Insects: "little things that run the world." A quote championed by the legendary biologist Edward O. Wilson—the world’s foremost authority on ants and a pioneer in the study of biodiversity—carries a weight that transcends metaphor.
As the base of the predator-prey hierarchy, insects represent the essential energy link between primary producers and the broader web of life, including fish, birds, mammals, and amphibians. Yet, the critical biological anchor is in crisis. The Insect Apocalypse underway constitutes a systemic unraveling of the Earth's living infrastructure, not a distant, theoretical threat.
The Sacred Marriage of Soil and Water
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| A adult dragonfly in his terrestrial life photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images |
When toxic runoff or sedimentation compromises aquatic environments, the lifecycles of water-borne insects break. In 2022, the Effects of water temperature on freshwater macroinvertebrates: a systematic review research paper published in the National Library of Medicine confirms that aquatic insects act as vital bioindicators; their population shifts and/or decline signal broader ecosystem degradation, nutrient disruption, and water temperature changes.
A Measured Decline
As presented in the 2023 RiA Article, Atala Butterflies Return from Near Extinction:
Since the 1970s the Earth’s insect population suffered severe population declines as well as loss of diversity. The NY Times 2018 article, The Insect Apocalypse Is Here. What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?, reported: 
Atala butterfly drying its
wings
photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images
The German study found that, measured simply by weight, the overall abundance of flying insects in German nature reserves had decreased by 75 percent over just 27 years. If you looked at midsummer population peaks, the drop was 82 percent.
According to the November 2019 Somerset Wildlife Trust Insect Declines and Why They Matter Report by Professor Dave Goulson, 41% of insect species are threatened with extinction.
Data quantifying the scope of the Insect Apocalypse remains stark, moving the conversation from anecdotal observation to a documented, global crisis. While historical benchmarks like the 2017 German study provided the initial alarm, recent data confirms that these trends are not only continuing but accelerating into previously "safe" or remote regions.
Further evidence from the 2025 "Bugs Matter" survey—which monitors insect "splats" on vehicle number plates across the UK—reveals a 59% decline in flying insect abundance over just five years. The sustained, multi-regional downward trend confirms that the destabilization of the insect community is a persistent, systemic unraveling. The implications are profound: the decline triggers a catastrophic "bottom-up" destabilization of ecosystems, stripping the environment of the pollinators, nutrient cyclers, and essential food sources required by birds, mammals, and amphibians to survive.
The Earth’s Digestive System
The health of insect populations serves as a primary metric for the Earth's Digestive System (EDS), an expansive framework that maps the complex microbial and macro-level interactions driving planetary vitality. As introduced in the RiA article, Earth’s Digestive System: Restoring the Soil Microbiome, soil microbes function as the microscopic "architects" of fertility—the biological engines breaking down organic matter into life-sustaining nutrients. However, insects serve as the essential macro-scale operators of the digestive machinery, the critical catalysts for decomposition, mechanical breakdown, and nutrient cycling that the microscopic world requires to flourish.
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| A scarab or dung beetle photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images |
When insect populations collapse under the pressure of the Insect Apocalypse, the system experiences a form of "digestive" paralysis. The reduction in tunneling and shredding leads to soil compaction and a stagnant carbon cycle; the soil microbes are deprived of the processed "pre-digested" materials required to build organic matter.
Consequently, the soil's ability to sequester carbon diminishes, and the soil structure loses its capacity for the deep filtration of water. Insects are the externalized limbs of the Earth's digestive tract. Disappearance of insects represents a systemic failure that compromises the soil’s resilience, directly impeding the Earth’s ability to cycle nutrients and filter the water that sustains life on the surface.
At the end of the article, the entire EDS articles series is referenced as a vital resource.
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| White peacock butterflies thrive within abundant frogfruit, a host plant. photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images |
Beyond their foundational role in the EDS, insects serve as primary facilitators of terrestrial biodiversity; many insects are dedicated pollinators for flowering plants and specialized consumers of native flora. Millennia-old symbiotic relationships—where insects require specific native host plants to complete their lifecycles—sustain flowering plant reproduction and underpin wildlife and human food systems. When non-native ornamentals replace native flora, the complex, species-specific relationships required for both pollination and insect reproduction vanish, directly fueling the Insect Apocalypse.
