)
The female carefully glues each egg in place
on structures that can support and protect them.
The eggs can be white at first, but she adds ink
to them to help them blend into the sea bed,
leaving them looking like little bunches of grapes.
The mating of mollusks can appear almost
tender and sensual.
(light music) (water bubbling)
(waves crashing)
(birds chirping)
It's less beautiful than other invertebrates
who battle their way to the bedroom.
Stag beetles have status symbols on their heads.
Like deer's antlers, they are not for defense,
the headgear is to get them sex.
(light music) (birds chirping)
When a female appears, the males vie.
(dramatic music)
Sumo wrestling, trying to throw their opponents.
(dramatic music continues)
While they use prominent stages high above the ground,
adding jeopardy to the fight.
(singing in foreign language) (dramatic music continues)
On meadows below, field crickets build arenas.
The male's caves are not homes,
but amplifiers for their proud stridulating love calls.
But a good man cave needs defending.
(dramatic music)
Fighting to the top leads to bug battles.
(singing in foreign language) (dramatic music continues)
Winner takes all.
(pleasant music) (birds chirping)
Not all creepy crawlies get a happy ending.
(light music) (birds chirping)
The most abundant and socially complex of mini beasts,
ants, bees,
wasps, and these termites live in colonies.
Most of the millions of inhabitants
are non reproductive servants made that way by the queen.
Kings and queens are the only breeders in the kingdom.
She's built her empire of workers.
But periodically the colony prepares for a nuptial flight.
(thunder rumbling) (light music)
Building storm clouds set the scene.
A hot and humid evening, perfect for a genetic legacy
to be unleashed on the plains.
(bugs chirping) (thunder rumbling)
The queen has been stashing away alates,
her only offspring with the ability to breed.
They didn't mature at first, not until this moment.
But now these special winged boys and girls
are ready for sex.
Swarming out en masse, they draw predators
from far and wide.
But amid the chaos, males and females will find
each other and pair up.
They won't mate until they find a good site
for a new colony.
There, they will plant their flag,
making a small burrow and sealing themselves in.
They will start breeding and will begin a life of monogamy,
never coming to the surface again.
(thunder rumbling) (bugs chirping)
(waves crashing)
Mass movements are a common part
of the sex lives of invertebrates.
(water bubbling)
Columns of creepy crawlies, like these rock lobsters,
on the way to their breeding grounds.
(light music) (water bubbling)
It's important for potential dates to be
in the right place at the right time,
especially as some species have
short windows of opportunity.
(light music continues) (water bubbling)
(birds chirping) (water trickling)
It's not always possible for insects
to have a spontaneous sex life.
To make the most of short adult lives,
timing is critical.
Especially for mayflies and caddisflies.
(light music)
In both cases, life passes them by as
they forage on river beds.
(light music continues)
The caddisflies building little protective fortresses
around their bodies.
They dribble out silk in their saliva
that binds little pieces of detritus together
around their bodies, protecting them while they munch
on dead and decaying organisms.
It's not very glamorous, but their day will come.
(light music continues) (water bubbling)
(water trickling)
Then they're cut free of their chastity belts
and clamber from the water.
(water trickling)
The adult forms emerge, and with only one purpose.
They do not have mouth parts to feed,
there is only one thing on their minds: sex.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Both caddisfly and mayfly have one season a year.
A brief window when all of the population emerges at once.
Synchronicity is vital.
(upbeat music)
The beautiful bugs will only survive for a few days.
They need to attract mates and get eggs laid
as soon as possible.
(upbeat music continues) (water splashing)
The orgies are spectacular in their scale,
with clouds of insects dancing over the water.
(upbeat music continues)
(birds chirping)
It's a seasonal treat and many other animals,
especially birds and fish,
synchronize their own breeding cycles to make
the most of the abundance.
(birds chirping) (light music)
(water splashing)
But emerging in such vast numbers, it would be impossible
for the predators to catch them all.
Their legacy is safe.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Spent from their brief flings, they wither away and die.
The sex lives of these insects are a flash in pan.
Eggs laid, their contribution to
the next generation is complete.
They might be good in the sack,
but they are not exactly role model parents.
