Though many of us may not realize it, insects are an integral part of our world. With over 5 million species, they play an irreplaceable role in in biodiversity and habitat. This book is both educational and entertaining (even for "non bug" people), though it ultimately carries a sobering message: insect loss needs to be curtailed before irreversible damage is done. The author provides resources and potential solutions, which lends a more optimistic note to the book.

An interesting and compelling look at invertebrates and their place in our world. I think kids will be interested in this title and that it's a good addition to libraries.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Some really interesting facts about how important bugs are and how if we lose them, we as a world will be in a lot of trouble. We can't function without bugs.

It is obvious that Hird is passionate about her topic, and that makes the read all the more enjoyable. I loved reading about bugs because it is not something you know much about without a formal background. I don’t recommend reading if you’re scared of bugs, but that may have been obvious.

I was really looking forward to reading this book as I feel we need to learn to appreciate what insects do for us.
There were a few facts in this book about the insects themselves but I felt there was more about what we can do to preserve them. Although this is incredibly important, I just wish there was more about the bugs themselves.
A good read still. Would recommend if you are looking for ideas to help save the planet.

This was for sure an interesting read. I was really fond of all the "fun facts" and learnt A LOT about bugs and the environment, I am now for sure giving my voice to this cause. However there was something I did not enjoy so much and that was how the whole premise felt a lot like "you should care for bugs because bugs are useful for you" and though that is true, we should care about bugs because bugs deserve to be cared about, because they're living beings who can't advocate for themselves and should not suffer from our behavior. I was particularly uncomfortable with suggestions of new ways to see utility in bugs. Very informative nonetheless, I'm glad I got to read it.

Invertebrates are abundant, sometimes they seem annoying or we feel phobia, however the vast majority are essential for the ecological health of the planet and support the life of plants and animals, including ours; economically and food production are vital partners that are worth their weight in sapphires.
Vicki Hird eloquently shares her passionate understanding and knowledge, invites us to reflect through culture, art, science, technological applications and engineering, therapeutic and medicinal, weaving engaging stories and fabulous ultramodern information, in ways that inspire, open our eyes to their beauty and causes us to relate in a more harmonious way as bugs do.
The author tells us about the projects to rewilding this fauna, such as National Parks and Reserves, agroecology, community gardens and Urban greening, B-Lines or insect superhighways, and explains numerous actions that we can carry out from home.
A reading that I have enjoyed a lot with my son, which has enriched and transformed the way I see insects. As an educator I highly recommend it.

As someone who relocates bugs outside instead of killing them, this was right up my alley. This is an important book about the loss of biodiversity on earth which is a extremely important subject for us humans. It is obvious from the book that the author has a passion for this and knows what she is talking about. Honestly, I loved it.

Truly well done! The author clearly has a connection with this topic. She presents a great balance of personal anecdotes and scientific days and references to make a powerful read. At first, the topic seemed vague and mysterious as I came across this book. Yet the author's mission and intent clearly comes through - what "bugs" are important, how they are suffering, and how to help. Recommend!

My thanks to NetGalley and Chelsea Green Publishing for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

This is going to be another "weird" review, in that I DNF'd this after skimming about halfway through, but that wasn't because this was a bad book, not at all, but because it depressed me too much.

This book depressed me because it highlighted to me how we humans seem to only be good at one thing, killing other living things, even to the detriment of ourselves and others.

However, that being said, I find this book to be SUPER important right now and I think it needs to be read and shared with everyone on this planet, especially those who don't understand how absolutely VITAL invertebrates are to the environment, food webs and basically the survival of everything else, including humans, on this beautiful blue ball we call home.

Policy makers and companies need to get their heads out of their posteriors and realize that ruthlessly putting money and power above all else comes at too high of a cost for everyone and everything on this planet.

(HOP) Ok, I'm off of my soap box.

4, insanely important for everyone to read and understand and DO something about but kinda depressing book, stars.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to safeguard the environment, but is unsure where to start. The complex coupling of ecosystems and how they relate to human interventions is fascinating. The book not only raises the necessity of rebugging, but also the damage consumerism is having upon the planet.

A valuable list of organisations is included, so once you have read and begun to understand the severity of the problem you are signposted to suitable resources to begin your action.

This is very out of my comfort zone when it comes to books! I normally read fiction but this title really drew me in. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to just about anyone. It covers very important topics including how we personally can make a change. This book is very relevant in today’s age. I enjoyed all of the text boxes with info as well!

The author’s umbrella term ‘bugs’ includes not just insects but arthropods, molluscs, worms…all the small, creeping creatures without backbones. And bugs are in decline. Anyone over a certain age will remember the days when any lengthy road trip in a car inevitably involved a stop to clear the windscreen of the corpses of flying insects. Sadly, that is rarely necessary now. According to this author: Many studies at a national, and even global, scale are showing crashes in both the number and diversity of insects and other bugs….over 40 per cent of insect species are in decline and so at risk of extinction over the next decades, more than twice that of vertebrate species.

This is not just sad – it is also very scary. For as Sir David Attenborough has warned us in the past, if we and all the other vertebrates were to vanish overnight, the rest of the world would still be OK but if all the invertebrates were to vanish, all the world’s ecosystems would collapse.

