Among the 391,000 known species of plants on Earth, about 94% are angiosperms, or flowering plants, according to a 2016 article on Mongabay. And out of all those species, around 88% depend on animals for pollination, based on calculations in a 2011 study. The plants that are involved in vegetable, fruit, medicine, and textile-related fiber production are especially dependent on the best and most successful animal pollinators around: insects (via the Australian Museum).

Insect pollinators are so good at what they do because they have the ability to fly and are able to go from plant to plant in a jiffy. Plants get better results from these insects carrying their pollen than from just leaving pollen dispersal to chance. Part of the reason why insects are such efficient pollinators is that plants have evolved to give them ample motivation: Insects obtain food from flowers and end up scattering pollen grains as they skip around in search of their next meal.

Thus, a world without bees, butterflies, wasps, and other pollinators would mean extinction for nearly all of the world’s animal-pollinated flowering plants. And if you recall your basic science lessons, if even just one part of the food chain disappears, everything goes to hell pretty quickly.

Unsurprisingly, if the majority of plants on Earth die out, the animals that directly depend on them will quickly follow. (The operative word here is “directly,” but these disappearances would still have devastating consequences on all segments of the global food web.)

LiveScience defines the word “herbivore” as “an animal or insect that only eats vegetation, such as grasses, fruits, leaves, vegetables, roots and bulbs.” Interestingly, parasitic plants that sap nutrients from other plants due to their inability to make their own food are also described as herbivorous. Herbivores are scattered across the world’s various ecosystems, ensuring a healthy balance by serving as agents that prevent plants from growing too much and completely taking over their environment (via National Geographic). Herbivores can be further divided according to what they eat: nectarivores like bees consume nectar, folivores like caterpillars dine on leaves, and frugivores like fruit flies prefer the reproductive tissues of plants.

To be able to handle their plant-based diets, herbivores’ physical traits and organ systems evolved specifically to process plant matter and absorb nutrients from their leafy lunches. Admittedly, the distinction between plant-eater and meat-eater isn’t as clear-cut as beginner-level biology lessons depict: Herbivores like deer occasionally partake in animal flesh, possibly for nutrition-related reasons (via Slate). However, they’re unlikely to ever be able to switch to a pure-meat diet — and besides, it’s not like meat-eaters would be safe from the consequences of insect extinction, anyway.

As LiveScience explains, it’s important to understand that nearly all of the planet’s living organisms directly or indirectly depend on the Sun’s light to live. Hence, as stated earlier, whether it’s a plant capable of photosynthesis, an herbivore that takes a bite out of its leaves, or a carnivore that ends up having the herbivore for supper, the disappearance of just one part of the food web will inevitably ruin everything.

A 2019 study that studied over 1,000 species of still-existing animals found that 63 percent of them were carnivores, and 3 percent were omnivorous. While this obviously does not represent the entirety of all animal species on Earth, it gives a pretty decent picture of just how many animals directly depend on other animals for food. Much like how plant-eaters can’t just switch to an all-meat diet, carnivores can’t just decide to suddenly go vegan: Their highly specialized digestive systems simply can’t handle the tough cell walls of grass and leaves.

In other words, taking insects out of the global equation will eventually mean certain doom for the world’s major carnivore groups. Canines, felines, bears, seals, procyonids such as racoons, mustelids like weasels and otters, and hyenas will starve to death. And as you’ve probably realized by now, these ripple effects would eventually affect omnivores, like humans.

If insects were to die out, the devastating effects wouldn’t be limited to food and textile production. The worldwide economy would inevitably take a massive hit, too. According to the United States Forest Service, crop pollinators in the country are worth about $10 billion every year; worldwide, that number shoots up to around $3 trillion. Honey alone is at the center of a $9.21 billion global market, while the global chocolate and coffee industries are valued at $208.15 billion and $102.02 billion, respectively.

Lac scale insects produce a resinous secretion called lac. Each year, the world (mostly India) gathers roughly 40 million pounds of it, as it is an important component of insulators, inks, wood finishes, cloth and leather dyes, and other products (via the Smithsonian Institution). Scale insects also produce an assortment of raw materials for dyes; the most well-known example is perhaps the cochineal scale insect, which served as the world’s best source of red dye for hundreds of years (via FlipScience). There’s also tannin, an important compound for tanning hides and producing permanent inks, which is sourced from insect galls (via the Smithsonian Institution). Bees’ honeycombs also produce beeswax, which manufacturers use in candles, polishes, and various cosmetic products.

The reason why dead organisms and waste don’t stick around for very long is because of decomposers. Think of them as nature’s janitors, in essence: By consuming the remains of dead plants and animals, they allow nutrients to be released into the environment for other living things to benefit from (via the United States Forest Service). 

Another benefit that Earth enjoys from decomposers — especially detritivores, which consume dead organic material — is that they also help free up space. A world without decomposers would be a world full of gigantic piles of dead plants, animal carcasses, and fecal matter, which would literally and figuratively stink (via Science World). And as it turns out, some of nature’s most effective decomposers are … you guessed it, insects.

Some examples of insect decomposers are ants, beetles, and termites. However, perhaps the most dominant decomposers (and typically the quickest to arrive at the scene, so to speak) are carrion flies. According to Nature.com, carrion flies use their uncannily sharp sense of smell to find dead organic matter within minutes. Once they locate their target, female carrion flies lay an insane number of eggs all over the carcass. When the larvae (typically numbering in the hundreds or even thousands) hatch, they obtain all the nutrients they need for growth from their home/buffet table, leaving only when they finally reach adulthood.