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.
Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after insects count drop 75% over 25 years
- Thread starter Ether_Snake
- Start date
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.
Peter Sjöstrand
Member
The only thing that makes me feel slightly less bad about all this is the fact that I don't have any kids.
Darkstorne
Member
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
parrotbeak
Member
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.
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.
Of course. That's what every other thread about a serious topic looks like.
You sound like an amazing person.
We just gotta genetically modify roaches and mosquitoes to pollinize instead of being annoying, or maybe make robot bees, or eat cockroaches.
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[IMG]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91MDoVBpcML._SX425_.jpg[/IMG]AbsolutBro
Member
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.
xo :* love you bae! see you on the other side
eot
Banned
We don't need Soylent to feed the world
MWS Natural
Member
Not in Florida..
Serpens007
Member
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
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
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
Very true
Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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
Insecticides, A Licence to Kill
It's about the neonicotinoids insesticides, really crazy to know that they're still being used widely
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Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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.
Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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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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.
LaughingStock
Member
Good. We should kill 100%. Insects are disgusting. I'm doing my part. I killed a cockroach last night.
LordOfChaos
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.
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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Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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
touchfuzzy
Member
Nothing happened, just more fear-mongering media takes.
Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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.
Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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
"Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world."
touchfuzzy
Member
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.
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
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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Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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
Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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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Swauny Jones
Member
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.
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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Beastclaw Raider
Banned
Make money how? They're the ones who arent getting a cent from these studies and losing their jobs, contrary to 'global warming'
RoboFu
One of the green rats
What are you talking about? Research firms thrive off outside funding.
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
Member
We need to give up meat, since livestock is insanely resource-intensive + cows fart fucking methane in the air which contributes to climate change:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/c...-to-climate-change-can-scientists-change-that
Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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
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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Beastclaw Raider
Banned
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
Not much , you are living in The Matrix, insects were erased time ago.
Return to sleep , that battery wont be charged alone...