This is a great question—which is actually a whole series of questions. So, let’s take each in turn.

Did Noah really bring insects on the Ark?

Regarding the various kinds of lifeforms that were on board the Ark, Genesis 6:19-20 informs us: “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive.” Assuming insects are indeed a part of this list then where might they fit? As you pointed out, the obvious choice is “every creeping thing of the ground”. But consider that not all insects are ground creepers. Some are flyers and others are aquatic. Of course, no aquatic creatures were obligate onboard passengers on the Ark but where might the flying insects fit on this list? Interestingly, the word that is typically translated bird in the above passage (Hebrew: ‘ôp̄ – also in Genesis 1:20, 21) is more literally “flying creature” and applies to more than just birds such as bats. Thus, insects could be a part of “every creeping thing of the ground” as well as the “birds/flying creatures”.

Of course, just because insects could have been included as a part of the creatures of the ground and air, doesn’t necessarily mean that they were included. In fact, several creation scientists believe that they were not obligate passengers. Below this article I have provided a comparison chart listing the reasons for each view. So really, whether insects were obligate passengers on the Ark or not is a matter of debate. And since we can’t know with absolute certainty one way or another, we shouldn’t be dogmatic on this issue. But, for the sake of the next part of the question, we will assume that they were.

If so, how is this possible since there are millions of kinds of bugs?

In relation to this question, I first want to dispel an old myth. Noah did not have to go searching for all of the various animals, round them up, and bring them back to the ark. Genesis 7:9 and 7:15 says that they “came to Noah and entered the ark.” In other words, God brought them to him.

Nevertheless, even with God doing the bringing, “millions of kinds of bugs” does seem extremely excessive. And it is. But when you say millions of “kinds” of bugs, what you are really referring to is the millions of “species” of bugs. And this serves to demonstrate another very common misconception which is equating a “species” with a “kind.” But, in most instances, they are not the same thing. “Species” is a term used in the modern classification system which, as many scientists will admit, can be very difficult to define. The Bible, however, uses the term “created kinds.” What is a kind? While there are several factors, “a good rule of thumb is that if two things can breed together, then they are of the same created kind.”^[1] As an example, consider dogs. Dogs “can easily breed with one another, whether wolves, dingoes, coyotes, or domestic dogs. When dogs breed together you get dogs; so, there is a dog kind.”^[2] It’s the same with cats. Lions, tigers, cougars, bobcats, and even domesticated house cats can all breed and therefore all belong to the cat kind.

When God initially created, He didn’t create all the millions and billions of “species” of animals we have today. Rather, He created kinds (the dog kind for example) with massive gene pools able to produce all sorts of types of offspring (e.g. wolves, dingoes, coyotes, etc.). It is this concept that is vitally important to understanding how all of the animals could fit onto the Ark because Noah didn’t have to take all the different species of animals we have today but only their representative kinds (dog kind, cat kind, horse kind, etc.).^[3] This drastically reduces the amount of animal life on board the Ark—including the insects if they were present.

If you want to see some of the specific estimations regarding how many animal kinds were on board the Ark I’ve included those below. Admittedly, none of these calculations include insects as a part of God’s obligate passenger list, however, due to their extremely small size, even if there were say a million individuals, they would have made only a small footprint. And if God did indeed include insects on board then this leads us to the next question.

Did we really need stink bugs, spiders, and mosquitos?

First off, it is important to remember that Creation is in a fallen state. None of the destructive and unpleasant behaviour we observe in nature today is a part of God’s original design. Only good can come from God and He created everything absolutely perfect (even stink bugs, spiders, and mosquitos!). But it was man’s sin (Genesis 3) that brought about the curse upon creation. Hence, thorns, thistles, suffering, bloodshed, disease, and death.

Of course, living in our current fallen state it’s hard to imagine everything as very good. For instance, what good purpose could mosquitos possibly serve? In their current state they are pests. And they spread deadly diseases like malaria, yellow fever, and Zika. But did you know that mosquitos are excellent pollinators? It’s true! “They largely feed on nectar and spread pollen from plant to plant. And not all mosquitos feed on blood. Males survive exclusively on plants and microbes. It is the females in some species that suck blood to get proteins for reproduction.”^[4] Before the Fall mosquitos (as well as stink bugs and spiders and all things) were “very good”.

But more to your question, what about at the time of the Flood? Did God save creatures with such pestilent and destructive habits? Since this would be inharmonious with God’s plan to preserve and reestablish the human/animal population afterword, the answer to that would have to be no. Thus, God could have simply denied entry to these kinds of creatures. But it is also important to keep in mind that because the Flood occurred only about 1600 years after Creation, many of these destructive features we now see may have not yet had a chance to develop. In fact, many of the harmful features we see in the animals could be rather recent developments. Indeed, “Some examples of other types of parasitism have been observed to have only developed in the last 200 years. Vampire finches and oxpeckers, for example, have become opportunistic sanguinivores (bloodsuckers) probably quite rapidly—only in the last few hundred years. Some tribes of chimpanzees and bonobos have been found to transition from herbivores or insectivores to carnivores…even more recently. The point is that to look at an animal today and state that the animal kinds coming from the Ark had the same behavior, diet, life cycle, and so on, may not be (and probably isn’t) accurate.”^[5]

Final Considerations

So, whether insects were on board the Ark as obligate passages or not we cannot be 100% sure. But if they were not onboard then an obvious question to ask is how did they survive the Flood? Actually, many types of insects are extremely resilient and could have survived on any floating vegetation and other debris. In fact, “Many insects lay their eggs in the branches of trees or woody plants. Some insects also have aquatic larval or nymph stages (mosquitos being one of them) that may have been able to survive in the floodwaters. Some aquatic insect larval stages are over a year long, and some nymph stages are two to three years long. Floating vegetation could have provided a ready food source for many of them; and insects can also survive long periods without food by going dormant, further enhancing their survivability chances outside the Ark.”^[6] (This could explain how any insects which had already developed destructive and pestiferous habits before the time of the Flood survived.) That being said, there are the more delicate types of insects (such as butterflies, moths, and bees) that seemingly wouldn’t have been able to survive outside the Ark.

Of course, whether insects were a part of God’s obligate passenger list or not, doesn’t negate the possibility that Noah brought some of them on board as food for the animals or as pollinators for any vegetation he was growing. In any case, we still have insects today, so they obviously survived the Flood.

I hope that helps, Linda!