Insect populations have declined dramatically over recent decades. Beyond ecological consequences, growing evidence of insect sentience raises welfare questions about this decline and about human activities that cause insect deaths.
Insect decline raises welfare questions at two levels. First, the welfare of insects themselves: if insects have any capacity for suffering — however uncertain and evolutionarily distant from human experience — the scale of insect deaths caused by pesticides, habitat loss, and light pollution represents an enormous potential welfare impact. Second, the welfare consequences for animals that depend on insects: birds whose food supply collapses, bats that cannot find sufficient prey, freshwater fish that depend on insect larvae. Reducing insect decline through pesticide reduction, habitat restoration, and light pollution management improves welfare at both levels. Gardens managed with native plants, reduced chemical inputs, and diverse structures provide meaningful habitat even at small scale.