Bugs

[Jacob]

If they breed so quickly and i such vast numbers, why isn't the entire planet covered in them?

[football]

Insects cover the entire planet. There are more insects &/ or ants than humans. Birds & animals eat insects.

[wildwood]

and most of the insects are eaten by other insects.

[Squirrel]

The same reason it isn't covered with beavers, parsley or anything else: as soon as there is a large increase in the number of, say, flies in an area, the fly-eating population thrives and multiplies until there are so many fly-eaters that they have consumed almost all of their prey, then the number of fly-eaters starts to diminish due to starvation. Once there are sufficiently few predators, the fly population increases again, etc. etc.

[xyzzy@bok]

collectivelyand pound for pound, insects far outweigh animals but as has been said, no saturation apart from at plaguetime :-)

[darth vader]

species equilibria - its a big subject. Incidentally the film "The Matrix" classifies humans as a virus as we can't reach some form of equilibrium, we just keep expanding in numbers. (Makes you think hey?)

[Jacob]

Hehe, oi loikes this woman abigail, oi think oi could quite fancy her with her witty ways! Don't suppose youm is free this weekend m'dear?