<p>Synthetic insecticides are commonly used to control pest insects. However, they contaminate food chains and harm non-target organisms. Plant-derived essential oils offer a promising alternative. They are highly volatile and can help manage insecticide resistance. This review focuses on the use of EOs for insect pest control, a growing research field. We discuss methods for extracting EOs, their application, and the synthesis and advantages of nanoinsecticides from EOs. Specifically, this review examines: insecticidal activity, chemical composition, mechanism of action, synergistic effects, safety for non-target organisms, and factors that influence EOs insecticidal effectiveness. We also analyze global research trends by country and journal, plus current limitations and future perspectives for EOs in insect control. For this review we synthesized data from 191 peer-reviewed articles retrieved from Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Curtin Library Catalogue, and Wiley Online Library. The literature shows that EOs act against insect pests through oviposition deterrence, ovicidal, larvicidal, adulticidal, repellent, anti-feedant, anti-developmental, and growth inhibitory activity. These effects occur through diverse mechanisms of EOs, including hormonal disruption, enzyme inhibition, ion channel interference, and disruption of development, reproduction, and cellular function. EOs mainly consists of terpenes, especially manoterpenes. They show selective toxicity and can reduce the non-target toxicity of synthetic insecticides by acting synergistically. This suggests EOs can be integrated into pest management strategies for effective insect control. The insecticidal potential of EOs depends on several factors such as concentration, chemical composition, synergistic interactions, extraction method, exposure time, bioassay used, environmental conditions, solubility, plant part used, and the age, type, and genotype of both the plant and insect. As EO can produce opposite effects depending on the context, including attraction, stimulation of oviposition, or serving as host/food finding cues, this review suggests the way forward to quantify dose–response thresholds at which repellency shifts to attraction and evaluate blend ratios to avoid non-target stimulation of oviposition or attraction. This also recommends a way forward to improve the stability, control release, and water solubility of EOs by improving their application methods of nanotechnology and encapsulation. By reducing reliance on synthetic insecticides and exhibiting selective toxicity, targeting insect pests while leaving non-target organisms unaffected, EOs incorporated into IPM strategies promote biodiversity and support conservation. </p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>