Probably most people do not realize just how totally dependent we are on bugs for a whole range of essential things, not the least of which is food. Hird spends the first section of the book detailing a whole lot of the ways in which these small creatures are essential to the survival of many other species, including our own. Some of these ways, we may not have thought of. For example it has finally dawned on us that we need bees in order to have our fruit and veg but we also rely a lot on wood. Trees, like us, rely on bugs for their continued existence. No more bugs = no more wood.

So why are the bugs disappearing and what can we do about it? The reasons for the decline are many. Industrial-scale farming is partly to blame by destroying not just habitat but the travel corridors that are so important to non-flying creatures. Our air, soil and water are being polluted by synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, new and foreign species have at times been introduced, thereby upsetting the natural balance. And microplastics now fill the stomachs of many tiny creatures.

However the remedies are also many and this book is rich with them. Hird lists a whole range of things that individuals and groups can do about the problem. As she explains: Rebugging is looking at all the ways, small and large, to nurture complex communities of these tiny, vital players in almost all the natural and not-so-natural places on earth. It means conserving them where they are managing to hold on, and restoring them where they are needed as part of a rewilding movement. And it means putting bugs back into our everyday lives, our homes and where we play and work.

There are many levels to work on. The first essential is to change our inner attitudes to bugs – including the species we have previously thought of as merely nuisances – and see them as citizens of the planet, just like us, and with the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of whatever happiness means to a beetle or a spider. We don’t have to love them – though many of us do, including this author – but we do have to respect and honour them.

At an everyday level there are dozens of ways in which to ‘rebug’ our lives, especially those of us with gardens, for example by switching to natural pest management methods instead of poisons, planting in a way to encourage pollinators, constructing ‘bug hotels’, leaving lots of wild patches as habitat and so on. We can even incorporate insect habitat in our buildings by using ‘bee bricks’. Even those without gardens can bring bugs to a porch, a balcony or even just a window box.

Local communities can achieve even more, and this book gives some inspirational examples. I was particularly taken with ‘tiny forest’ movement that aims to bring more trees in to urban areas and the Incredible Edible groups that began in the UK and have now spread worldwide. And there are many more ways to join in with this important work. A good first stop is to go to https://www.buglife.org.uk

I found this an inspiring and informative book and I recommend it.

This book was about the loss of biodiversity, especially in the invertebrate community. This is a very important book about a topic not many people focus on and when people do it's usually in regards to bees and butterflies. I liked that this author touched on many different species we should be worried about losing. This book was very informative and easily digestible. If you have any interest in bugs, invertebrates, and/or biodiversity in general I think this would be worth a read. I loved that it gave the reader so many resources and ways to help no matter your background/where you come from.

Rebugging the Planet is a nonfiction call-to-action plan showing some of the effects of climate change on invertebrates, some of the functions they fulfill in the biosphere, why they're important, and how to make a difference. Due out 16th Sept 2021 from Chelsea Green Publishing, it's 224 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a hands-on practical book, logically arranged, full of tips for supporting and protecting habitat and populations of invertebrates by Vicki Hird. She methodically explores our attitudes, definitions (we can hardly appreciate "bugs" and inverts if we don't know what they are), and practical methods to pitch in and "do our bit" wherever we find ourselves, urban or rural.

Graphically, the book is mostly text, broken up by frequent highlighted text boxes with important points. The small line sketches & pointillist drawings are well rendered and intricate. Although it's information rich and full of good and practical advice for rebugging habitat, it might be a bit dry for young readers. The book includes a good resource and links list for further reading and support. The lists are mostly slanted toward readers in the UK, but simple web searches will yield appropriate local groups and info.

The statistics are sobering. Climate change and habitat loss have already led to widespread changes; the loss of invertebrates directly correlates with crop failure and species decline. When the bugs disappear, the plants aren't pollinated, the species which depend on the inverts for food struggle, and the decline accelerates.

I grew up in an era of petrol-guzzling American supremacy monster cars. John Muir, Rachel Carson, and Margaret Murie (and others) dedicated their lives to making the public aware that we were on a path of destruction. The call to action they put out unfortunately went unheeded by most. Today we're literally teetering on the brink of a widespread extinction catastrophe and nobody can ignore it.The author does a good job of providing some creative solutions and tips for helping inverts to help us all.

This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, gardening groups, smallholders and hobbyists, community garden libraries and gardening groups, and anyone who wants to lend a hand to save us all from disaster. Teachers/facilitators will find many good activities here for helping younger children learn and appreciate native species.

Four and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC of this book! The title drew me in right away, and I think it is an important topic that often gets overlooked when talking about Climate Change. The book not only includes details about why we need to rebut the planet, but it also gives specific details on how we can help on an individual level. The book has a UK focus, but would be useful to people anywhere in the world. I enjoyed the content of this book, but I wish it was more integrated into a narrative. I found all the boxes of text distracting. I would have also loved to see more details about specific bugs instead of the quick overviews in the boxes.

