Is The Insect Apocalypse a Hoax?

Why 2025’s insect boom may be a stutter, not a reversal - and what it means for ecosystems

Closeup of two ladybirds on a green leaf to represent the vast swarms of ladybirds seen in 2025, dubbed 'The Year of the Ladybird'

Is the 'insect apocalypse' real, or is it a giant con trick, as Donald Trump would have us all believe?

I used to think I knew the answer. Now I'm not so sure.

The beginning of the end?

Last year, I wrote and published an article on Medium called 'The Beginning of the End' in which I lamented the alarming loss of insect populations.

In that article, I recounted the story of a walk my wife and I had taken in July 2024, where not a single insect was visible. There were no bees, butterflies, moths or flying beetles over the barley fields. No butterflies, moths, bees, flies, soldier beetles or cardinal beetles on the thistles, Buddleia and wild parsley.

It was eerie and depressing.

I talked about how the clouds of screaming swifts I remembered from my boyhood had all but disappeared, and linked this to the loss of the flying insects on which they feed.

Articles about the so-called insect apocalypse are nothing new. The term was first coined in the late 2010s after a German study found a significant increase in flying insect biomass.

Possible causes of this have been cited as habitat loss, pesticides, LED lighting and even 5G phone masts. Whatever the cause, or causes, it's a fairly widely accepted phenomenon.

It's a great concern. We rely on insects for pollination. If the insects disappear, so do we as a species.

But recently, something happened that made me question whether this narrative is even true.

A trip to the woods

My wife and I recently took an Autumn cycle ride to a local woodland. It was the day after Storm Amy had finally blown herself out. After three days of torrential rain and gale-force winds, it was gloriously sunny and blissfully calm.

In a clearing in the woods stands a giant owl sculpture. Approaching the sculpture, we realised it was covered in hundreds of ladybirds. As we stood there watching, more were flying in from all around and converging on the stone statue.

It's been a phenomenal year for ladybirds. Earlier this year, vast visible clouds of flying ladybirds were reported off the English coast. A cricket match at Lord's Cricket Ground had to be postponed because of swarms of the brightly-coloured beetles.

Stone barn owl sculpture in Jubilee Woods, Sefton, with “Lancashire County Council” inscription — symbol of displaced habitat, local history, and ecological irony.

The barn owl sculpture at Jubilee Woods, Sefton

It wasn't just ladybirds. There were hoverflies, robber flies and shield bugs. As we sat eating our picnic in the glorious Autumn sunshine, we were surrounded by bees feeding on late-flowering dandelions.

Our own garden earlier this year was full of butterflies of various species. Not the dense clouds of them we had a few years back, but still a lot.

Ecologists and 'pest' control firms alike have dubbed 2025 The Year of the Insect.

So I started wondering...

Is all this talk of disappearing insects nothing more than hot air and fearmongering?

Well, maybe not. Ecosystems don’t necessarily decline in straight lines. They stutter, surge, and sometimes surprise. This could be a flash of resilience, rather than a reversal.

This year's warm, wet spring and high summer temperatures created ideal conditions for an explosion of aphids, which ladybirds, wasps and other insects feed on. That could explain the swarms of insects we've seen this summer.

It's not unusual for insects to still be flying in warmer October weather. Given that they had just spent three days sheltering from the storm, it makes sense that they would emerge en masse at the first good weather.

But whether this represents a positive trend or just a temporary peak in a general downward decline remains to be seen. This year’s insect resurgence may be fleeting. Or it may be a sign that nature, given the right conditions, still remembers how to recover.

Either way, we’d be wise to listen.