The sound of crickets chirping. A bright flash of orange and black wings flutter around the flowers. Drunk looping grasshopper flight. The familiar sights and sounds of summer in New Mexico are becoming fewer as insect populations decline due to hotter, drier weather, pesticide use and habitat loss.
New Mexico, like many other states, is experiencing what experts describe as an alarming decline in insect populations, changes that pose a serious threat to the ecosystem.
Although insects are often seen as pests, entomologists told Source NM that an estimated three-quarters of wild plants depend on insects to help them reproduce. one third of food crops. Insects are often the staple food of many mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles. They act as natural scavengers and get rid of other pests.
David Lightfoot, an associate professor of entomology at the University of New Mexico who specializes in grasshoppers, searches for insects with his graduate students on the Albuquerque campus. (Daniel Prokop/Source NM)
Insects are “the backbone of the ecosystem,” said David Lightfoot, an assistant professor in the University of New Mexico’s biology department. Lightfoot has studied the state’s grasshopper populations for more than 30 years and helped develop policies to protect insects and other arthropods.
Insect populations are declining worldwide due to a variety of factors, he said. Die with a thousand cuts.
He said the results of a recent conservation study in New Mexico were similarly grim.
“More than half of the species we assess are listed as threatened, endangered, or endangered based on recent declines,” Lightfoot said. “What people are reporting around the world is actually happening here in New Mexico. This surprised us because we haven’t had the land development and population growth that we see in other parts of the country.”
Kevin Baals, an endangered species conservation biologist with the nonprofit research group, said the losses are not limited to rare insects. Zerses Society for Invertebrate Conservation. He pointed out that the once widespread monarch butterfly population is in decline. Today’s population is 99% lower than it was in the 1980s.
“We’re losing a lot of what we have in common, and it’s having cascading effects on other animal communities,” Barr said, noting that’s happening in many states. “If you talk to anyone who knows about songbirds in the West, they’ll tell you that the decline in insects is the reason for the decline in bird numbers.”
And while the scope of the problem has become clearer in recent years, concerns about extremely hot and dry summers and continued use of pesticides and herbicides could exacerbate the problem.
Goodbye, butterflies?
The marine blue butterfly is one of many species in New Mexico that researchers say are under threat from habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. (Daniel Prokop/Source NM)
Butterflies are some of the most well-studied insects around the world, and data on their populations date back decades.
In 2025, researchers Review of over 76,000 butterfly studies They found that between 2000 and 2020, butterfly populations declined by 22%, with 13 times as many butterfly populations declining as there were increases in that period.
The fastest declines were in the southwestern states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma. Overall volume decreased by 36%. More than half of the species recorded had declining populations.
Simon Doneski, a doctoral candidate who studies butterflies at the University of New Mexico, said that in addition to climate change, the effects of herbicides and pesticides are harming insects at every stage of their life cycle. Too much heat can damage the eggs and dry out the plants the caterpillars eat.
He said New Mexico’s recent heat wave and dry winter have caused an unprecedented surge in butterflies. He documented nearly 20 species emerging from pupa a month earlier than ever observed in New Mexico. He said he was concerned because the flowering plants the butterflies feed on may not bloom, and the caterpillars that are born early may be exposed to the summer’s hottest heat.
“We are in uncharted territory,” he said. “This hasn’t happened in at least 100 years, and probably much longer than that.”
From tree planting to policy changes
American bumblebees descend on clover flowers on the University of New Mexico Albuquerque campus. Lightfoot said New Mexico appears to be the bumblebee’s stronghold, noting that bumblebee populations have declined in recent years across much of the eastern and Midwest United States. (Daniel Prokop/Source NM)
2025 overhaul by state legislature New Mexico Department of Wildlife Lightfoot said that despite significant changes in the direction of conservation, additional funding and attention to insect conservation is still desperately needed.
“From bees to bison” Wildlife agency overhaul spills over into state wildlife action plans
“We have to learn about them before we can protect them,” Lightfoot said.
Individuals can take actions such as planting native pollinating species and reducing reliance on herbicides and pesticides, Caitlin Haas said. Pollinator conservation expert at the Santa Fe-based Xerces Society.
Applying political pressure to change herbicide and pesticide policies or advocate for insects in local politics is another way to get involved, said Baals, also of the Xerces Association.
“Involvement with local politics and state legislatures is so important, and everyone can do something to represent and advocate for insects,” he said. “This is really important because other interest groups have very good lobbying support and a lot of advocates. But insects don’t always have that. So every voice matters.”