The critical link between native plants and insect survival garners mainstream media attention. In the July 2026 New York Times Magazine feature, "I Wanted an Ecologically Responsible Garden. It Was Harder Than I Thought. The native plant movement gets a lot right, but there’s so much more to consider," author Ferris Jabr examines the complexities of the native plant movement. The article provides a nuanced examination at the challenges, successes, and ongoing evolution of shifting residential landscapes from aesthetic assets into functional, ecologically responsible spaces.
As co-founder of the Homegrown National Park initiative, Doug Tallamy, Ph.D., University of Delaware, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology Professor, advocates for the paradigm shift. Doug demonstrates that yards landscaped with native plants host 66% more bird species than those dominated by non-native ornamentals. Native plants provide the essential host material for the insects that form the base of the food chain.
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| A cloudless sulphur caterpillar devouring its host Cassia plant photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images |
By participating in the Homegrown National Park initiative, individual stewards transform fragmented, sterile landscapes into interconnected corridors of life. The grassroots call-to-action reinforces a simple, powerful truth: restoring the insect community begins with eliminating "cides"(1) and replacing "ornamental" non-native landscapes with the diverse, native plant communities that insects require to thrive. Urban landscapes with strategic native plant foliage build the bridge back to ecological resilience.
(1) "Cides" refers to the broad category of chemical killers used in land management, including herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, and rodenticides.
Anatomy of the Demise
As documented in the Regeneration in ACTION article, SOIL & WATER: the foundation of life, a multitude of drivers fuel the Insect Apocalypse:
Petrochemical Intensity: Widespread application of 'cides' in industrial, residential, and commercial landscapes destroys insect populations through direct exposure and systemic ingestion.
A wasp swarm clings to
threads of Spanish moss.
photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images- Habitat Destruction: Human development—from transportation networks to urban sprawl and industrial farming—obliterates the diverse ecosystems required for insect survival, directly accelerating the decline.
- The Symbiotic Requirement: Insects often share deep, co-evolved relationships with specific plants. When native hosts disappear, the insects that depend on them vanish, further thinning the web of life.
- Intangible Pollution: Insects face increasing disruption from light pollution, noise (such as leaf blowers), and electromagnetic fields, which hinder their ability to communicate, navigate, and reproduce.
The collapse of insect populations represents a series of design choices that prioritize convenience over ecological function. Reversing this trajectory requires a systemic shift: moving away from toxic land management and sterile landscapes toward a restorative approach that honors human dependence on these essential organisms. The power to halt this decline resides in decisions to re-integrate nature into occupied spaces, transforming drivers of destruction into mechanisms for regeneration.
A Pathway to Regeneration
Despite the dire scenario, hope persists through active stewardship. Addressing the Insect Apocalypse requires moving beyond passive environmentalism toward an intentional, collective effort. By aligning human activity with the Principles of Nature (1), the collective actions of stewards and gardeners act as the primary engine to reverse the Insect Apocalypse, providing the conditions for the world's little things to thrive once again.
The following pathways for engagement offer a framework for restoring the essential balance within the Earth’s living infrastructure:
Rewilding the Landscape
The Ei Rewilding Urban Landscapes Pilots (Pilots) serve as living laboratories. Upon her return to Sarasota, FL in 2021, Ei Founder & CEO Holly Elmore dedicated her spacious yard to the Pilots. After removing the non-native ornamental and invasive plants, Holly strategically landscaped the yard with butterfly and other insect host plants.
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| Pilots: a haven for urban insects and wildlife photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images |
The Pilots serve as an inspiration of how an urban yard may transform into a wildlife haven.
For pictorial documentation of the Pilots, visit the Holly Elmore Images (HEI) Rewilding Urban Landscapes Pilots photo-gallery series.
