Why are insects so important?

Of the 1.5 million species of animal that have been described, 1 million are insects (and there are many, many more that await discovery and naming). This means: there are more kinds of insects than all other forms of life combined. It would take 6,000 encyclopedia pages to list all the known insects.

Without insects our world would be covered in dung and dead animals

The value of crops pollinated by bees is $1590,000,000 per year! 30% of all human food is directly or in-directly dependent on pollination by bees.

Food for thought:

"Insects are everywhere and we need them. While many people in the over-developed world see insects as objects of disgust, we all depend on them for the largely unseen ecological services performed by these much-maligned, but often strikingly beautiful, animals"

Christopher O'Toole, Alien Empire