(waves crashing)
Other creepy crawlies make more of an effort.
After they mated, the female crabs laid eggs
and gather them into bundles on their undersides
where they can protect them for a few weeks
until they are ready to hatch.
Using their bodies as maternal shields.
(light music) (water trickling)
But from then on, as the eggs hatch,
they are shaken free, cast off into the sea.
(light dramatic music) (waves crashing)
Ocean orphans who will have to fend for themselves.
(light dramatic music) (water bubbling)
Generally, childcare doesn't come naturally
to creepy crawlies, but there are a few surprises.
Giant octopus are huge, with arms
that can wrap around a car.
But their life spans just a few short years
and they only breed once.
So when the time comes to pass on their genes,
a mother octopus needs to make sure she gets it right.
(light music) (water bubbling)
After mating, she searches for a cave or crevice
on the sea floor.
(light music continues)
Heroically expelling anyone else who might want to use it.
(light music continues)
She needs to lock down the area, making it safe and secure.
(light music)
And then, one by one, she painstakingly lays and glues
each of her eggs, perhaps 400,000 in all,
to the roof of this nursery.
This is a labor of love in itself,
but she's far from finished.
(light music continues)
The sea is like a soup of life forms,
including parasites and bacteria.
(light music continues)
So she spends all day gently stroking,
caressing the eggs to make sure no invaders settle in
and damage her babies.
(light music continues) (water bubbling)
The cave doesn't allow for much flow of fresh water,
so she uses her siphon to make a current
and blows clean, well-oxygenated water across the eggs.
(light music continues) (water bubbling)
This round-the-clock care carries on all day
every day for an incredible six months.
(water splashing) (light music continues)
Until finally the eggs are ready to hatch.
(water bubbling)
But as her family drifts off, so does her life.
(light music)
Throughout her motherhood, she hasn't moved,
hasn't eaten, just prioritized their care.
Now her job is done, and so is her life.
She fades away, her body becoming food
for marine creatures that might later feed her offspring,
investing yet more in their future.
(waves crashing)
Few invertebrates deserve parent of the year
more than the gentle giant octopus.
(birds chirping)
Though there is one competitor, there's a clue in the name.
This is a parent bug.
This diligent mother neatly lays her eggs
and then stands guard.
She's a type of shield bug,
and that's exactly how she uses her body, as a shield.
(light music)
As soon as she spots a threat she aggressively postures,
rocking her shield back and forth.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
She can flash her wings, too.
And if all else fails, emit an unpleasant odor.
(light music continues)
(birds chirping)
And she doesn't stop when they hatch.
She keeps her babies together,
guiding them with her antenna.
So they move through the branches
in lines like a school outing.
(upbeat music)
She'll only stand down once they have matured.
Certainly the best mother among mini beasts.
(upbeat music continues)
Though caring creepy crawlies are not as rare
as you might think.
(birds chirping)
Even among the ones that creep us out the most.
(bugs chirping) (birds chirping)
Some scorpions and spiders guard their offspring.
(light music) (leaves rustling)
This tarantula guarded her eggs, brooding them,
keeping them safe and clean until they hatched.
(light music continues)
She'll keep them under the gaze of her eight eyes
until have absorbed their egg sacs and are stronger.
Only then will they leave their mother's home.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
And the tarantula wolf spider carries her little ones
on her back and out of harm's way.
She'll carry them until they're ready
to fend for themselves and hop off.
(bugs chirping) (light music continues)
(frogs croaking)
We tend to think of insects as lowly,
simple and primitive.
And that complex behaviors are reserved
for us and our mammalian kin.
But that is far from the truth.
(upbeat music)
There are hectic communities.
And strict rules of society.
Battles,
hookups,
courtships,
and warm braces.
(upbeat music continues)
They can serenade their suitors
(bug trilling)
and plan romantic nights out. (muffled talking)
And are even good parents.
They may be small, but the mini beasts make up for it
with surprising flare.
The creepy crawlies of the world have a rich
and varied sex life.
(upbeat music)
We miss it even though it's right under our noses.
Take a look.
There is magic when bugs breed.
