Where have all the Insects gone ?

[remember arthur mann]

 

[pee dubya]

Simple really, the population has been declining for the last few decades because we're making the environment much more hostile to life (including our our own).

And what we see in this country is just the tip, we're pretty well shielded from the worst effects of climate change and have already decimated our native biodiversity anyway.

There are some initiatives going on to try and help things, from large scale rewilding projects down to the local council here mowing less (important for pollinators), but when you're fighting against a tidal wave of general apathy and the current political fuckwittery, feels like a losing battle really.

 

[wolviedinho]

No. The fuckers have moved into my garage.

I live in the country so can’t really complain. Although I do seem to be having a lot of slugs in the garden. Iv started naming them after scum players -:)

 

[kaz7]

Normal in my garden but then most of it i have turned over to the wildlife / nature , got bonbared by butteries in the summer when i was in the garden , beautiful

 

[Kompany Car]

To be fair a normal grass lawn was probably a massive open field before the house with the garden was built there. It's this habitat loss that's responsible and there's nothing we can do except to stop building but people need houses etc.

I think this is going to be worse than climate change. With climate change we can build air con and we can fortify river banks or whatever but you can't do much when the entire insect population dies taking the upper food chain with it.

In 100 years we probably won't be underwater but we will more than likely be eating artificial lab grown shite because everything else will be dead.

Funny how they only want to build houses on agricultural land and in particular where they can sell at a premium, rather than redevelop brown land.

 

[St.Pauli support]

2017 the well-known 'Krefeld study' has shown that insect biomass in Germany has been reduced between 1985 and 2015 by an incredible 75% - many species and complete insect groups are on the red list.

No surprise really thinking what we have done to natural ecosystems.

Most don't understand and care anyway til the yield of plants pollinated by insects will be affected, like not only apples but also coffee and cacao... ;)

 

[inbetween]

Simple really, the population has been declining for the last few decades because we're making the environment much more hostile to life (including our our own).

And what we see in this country is just the tip, we're pretty well shielded from the worst effects of climate change and have already decimated our native biodiversity anyway.

There are some initiatives going on to try and help things, from large scale rewilding projects down to the local council here mowing less (important for pollinators), but when you're fighting against a tidal wave of general apathy and the current political fuckwittery, feels like a losing battle really.

Even in politics though what can you do about it really?

I just looked at the green party website and this is one policy they have:

• Build 500,000 social rented homes by 2030 and bring empty homes back into use to ensure everyone has access to an affordable place to live.

How will 500,000 new homes help the planet? Talk about climate change is currently just a social agenda under a different banner. No-one knows how to truly help because the reality is there's only one solution which is to stop growth and to stop expanding but I don't think anyone will argue for that.

 

[pee dubya]

Even in politics though what can you do about it really?

I just looked at the green party website and this is one policy they have:

• Build 500,000 social rented homes by 2030 and bring empty homes back into use to ensure everyone has access to an affordable place to live.

How will 500,000 new homes help the planet? Talk about climate change is currently just a social agenda under a different banner. No-one knows how to truly help because the reality is there's only one solution which is to stop growth and to stop expanding but I don't think anyone will argue for that.

But there's so much more that they can do that would make a difference. Things that shouldn't be difficult or controversial.

Obviously the scale of the problem is huge and systemic (the need for continuous growth) the, so the smaller changes won't avert catastrophe. They might slow it down though, giving more time for the big changes we need to happen.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

What I remember from my childhood is cleaning the family car.
The front and especially the windscreen where the wipers didn’t reach, would be an insect graveyard - after a few hundred miles trip.

Now, it’s unusual to have a single insect splats at all.

Maybe it’s down to car aerodynamic improvements, but I have an old motorhome and that is square as anything from the 70’s and also doesn’t have many insect splats.

I started realising/noticing the lack of insect debris on my car in the late 90’s

The first sensible ,well thought out reply.
The insect mortality on a car windscreen was always a good indicator of their abundance,particularly in gourgeouly hot summer long summer days.
Their varied absence this summer has been quite clear, for those with eyes to see....without them the songbirds will also die,and the lack of a full throttle Dawn Chorus in many areas of Britain now is worrying..not just for those into wildlife...even the posters who see fit to make silly jokes on this thread should be worried....oops I've slipped into scaremongering.

 

[Tuearts right boot]

This is what surprises me, dragonflies eat other insects. So for them to be loads around, and some of them are pretty big, there must be plenty of insects around for them to feed off.
Agree on the butterflies, can remember seeing loads as a kid, they do seem to be few and far between these days.

That's the thing...do dragonflies eat anything whilst they are alive. I have a few dragonfly larvae in the pond and they are voracious bastards and eat almost everything, they look almost prehistoric, the species are hundreds of millions of year old though....... I clear a few out to save my newt population.