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it wasn't all that long ago that in summertime i would have to repeatedly scrub tons of smashed bugs off my vehicles. that just doesn't seem to happen any more at least in my experience. sure, there are plenty of mosquitos i have to contend with in my yard, and masses of katydids that you never actually see still roar in the trees every night from early july through early September, but overall i'm just seeing far fewer bugs around than i used to. just wondering if other people are noticing something similar where they live.
I happen to be fond of bees and butterflies. This year my garden and my town are seeing a huge drop in these visitors. It's tiresome trying to educate younger folk on the necessity of bees and how they positively affect the environment . Harvest..pollenation. yet folks kill bees and consider them pest...a nuisance.
Butterflies just fascinate ...yet so few are migrating into the area.
Normally we have an upsurge of stink bugs during humid hot days. Even they aren't following the norm.
I voted 'other' because I'm seeing a mish mash of things. There has notably been a sharp decline in certain types of insects (especially moths and butterflies of all types) and an increase in certain types of other insects (especially ticks, bark beetles, stink bugs, ants and wasps).
But I'm also seeing that some insects seem to be maintaining their numbers and activities as always, plus I've noticed that we're starting to get some insects here that were never native to this area before and I'm not familiar with them, haven't ID'ed them and don't know for sure what other parts of the continent they may have arrived from.
I attribute all of these changes to go hand in hand with climate change since I'm seeing so many other changes in the environment, flora and fauna here that are clearly a direct consequence of the very obvious climate changes we're seeing happening here now.
Could be the shape of the cars? More aerodynamic? Less impact with bugs?
it could, but probably not in my direct experience. my old truck is not very aerodynamic..
i can recall driving across parts of texas in the middle of the night years ago and fireflies would smash into the windshield every few minutes and leaving glowing goo behind.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We have never had all that many bugs, mostly just spiders certain times of the year (fall). Still, those that we do have seem to be on the increase, not decline. For example I'm plagued this year with Sowbugs. As for the car windshields, we only seem to get that when traveling into Eastern Washington, Oregon and California, not so much staying here on the west side of Washington. More often it's bird droppings from the crows, or when in Seattle, from the seagulls.
I live in northeast TN. It doesn't seem much more different now than any typical year. I'm 33. I grew up here and the only meaningful difference is that summer seems a bit warmer on average and definitely wetter.
Re: bugs & cars--aerodynamics + change in roadways-- interstates swipe a 600 ft wide swath thru the countryside and they keep it mowed short --->
Main reason people are seeing fewer bugs is loss of habitat. In Chicago, for instance the end of the earth was at Harlem Ave (8 mi from the Lake) in the 50s. Now it's Rt 47 FIFTY MILES from the lake-- all that farm land paved over in the last 60 yrs.
I now live in rural WI and have to swat butterflies away like suburbanites swat mosquitos. The only people who think MotherNature is in trouble are those who never get out of the city.
BTW- use your brains a little-- how many insects are there in the tropics?....How many live on The Tundra?...Is Global Warming (if it even exists*) helping or hurting insects?...If you see it on The Evening News, it's probably not true...Think for yourselves. Don't be led to the slaughter without putting up a fight.
* Records show that only the polar areas (ie- N or S of 30* latitude) are warming day & nite temps. Temperate latitudes are warming only at nite and tropics not warming at all. You'd expect that (regardless of cause) because heat energy moves from warm to cold-- any increased heat in tropics would naturally move towards the poles.
Yes, absolutely some insects seem to be on the decline. Unfortunately, that doesn't include mosquitos, black flies, horse flies or deer flies.
I am stark raving terrified of wasps, hornets or bees and haven't been terrorized by one yet this summer which is very unusual (touch wood).
Also, we rarely see Monarch butterflies or fireflies any more.
It's scary actually. What is killing them all off?
Another thing we never see any more is bats. We used to have bats where we camp and where our cottage is, and I haven't seen even ONE for a few years.
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