“If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos”
E O Wilson
For over 400 million years, insects have been embedded in terrestrial ecosystems. These insect heroes are everywhere and involved with everything. Despite often being overlooked, these unsung heroes are critical for all life on Earth. Insects are at the heart of every food web, they pollinate a large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and so much more.
There is a diverse range of insect heroes from bees, to butterflies, to dung beetles. And there is no doubt that we need insects for our own survival. But, we rarely protect what we don’t know or appreciate. Through movies, the Bible, and media sensationalism, insects continue to receive a bad reputation. They are scary, ugly, dirty, disgusting, annoying, killers, pests, the list goes on. But in reality, insects are extraordinary, beautiful, strange, bizarre and incredibly important. They are the caretakers, cleaners, waste processors, and so much more.
So, change your perspective and appreciate what matters. Because without insect heroes, nature as we know it would cease to exist—threatening the liveability of Earth, our only home.
“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain”
Henry David Thoreau