I WONDER how many readers can look back to the post-war decade and remember what the country looked like.

Fields were smaller, hedgerows abundant, and if you went for drive at night in the country a veritable snowstorm of insects plastered the windscreen and headlights, to be cleaned on return.

Now you can drive from Edinburgh to London at night and scarcely see an insect.

What you witness is a mass extinction event, and experts think hundreds of thousands of insect species will be lost worldwide in the next few decades.

They play a vital role in pollination, decomposition in soil and are essential links in ecological chains. Now flagship species such as the honeybee and bumblebee are under threat.

Multiple pesticides and fungicides can be found in beeswax and this is the problem.

I think MPs are just too young to realise what has been lost. We will shortly have to do what the Chinese do and pollinate fruit trees by hand, if we want apples on the shelves.

Chris Clayton, Hempland Drive, York.