Posted on 08/21/2022 3:53:10 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — While monarch butterflies and bees have been making headlines, the world is losing more bugs of all kinds to habitat loss, invasive species, pesticide use, and more human causes.
You may have noticed that, for example, if you’re slapping more mosquitos away lately.
“I have noticed that I haven’t been bitten like I have not had as many mosquito bites this year,” Lisa Briggs, a garden coach from The Bruce Company, said.
That may seem like a relief over the summer, but hate to clip your wings — “while a lot of people think that’s a great thing, it probably isn’t,” UW Professor Daniel Young said.
While the pesky bloodsuckers carry some disease, the entomologist said, their contributions, like those of other insects, tend to be overlooked.
“We consider bad as a function of us, right? So if it affects us personally, if it affects our cropping systems? Bad,” he said.
Mosquito larvae are important to aquatic food chains, and they are “filter feeders, so they are getting rid of a lot of the stuff that’s in the water,” he said.
Worldwide, all kinds of insects have been on a steep decline.
“Depending on the study over the last 20 years or so, most of the studies that have looked at insect biomass have reported anywhere from… about a 40 to about a 75% loss,” said Young. “That hits us right in the grocery store.”
It’s not just mosquitoes we can notice in Wisconsin, but also dragonflies, deerflies, horseflies, black flies, stable flies, and of course – pollinators.
“There would be bees and beetles and wasps all over those flowers, and now I may see one or two things,” the professor said. “A lot of people would think like pollination where that hits us right in the grocery store.”
RELATED: ‘Monarchs are in big trouble’: Butterflies being listed endangered internationally a call to action for local conservation, expert says
According to Briggs, that could come back to bite us.
“I want to say around 60% of our food requires pollination,” she said. “And so that is super important when you think about the fact that so much of the human diet depends on flowering, those flowers being pollinated so that they can produce seed for things like apples or peaches or that kind of thing.”
“It could have a pretty devastating effect,” Briggs said. “Can you save enough to make a difference in the long term?”
According to Professor Young, we may be more in the “salvage” than the “save” stage when it comes to widespread solutions.
“You’re about 100 years too late,” he said, “the question can’t be ‘can you save it?’ because you can’t, it’s already unsaved. The question is ‘can you save enough of it to make a difference in the long term?’”
Habitat loss is a huge factor, and some efforts have been made — but Young said urban and agricultural development has eliminated so much habitat that restored areas like Wisconsin prairies are often too isolated.
“If they’re sitting out there all by themselves surrounded by acres and acres and acres of corn — that’s good that’s done, but it really doesn’t help establish that connectivity that’s so important for populations to have genetically,” he said.
“We’ve lost a lot of corridors that groups of species use to find one another, mating, and then populations get smaller and can’t maintain their genetic diversity in those situations,” Young said.
He said there are prairie seed mixes people can buy and plant to encourage native pollinators to visit the area and diversify more urban or residential areas.
Another problem zapping the bug populations is insecticide use.
That’s something Briggs said gardeners can fix by being more thoughtful about what bug spray they use and which species are in the line of fire.
“(It’s) how to use a pea shooter instead of a bazooka,” she said, “because most insecticides are broad spectrum, so they’re going to kill anything.”
Perhaps most important is getting people to understand the contributions insects make to the environment and how important it is they don’t buzz off.
“When you go up to Devil’s Lake, right, you want to experience the lake, the trees — but you don’t want bugs bothering you — well, then you don’t have an ecosystem,” Young said.
“So, understanding that insects are an integral part of nature if you want to go out and enjoy nature understand that you’re out in their territory as well,” he said.
No bug shortage in the North Cascades of Washington state. the mosquitos will eat you alive.
Well, that’s going to put a damper on the eating bugs paradigm.
What’s left then?
FWIW, I have NOT noticed any appreciable decrease in bugs this year.
The gnats are in my kitchen!
Joe Bastardi over at WeatherBell has been saying that for months.
He has forecast a very warm fall through October and then November hits. He’s expecting a bad Nov, Dec, and Jan.
This mild weather has been tremendous for my garden. It’s the best I have ever had.
Mr. mm and I are now working on laying in our winter fuel supply in the form of firewood, and as soon as we are convinced fuel oil and propane have bottomed out in price, we will be ordering those as well.
Pretty sure all the mosquitos are here at my house in the swamp.
Oh my. What will we eat? /s/
What are we going to eat?
LOL
The swallows here don’t get that close to me. Maybe 10-15 feet at the closest. But I love watching them fly. Like little fighter jets in dog fights. They fly right through the branches of the trees like no other bird I’ve seen. Top speed.
The best shows are in the spring when they first get here. The males are chasing the females and they put on the most speed and make the most amazing dives and turns.
The lear jet leftists have frozen them for our future consumption. No soup for you! You must eat raw grasshoppers to save the planet.
These broad brush statements are so inappropriate.
Insect populations vary on a local and regional scale. It’s tough to extrapolate.
For the recently concluded nesting season, the number of fledged Tree Swallows (one of our research focal species) was one less that the record set in 2017. There were ~5 nestlings that failed to fledge - the second lowest on record. Cliff Swallow (not a focal species) numbers (based on new nests built were the highest they have been in five years). Cliff Swallows are obligate insectivores - their diet is solely insects. Tree Swallows will eat fruits from bushes such as Northern Bayberry, etc but are primarily insectivores.
There’s not enough data to determine why fledge counts are up for Tree Swallows, and why Cliff Swallows nests are at the highest number in several years, but they are.
Re: 90 - we have had Barn Swallows get so close to us during nest checks that we can feel the air moved by their wing beats as they fly by our ears.
They also have good memories. We proved that by having someone other than me walk about 100 feet from their nests. Some loitered in the area but mostly quiet. When I walked within 100 feet - they had a strong challenge response - alarm calls, some diving, etc. - as I am the garish two legged creature checking their nests!
Yeah, they are all at my house. And no I’m not about to eat a bug. There is no shortage of bugs. They just are not looking hard enough.
Yup.
And you know what?
If there is a shortage, there goes their grand plan to force all of us to eat them.
Easy solution - have Left bug eaters go back to real meat.
I’ve noticed that here in Southern Oregon.
I’ve planted gardens for almost 30 years and I have NEVER seen so few pollinators as this year.
I used to see hundreds upon hundreds of all sorts of bees flying around and pollinating my gardens, now, I’m lucky to see four or five.
And it’s for all plants: my oregano, lilacs, roses, tomatoes, squash, corn, peas, peppers, hydrangeas, impatiens, on and on...whereas in decades past I’d walk out to my gardens and flowers, I’d be surrounded by hundreds of bees, all different kinds, now I’m lucky to see five or six.
I don’t use pesticides, I plant companion plants, I do everything I can to attract pollinators, and they have almost completely disappeared.
For the first time in almost thirty years, we got NO Mirabella plums on our tree, not one single blossom. I have to think it’s because we had no bees this year.
Ed
Its been fantastic not having mosquitoes this summer. You can actually sit on the deck. Very few flies also. I notice our one remaining chicken Henrietta scratching around in her coop looking for black fly larvae with no luck.
Barn Swallows always build in the low rafters in the bottom of our barn. They can get pretty aggressive when I walk through there to get to the dog kennels.
I’ve been pecked a few times, but I now wear a hat...because I’m a quick study. ;)
How we gonna survive with no meat or no bugs???
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They refer to their own bug farms, not free-range bugs. In fact, eliminating free-range insects ups the market for farmed ones.
We are so screwed.
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