Bumblebees buzz from flower to flower. A ladybug creeps along a leaf covered with aphids. Tiny critters crawl about. It’s a buggy world in Berlin, Germany!

An event called “insect summer” is happening across Germany. The country’s Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) organized it.

The group invites everyone to spend one hour counting bugs they see in outdoor spots. Each bug tracker works in a small space—about 33 feet.

Would you do it?

“We have seen that a few insects that normally occur only in the south might be spreading further north,” including the violet carpenter bee, says Laura Breitkreuz, an expert on biodiversity and entomology at NABU. (An entomologist studies insects.)

Projects like insect summer help people start to recognize more crawly critters.

Insects help build our ecosystems. They are important pollinators, are a part of the food chain, and keep the soil nutrient rich and healthy. But bug populations have been declining in recent years.

Here are some reasons why: Some chemicals people use on plants can hurt bugs—even the good ones. As people build and pave land, natural habitats often get destroyed.

“It’s very important for us to show people how important, great, and interesting insects are,” Ms. Breitkreuz says. She wants to help folks know “what is crawling around outside their door.” So get out and count!

God places many different animals and insects on Earth to serve different purposes. Identifying an insect can help us learn why it is important. Would knowing a mosquito’s identity make you appreciate it more? Maybe. Maybe not. But the more you know, the more your mind might change.

God made the beasts of the Earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. — Genesis 1:25