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This is
not to say that insects don't harm trees. They do. Insects often kill trees. But do they harm the forest? Insect "pests" have evolved along
with the forests and there is no such thing as a forest without a certain number of pest-ridden trees. Insects are just as much a part of the
forest as the trees themselves.
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In large numbers, grasshoppers can destroy crops that are planted in high densities of a single species, often on land that was once forest. Photo by Maya Walters
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We tend to see insects that damage trees as
pests because we look at the forest for its economic value. A dying tree with wood damaged by insects is worth little or nothing for timber,
but it is worth a great deal to the forest. Woodpeckers drill holes in tree trunks to reach the insects inside; these holes become nesting sites
for songbirds, which in turn feed heavily on other tree-damaging insects, keeping their populations low enough to prevent them from doing
any serious damage to the forest.
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