Insect Sound Effects

This library focuses on isolated recordings of single insects, mainly from Northern Europe. While all insects have been recorded in the wild in Northern Europe, most also appear in all of Europe, Asia, North Africa and some have been introduced to America and Australia too.

For this library I recorded various species of wild bees, wasps, bugs, cicades, grasshoppers, flys, dragonflies, butterflies, ants, sandfleas and underwater bugs. A detailed list of all species is at the end.

You will find flybys, wing buzzes, hums, rattles, little feet, stridulations, jumps and even bites.

Over the course of years I improved my recording of these little animals by approaching them with a set of different micing techniques, always looking for the best spots to record these small creatures, making sure not to disturb them.

Many recordings were performed with microphones and recorders that go up to 192kHz to capture the ultra frequencies emitted by some individuals. Some grasshoppers you won’t even hear unless you pitch them down or play them slower.

While I find their crispy, clear and often bassy sounds lovely, some of the noises of the animals can be decribed as annoying, scary, sharp or intensive.

But besides for the original recorded species, these noises can be used to create swarms or all kind of insects or little creatures, like elves, aliens and fairies.

In addition to the close up recordings, I added a few swarms, real and designed, a couple of ambiences and a few designed insect sounds.

Some of the 60+ species (for details check file list):

Apex Furrowed Bee, Big Fly, Black Tailed Skimmer, Blow Fly, Blue Winged Grasshopper, Bow Winged Grasshopper, Buff Tailed Bumblebee,  Butterflies, Purple Emperor, Honey Bee, Mosquito, Wild Bees, Carder Bee, Chelostoma Rapunzuli, Chrysogaster Solstitialis, Cloromia Formosa, Common Field Cricket, Common Green Bottle Fly, Common Wasp, Conocephalus Fuscus, Dragonfly, Drone Fly, Early Bumblebee, Eristalis Pertinax,  Eupeodes Luniger, European Orchard Bee, European Wasp, European Wool Carder Bee, False Stable Fly, Field Grasshopper, Flesh Fly, Fly of the Dead, Flying Ant, Gnat, Great Green Bush Cricket, Green Blowfly, Green Rose Chafer, Grey Backed Mining Bee, Gypsy Cuckoo Bee, Hairy Footed Flower Bee, Helophilus Trivittatus, Hornet Hoverfly, House Fly, Italian Tree Cricket, Jigger Flea, Large Bee Fly, March Crane Fly, Meadow Grasshopper,  Myathropa Florea, Painted Lady, Pale-saddled Leucozona, Red Tailed Bumblebee, Red Wood Ant, Sand Bee, Sand Wasp, Sawfly Macrophia Montana, Sceliphron Curvatum, Tritomegas Bicolor, Underwater Insects, White Tailed Bumblebee, Wood Cricket,…