(upbeat music continues) (birds chirping)
(sinister music)
Few creatures have the complex levels
of regimented society as the social insects.
Termites, ants, and wasps
can form armies to help them build elaborate homes,
defend their territories,
grow their own food,
raise their young,
and hunt their prey.
The sheer strength and think tank power of these communities
can plague our nightmares,
(bees buzzing)
and yet, fascinate us.
(suspenseful music)
Society is considered the realm of higher beings.
But at ground level,
an army is rising in social skills.
We are not alone.
(birds chirping)
Not all of us like creepy crawlers.
(tense music)
And yet, they are all around us.
But there are some we fear more than most.
An army of hornets.
(foreboding music)
Common close to home, few creatures frighten us more.
(hornets buzzing)
Not just because they are tiny terrors
that can hunt and sting,
(sinister music)
even putting wasps on their menus.
(hornets droning)
These intimidating stinging insects,
hornets, wasps, and bees scare us.
(bees buzzing)
We fear an uprising,
worrying their armies will swarm.
(menacing music)
Triggering their defenses
can put us on the sharp end of insect efficiency.
(bees buzzing)
Some, like these bees, know how to leave their mark.
(water splashing)
(soft music)
Big gatherings of insects are common.
Swarms can happen for a wide variety of reasons.
Some gatherings are for group sex.
(jaunty music)
Many invertebrates have short lives.
Sometimes only a few days, like mayflies.
And so, a whole annual population can emerge at once,
maximizing their chances of finding a mate
before they kick the bucket.
Others gather to exploit resources.
(bright music)
Clouds of butterflies lapping up minerals from wet sand
are hardly terrifying.
But how about swarms of crabs?
(sinister music)
(turtle snorting)
Especially ghost crabs gathering,
(ominous music)
harbingers of death
to drag off and slaughter newborn turtles.
Or flesh eating snails
Drawn in to feast on the dead.
(foreboding music)
(flesh squishing)
A jellyfish swarm dragging a net of stinging tentacles
is enough to keep us out of the water,
especially box jellies,
the tiny terrors with the power to kill.
(sinister music)
All of these gatherings are frightening,
but they are not very coordinated.
(apprehensive music)
But there are some very special insects
that live with army precision
in some of the biggest societies on earth.
Bumblebees are at the cute end of the creepy-crawly clan,
Though we usually see them bumbling alone,
they can enjoy a crowd.
(bright music)
A bee kingdom requires just one founder, a queen.
(bee buzzing)
This female outlived her last colony.
They all died off.
Only she hibernated through winter,
and now begins a spring search for a new place
to start a founder colony.
Log piles, crevices, and burrows are ideal.
(sinister music)
This one already has an owner,
but the queen doesn't like challenges to her estate.
(sinister music)
Unlike honeybees, she can sting more than once.
It isn't fatal to her, making her a formidable invader.
(threatening music)
(metal scraping)
Sword drawn, the mouse quickly gets the point.
(industrious music)
With her castle secure, she can get to work.
She's been carrying sperm inside her
from a mating last autumn.
The king is long gone, but his legacy lives on.
She will lay founder eggs
in little waxy cells she builds herself.
Then she heads out to collect pollen
that she can feed to the young when they hatch.
But once the first clutch has emerged,
the queen will not lift a finger to help.
Her only role in the colony is to lay eggs.
(upbeat music)
And like most social insects,
her young are born to lives of well-organized servitude.
They are workers and will devote their entire lives
to working for the greater good.
They build the waxy chambers in the home
and ferry back pollen and nectar to store
and to feed the family.
(bees buzzing)
The queen keeps laying eggs into the chambers
and the workers will tend to them and her,
cleaning and feeding.
Once the larva molt into adults,
they instinctively know their place
and get straight to work.
(bees buzzing)
As soon as it's found its feet,
(bright music)
this new worker joins the task force
and heads off to collect food for the family.
The first time a new worker leaves the nest,
she hovers over the entrance to imprint on it
to make sure she can find her way back.
From now on everything she does
will be for the greater good.
(birds chirping)
All social insect societies start in the same way,
with a queen.
(hornet buzzing)
(children yelling)
Hornets are among the most extraordinary craftsmen.
