At the latest since it has been known that wild bees are becoming increasingly rare in the wild, the death of insects has also been on everyone's lips. But what exactly does insect mortality mean? How does the decline of insects manifest itself and what is already being done in Central Germany to protect the delicate flying and crawling animals?

After a study in 2017 announced that the insect population had decreased by 75% in the last 30 years, many in Germany were concerned. After all, our ecosystem is unimaginable without insects, because they pollinate plants and thus provide a large part of our food, but they also serve as a source of food for other animals and decompose dead bodies, keeping our planet clean and ensuring a functioning cycle. The author Kerstin Mauersberger has looked around the region and asked scientists and experts how our insects are doing. She spoke with entomologists, farmers and scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv).

"How are our insects doing?" was created as part of MDR Insect Summer. Beside our production there are many other interesting articles for interested people, insect lovers and hobby gardeners. The NABU also has the Insect Summer and is looking for diligent insect counters who will note down everything with six legs within an hour, whether on the meadow, on the balcony or at the lake. No expert knowledge is required, the environmental association is interested in motivating as many people as possible to count and thus collect as much data as possible. Although such a Citizen Science project does not yet provide scientifically evaluable figures, it does provide a - albeit very rough - overview of the diversity of species.

Next Sunday our documentary will be released at 10 pm on MDR to see. Whoever can't wait until then, has talked MDR Media Library or via Youtube already has the possibility to stream the film. About our News Section or at Facebook and Instagram we will keep you up to date about this production and other projects.