“Where are the worms? They used to be everywhere after it rained.” “I miss the butterflies. They haven’t been in my garden once this spring!” “Have you spotted a lightning bug? My mom and I haven’t seen one since last summer…” All over the world, bugs are disappearing—but why? And what does that mean for us? Everyone has at least one fond memory of bugs. As a child, I distinctly remember walking barefoot to the park by my house with one goal in mind: to rummage through the grass in search of creepy crawlies. Whether it was lady bugs, worms, or roly-polies, I did not discriminate. I would pick up my new friends with reckless abandon, occasionally running home crying from poor encounters with pincher bugs or angry ants. As I grew older, my fondness for the multi-legged, minuscule creatures lounging in my lawn did as well. I’d spend hours identifying, handling, and relocating whatever insects I could find, and they were truly a cornerstone of my childhood; a constant while grades, friends, and schools changed. When a new baby came into the family, I knew I would introduce her to the friends that were so dear to me. When she turned two, I took it upon myself to begin bringing her to the park. My mission was clear: to get her to fall in love with bugs in the same way I did; to “start her young.” Unfortunately, I was met only with frustration. Shockingly, the origin of my anger was not the toddler at my side—it was the repeated question reverberating in my brain: “Where are all the bugs?” I went under rocks, up trees, between blades of grass, and through hordes of children to no avail. Everyday was the same: a few handfuls of ants accompanied by a bee or two. I didn’t understand how, in a few short years, all the bugs had vanished. It was baffling! Like most people of my generation, this question inevitably carried me to the internet where I dove into a frenzy of research. There, I was met with a stark reality: the bugs hadn’t left, they had died. And, even worse, it was our fault. Killing bugs has become normalized in our everyday life. People view them as grotesque vermin, going as far as spraying their gardens with pesticides and stocking their pantries with bug spray for any unlucky being who happens to live in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bugs being kicked out of suburban spots coupled with habitat loss from deforestation gives the crawlers nowhere to go. This has led to an almost 45% decrease in bug populations globally, with some sources reporting up to a 75% loss. This rapid decrease is terrifying, and one would assume that it is getting adequate publicity for its fixing! Unfortunately, if you were aboard this train of thought, you were on the wrong track. Unlike most environmental issues, the bugs get no funeral. People mourn forests after fires, they weep for lakes and oceans polluted, and they hold services for furry creatures facing extinction. Bugs, on the other hand, have gone quietly. Nobody seems to notice the distinct lack of them, and, if they do, they don’t care. This is outrageous. Bugs are crucial to our environment, from pollinating the flowers that produce our fruit to feeding the birds that sing to us in the mornings. Without them, the world loses its spark! Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to advocate for the bugs. I intend to major in Environmental Policy and utilize said degree to protect the little creatures that give us all so much. Some specific ideas I have include: encouraging the removal of non-native plant species to cater to the diets of native bugs, to ban the use of harmful pesticides, and to incentivize people to remove invasive, foreign bugs from their areas who may be killing the endangered native populations. Aside from my career and educational goals, I hope to create advocacy via social media for the cause, preaching the same aforementioned ideas. All it takes is one viral video for the world to realize what is at stake. With so many threats to the environment surfacing, it’s easy to get caught up in the big issues. While fixing pollution and deforestation is crucial, there is no point if there are no bugs to support these fragile ecosystems. Together, we can save the earth one bug at a time—there is no future without them.