The queen harvests bark, which she chews to make wood pulp.
(soft music)
And then in her chosen nesting spot,
begins to construct nesting chambers.
The delicate paper shells,
always with perfect geometry,
will each house her first eggs.
(soft music)
After weeks of being cared for and fed by their mother,
the larvae will seal themselves in.
When they emerge two weeks later, they are transformed.
(gentle music)
They are all females, but all sterile.
This is true of all social insects.
The queen produces workers that cannot reproduce.
She will remain the only one to lay eggs.
As each generation emerges, they get to work.
(bright music)
The nesting chamber becomes bigger.
And the workers go out to hunt,
bringing food back for the young.
(hornets buzzing)
The colony will last just the one season,
but will grow to contain hundreds of workers,
all the offspring of the queen
who will stay and look after future generations,
the definition of social insects.
(hornets buzzing)
She's built an army to do her bidding.
Hornets are a type of wasp,
and together, they were probably the first social insects,
the first to raise an army.
(hornets buzzing)
Their family dates back to the Jurassic period.
And it's from these ancient groups
that other social insects, the ants and bees, emerged.
(hornets buzzing)
But there is one other group that appeared soon after
that is not related,
the only rebel army to go it alone in a family of their own.
The termites.
(eerie music)
These little guys are related to cockroaches,
but are truly unique.
There are thousands of species
and thousands of individuals in each home.
It's been suggested that social insects
make up 75% of all insect biomass
because they are so numerous and successful.
Because there are billions of them,
termites represent a massive mound of food,
and every anteater wants in,
(sloth bear scuffling)
though it's the big animals like these sloth bears
that catch our eye.
The tiny termites they are feeding on
collectively weigh more.
That's how many there are.
(sinister music)
Having built a fortress,
the protein treats can be hard to extract.
In the termite castles,
there are kings as well as queens.
And unlike the other social insects
where the ruler and her family's lives are short,
just one season,
(intense music)
termite queens are the longest-living insects,
with some individuals reigning for half a century.
Most termites are blind.
Living underground, they have little need for vision.
With soft bodies, they are less hardy than bees and wasps,
So don't live in the colder extremes.
These hardworking creepy-crawlies are vital to ecosystems
not only as food,
(bright music)
but as detritivores,
recycling rotten wood and other organic waste
and returning its goodness to the soil.
The mounds are often considered super-organisms
made up of thousands,
often millions of individuals.
(suspenseful music)
In bees and wasps, all the citizens are the same.
But among termite workers,
most are charged with building the home,
gathering food, and feeding it to the young.
(bustling music)
But some are born soldiers,
modified only to defend the colony.
With such huge numbers of animals in a colony,
they represent a vast source of protein
that many other animals seek.
(apprehensive music)
Though not even the guards can do much about giants
like an echidna that uses its strong claws
to tear apart their homes
(apprehensive music)
(echidna snuffling)
and a long, sticky tongue to slaughter the exposed army.
There are some advantages of being a social insect.
With sheer numbers on their side,
it's unlikely the attack will massively dent their numbers.
And after the mass destruction,
there is a team ready to rebuild
bigger and better than before.
(apprehensive music)
Among regimented rulers, few are more effective than ants.
(energetic music)
The mini marvels never seem to stop working,
tirelessly building and cleaning their homes,
maintaining the structure and entrances.
There's somewhere between 13 and 20,000 species of ants
occupying almost every corner of the globe.
(frenetic music)
They are far more diverse than the other social insects,
with herbivores, hunters, and scavengers,
and within the colonies have much more variety.
Not just workers and soldiers,
but there can be class systems within the workers,
groups with different sizes and shapes.
There are even farmers.
(frenetic music)
Leaf cutter ants seem to defy the laws of physics.
(leaves rustling)
Like tiny yachts sailing the forests of Southern America,
they ship the pieces of leaf in the hundreds of thousands.
With large, sharp, shearing jaws,
each worker sets out to find a nice leaf
and cut out a piece to take home.
(ants crunching)
To cut, their jaws vibrate at 1000 times per second,
like an electric saw, to slice through.
(ants crunching)
The leaf pieces can weigh 20 times more than the worker,
but ants are tough and make the weightlifting look easy.
