Buzzed Off

Although it is hardly front-page news, being a purely environmental matter and carried out by mere foreigners to boot, research in Germany indicates a seventy-five per cent decrease in the number of all flying insects over the past quarter of a century. One possible cause of the decline is pesticide use, which may well be one reason why nobody much has bothered about it until now; and of course Her Majesty's Government is unlikely to worry excessively in any case. For one thing, flying insects have never really caught on as the sort of creature that can be hunted with dogs; for another, the problem can always be dealt with by encouraging the ministerial grubs to notch up a few more taxpayer-funded air miles.