Over the past few decades, the fate of the world's insects has become a subject of serious concern.

The current rate of extinction among insects is around eight times faster than that of birds, mammals, or reptiles,

and the total mass of insects on the planet is falling by around 2.5% per year.

At that rate, insects could see near total extinction by the end of the century, which would be catastrophic.

Not just for insects, but for all of life on Earth.

But what would happen if insects started fighting back?

After all, where the human race wiped out, insect life would stand a way better chance of survival.

This led me to consider

some troubling questions. What if all insects on Earth suddenly joined forces to wage war

against humanity and made killing humans their primary objective? How would this war unfold?

And ultimately, would we stand a chance? You're listening, you're listening to be amazed.

Let's take a look at the numbers. According to the Smithsonian Institute, it's estimated there are around 10 quintillion individual insects alive at any given time.

That's a one with 19 zeros. This means there are roughly 1.7 billion insects per human being on Earth.

So for every single pound of human, there's around 300 pounds of insects.

If insect total war did break out, then

each human would have to face the equivalent of a 1.7 billion strong army that's 300 times

average human body weight. Since it would probably take far fewer than 1.7 billion insects

to kill any one person, that proportion would only get higher as casualties increased.

The bulk of the insect army would be made up of ants since they're the most populous insect in the

world. The Encyclopedia Britannica puts ant numbers at between 10,000 and 100,000 trillion

individuals worldwide. Ants, however, would be the least of our worries.

Insects make up around 75% of all animals on Earth,

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