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Over all of Europe, the number of insects that splatter on windshields has declined by 75% over the past three decades, according to a recent study. It's happening worldwide, in part because of the heavy use of insecticides on farms and by private individuals at home.
Here in Oregon, the small Drosophila fruit flies that were once numerous, have disappeared from my house. I haven't seen a single one, for three years. Decades ago, several types of grasshoppers were found by the millions, all over the countryside and also in cities. This past summer, I saw only a single one. When I was a boy, during the warm months, it was necessary for drivers to place fine-mesh screens in front of their radiators, to keep them from being clogged by flying insects and to clean them frequently. This no longer is required.
Flying insects, in their role as pollenizers and as food to support many species in the food chain, are essential to life on earth. We should be concerned and demand that politicians enact measures to severely restrict the use of insecticides. If it were argued that this would reduce crop yields, that would be a minor issue, compared to having crops go unpollenized in the future.
My wife and I spoke of this recently while driving to Houston.
As a child in the late 1950s and into the 60s, when we went on a 'road trip', after half a day my father would pull into a gas station to get the bug stuff off the windshield. Gas stations were, of course, full service back in those days.
If driving in Kansas (where we had family), we sometimes had to pull over so my father could clean the windshield. I quickly learned, as a youth, that when you have a bunch of grasshoppers smashing against the windshield, using the windshield wipers DOES NOT help.
My wife and I discussed it after we had one or two bugs hit our windshield, during our five hour drive, which, oddly, brought up memories of so long ago.
Over all of Europe, the number of insects that splatter on windshields has declined by 75% over the past three decades, according to a recent study. It's happening worldwide, in part because of the heavy use of insecticides on farms and by private individuals at home.
Here in Oregon, the small Drosophila fruit flies that were once numerous, have disappeared from my house. I haven't seen a single one, for three years. Decades ago, several types of grasshoppers were found by the millions, all over the countryside and also in cities. This past summer, I saw only a single one. When I was a boy, during the warm months, it was necessary for drivers to place fine-mesh screens in front of their radiators, to keep them from being clogged by flying insects and to clean them frequently. This no longer is required.
Flying insects, in their role as pollenizers and as food to support many species in the food chain, are essential to life on earth. We should be concerned and demand that politicians enact measures to severely restrict the use of insecticides. If it were argued that this would reduce crop yields, that would be a minor issue, compared to having crops go unpollenized in the future.
Way too many starving people in Africa to stop the pesticides. You want to kill potentially billions of Africans so you can see a grasshopper or have more fruit flies on your windshield?
Over all of Europe, the number of insects that splatter on windshields has declined by 75% over the past three decades, according to a recent study. It's happening worldwide, in part because of the heavy use of insecticides on farms and by private individuals at home.
Here in Oregon, the small Drosophila fruit flies that were once numerous, have disappeared from my house. I haven't seen a single one, for three years. Decades ago, several types of grasshoppers were found by the millions, all over the countryside and also in cities. This past summer, I saw only a single one. When I was a boy, during the warm months, it was necessary for drivers to place fine-mesh screens in front of their radiators, to keep them from being clogged by flying insects and to clean them frequently. This no longer is required.
Flying insects, in their role as pollenizers and as food to support many species in the food chain, are essential to life on earth. We should be concerned and demand that politicians enact measures to severely restrict the use of insecticides. If it were argued that this would reduce crop yields, that would be a minor issue, compared to having crops go unpollenized in the future.
The fear of West Nile virus is greater than the loss of many insects so the aerial spraying of insecticide will continue.
Destruction of the food chain is a serious problem, bees, frogs, salamanders are all disappearing. Insects are a fact of life, always found it strange that people move to Florida and places in New England and then complain about insects. I remember driving to Florida during the 70's during the Love Bug mating season and they were everywhere.
Apparently, some posters here don't think they will be affected if insects disappear and are glad to be rid of them. Funny how this type of aberrant thinking, seems to have an almost absolute correlation to conservatism and alt-rightism. Maybe it's the common practice they all share, of rejecting science and facts from their considerations.
We can blame Monsanto, DuPont. Bayer and Syngenta...... and the like for this decline of species. It all is related by the way. Lose the insects and we will also lose the bees and pollinators. I don't see or hear as many birds as I used to.
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