Global insect populations are declining at alarming rates, raising both ecological concerns and, for some researchers, welfare questions about the moral status of billions of dying invertebrates.
Insect decline raises overlapping ecological and potential welfare concerns. From an ecological perspective, the consequences are clear and severe: declining pollinators threaten crop production and wild plant reproduction; declining decomposers impair nutrient cycling; declining prey species propagate through food chains affecting vertebrate populations. The welfare dimension is more philosophically contested. If insects experience any form of suffering — even rudimentary nociception that influences behavior — then the death of trillions of insects from pesticide application and habitat loss represents moral harm at a scale that dwarfs virtually any other human impact on animals. Even under significant uncertainty about insect sentience, the precautionary case for reducing unnecessary insect deaths — particularly from easily avoidable sources like unnecessary pesticide use — is strong.