US farmers face plague of pests as global heating raises soil temperatures

[NickB79]

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/06/us-farmers-face-plague-of-pests-as-global-heating-raises-soil-temperatures

Agricultural pests that devour key food crops are advancing northwards in the US and becoming more widespread as the climate hots up, new research warns.

The corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) is considered to be among the most common farm pests in the US, ravaging crops such as maize, cotton, soya and other vegetables. It spends winter underground and is not known to survive in states beyond a latitude of 40 degrees north (which runs from northern California through the midwest to New Jersey), but that is changing as soils warm and it spreads to new areas, according to research led by North Carolina State University.

The report follows research from the University of Washington in 2018 that found 2C (3.6F) of warming would boost the number and appetite of insects globally, causing them to destroy 50% more wheat and 30% more maize than they do now. Rising heat stress is already affecting yields, with harvests of staple crops in Europe down this year as a result of heatwaves and drought.

Pest invasions have serious implications for food security. “As the climate changes, the overwintering zones are likely to shift northward,” said the co-author Anders Huseth, an entomologist at North Carolina State University. “This is the canary in the coalmine for agricultural pests.

Drought in the West, flooding in the East, invasive insects in the Midwest. And thats just in the USA. Long term food supplies are starting to look a little dicey, eh?

Our grandkids will listen to our stories of virtually unlimited food in awe, like they're listening to a fairy tale, unable to wrap their minds around phrases like "all you can eat buffet".

[NJCher]

1. Northeast drought, too

And Google "rats and drought." I run the school/community gardens in my town, and we have rats in the garden for the first time ever. My assistant saw them and alerted me, and the next time I went to the garden one ran across the field, through a flower bed, and into some weeds.

Later I saw him scrambling up a thick sunflower stalk and was eating the seeds in the sunflowers.

I am reluctant to have them poisoned as--lo and behold--a few nights later I found a ginger cat stalking the territory. I don't want to poison the cat, so I'm waiting to see if he might make fast work of them.

[walkingman]

2. They will just ask for a government bailout and continue denying climate change. That

is America these last few decades.