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Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after insects count drop 75% over 25 years

smisk

Member
Am I the only one who actually remembers there being more mosquitos 25 years ago or so? When I was a kid, this village I went to regularly was in a swamp, and there would be loads of mosquitoes outside, especially at night if we had lights on, it was never something you would just get used to, people had that lemon scented giant candle thing, bug spray, all that stuff. Now there's very little, I'd say at least half. I wonder if others have experienced the same.

I know it's anecdotal, but I used to get bitten like crazy 10 or 15 years ago. Now I only get a couple even when camping and spending a lot of time outdoors.
 

Jinaar

Member
Did some driving this year to the mountains and fishing spots and had the conversation many times with different people on how awful the death count of bugs are on vehicles. Most cars are not that aerodynamic and they murder on an astronomical scale. It is really appalling :(
 
Anyone have a list of good causes to donate to or volunteer with?

Donation is all well and good, but there's a much easier thing you can do that will have a (potentially) much bigger impact: plant insect-friendly flowers.

If you've got a garden, great. That's loads of space, and even if you only dedicate one strip of land to widlflowers and bee-friendly plants (like lavender) you're doing good work. If you don't have a garden because you live in a flat, windowsill planters that hang out your window are incredibly easy and cheap to procure. If you've got a lawn, another great tip is to mow less often. Insect abundance is significantly higher in longer grasses, and by long I don't even mean "don't mow for months", I mean maybe mow once or twice a month instead of weekly. The longer you can leave it the better of course, but even an extra week of growth helps substantially. And now you've got a great excuse for not mowing the lawn ;)

If you've got a BIG garden then first of all, I'm jealous. But mostly, consider creating log and wood piles in less used corners. Literally just a pile of logs and dead wood. Amazing for insects, but also for small mammals and reptiles. Bug hotels are also great to hang on walls, but the wildflowers and longer lawns are more important. Bug hotels won't help much if there's no habitat around to support them.

And finally, if you can get any of the above done, and your neighbours show interest in what you're up to, spread the word. Because I swear to god if we all just considered the environment and what USED to be on our land before we concreted over it and built our own brick homes... If we all dedicated a section of our garden to being wildlife friendly like this then we wouldn't have these issues. Not on this scale at least. I could keep rambling about how you should replace concrete-based garden fences with hedgerows too, but I'll leave it here =P
 
I never really thought about it until now but when I was a kid in the 80s there would be huge termite swarms that would always end up getting inside the house at night because they were attracted to light and there were so many they'd fly in as soon as anyone opened the door. We would set bowls of water next to lamps and they'd fly into the water and die. The next day you'd have to vacuum up all the wings they dropped everywhere.

There would also be much larger gnat swarms during the spring when some mornings they'd be all in your nose and mouth if you walked into one. They still swarm after rains but it's not nearly as bad.
 

n0razi

Member
I probably contributed to that... I consider myself pretty environmentally conscious but flying bugs are a big NOPE from me

I pretty much coat my house and lawn with this every few months
bifen-xts-25-1-bifenthrin-insecticide-32-fluid-ounces1-quart.jpg
 

Mr. Robot

Member
We just gotta genetically modify roaches and mosquitoes to pollinize instead of being annoying, or maybe make robot bees, or eat cockroaches.

it's either:
Code:
[IMG]https://i.pinimg.com/236x/bb/7a/d3/bb7ad3c7742b602e11bb1792d4c5335b--black-mirror.jpg[/IMG]

or

Code:
[IMG]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91MDoVBpcML._SX425_.jpg[/IMG]
 
You should be aiming for organic practices to improve crop yields through richer soils, and trying to dedicate as much of your field margins as possible to wildflowers because, like it or not, farmers are stewards of an insane amount of land, and that responsibility falls on you more than most.

I do what I can as an ecologist, and am lucky enough to be moving to a home by a nature reserve with both a front and back garden (pretty rare to have both in the UK these days). Can't wait to fill that up with wildflowers, ponds, and bug hotels!

