Have you noticed that, over the years, road trips end with fewer and fewer bugs splattered on the windshield? How about the number of earthworms and grubs you find in the garden soil? Could you catch as many fireflies and rollie pollies this summer as you used to? Insects are quickly disappearing from our everyday lives. This change may seem fantastic to those eager to burn their house down when they find a spider inside. However, insects and other arthropods are crucial to our planet, and dwindling populations are an issue of global concern.

Although they’re small, insects outnumber us vastly. Ants alone match humans in total weight around the world. The number of known insects makes up 80% of all animal species, and it’s estimated that 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects roam the earth right now. That’s an impressive number, to say the least. Though this seems like a healthy population, insects are in danger!

Cheetahs living alongside a massive termite population. Photo Credit: Lothar Herzog/Creative Commons

Insects serve countless unique and important purposes. Some pollinate our food while others decompose dead animals and plants to produce soil. Even the ones that don’t serve us are crucial to ecosystems and provide food for other animals. In almost every biome, insects can be found, quietly buzzing around the big, popular animals.

Despite their abundance, insects are now suffering. Species are going extinct as their environments become inhabitable. Human behavior, such as pesticide use, destruction of habitats, and global warming, has caused this problem. It’s important that as many insect species survive as possible because biodiversity is key to a healthy environment. Different species fill different roles to fit together like puzzle pieces, living in symbiosis until humans disrupt them.

So, what happens if all insects die? Without them, ecosystems can collapse. The food chain is an important reason why. Insects are at the “bottom” of the food chain, above plants. Many small animals, including other insects, depend on insects for food. Their bodies are rich in protein, fats, and calcium, nourishing animals such as birds and rodents. Even if the insects just declined, without completely disappearing, there may not be enough to support the nutritional needs of all the animals that depend on them. If those small animals starve to death, so do their predators, and so on. Outside the food chain, these tiny critters have important roles in their habitats. Imagine if there were no wood-eating insects, like termites. Every tree that has ever fallen in a forest would take astronomically longer to decompose, obstructing the habitat for every other organism. Insects really do have a butterfly effect on everything around them (pun intended)!

In order to prevent more loss, policies need to be enacted around the globe to protect insects. Habitats need to be protected everywhere. Biocorridors are an example of natural spaces that animals can pass through to mate, migrate, and more. Human destruction has caused insects to need biocorridors to navigate the ever-changing agricultural and urban landscapes.

Wildlife Bridges are a trending type of corridor, allowing animals to safely cross borders created by roads. Photo: Banff National Park, Canada

Even though some insects are considered pests to food crops, plants need pollinators to grow and breed. The pesticides that are especially toxic to pollinators, known as neonicotinoids, should be banned and replaced with safer alternatives. The design of modern agriculture, with few trees to buffer wind, also allows for further pesticide spread through a process of drift. Natural barriers would help beneficial insects living in agricultural areas.

It’s especially important for world leaders to take aggressive and immediate action to slow and limit climate change. As global temperatures rise quickly, many animals lose their natural habitats, unable to evolve quickly enough to adapt to a changing climate. Insects aren’t spared from this trend. The sooner and more effective global warming is controlled, the better insect populations will fare.

These little creatures might scare you, but they are the backbone of life on earth. Think of how insects may be impacted by the changes in the world around you. Support habitat conservation, pesticide regulation, and climate action. These causes have countless intertwined impacts, including insect survival. A world where insects are thriving is one where so much more thrives!