Thursday, October 4, 2018

THE DISAPPEARING OF INSECTS

My insect book against a picture of a bird.


Last month I read in my newspaper about insects disappearing. I thought I saved the article, but couldn’t find it so the other day I went online and typed in disappearing insects and all sorts of columns came up on the subject. It seems it is a worldwide problem as well as a serious problem. I only copied two of the articles. One was A Growing Crises: Insects are disappearing” by Nithin Coca. There is a website for him on the topic, but you can just click on the title that will show up and get all the information. I downloaded and read it and then I also downloaded another one.

I haven't seen one lady bug this summer.


The other one was titled What’s Causing the Sharp Decline in Insects, and Why It Matters.” by Christian Schwagerl, July 6, 2016. This one takes place in Germany. This article starts with the following paragraph: Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the world recent studies show. Researchers say various factors from mamonoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems.




I haven't seen a bumble bee since this spring.

I printed this one out, too, and read it. I knew some insects were useful in some ways like bees, etc. but as I read these articles I realized they were important to our ecosystem in many ways like propagating different plants and being food for so many animals, too. Think about it. Insects are prime fodder at the bottom of the food chain for many birds and other animals, too Fewer insects will lead to the decline of plant and animal populations.






There are so many ways we humans have caused this serious decline. It’s because of pesticides, and other things like the rivers and waterways that are polluted due to factory and agriculture run-off and the growing number of pollutants we’re putting in the air.








I forget what kind of butterfly this is.

Their decline is primarily due to changes in land use, intensive agricultural practices and pesticide use, alien invasive species, diseases and pests, and climate change,” said Sir Robert Watson, vice-chair of the intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, in a press statement (http://www.ipbes.net/article/press-release-pollinators-vital-our-food-supply-under-threat). This press statement may already have been deleted.





I don't know what kind of butterfly this is either.

There was so much information in just these two articles that I couldn’t begin to put it all in one blog. I recommend that you look at these and other columns on line by typing in the titles of the two I mentioned.






I don't know what this is.
As for me I realized that I haven’t been bothered by insects this summer. Yes, I got a few very tiny ants invading my house this spring, but I put Borax along the edges of my kitchen counter and they soon disappeared. Outside I can sit by my little goldfish pond near my house with no more than one or two occasional mosquitoes landing on me. And the last time I walked in my woods, I didn’t have a problem with more than a few mosquitoes. I haven’t seen any ladybugs this year and only a few butterflies. The bees that have homes in the wooden beams in the lean-to where I park my car seem to have disappeared, too, as well as the most annoying of insects, the deer flies that attack both me and my ponies. I only had one at the beginning of summer attack me and I haven’t seen the ponies swishing their tales to keep off horse flies or deer flies, either. In some ways that is pleasant, but I miss the butterflies and I know that birds and other small animals like toads, frogs and salamanders, etc. will be going hungry and we will lose them, too, if this problem isn’t reversed. As for me, I don’t use any insect spray and only occasionally use Roundup on a patch of poison ivy that appears at the edge of my yard.



Have you noticed the decline in insects?
What about butterflies?


6 comments:

  1. One way that individuals can help is to plant things in our yards that will attract insects. Also to put out little cups of sugar water for bees to give them energy to get back to their hives. And to stop using pesticides.

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  2. Grace, those are all good ideas. I do put out two humming bird feeders that the bees could drink from, too. I don't think anyone near me has bee hives that I know of. Where I lived some years ago there was a neighbor near me who had hives. I've planted flowers and have this year also not cut down any wild flowers around my place, too. Yesterday I saw two small yellow butterflies or moths. Not sure which they were.

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  3. I worry so much about the bees. They are critical for our food. We still have plenty of insects in South Carolina. After the storm, we were left with mosquitoes the size of herons! Not so fond of them.

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  4. Carla the bees are important to us not only for our food, but to help different flowers to propogate as well as apple trees and other fruit trees. I have had very few mosquitoes here this summer so yes I like that, but I think they were laying eggs in my little goldfish pond by my house and my goldfish were eating those that hatched. I'm especially happy not to have the deer fly attacking me. They usually hit the back of me where I can't reach. Also, I've only had one tick on me this year and was able to get it off before it latched on. I haven't seen one horsefly near my ponies, either. I'm sure the ponies are happy about that. I'm not sure what animal could feast off of those big insects.

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  5. I got three mosquito bites this morning going out to the end of the driveway. And the stinkbugs are out in force!


    But not so many butterflies. Ground bees and carpenter bees and bumblebees, but no honey bees (of course, they are not native, and I don't know of anyone who keeps hives in my immediate neighborhood.)

    I have a brother-in-law who has kept bees for years. He's now struggling with "colony collapse," which is when a hive dies out. He says the scariest thing about it is that when the bees die, nothing else moves in. In the past, in the rare event that a hive died out, other insects would move in to take advantage of the shelter & any leftover honey.

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  6. Kathleen you seem to have more insects than I do. I don't see many bees at all, but then I don't have as many flowers as I usually have except pots of annual flowers I bought and put in them. I've heard of colony collapse, but not from anyone I know. I would imagine if this is something that is happening often now that the price of honey will go up. I'm not sure I know what a stink bug looks like. I'll have to check it out in my insect book.

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