Organic is actually WORSE for insects (and the planet in general) than other modern farming techniques. Organic farming actually uses more (and often harsher) pesticides than using, say Bt producing (read: GMO) crops. It uses more water than modern hybrid / GMO crops. It yields less food per acre than organic, despite the higher resource use. As population increases, and more and more food is required, organic will become less and less feasible as a farming option.

AlL that saod, I farm organically. Not because I have aNY misgivings about GMO crops or modern techniques, but because I'm lazy and spraying my plants would require effort. That said, I'm not farming as a main source of income.


All that aside, I'm also skeptical any time a story talks about studies that "leave scientists shocked" like this one. The methodology is also bizarre. For the drop is actually based on total insect mass, not an actual insect count. It counted on insects flying into the gauze nets placed at a handful of nature reserves, without being able to really account for any environmental factors. Unless I'm reading the article wrong? (I realize they collected environmental factors, but they cannot say what if any impact they may have had.)

I'm not trying to say that insect populations cannot be dropping. We know things like colony collapse disorder is/was hitting honey bee populations pretty hard. But trying to definitively say the earth has lost 75% of its flying insects based on these sites and the work of amateur bug scientists seems ... stretching.
 

rykomatsu

Member
If you have a garden, plant native plants. Native insects will flourish. The rest of my neighborhood is largely devoid of insects but I have an active flourishing community of beneficial (and pest) bugs.
 

eot

Banned
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...eddon-after-dramatic-plunge-in-insect-numbers



More at the link.

We need a revolution in food production, so we can massively reduce the amount of pesticides going into the environment and protect land from being exploited for farming. This shouldn't even be that difficult, but it seems there is little interest because people aren't interested in having something like Soylent being the basis of our nutrition, keeping traditional foods for special occasions only. It would also stop the current massive amounts of food waste.

Either that, or massively reduce earth's population. Or both.

We don't need Soylent to feed the world
 
Tell the scientists that all of the flies are in my house.



Anyway, this worries me. Basically, we living forms all live in a chain benefiting some way or another of each other. Instects are so important to us
 

M3d10n

Member
That's a tough sell even to vegans.

I'd like to believe GMO tech can solve the pesticide problem but we all know how held back that is.
Yeah, but when some of the most infamous GMOs are used to make plants resistant to even more aggressive pesticides, it's hard to have hope.

Organic or GMO, the goal is the same: to stop insects from mooching off our food.
 

SMOK3Y

Generous Member
Remember going on long car journeys as a kid in summer?

There would be loads of squashed bugs on the windscreen at the end of the journey.

Make a similar journey these days (area, duration, season) and the windscreen is completely free of bug corpses at the end.

"All my friends are dead".jpg
Very true
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
So any update on this in the last 6 years, did we suffer through Armageddon and I missed it? Also I thought that insects were supposed to solve the food shortages, now I find out we will then have to find a solution to the insect shortage.
 
Doesn't feel like it. My house is swarming with ants everywhere.
There's some really interesting stuff in that documentary, like populations of insects or even fish in japan that went missing the first year these neonicotinoids were used. Crazy stuff, the seed is basically covered in a coat of insecticide so the plant grows while actually being filled of the stuff.
 
So any update on this in the last 6 years, did we suffer through Armageddon and I missed it? Also I thought that insects were supposed to solve the food shortages, now I find out we will then have to find a solution to the insect shortage.
There will be no solution for the insect shortage, as seen in the documentary, there was supposed to be a ban on it but the big corps claimed 65 out of their 67 insecticides/antifungals wouldnt pass the new rules so it went to the gutter. Also, as in everything, the big corps (bayer being one of the giants) are basically running everyone who goes against them in the ground
 
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SaintALia

Member
So any update on this in the last 6 years, did we suffer through Armageddon and I missed it? Also I thought that insects were supposed to solve the food shortages, now I find out we will then have to find a solution to the insect shortage.
The worst shit usually happens in stages and gradually. Maybe some insects will adjust, maybe some wont. I remember seeing a documentary a couple years ago about the decline of birds in Germany, they barely mentioned insects, but yeah, it makes sense that if the food supply for birds is drying up, they'd be dying out too.
Sorry for bumping an old thread but if you have a chance to watch this documentary, it's well worth it:

Insecticides, A Licence to Kill

It's about the neonicotinoids insesticides, really crazy to know that they're still being used widely
This is a paid video though. Might help for a summary, article or study link.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
More anecdotes, but I remember road trips ending in the car being covered in bug splatter that 25 years ago. Now I can cross the province and only get a little.
Wasn't this shown to be due to car aerodynamics more than any reduction in bug "targets"? I certainly get plenty mashed on my front bumper, just not on the windshield since air slips over it.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
All I know is the amount of mosquitos in my area has dropped like a rock the past bunch of years. I dont know if that's due to insecticide programs or mother nature. But I'll take it.

One person I know theorized the hit and miss weather could have affected it. The past bunch of years here, when winter should be over and it warms up it does for a bit. Then you get some cold snaps and snow again. Then it warms up again. He thinks this fucked up mosquitios life cycles and they couldnt properly repopulate like a smooth transitional winter to spring/summer weather.
 
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The worst shit usually happens in stages and gradually. Maybe some insects will adjust, maybe some wont. I remember seeing a documentary a couple years ago about the decline of birds in Germany, they barely mentioned insects, but yeah, it makes sense that if the food supply for birds is drying up, they'd be dying out too.

This is a paid video though. Might help for a summary, article or study link.
Ill try to find a summary, english isnt my first language. I did find it in french for download, not sure if it's available in english somewhere
 
So any update on this in the last 6 years, did we suffer through Armageddon and I missed it? Also I thought that insects were supposed to solve the food shortages, now I find out we will then have to find a solution to the insect shortage.

Nothing happened, just more fear-mongering media takes.
 
All I know is the amount of mosquitos in my area has dropped like a rock the past bunch of years. I dont know if that's due to insecticide programs or mother nature. But I'll take it.

One person I know theorized the hit and miss weather could have affected it. The past bunch of years here, when winter should be over and it warms up it does for a bit. Then you get some cold snaps and snow again. Then it warms up again. He thinks this fucked up mosquitios life cycles and they couldnt properly repopulate like a smooth transitional winter to spring/summer weather.
Yeah but there is also some areas that use insecticides specifically for mosquitoes, here we're not talking about them but insects like bees etc.. that shouldnt be affected by this. In the documentary, they dilute the stuff to the equivalence of a drop in a pool and the bee just drops dead after taking some honey from it. Spasms, seizures and that's it.
 
Nothing happened, just more fear-mongering media takes.
I'm not some eco friendly freak, quite the opposite, but saying this is fear-mongering is pretty ignorant. When a population of fish or birds or insects die in one single year after the usage of this in a region and simply dismiss it, it is pretty ridiculous.

When you have bayer that immediately send cease and desists to scientists that only ask a question about this problem or runs out a young promoting scientist out from the united states department of agriculture simply because he's starting to ask questions, yeah no, fear-mongering, let's ignore
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Yeah but there is also some areas that use insecticides specifically for mosquitoes, here we're not talking about them but insects like bees etc.. that shouldnt be affected by this. In the documentary, they dilute the stuff to the equivalence of a drop in a pool and the bee just drops dead after taking some honey from it. Spasms, seizures and that's it.
“Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.”
 
I'm not some eco friendly freak, quite the opposite, but saying this is fear-mongering is pretty ignorant. When a population of fish or birds or insects die in one single year after the usage of this in a region and simply dismiss it, it is pretty ridiculous.

When you have bayer that immediately send cease and desists to scientists that only ask a question about this problem or runs out a young promoting scientist out from the united states department of agriculture simply because he's starting to ask questions, yeah no, fear-mongering, let's ignore

Alright though so like, what do you want me, a very average non-wealthy person not even living in the United States, to do about it? This literally just makes people like us go "oh no, I am scared now and hope the world doesn't end" -- hence it's fear-mongering, cause 99.9% of people have no means to take any action against it.
 

