How to submit your artwork
Lights.
Camera.
Action!
When your masterpiece is completed, all you have to do is post it on your instagram account using the #makemoreinsects hashtag and you automatically enter the competition.
Not an Instagram user? No problem – you can also email your artwork to info@pestival.org and we will upload it to our Instagram and hashtag it on your behalf.
All contributions will appear on the Pestival website. We also appreciate you tag @Pestivalofficial.
Are there more creatives among your friends and family? Make sure you let them know what you are doing and involve them too.
Advice from the bugs
Don’t get hung up on perfection – what matters is that you get across our current plight!
Your actions to help us can make a real difference – don’t hold back!
Sharing our SOS insect message is the key thing. Without insects humans wouldn’t be here.
5 endangered species in the UK to make your backbone tingle
Grasshopper
Wart-biter bush cricket Its common and scientific names derive from the eighteenth-century Swedish practice of allowing the crickets to nibble at warts to remove them.
Ant
Narrow Headed Ant The Narrow-headed ant (Formica exsecta) is a very rare wood ant. In the UK, it is restricted to the Scottish Highlands and an isolated population in Devon.
Bee
Great Yellow Bumblebee The Great Yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus), once widespread throughout Great Britain, is now only found in five known population centres.
Beetle
Stag beetle Male beetles appear to have huge antlers. They are actually over-sized mandibles, used in courtship displays and to wrestle other male beetles.
Butterfly
High brown Fritillary The High Brown Fritillary Argynnis adippe is Britain’s most threatened butterfly. This species has lost 85 per cent of its population since the 1970s.Key facts about insects
Biomass
Insects account for 80% of animal life on Earth. They are vital for the function of life on our planet – pollinating food and maintaining ecosystems.
Pollination
Approx 80% of the world’s plant life depends on pollination.
Culture
Insects are part of social and cultural heritage in every region of the planet.
Diet
50-90% of the human diet, in terms of volume of calories, relies on insects.
Bad rep
99% of insects aren’t pests – only 1% affect crop production and spread disease.
Extinction
We have lost 50% or more of our insects since 1970, and 41% of the remaining 5 million insect species are now threatened with extinction.
10 Quintillion
There are around 10 quintillion insects on the planet.10,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s approximately 1.4 billion insects for every person on Earth.
Ecological service
Insects are estimated to provide ecological services worth £256bn annually worldwide, and they did it all without pay or thanks from us!
Biodiversity
With over 5.5 million species, insects are by far the most diverse group of animals.
Why are insects dying out?
To keep up with our human population increase and its need for consumption, intensive farming and pollutants such as pesticides and fertilisers are on the rise (again). This destruction of habitat, uproots hedgerows, creates monoculture farming and leaves no space for the insects.
On top of this expanding urbanisation and fragmented surviving patches of habit have left the insects with no wildflower corridors.
Meanwhile in the tropical regions, climate change is emerging as a major threat to insect populations. Rainforests have largely been stable for a long time,so insects can’t adapt to the change quick enough and just die off.
What can we do to help?
#makemoreinsects is a fun celebration of the wonderful muses that live alongside us and work to keep our planet in shape.
If you catch the bug whilst creating your own. We’d love you to get more involved at being an insect champion and saving a few more along the way.
Try doing these…
Do role your sleeves up and get involved in planting hedgerows and meadows with your local insect charity.
Restoring and managing wildflower meadows is one of the easiest ways to help slow the decline of insects.
Do write to your local MP demanding that pesticides (and neonicotinoids in particular) stop being reintroduced into farming.
… and try to avoid these.
Don’t use pesticides in your garden or window box or buy cut flowers that are sprayed with pesticides.
Don’t become an urban beekeeper – transpires its competition for the local wild bees.
Don’t eat pesticides – farmers should not have to choose between farming and nature, we should be prioritising alternative pesticides.
Has this Campaign has excited the insect champion inside you?
Find out more from these further resources about how to actively get involved to help save the insects on the ground, in the ground, in the water and in the air:
No Insectinction – how to solve the insect declines crisis
Buglife
Action for insects
Wildlife Trusts
Say no to neonics
Wildlife Trusts
Pesticide giants make billions from bee-harming and other hazardous chemicals
Greenpeace
14 facts you need to know about bees
Friends of the Earth
Brexit rules mean 15m baby bees may be seized and burned, says beekeeper
The Guardian
Dozens of bee species extinct or on verge of disappearing across UK
The Independent