To many people, all insects are just bugs, but those who study them more closely realize that there are “good” bugs as well as "bad” ones. Good insects we know are known as beneficial. There are far more beneficial insects that most people realize. Take honey bees for example. Mankind benefits directly by eating the honey and using the beeswax they produce, and also indirectly because honeybees are great pollinators. In fact, besides pollinating flowers, they also pollinate many, if not most, of our food crops. In fact, some plants can only be pollinated by bees or other insects. This reliance on fertilization of plants by bees is so great that in some areas farmers “rent” beehives when crops are in season. A roving beekeeper will set his hives out in the farmer’s fields and let them do their thing. Without these highly beneficial insects, the U.S. would probably product less than half the food it does now.

What man-made fabric can compare with silk? Silk is made by unraveling the cocoons of the silk moth caterpillar and then weaving them into fabric. Pure silk is considered among the most luxurious of fabrics, coveted by people all over the world.

The shellac we use to protect our furniture is made by distilling the secretions of a scale insect.

Backyard gardeners welcome the “lady bug” or “lady bird beetles” for they know these beetles eat a variety of other insects that are injurious to their vegetables. The egg masses of the praying mantis are commercially available to gardeners for the same reason. The eggs are placed in the garden or greenhouse, and the newly hatched mantises immediately begin to consume the less desirable insects.

Many moth, fly and beetle species are responsible for turning the flesh, hide, feathers, fur, and hair of dead animals (including humans) back into their organic constituents. Although eating dead animals may seem like a disgusting process, the earth would be piled high with carcasses or corpses if not for the help of those insects.

Insects or derivatives of insect have been used in medical preparations since the beginning of recorded history, and some still are today.

Even destructive insect can sometimes be beneficial. Would you believe the disease carrying mosquito is responsible for the invention of air conditioning? It’s true! A doctor researching a cure for malaria realized all of his patients contracted the disease in a hot climate. Before realizing the disease is borne by mosquitoes, he invented the first crude air conditioning system in an attempt to cure his patients.

There are many other examples of beneficial insects too numerous to list here. After all, every bug has some purpose on this earth.