Wild Insect Conservation: Protecting Beetles, Moths, and Beyond

Beyond bees, wild insects including beetles, moths, and hoverflies face population declines with welfare implications for billions of individuals and ecosystem services.

Key Facts

An estimated 40 percent of insect species are declining globally with many facing extinction risk
Night-flying moths have declined 30-50 percent in the UK since the 1970s primarily from light pollution and habitat loss
Dung beetles that decompose waste and aerate soil have declined significantly with changes in livestock management
Dead wood habitats are critical for thousands of beetle species and are often removed in tidied landscapes
Artificial light at night disrupts moth navigation, mating, and feeding causing population-level effects
Insect conservation requires landscape-scale approaches including habitat connectivity and pesticide reduction

Welfare Considerations

Wild insect welfare beyond the well-publicized bee decline represents an enormous scale of potential welfare concern combined with significant scientific uncertainty about insect sentience. Population declines affecting billions of individual moths, beetles, and flies represent potential welfare harm if these organisms experience something during their lives and deaths. Even under minimal sentience assumptions, the collapse of insect communities eliminates the food resources for countless insectivorous vertebrates that unambiguously suffer from starvation. Protecting wild insect communities requires the same landscape-scale approaches that benefit bee welfare: reduced pesticide use, habitat connectivity, native plant conservation, and reduced light pollution that disrupts night-flying species.

What You Can Do

Create habitat for beetles through leaving dead wood, leaf litter, and undisturbed soil
Reduce outdoor lighting and use red or amber lights that are less disruptive to night-flying moths
Support policies reducing pesticide use in agricultural landscapes benefiting all insect groups
Advocate for wildflower margin requirements in agricultural land adjacent to hedgerows