How to Communicate with Insects

Unlike honeybees, bumblebees do not dance to communicate the location of food.

Four-fifths of all the animal species on earth are insects, and they communicate with other insects in a different way from how humans communicate with one another. Many of our language skills are learned. However, learning plays a less significant role in how insects communicate with other insects, and most of their communication skills are innate. By studying insect behavior, you can see how insects communicate so you can mimic it.

Instructions

1. Look for communicative behavior among insects, and learn to distinguish it from other behaviors. Knowledge and understanding about how a species communicates are vital. Insects communicate in ways that are not always obvious to humans. Learning to detect different signals is important so that you can see when insects are exchanging information. A cricket will make noises to alert another cricket about where it is, and these sounds can be heard and detected. Other insects communicate by using chemicals or making dance movements to attract other insects' attention. These signals are more difficult to detect.

2. Study when insects communicate with one another. This will help you to time your signals. Bees that have gathered nectar return to the hive and communicate its location. Examine other situations when insects communicate, and watch how they transmit their signals.

3. Make a recording of insects such as crickets, and try to imitate the kinds of sounds they are making. Insects make sounds using their body parts. Bees make sounds by moving their wings rapidly, and a cricket rubs its feet together. Be inventive and find other ways to make similar sounds.

4. Watch fireflies communicate in the dark. Fireflies send out pulses of light, and each species has a unique pattern and response time. Understanding this pattern can help to mimic the pattern. For example, some females respond to the males' light pulses by sending a double flash of light.

5. Mimic color patterns of butterflies and moths. Many species use bright colors or fake eyes to scare away potential predators.

Tips & Warnings

• The online site NC State University has recordings of acoustic signals made by a number of insects. Listen to insects that knock and tap, such as the deathwatch beetle, or those that hiss, such as the Madagascan hissing cockroach.

References

• NC State University; General Entomology; "Insect Communication"; John R. Meyer; 2006
• Discovery School: "How Insects Communicate: Lesson Plan"; 2004