When a parent hears their child squeal "A bug!", their first instinct would likely be to rush over to the kitchen counter and pick up a napkin, unfurling it while sprinting into their kid's room and frantically asking where it is.
The practice of calling insects 'bugs' itself is a habitual error in social terminology, and it is often a result of learned behavior where children observe adults, pop culture, and social media sticking the label of 'bug' to anything with more legs than eyes and smaller than the size of their palm, ultimately echoing a vague and, more often than not, contextually incorrect term.
The truth is that these 'bugs' (or rather insects) are heavily misunderstood by the vast majority of humans in almost every aspect, such as their names, their roles on Earth, and especially their ecological importance – which affects not just us, but just about everything else we know of!
You've probably heard of how winged insects like bees and butterflies will help pollinate flowers while they collect pollen and nectar for their hive, or how spiders can actually help with pest control in a house. These statements are both true and help paint an optimistic view onto the reality of their value.
Unfortunately, the abundance of misinformative narratives is unmistakable. One myth you might have heard online is how "bees are good and wasps are bad". This common misconception stems from how bees are often seen as friendly and helpful, as they produce honey and appear fuzzy and less threatening compared to the perception of wasps equating to the buzzwords annoying, dangerous, or angry.
In actuality, the honey-feeding bees we know today evolved from their carnivorous wasp ancestors millions of years ago. Some species of bees have returned to exhibiting behaviors of intensified defensiveness and hostility more commonly associated with wasps, like "killer bees" (the Africanized bee). Vulture bees are a group of bees which have evolved back to feeding on rotting meat, making them truly necrophagous (a form of carnivory). The common black-and-white thinking between these two clades of hymenopterans that some of us share ignores the fact that they can and will both either be crucial or harmful to an environment, no matter if people think they're 'good' or 'evil'.
As much as there is misinformation, there's also a lack of knowledge held by the public regarding insects – or rather, we forget so much about their importance despite it hiding in plain sight. People often forget to remember that insects are the foundations of most, if not all, ecosystems – especially those that are primarily terrestrial. Furthermore, insects serve as vital scavengers and decomposers – including, but not limited to, beetles, flies, termites, and ants – which help recycle nutrients from dead plants and animals back into ecosystems. So not only do they often function as an eventual part of your favorite animal's source of energy, but they also help return their body to the earth!
The fact of the matter is that little funds and resources go to entomological research and conservation. The preservation of insect populations is rarely a priority in environmental policies, despite 40% of species currently in decline and one-third already under the qualification of endangerment. The general public is extremely disconnected from insects, as events for awareness outreach are rare and hardly financially supported. Hundreds of billions of dollars are instead funneled into the production and promotion of pesticides – chemicals that often destroy not just what we classify as pests, but the health of our plants, soil, and even the animals that end up accidentally ingesting them.
The truth of the current, holistic state of insects is what brought me to develop interest in entomology and nurture it. How could something so important to the world as these creatures be so blindly irrelevant to us who additionally inhabit it? This question caused me to take my first step in becoming an insect conservationist and advocator as I spent the first week of my summer as a junior entomology student in University of California, Riverside's Department of Entomology.
References
Helmenstine A. (2021). Difference Between Bugs and Insects. https://sciencenotes.org/difference-between-bugs-and-insects/
Law, G. & Cini A. (2018). Why we love bees and hate wasps. https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/een.12676
G. Branstetter, M., & 8 others. (2017). Phylogenomic Insights into the Evolution of Stinging Wasps and the Origins of Ants and Bees. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28376325/
Greenwood, D. (2022). Killer Bees: Appearance, Common Traits & Behavior. https://beehivehero.com/killer-bees/
Pittman, T. (n.d.) Vulture Bee: The Meat Eating Bees. https://misfitanimals.com/bees/vulture-bee/
Wilson, E. O. (1987). The little things that run the world (the importance and conservation of invertebrates). https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.1987.tb00052.x
Sánchez-Bayo, F. & A.G. Wyckhuys, K. (2019). Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320718313636
Business Research Insights. (2024). Pesticide and Other Agricultural Chemicals Market Report 2024-2033. https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/pesticide-and-other-agricultural-chemicals-market-123094
Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth & University of Maryland. (2021). Pesticides and Soil Health: The Center's Study on How Pesticides Harm Insects and Underground Ecosystems. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides-and-soil-health/