Where Are The Bugs? Number Of Callers On Hartmann Saying Seeing Fewer Bugs. Anyone Else Notice.

[TheMastersNemesis]

I seem to have fewer bugs around. Now I know bugs are not popular, but there are a number of bugs I am used to seeing now absent. No hummingbird moths, almost no butterflies, a few bees, no common millers, no hornworms, etc. Seeing very few flying insects. Plus no worms in my apples which is very unusual. Will have to survey my tree again to make sure. But my apples seem to have no worms when they used almost all be infested in the past. I live in Westminster, Colorado area.

I am not sure if I am imagining things. Any comments?

[Sedona]

1. My decimated vegetable garden in North Georgia

begs to differ. No shortage of insects of any kind at my place.

I replaced the potted vegis with lantana and butterflies and moths abound.

Edited to add, plenty of mosquitos are alive and well too.

[betsuni]

2. We had to get rid of all the potted plants on our apartment balcony because of ants.

They insisted on invading the living room and they had to die. But roaches, spiders, mosquitoes, cicadas and other pests haven't been a problem this year. Odd. Haven't seen many bats at twilight for the past few years either, or bullfrogs.

[Sherman A1]

3. We have mosquitoes

That form squadrons prior to attacking here, so I’m not in agreement with the assessment.

[TheMastersNemesis]

4. I Was Just Asking If Anyone Notices Fewer Bugs? Only Saying I Am Seeing Fewer Here.

[jcgoldie]

5. Pretty good year for honey bees

Here in southern Illinois my bee hives are thriving so far this year. It helps that we've got some rain, last year everything was dried up by the end of June and nothing blooming for them.

[livetohike]

6. If anyone is looking for gnats, you can find them here in

northern PA. It's been this way for the past three summers. Not many crickets this summer though.

[teach1st]

7. My Florida observations

In the summer, I exercise in the pool each day for a few hours. An hour of that is on my back, looking up at the sky and trees. I have nothing on my back except to observe the wildlife.

There are less birds this year, but it could be because the giant oak tree they love is sick or aging and providing much less cover. The squirrel population seems stable, however. There are hardly any frogs or toads, and I'd know because they used to erupt in song each evening.

There are the same amount of insects. Butterflies, dragonflies and their snacks, the mosquitoes and various no-see-ums, especially. There are tons of wasps. I don't know about honey bees, because I've never seen them around here.

[irisblue]

8. The mosquitoes here are doing fine.

It's been a wet summer>population explosion

[phylny]

9. I live on a lake in rural Virginia.

Tons of birds, tons of bugs, lots of butterflies, moths, ants, and a plethora of bees here. But out on the roads and highways, I'd agree, my windshield is not the killing machine it once was.

[Harker]

15. Maybe they finally

wised up, and stay at a slightly higher altitude.

I drove interstates and state highways across much of the country last summer, and vaguely was aware at gas stops that there was no need to scrape bits off my windshield.

Something to do with the aerodynamics, maybe?

[kcr]

18. It doesn't seem like there as many as when I was a kid

I remember when you'd drive through the countryside, your windshield was practically opaque. And I've never seen a field covered with millions of lightning bugs like I used to.

[FBaggins]

19. Windshields aren't a great indicator

Automotive design has advanced significantly over the decades. Driving your new car through the same size cloud of bugs today would result in far fewer impacts than just a couple decades ago.

Lightning bugs, OTOH, are definitely declining

[kcr]

20. That's neat. It's too bad rain didn't get the message.

Or parking tickets

[rogerashton]

10. Here in the Philly suburbs,

butterflies are much fewer than most previous years. This is the third year of decline, but much fewer than even last year. By my observance, this is true at the John Heinz wildlife sanctuary at Tinicum, Lum's Park State Park and Ashland Nature Center in Delaware, and the ranger at Ashland confirms for that site. On edit: dragonflies, too.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/18/warning-of-ecological-armageddon-after-dramatic-plunge-in-insect-numbers

[Achilleaze]

11. Insect Armageddon: 5 Crucial Questions Answered

From Scientific American, Oct. 2017

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/insect-ldquo-armageddon-rdquo-5-crucial-questions-answered/

[FloridaBlues]

12. Come to Florida in the summer we will show you lots of bugs!

[cwydro]

13. Plenty of bugs in NC.

Plant some plants for butterflies! Plant them, and they will come!

[FBaggins]

14. Hartmann seems to draw more than his fair share of nuttiness

In any given normal year it would be expected that there would be some areas of the country with a normal amount of bugs, and some areas of the country that have far more or far fewer.

But all it takes is for a couple callers callers from one area of the country to imply that the bugs are dying off… And any number of crackpot theories will spring up. It could be chemtrail’s, it could be undetectable radiation from Fukushima, it could be HAARP.

A journalist wouldn’t take the calls.

[2naSalit]

16. Decorating my windshield!

Sorry, it just came out.

[Vinca]

17. You want bugs? Come to my garden. LOL.

Last edited Wed Aug 1, 2018, 08:46 AM - Edit history (1)

The only odd, bug-related thing I can report is the sudden abundance of dragonflies. A kind I've never seen before has shown up, too. It's got a white body. Very strange. I've also noticed a few birds that normally don't venture so far north. I'm certain it's all climate related. Another weird thing about the garden is my favorite, little tomatoes taste different. I'm pretty sure it's not me just imagining it. They aren't as sweet as years past. I'm blaming the drought, high temperatures and then sudden monsoon-like rain. In wildlife news, we had a hybrid Coyote-Fox in our yard and a bear on the patio. Weird. SW NH.

[kwassa]

21. We are having even more mosquitos than normal.

I think this a function of the unusually heavy rains the East Coast has been experiencing over the past couple of weeks, and then earlier when it rained almost every day in May. The west is dry, the east is very wet.