Happier picnics, till we run out of fruit. Insect decline in the UK.

While researching honeybee decline in the UK I spoke to Yorkshire bee farmer Phil Askham. As well as discussing the specific threats to British beekeeping, we also talked about the importance of bees to farming. The government admit that beekeepers play a vital role in crop pollination.

But bees aren’t the only pollinating insect, and they aren’t the only species in decline.

Mr Askham doesn't believe the problem of declining numbers is confined to bees. He says that honeybees are simply becoming more and more important as other pollinating insects are dying out. Honeybees are easier to study and protect than other insects as the whole population is essentially domesticated.

"When I was a kid the number of insects was unreal. Unreal. They were everywhere," he explains.

"Now they're all gone.

"You only have to walk around outside now in summer. Where have all the insects gone? Thirty years ago it was different. It's rubbish now."

"And the wild bees are gone. I used to get three or four calls a week from the local police asking for help moving wild beehives from houses. I used to ignore the phone they were always pestering. Not any more though. I've had one call all summer."

This anecdotal evidence is supported by RSPB research from 2003, when the charity introduced the public to its Splatometer method for counting insects. Drivers were asked to clean their number plates, drive 20 to 80 miles, then use a grid to count the number of insects splattered across the plate.

The research remains at an early stage, with no previous data to compare the splat counts with. However the RSPB report said that many participants had been shocked by unexpectedly low results and commented on a perceived drop in the number of insects. They also point to the rapid decline in numbers among birds that survive on insects, with the house sparrow suffering a 65% decline in 30 years.

Insect decline is poorly documented. Not all species are as attractive or useful as butterflies and bumblebees, and insects are rarely regarded as anything but pests.

But if something is amiss at the bottom of the food chain and nature's tiny servants fail to pollinate our crops, the impact of insect decline is going to hit us harder than a speeding car.