PROJECTS & AWARENESS-RAISING

We want to save insects and promote them sustainably. What originally began with a single question about the value of an insect has developed into an urgent rethink. We also want to anchor this change in awareness in society. For insect control, this means: reduce, ecologize and compensate!

Saving flies in Deppendorf

A one-day rescue operation that mobilized an entire village on 1 September 2012 and led a fly to a wellness hotel with the world’s first flight ticket for an insect. The supposedly absurd action led to a radical change in the company – with the newly created INSECT-RESPECT product label as a sustainable result.

Day of the insects

INSECT-RESPECT has been organizing the Day of Insects together with partners every year since 2017, already four times in Germany and twice in Switzerland. Representatives from business, politics, NGOs, science and civil society discuss and initiate insect protection measures together as a lobby for insects.

Hour of the insects

The Covid-19 pandemic called for new formats: As the Insect Day 2020 conference could not take place, INSECT-RESPECT decided to launch an online seminar series and bring the “lobby for insects” together virtually: Experts gave impulses, participants entered into dialog and learned about news from the insect world and got to know other committed people.

Biofach trade fair

2017-2020 INSECT-RESPECT exhibited annually at the BIOFACH trade fair. Strikingly different stands were used to draw attention to insects. In 2019, for example, the stand was upside down – as if from the perspective of a fly on the ceiling.

Publications

Research work: Insect strike by cars

How many insects die on a windshield? In collaboration with a Swiss ecology office, INSECT-RESPECT researched this question in 2013. The result: the number of road casualties that nobody thinks about is serious. Over 4000 insects were killed for every 100 kilometers driven.

 

In collaboration with the AG Westfälischer Entomologen and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL, Biodiversity and Conservation Biology), INSECT-RESPECT studied the insect fauna on the Reckhaus compensation areas in Bielefeld and Switzerland in 2016.

Lectures

To raise awareness of the value, benefits and threats of insects, Dr. Hans-Dietrich Reckhaus, the initiator of INSECT-RESPECT, regularly gives lectures at universities, meetings and conferences

Insects exhibition

The INSECT-RESPECT exhibition conveys impressions and knowledge about the value of insects for our society. Among other things, it shows the Save Flies campaign, impressive insect numbers and records in the animated film “Little Giants“. The exhibition has already been shown in various museums.

Poster campaign

As part of the cooperation between Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld (namu e.V.) and INSECT-RESPECT, large-scale posters featuring insects lined the city of Bielefeld in 2017 and 2018: with twelve titles such as “Blooming landscapes”, “Not just annoying” or “A biological beacon”, the luminous surfaces accompanied passengers on streetcar line 4 from the museum to the university and drew attention to the great value of insects.

INSECT-RESPECT