With over a million documented species, insects are the most successful group of organisms from the perspective of biodiversity. In the course of their evolution, they have developed a giant arsenal of active ingredients and enzymes, which they use to defend themselves against enemies and disease or to explore novel sources for nutrition. Making this enormous repository of natural substances including venoms available to the bioeconomy and for human welfare is the core task of insect biotechnology, which is now starting to become known as "Yellow Biotechnology". It aims the development of biotechnological approaches to translate insects, or their molecules, cells, organs and associated microorganisms, into products and services for applications in medicine, crop protection or industry. The presentation highlights i) how insect derived venoms are screened for drug candidates using the combined application of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and bioinformatics, ii) how insect-derived cell-lines can be used for the fermenter-based large-scale recombinant production of animal toxins, and iii) how insects can be used as whole animal high throughput systems for the ethically better acceptable detection of in vivo activities of venom-derived drug candidates. Further, it will be highlighted how the evolution and ecology of insects inspires hypotheses for the selection of species for targeted analysis of their toxins. In addition, we will introduce our screening platforms used to evaluate the potential of insect derived toxins for applications in medicine and plant protection.