The jungle's a dangerous place to have your hands full,
though leaf cutter ants have unique body armor.
It's reinforced with rock.
All this hard work is to stock the larder,
but it's not the leaves they eat.
(melancholy music)
Back at base, the fragments are cleaned,
infections removed,
and then they are mushed in the ants' jaws
and carefully placed on a giant compost heap.
The ants are cultivating a tasty and nutrient rich fungi.
It's the fungus they will eat and feed to their young,
not the leaves themselves.
The jaws of the ants don't stay sharp forever,
so the worker's role changes
as they lose their cutting edge.
They leave the front line,
the leaf collecting expedition parties,
and take semi-retirement tending the farm.
Though no ant gets to fully retire.
They will work until they die.
(water splashing)
(bright music)
Ants have another way of farming food.
This time, not a plant-based diet,
but by managing livestock.
(bright music)
Many species become guardians
to their own private flocks of aphids.
The ants will even take aphid eggs
into their nests to protect them
and then bring the young out
and release them back onto the plants.
(soft music)
And a queen can take a single egg with her
when she starts a new colony
The shepherds stand over their flock.
The aphids are sap-suckers,
piercing the plant's stems and sucking up the plant's sap.
(soft music)
The waste product from their sugary diet is honeydew,
a drip of sugar water,
elixir to the ants.
This is what they consume, not the aphids,
but the syrup they squeeze from their butts.
They will even milk their herd,
caressing the aphids back to encourage the release of food.
(somber music)
It's calorie-rich, a precious resource,
so the ants constantly monitor their herds.
The ladybird larva is enemy number one,
the wolf to the aphids' world.
But when an attending farmer spots the intruder,
it tries to drive it off
and releases pheromones to call in backup.
(intense music)
The ants will not tolerate a wolf among their sheep.
(dramatic music)
But this is a trade off for the aphids.
In return for feeding the ants, they get home security.
The defenses are not infallible.
This caterpillar is an enemy.
It's here to eat the aphids,
but it releases a chemical signature
that makes it look like an aphid to the ants,
a wolf in sheep's clothing.
The predator can slaughter the ants' precious livestock
right under their noses.
But to add insult to injury,
the caterpillar takes further advantage
of the ants' unwitting hospitality.
When it's ready to pupate, it drops from the plant.
(suspenseful music)
The concerned animals worry about it
and carry it into their nesting chamber.
They'll feed and clean it as though it is one of their own.
Here, it can stealthily murder
and eat its stepbrothers and sisters
until it turns to a butterfly and flies away.
Despite the tricksters,
for the most part, ants are highly successful farmers.
(soft bluegrass music)
But they not only produce their own food.
They store it
in many of the world's deserts.
In this case, in Australia,
a group of ants have found a solution
worthy of a horror film.
(eerie music)
They use a dedicated band of workers known as repletes.
After the rains, when the going is good,
the ants gather nectar from desert flowers
But in this barren landscape, it's hard to store,
so they store it inside the repletes.
(eerie music)
Their bodies distend into hanging storage jars,
giving this family of insects the name honeypot ants.
Underground, the temperature and humidity are more constant,
like a larder.
Here, the repletes just hang about.
Other workers bring the nectar in and feed it to them,
as well as keep them clean.
(eerie music)
And when needed, the workers can stroke the honeypots
to encourage them to regurgitate a little food,
which they can distribute around the colony.
Typical ant army cooperation and efficiency.
(sinister music)
Thanks to their teamwork, ants can move mountains,
or at least mountains of food.
The discovery of a dead chameleon in Madagascar
is cause for celebration.
(intense music)
A feast for a huge ant colony.
But to make sure other scavengers
don't run off with the goods,
the ants want to get it underground and out of sight.
The little reptile carcass weighs
thousands of times more than an ant,
but size isn't everything.
(intense music)
The social insects know that teamwork is the key.
As they forage, the ants leave pheromone trails,
and these guide other workers to the treasure.
(bright music)
(ants rustling)
Soon, there is enough muscle to move the body.
It's not always clear who is steering.
(bright music)
It takes a few attempts to guide the big body
into a narrow hole.
