Where Have The Insects Gone?? With Dr. Jessica Ware

September 10, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Where Have The Insects Gone?? With Dr. Jessica Ware

In the 1990s, entomologist Jessica Ware could collect dragonflies simply by picking them off the grilles of cars after a drive. Now, she says, "we can't do that." Her 17-year-old son recently asked why so many insects were hitting the windshield during a wet summer—he had never seen that before in his life. "Kid, this is what it used to be like," she told him. That generational gap in experience is one small sign of something much larger: insects are vanishing at an alarming rate, and the consequences would reshape every ecosystem we know.

The evidence for decline

About a decade ago, a European study made headlines by showing that the total mass of insects in a particular area had dropped by 70 percent over 30 years. Many scientists, including Ware, were initially skeptical—maybe the composition had just shifted toward lighter insects, skewing the weight measurement. But since then, researchers have been collecting data globally, and "time after time, what we're seeing is that insects are declining at a rate that is alarming," Ware says. "It's a rate that's faster than we've ever seen before."

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What you'll learn

1 (00:29) **Why Insects Matter** - Jessica Ware introduces insects as "aliens on Earth" that survived where dinosaurs couldn't, and explains that life as we know it would not exist without them.
2 (01:03) **The Insect Decline Crisis** - Scientists have observed a dramatic and mysterious drop in insect numbers, described as an "insect apocalypse."
3 (03:55) **Arctic Mosquitoes and Dragonfly Origins** - Jessica describes her fieldwork in the Arctic, where mosquitoes are so dense they bite eyeballs, and then traces dragonfly history back 350 million years.
4 (06:49) **Dragonfly Reproduction and Golden Penises** - Dr. Ware explains the dramatic sex lives of dragonflies, including how males use modified secondary penises to scoop out rival sperm.
5 (10:36) **How Bad Is the Insect Apocalypse?** - Jessica confirms the decline is "really bad" and explains the scientific evidence, including the shift from biomass-only studies to more rigorous species-level data.
6 (15:36) **Personal Evidence of Insect Loss** - The host and Jessica discuss anecdotal signs people may have noticed, like fewer fireflies in cities and clean windshields on road trips.
7 (17:53) **Pushback and the "Insect Apocalypse That Never Was"** - The host reads a skeptical quote from scientists who argue accounts of insect demise may be exaggerated, and Jessica responds with nuance.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Jessica Ware

Show Notes

Bugs are disappearing at alarming rates, scientists are telling us. Bees, butterflies, beetles: all of them have been dropping like flies. And scientists say there are a bunch of reasons to care about this — for example, fewer bugs means less pollination, which means less pasta in your pantry. But recently, some have suggested that all these scientists crying out about the insect apocalypse might just be crying wolf. They say that the math isn’t math-ing and that the insects are doing all right. And this has been bugging us! So we called up Dr. Jessica Ware, an entomologist and a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, to find out what’s going on here. And Jessica also specializes in dragonfly lovemaking, so of course, we had to ask about that too.

Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/SVInsectApocalypse

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Meet entomologist Dr. Jessica Ware

(03:27) Dragonflies: Origins and sex lives

(08:55) The insect apocalypse: How bad is it?

(19:02) What’s causing the decline in insects

(22:24) Bees and pollinator gardens

(27:16) Invasive species: Lanternflies and murder hornets

(33:46) How to milk a cockroach

(39:07) Is it beeswax?

This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, with help from Michelle Dang, Rose Rimler, and Meryl Horn. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the executive producer. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Video editing and sound by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Thanks to Humdinger Studios in Melbourne, and Wolff Island Studios in New York City.

Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications.

Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/SVInsectApocalypse

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Meet Entomologist Dr. Jessica Ware

(03:27) Dragonflies: Origins and sex lives

(08:55) The Insect Apocalypse: How bad is it?

(19:02) What’s causing the decline in insects

(22:24) Bees and pollinator gardens

(27:16) Invasive species: Lanternflies, murderhornets,

(33:46) Cockroaches and cockroach milk

(39:07) Is it beeswax?

Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Or