THE INSECT APOCALYPSE IS HERE

[appalachiablue]

The New York Times Magazine, Nov. 27, Excerpts: Sune Boye Riis was on a bike ride with his youngest son, enjoying the sun slanting over the fields and woodlands near their home north of Copenhagen, when it suddenly occurred to him that something about the experience was amiss. Specifically, something was missing. It was summer. He was out in the country, moving fast. But strangely, he wasn’t eating any bugs.

For a moment, Riis was transported to his childhood on the Danish island of Lolland, in the Baltic Sea. Back then, summer bike rides meant closing his mouth to cruise through thick clouds of insects, but inevitably he swallowed some anyway. When his parents took him driving, he remembered, the car’s windshield was frequently so smeared with insect carcasses that you almost couldn’t see through it.

But all that seemed distant now. He couldn’t recall the last time he needed to wash bugs from his windshield; he even wondered, vaguely, whether car manufacturers had invented some fancy new coating to keep off insects. But this absence, he now realized with some alarm, seemed to be all around him. Where had all those insects gone? And when? And why hadn’t he noticed?

Riis had not been able to stop thinking about the missing bugs. The more he learned, the more his nostalgia gave way to worry. Insects are the vital pollinators and recyclers of ecosystems and the base of food webs everywhere. Riis was not alone in noticing their decline. In the United States, scientists recently found the population of monarch butterflies fell by 90 percent in the last 20 years, a loss of 900 million individuals; the rusty-patched bumblebee, which once lived in 28 states, dropped by 87 percent over the same period.

With other, less-studied insect species, one butterfly researcher told me, “all we can do is wave our arms and say, ‘It’s not here anymore!’?” Still, the most disquieting thing wasn’t the disappearance of certain species of insects; it was the deeper worry, shared by Riis and many others, that a whole insect world might be quietly going missing, a loss of abundance that could alter the planet in unknowable ways. “We notice the losses,” says David Wagner, an entomologist at the University of Connecticut. “It’s the diminishment that we don’t see.” -MORE...

Read More, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html

[Beakybird]

1. It's been years since I've seen my windshield covered

with bugs.

[appalachiablue]

5. Same here and it's a real bad sign. The last time was the Permian

Extinction Event when the INSECTS died off, as a radio host Thom Hartmann was just discussing.
Insect populations are declining and that means Birds and other creatures that need insects to survive are dying, and up the Food Chain.

WIKI. The Permian–Triassic (P–Tr or P–T) extinction event, colloquially known as the Great Dying, the End-Permian Extinction or the Great Permian Extinction, occurred about 252 Ma (million years) ago, forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods, as well as between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.

It is the Earth's most severe known extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct.
>It is the only known mass extinction of insects. Some 57% of all biological families and 83% of all genera became extinct. Because so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of land-dwelling life took significantly longer than after any other extinction event, possibly up to 10 million years.

Studies in Bear Lake County near Paris, Idaho showed a relatively quick rebound in a localized marine ecosystem, taking around 2 million years to recover, suggesting that the impact of the extinction may have been felt less severely in some areas than others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

[dalton99a]

2. Comments from California:

Scott Man
Manhattan Beach, CA Nov. 27

I live in Los Angeles and over the years have driven up to the Bay Area (San Francisco, Napa, etc.) from time to time. I can recall in the early 90s driving up the 5 freeway through agricultural rich land to visit friends in San Fran. In those days I would typically have to stop twice to clean all the bugs off my windshield - they were too numerous and large for my windshield wipers and windshield washer fluid to keep up with. Just 2 weeks ago I made the same trip as I drove to Napa for a week of wine tasting. When I arrived in Napa I had a minimal amount of dead bugs on my windshield; I remember thinking “Where did all the bugs go?”.

The decline of insects appears to be just one more way nature is telling humanity that enough is enough. When are we going to wake up and take meaningful action, and stop grasping at the belief that global climate change is deep state lie? Hopefully it is not already too late.


California Resists
Berkeley CA Nov. 27

@Scott Man I have noticed this, too, going from the Bay Area to LA. There was one spot along 5 near Bakersfield where the insects were around in clouds. Now, nothing. I have a small orchard in northern Sonoma County. It used to be alive with buzzing in the spring when the trees were in blossom. Now, just a handful of insects visit the pretty trees. Apples don't do well now. And the only birds we see now are ravens and bluejays, with an occasional hummingbird. Where did the robins and all the others go? And no more Mexican house finches, with their beautiful springtime song. This is real and it is tragic.


Karen D
San Jose Nov. 27
@Scott Man

I have lived in the Bay Area for 30 years. I have noticed the startling decline in the number of insects in my yard. The wasps, ants, aphids, mosquitoes, beetles, house flies have dramatically declined. The number of spiders has declined as well. ( I do not use any insecticides in my yard.) While the decline in mosquitoes has been an intentional public policy due to West Nile Virus, and some insect loss is probably due to the long-term drought, the overall loss is frightening. I still have many hummingbirds that visit (due to feeders) and I'm attracting more bees to my yard by growing bee-loving plants. How much longer do we have before nature collapses?