(ants rustling)
But the community spirit pays off.
Teamwork is a great way to defend the home
and the family fortunes, too.
Ants can make up a quarter of the weight
of all animals combined in a productive environment.
It's hardly surprising that other species
want to cash in on their resource.
A huge ant mound is packed with protein.
A blackbird digs for some tasty grubs
and a greater spotted woodpecker
takes advantage of his handiwork,
(suspenseful music)
rushing beakfuls of ants and the exposed grubs
back to hungry young.
(chicks peeping)
As each featherweight alights,
defense calls ring out around the colony,
the ants using chemical signals to summon the home guard.
The ants squirt formic acid at the intruders.
(acid splashing)
It's enough to drive some away,
but it attracts others.
A jay.
The cunning crow isn't here to dine,
but enjoys winding the ants up.
It's here for a bit of spa treatment.
Jays and some other birds
use the formic acid like an antiseptic shampoo.
It kills fungi and other pests that invade their feathers.
(bright music)
So, the jay fans itself out
to try and get the spray everywhere.
(acid splashing)
(jay cawing)
Ant armies are so effective
that some plants actively employ them,
(ominous music)
offering them food and shelter in return for home defense.
Because the plants become vital to the ants,
the fearless insects will stop at nothing to protect them.
Beetles can wreak havoc,
munching through leaves and threatening the plant's health.
But not if the ants have anything to do with it.
It could be a David and Goliath fight,
but ants stand united.
(frenetic music)
They use numbers to go up against the giant.
Many are trampled, crushed during the assault.
But they haven't died in vain.
Everything ants do helps their colony.
They slowed the colossal intruder
while more soldiers rushed to help.
And eventually, the enemy is overthrown.
Ants are vital to the health of environments
for their pest control skills.
(sinister music)
(birds chirping)
(bright music)
But also because they are useful gardeners.
Many plant seeds have little fatty deposits on the ends,
high-end dining to keep an army's energy levels up.
(mellow music)
So, ants transport the precious goods across the forest,
taking them back to their food stores.
They'll eat the fat.
But the process not only carries the seeds
away from the parent plant,
but also buries them, planted, ready to start their lives.
Of course, not all ant armies are Peace Corps,
gentle landscape gardeners.
Among creepy-crawlies,
they also include some of the most effective predators.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records,
this is the most dangerous ant,
the bulldog ant of Australia.
(sinister music)
This mini menace has killed at least three people,
though usually, it's less ambitious.
Like most insect armies,
they look harmless enough doing their housework.
(ominous music)
But these ranks are armed and dangerous.
As ants go, they are not small,
up to four centimeters apiece.
They have excellent eyesight to spot the enemy
and are always ready to launch their attack.
But it's a double whammy.
Giant jaws slam shut.
Some ant jaws can snap shut faster
than any other predatory animal's weapons
at over 230 kilometers per hour.
(foreboding music)
But as if that wasn't enough,
bulldog ants hold their victims still
in their menacing jaws,
then swing their tails,
which are tipped with wasp-like stings.
Again and again, venom is injected into the prey.
(somber music)
(ants rustling)
In their natural environments,
ants, though small, can have big impacts.
But animals and plants have co-evolved to cope.
(sinister music)
However, ants that stow away on our ships and imported goods
can invade new territory and cause carnage.
(water splashing)
Christmas Island is a land of crabs.
The crunchy creepy-crawlies blanket the entire island.
They have grown up in an environment
where they are top of the food chain
and have little to fear.
That was, until yellow crazy ants arrived.
The tiny terrors are aggressive.
(dramatic music)
As baby red land crabs storm the beaches,
making a dash for their adult lives on land,
the lurking predators pick them off with ease.
With the infant crabs' little, soft bodies,
it's hardly a fair fight.
But the ants don't judge their targets on size.
(dramatic music)
The biggest land-dwellers here are robber crabs,
armor-plated giants that let nothing stand in their way.
Nothing can bring them down.
Almost nothing.
Their armor is impenetrable.
(crab clicking)
Well, to most.
But ants can seek under the radar.
One ant alone is not much of a threat,
but their numbers swell.