This book is about a very important issue: the loss of biodiversity, especially the decline in insects and other bugs, and how we need to turn this around. The author knows a lot about all kind of insects and describes the unique features of many of them. She also describes possible solutions to 'rebug' both the planet and ourselves.
I liked the focus on bugs as this is a relatively unknown and unloved subject to many of us. However it is a lot of information and I'm not sure if people who do not already care a lot about biodiversity and nature will like to read it.

Rebugging the Planet
The Remarkable Things that Insects (and Other Invertebrates) Do — And Why We Need to Love Them More by Vicki Hird
Pages: 224 pages
Size: 5.5 x 8.5 inch
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Pub. Date: September 23, 2021
ISBN: 9781645020189
**Thank you Chelsea Green Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.**

Easily one of the best books with a call to action heart at its core for saving our invertebrate friends in a cohesive social and political manner. Vicki Hird has been campaigning, teaching, researching and guiding people regarding food, farming, and environmental issues for three decades. Her enthusiasm and love for insects right at the beginning of the book will make you pick up your trowel and work the soil in your home to reconnect with nature once again. The book’s powerful message is in the word “Rebugging” itself which resonates throughout the chapters.

Insect decline is real and documented. The data are present. The projections are bleak. The real challenge lies in creating a novel awareness among the human race about how important bugs are in our future survival. This book presents a “bug” manifesto, if I may, for every citizen of the planet to rebug their green spaces and avert an inevitable ecosystem collapse.

The author presents some classic examples of how the world would look without bugs. A world without pollinators is a world without food. If this sounds like an alarmist clarion call, it is. If you have seen the world raging with wildfires in the summer of 2021, it is because fires are visible ecological disasters. They devastate human properties in a matter of days and hence garner human attention and media coverage. Insects are tiny, creepy crawlies. Their size and structure make them unique and different. Insects don’t vote. They are not citizens. But they are the silent workers in the web of nature working away to pollinate plants, maintain a balance of mutualistic relationships, and maintain the food chain of an ecosystem. Their decline will create a ripple effect in nature which will go unnoticed until it is too late because of the very disconnect man has with his surroundings. This book calls for a change in our perspectives about the same creepy crawlies and elevates them to the status of citizens of nature.

Readers will find many interesting facts about various species of insects and how they can inspire us to be better global citizens. Be it social insects like termites and ants or spiders and their web engineering feats, there is so much to learn from bugs all around us. There is a little bit for everyone in here. School kids, biologists, gardeners, farmers, bug enthusiasts, engineers, architects, and even artificial intelligence and machine learning experts. The major part of the book presents examples of recreating the natural ecosystems as they were in their wild state. Organic farming, zero harmful chemicals, planting specific trees and shrubs to attract insects, introducing natural predatory insects to ward off pests, using natural remedies for pests in your gardens, leaving wildflowers as insect feed, composting and using worms for better soil health, and many more ways of rewilding and rebugging nature are presented throughout the book.

Hird doesn’t shy away from laying out the political and economical problems associated with the loss of biodiversity. She gives us an outline of how major corporations control directly or indirectly food industry, farming, and land occupation around the world. For someone going to the supermarket it might seem unnecessary to understand the economic ramifications of buying a shiny, unblemished, symetrical tomato but it is our pattern of consumerism that holds the powerful conglomerates together. Might just go to your local organic farmer to buy a cabbage and even if you find bugs in it embrace it as a sign of pesticide-free farming.
There are many useful links and tips to connect with local organizations for UK readers. Although readers from the rest of world have sufficient content to give rebugging a chance and make it a way of life.

I was expecting more of a science book, but this is an activist’s manual. That’s not a bad thing, I just wanted more about invertebrates and their behavior. There is a lot of that in here, but it’s not its main focus. The author begins with a scary introduction to how bugs (the term she uses to simplify insects, arachnids and even mollusks) are disappearing and what horrific effects that is already having on our world. She then explains how we can “rebug” our planet. I am that person who will walk around an ant and trap spiders and flies alive to release safely outside, so I’m doing great, right? Not so fast. At first it’s heartbreaking to read how, even the most innocent aspects of anyone’s behavior (like using cotton clothing) has devastating effects on bugs. We all know that pesticides are bad, but using natural fibers too? Before a reader can get too depressed, she offers helpful guidelines with little things you can do to help these little guys. Some chapters went a little too far for me, since I’m not planning to become a lobbyist, and those parts were drier. I did love the tidbits spread throughout the book about bug behavior. I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I thought I would, but I’m still glad I read it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Chelsea Green Publishing!

I really wanted to love this book. It had plenty of facts and citations describing the ways we've damaged the environment and harmed the quantity and diversity of our bug populations. I really liked the very practical calls to action throughout that gave practical, achievable advice for beginning to slowly undo some of the harm we've done to the creepy crawlies of the world. It was nice to have personal anecdotes from the author sprinkled throughout. Unfortunately, I found myself skimming the last third of the book and just wanting it to be over. It felt somewhat repetitive in nature and there wasn't enough of a emotional connection created between the reader and the information. It felt like I was reading a Wikipedia page rather than a book and I found myself skimming for the highlights the same way I do with most Wikipedia pages.