Nature’s clean-up crew
What becomes of the leaves that fall in the forest every autumn? What
keeps them from piling up each year and covering the world with leaves?
Each spring, millions of baby insects eat into the leaves that lie on
the ground. Mold grows inside the leaves, making them rot. The leaves
begin to fall apart.
Earthworms, insects called springtails, and tiny spiderlike mites go to
work. They chew and grind the leaves into pieces. The leaves are
digested and pass out of their bodies and into the ground as waste. Mold
and very tiny creatures called bacteria change the waste into gas and
liquid. And by next fall, nothing is left of most of last year’s leaves.
The insects, earthworms, mold, and bacteria are nature’s clean-up crew.
They’re mighty important to us, for without them the world would be a
big garbage dump! They help get rid of every dead thing from autumn
leaves to elephants.
But the clean-up crew does even more than just get rid of garbage. The
clean-up crew turns all dead plants and animals into things that plants
can use. The gas and liquid that dead, rotting things become is needed
by plants. Without it they couldn’t grow or live. And without plants
there could be no animals or people.
Without the crawling animals and the mold and bacteria of the clean-up
crew—we couldn’t live!
Slugs and baby insects live in fallen leaves. Below the leaves live
mites and springtails, shown in circles. Worms and mole crickets live
farther down.