[appalachiablue]

7. Yes and same in the East. Tom H. was discussing this and how

truckers who've driven cross country for many years don't have to stop 5-6 times to clean off bugs anymore. And how bird species that eat bugs have disappeared- turtle doves and others in France and elsewhere.

It's caused by Climate Change, not pollution or pesticides he says.

[bearsfootball516]

3. I've noticed it in my backyard in Indiana.

When I was little, we'd go outside in the summer at night and catch lightning bugs, they'd be everywhere. I was visiting my parents last summer and went outside at night, and there wasn't a single one. They said they hadn't seen them for years.

[appalachiablue]

6. Same here, as a kid lightning bugs in summer were prolific and

we'd also catch them. But no more, it's eery and dangerous.

[Loki Liesmith]

4. Not convinced by the methodology yet

But something to keep an eye on for sure

[TreasonousBastard]

8. When I lived in Tampa for a short time, lovebugs crowded the roads, being attracted to...

car exhausts of the time. Floridians, they still around?

Here on Long Island, even though surrounded by farmland and preserves there seem to be fewer bugs of all sorts. I think I had a total of three mosquito bites all year.

As much as we hate the cockroaches, skeeters and ticks, the biomass of insects is enormous, and it's impossible to imagine how we could do without them.

[appalachiablue]

10. Birds that eat the bugs like Turtle Doves are disappearing

in France, and elsewhere. Monarch butterflies and rusty bumble bees have declined 90%.

Florida's always had pesky love bugs but I haven't heard relatives mention them in a long while.

All this relates to Climate Change, not pollution or pesticides, according to Thom Hartmann, radio host.

Dangerous for the earth, and us. The last time insects were killed off in mass was the Permian Extinction Event. (above).

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Hartmann is not exactly an expert in entomology, so while I have no doubt...

there is a problem, causes and solutions are up in the air.

Around here we've already been through serious problems with honeybees and many questions about agricultural chemicals. I've got to find some local researchers and ask them what's up.

I'm sure this is being studied up the gazoo, but it will take time for the research to be reviewed and get out.

[appalachiablue]

12. TH is conveying what he's read, like this NYT article. That's all.

Spare me the lecture. Of course the scientific community is conducting extensive research.

Don't look for much media coverage on environmental studies however, thank you chemical industry lobbyists.

[Nitram]

21. ALL birds depend upon insects to feed their young.

One of the many reasons to use native plants for landscaping. Most native insects cannot eat non-native plants.

[Botany]

9. And Trump is working to allow more use of neonicotinoids

BTW If you want to help please join the Xerces society and read Doug Tallamy's books

https://xerces.org

[appalachiablue]

13. TY for the info. and link.

[Botany]

14. BTW I am an expert in this field ... more plants than bugs

Pesticides, pollution, introduction of non native organisms into the local ecology,
loss or decline in different members and or trophic layers, climate change, and loss
or fragmentation of habitat all are factors in the loss of living organisms and the
overall supportive capacity of the environment.

any ?s you can p.m. me


thanx for posting this article

[appalachiablue]

16. I think it's due to climate change plus other factors as you say.

The 70-year post WWII explosion of pesticide use, industrial agriculture and giant factory farms plus pollution and toxins from mining and other industries, has negatively impacted our environment. There will be massive costs to pay.

I figured you studied science, plants and more, good to know. Being a plant, flower, garden and nature lover I'll visit gardens anywhere. Rachel Carson is a fav, her books and environmental advocacy were huge.

[Botany]

19. Pesticide use and antiquated ideas are a big part of the decline in our insect populations ...

..... our "gardens" tend not to be as environmentally friendly as they seem be.

However on your own and at the local level you too can make a big and very seeable
difference PDQ. I don't know where you live but by planting some smooth sumac,
new england aster, red milkweed, grey twig dogwood, american ginger, and some native
spring ephemerals you'll be amazed at what you see.

[appalachiablue]

22. Sure, native plants & pesticide free is best for all.

[BigmanPigman]

15. Meanwhile, each year I get more and more bug bites

for a longer period of time . I am allergic to the bites and have hundreds of them each year for the past several years. Even my dentist said he noticed the change in the bugs and gets 10 bites as soon as he walks outside now.

[appalachiablue]

17. That's annoying. I'm not getting more bites, but the ones I have

are more irritated, swell up, itch and last longer. So far I haven't had to go to a doc about it. I wonder if it's changes due to age, metabolism, etc.? Hope you are doing ok.

[littlemissmartypants]

18. I have to say that there has been

A noticeable decrease in the bug population where I am with the exception of mosquitoes. They are huge and plentiful and in some cases, like equine encephalitis carriers, potentially deadly.

[appalachiablue]

20. Thanx for the update & sorry to hear about giant mosquitos.