Bugs can be annoying, but they’re also a vital part of life on Earth. Numerous reports, including one from the BBC, suggest that certain insect populations are declining so rapidly that some researchers have dubbed the development an “insect apocalypse.”
Joe Scott, a YouTuber who takes deep-dive views into a wide range of subjects, explored this concept in a piece titled “You’re Not Crazy. The Bugs Are Disappearing.” Across 20 minutes, the documentarian approaches the vanishing-insect story from multiple angles: why it matters, what appears to be causing it, and what ordinary people can do to help combat it.
“You’re not crazy—bug populations have been declining all around the world in alarming numbers,” Scott says in the intro. “So much so that researchers have started calling it the ‘bug apocalypse’…Bugs have been vanishing for a while now, and the numbers are kinda crazy.”
He points to a handful of studies, including one from Germany where 63 nature preserves reportedly lost 75 percent of their flying insects between 1989 and 2016. Research conducted in New Hampshire found that the “beetle capture rate” dropped by a whopping 83% between the mid-1970s and the 2015-2017 range. Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, insect biomass has reportedly plummeted by as much as 60-fold since the 1970s.
What does this decline look like in the practical sense? Scott gives the example of pollinators like butterflies, beetles, wasps, and, most famously, bees, which help pollinate our flowering plants and produce “fruit, vegetables, nuts, spices, coffee, and chocolate.” A bug apocalypse could have a big impact on the economy, not just the environment.
Scott also points to a piece from The Guardian in which ecologist David Wagner discusses the global decline of insects. While the publication cites international reviews estimating “annual losses globally of between 1% and 2.5% of total biomass every year,” Wagner said he has seen some areas “threatened by climate change or urbanization or agriculture” experience declines as high as “5% per year.”
“We’re at a new point in human history,” Wagner told The Guardian. “The major drivers of biodiversity losses around the planet [up until the last decade] were really land degradation and land loss, habitat loss. But I think now that climate change is by far exceeding that.”
What’s causing the “bug apocalypse”?
So why is this happening? It is a complex problem that, according to Scott, involves climate change, but also habitat destruction and modern farming techniques, particularly the use of pesticides such as neonicotinoids. According to the National Toxicology Program, these insecticides have “neurotoxic effects,” and “there is concern that neonicotinoids may impact animals other than their insect targets, including humans.”
In 2022, the World Health Organization published a breakdown of pesticide residues, noting, “Pesticides can prevent large crop losses and will therefore continue to play a role in agriculture. However, the effects of exposure to pesticides on humans and the environment are a continuing concern.” In September 2025, CNN summarized a study by the Environmental Working Group, reporting that “dozens of pesticides enter the body through contaminated fruits and vegetables.”
Another issue is light pollution, which, as we covered over at Upworthy, is directly relevant to the decline of fireflies in North America. A 2024 study in Science of the Total Environment suggested that people can help mitigate the problem by using dark-sky-friendly lighting, a small but notable step.
Making a small but real impact
But Scott notes that not all insects are in peril, and he includes several optimistic points about practical steps people can take in their daily lives, such as converting lawns into natural habitats, educating others about insects, and getting involved in insect conservation.
Through his YouTube channel, his podcasts, and his Patreon content, Scott takes similarly comprehensive looks into other fascinating topics, covering everything from the prevalence of AI in music to “The Most Convincing Parallel-Universe Story.”