(ominous music)
(claws clunking)
They find chinks in the armor and inject their acid.
(ominous music)
(ants rustling)
Eventually, the giant is brought down.
(somber music)
(insects buzzing)
(ethereal music)
Whether naturally native or spread with our help,
the creepy-crawly armies are everywhere.
(bees buzzing)
This would be the strategy for world domination,
establishing bases all over the globe.
(sinister music)
Have they conquered the world?
Are they poised, ready for a takeover?
(hornets buzzing)
Or is the success of this incredible group
of highly-organized societies to our advantage?
There is one army that we have recruited,
a fleet of workers who shaped the world as we know it.
Our ancestors eyed the organized
and efficient achievements of insects with envy.
Honeybees in particular caught our eyes.
(soft music)
There's little doubt humans have long raided
the nests of bees for their honey.
But somewhere around eight to 10,000 years ago,
people found ways to manage hives.
The bees have never been fully domesticated,
but we have developed ways to house them
that suit both the bees and us.
(uplifting music)
Earlier attempts would've been something like this,
traditional hollow logs strung in trees,
enough to entice the social insects to set up shop
and ideal for people to lower the log
and enjoy a honey harvest.
Honey is one of the most energy-dense foods in nature,
almost pure sugar,
but with some essential minerals and vitamins.
(extractor clicking)
Through our long, glorious, and sticky history with it,
honey has also been used as a preservative
and in medicine for its antibacterial properties.
(menacing music)
(bees buzzing)
The wax it's prepared in,
those little hexagonal chambers in the bees' nests,
can be used as wax for candles,
but also sealing, binding, and waterproofing.
(boaters yelling)
There's evidence of its use by early Greeks,
and the Egyptians employed it in the embalming of mummies.
(dramatic music)
Like their feared cousins, wasps and hornets,
bees have painful stings.
But they are more reluctant to use them
because their stings are barbed.
For the bees to pull free,
they damage and kill themselves.
This trait made them easier to manipulate.
And humans learned another trick.
Wildfires cause bees to gorge on honey
and then hide in the center of their hives.
In this state, they are very reluctant to sting,
(fire crackling)
perhaps because they are prioritizing
saving the life of the hive
and its precious honey resources.
As far back as the Egyptians, maybe even much earlier,
people have learned that a few puffs of smoke
could pacify a colony.
It's now an essential beekeeper's tool.
(smoker puffing)
Beekeepers can collect a swarm, the foundations of a colony,
(bright music)
and move it to a hive
even in an urban setting,
and allow their insect army to go to work.
(bees buzzing)
(soft music)
And while collecting the pollen and nectar
to convert to our beloved honey,
they also pollinate the flowers.
And this role of the regiments is something
that is easy to underestimate.
Eight in 10 of the mouthfuls of food we eat
are only there because insects have pollinated our crops.
(soft music)
The insect armies also help the environment
by recycling waste and controlling pests.
(birds chirping)
Without insect armies, the world would collapse.
However, because of human activities,
insects are in trouble.
(ominous music)
Globally, insects have declined by 40%,
and the decline trend seems to be more than 2% per year.
Already, a third of insects are endangered.
But this is just a global average.
In some regions, the decline is much higher,
and it's all because of us.
As our population grows, so does our need for food.
Intensive agriculture destroys
animal and plant communities in the soil,
including the burrows of social insects,
and replaces biodiversity with monocultures of single crops.
(machine whirring)
And our fertilizers and pesticides poison the insect armies.
(somber music)
We have clean-cut,
plowed,
or poured cement over insect habitat,
and what's left is damaged and fragmented.
And human-driven climate change
is making life harder for all,
especially insects.
And yet, insects are the foundations of ecosystems.
Landscapes and their plant and animal communities
only function with abundant insects.
So, by losing mini beasts, we will lose much more.
(somber music)
If the trend continues and these armies march to extinction,
many of the foods we love and even depend on will vanish.
There is little doubt
that we cannot survive in a world without insects.
(bees buzzing)
We need to clean up our act, replant,
and improve the health of the environment.
Help the allied armies.
They need our assistance,
and there is no doubt we'd be lost without their help.
(soft music)