Intentional Eating
From the 2024 RiA Magazine article, What We Eat Matters, introduction:
The act of eating, a task in which the entire Animal Kingdom engages, integrates within and influences the complete spectrum of earthly phenomena. From an individual perspective, what we eat directly impacts the physical vessel's immediate and long-term health. From a macro perspective, what we eat drives economic markets, commercial agriculture-crop choices and practices, societal justices and injustices, species extinction, and a myriad of other subtle and overt scenarios.As award-winning journalist Michael Pollan encourages in his Intentional Eating MasterClass, if enough consumers vote with their food dollars, market forces will shift conventional farming to organic/regenerative agriculture. Thus, many of the challenging scenarios featured in the What We Eat Matters article will be mitigated, or their damaging impacts lessened. A movement is underway to eat healthy, nutritious food produced on regenerative farms.
Humanity faces significant survival challenges—rising sea levels, extreme weather, diminished fresh water, and excessive toxins. Yet, ancient wisdom emerges from the chaos with a message: collective consciousness is a solution. Working together in a holographic manner—where ALL benefit—is essential to ensure survival.
ALL is defined as the entire spectrum of living species and ecosystems as well as inanimate earth resources. Within humanity, ALL refers to the various societal structures and ensuring that the worker population is treated with dignity, respect, and cared for with the necessities of food, shelter, and clothing.
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| A worker honey bee feasts on a native tea bush blossom photo courtesy of Holly Elmore Images |
Humanity is at a crossroads with a seemingly bleak future. Yet, a shift in collective consciousness to a focus on ALL CONCERNED, versus how humanity benefits, will create potential futures filled with hope and promise. Inherent with the consciousness shift is individual action, no matter how small. Though the individual action may seem insignificant, collectively the action is monumental and may shift paradigms. (2)
A call-to-action is for individuals to evaluate their lives and make easy changes with lasting impact. Examples may include replacing an ornamental plant with a native host plant, eliminating single-use plastic from daily use, and/or using toilet paper made with recycled content, instead of virgin cellulose material. Then participate in the consciousness shift by sharing the changes with their friends personally and on social media.
(1) The RiA Magazine article, The Principles of Nature: Biological Governance for Human and Ecological Systems, introduces The Principles of Nature, as Ei defined in 2020.
(2) Excerpts from the RiA Magazine articles, Collective Consciousness: a movement, a solution (2023), and Shifting Consciousness: individual action matters (2024.)
In summary, the fate of the global insect population remains tied to humanity's capacity for transformation. By viewing the landscape as a living, interconnected digestive system rather than a resource to be exploited, humanity moves toward a future where biodiversity recovers. The power to restore the delicate hierarchy exists within every home garden, every conscious food purchase, and every decision to favor native over non-native life. Action with intention is essential, with the understanding that reversing the Insect Apocalypse remains the most critical work; the smallest among us holds the key to the resilience of all life on Earth.
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The Earth’s Digestive System Article Series
Restoring landscape resilience through biological soil management.
The Earth’s Digestive System (EDS) article series in the Regeneration in ACTION (RiA) Magazine explores the subterranean biological economy and the microbial workforce required to cultivate a healthy soil sponge.
Current Articles in the Series:
- Earth’s Digestive System: Restoring the Soil Microbiome: An introduction to the core principles of soil health and the transition from synthetic interventions to biological support.
- The Microbial Workforce: Powering the Earth's Digestive System: A deep dive into the specialized labor categories—Architects, Recyclers, and Regulators—that maintain the underground economy.
- Earth’s Digestive System: A Living Glossary: A foundational reference for the technical nomenclature used throughout the series, defining the mechanisms of the soil sponge and the water vault.
- The Principles of Nature: Biological Governance for Human and Ecological Systems - An exploration of the biological constitution that governs resilient ecosystems and mirrors healthy human societal structures.
- The Architecture of Life: How Carbon Builds the Underground Infrastructure: An exploration of how the subterranean workforce utilizes plant-derived carbon as literal currency to construct the soil sponge and replenish the water vault.
- The Earth's Digestive System: A Saga of Human Intervention: An exploration of historical human-driven shifts from biological stewardship to mechanical domination along with solutions in action that restore the EDS workforce
Future installments will explore Urban Carbon Sinks, Micro-Aggregate Formation, and Ecosystem Regeneration.
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