Interfectum

Member
Blame US and Chinese agriculture. That's like 90% of the cause. No doubt people will turn on each other and say "bu bu don't you spray your lawn for mosquitos?!?" like that does anything on this scale.

It reminds me of the plastic crisis we have going on. If 100% of the world residents decided to recycle that only accounts for like 5-8% of the overall issue. Somehow corporations are just doing whatever the fuck they want while we point the finger at each other.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Blame US and Chinese agriculture. That's like 90% of the cause. No doubt people will turn on each other and say "bu bu don't you spray your lawn for mosquitos?!?" like that does anything on this scale.

It reminds me of the plastic crisis we have going on. If 100% of the world residents decided to recycle that only accounts for like 5-8% of the overall issue. Somehow corporations are just doing whatever the fuck they want while we point the finger at each other.
So true.

We've all seen videos of manufacturing plants in some rural area all to it's own. It'll always be by a lake or river so it can flush out all the chemicals and sludge 24/7. The amount of pollution one big factory churns out would probably be the same as 10,000 houses.

And that even excludes the stuff you cant see on the ground (billowing smoke stacks).
 
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Alright though so like, what do you want me, a very average non-wealthy person not even living in the United States, to do about it? This literally just makes people like us go "oh no, I am scared now and hope the world doesn't end" -- hence it's fear-mongering, cause 99.9% of people have no means to take any action against it.
I'm not saying you or I can do something about it, it's just making ourselves aware of it. I now know how this shit works and it's making me think about growing the vegetables I can in my own garden. I know we can't fight these bastards mate
 
With knowing how this shit works and that what they grow is actually fucking filled of this stuff is what worrying me the most. It's making me realise all these neurologic diseases increases we've had in the last decades could be due to this. I'm gonna start growing my own shit I think
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1909726116



Don’t be gullible. False and skewed studies happen all time nowadays … why??
That’s easy just like everything else people are looking for money and easy way to get money is for scared people to give you money in hopes of “ solving “ false or severely over hyped issues.

If you really want to make a difference donate your money to st. Jude.
 
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https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1909726116



Don’t be gullible. False and skewed studies happen all time nowadays … why??
That’s easy just like everything else people are looking for money and easy way to get money is for scared people to give you money in hopes of “ solving “ false or severely over hyped issues.

If you really want to make a difference donate your money to st. Jude.
Make money how? They're the ones who arent getting a cent from these studies and losing their jobs, contrary to 'global warming'
 

Patrick S.

Banned
When I was a kid, or even as little as maybe 15 years ago, if you drove from one town to the next one here in Germany, your car's windshield would be completely covered in exploded insects. Now? I don't ever have to use my windshield wipers unless a bird poops on the glass. It's really crazy.
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
What are you talking about? Research firms thrive off outside funding.
Research firms that fits into whatever narrative that is heavily funded, this isnt. In the documentary, researchers are actually facing backlash and getting harrased until they quit their jobs
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
Research firms that fits into whatever narrative that is heavily funded, this isnt. In the documentary, researchers are actually facing backlash and getting harrased until they quit their jobs
This specific case is just the guardian taking a small study from amateurs, from one place .. creating a doom click article for…. Drum roll please….. MONEY!!!
 
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This specific case is just the guardian taking a small study from amateurs, from one place .. creating a doom click article for…. Drum roll please….. MONEY!!!
Alright, sure. There's no point in arguing, you've made your mind.

Let's just ignore this and play this game and let bayer, syngenta and monsanto do their things
 

Alebrije

Member
So any update on this in the last 6 years, did we suffer through Armageddon and I missed it? Also I thought that insects were supposed to solve the food shortages, now I find out we will then have to find a solution to the insect shortage.
Not much , you are living in The Matrix, insects were erased time ago.
Return to sleep , that battery wont be charged alone...
 
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