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.
Oh horseshit! The bugs are as thick as ever.
There is nothing new under the sun, just new people to see it. When it is new to them does not mean it is new. Not at all.
So they want to save bugs but get rid of meat? Can’t have both in many situations.
Livestock grazing takes up 26% of the Earth’s ice-free land area, making it one of the biggest impacts that humans have on wild-animal suffering. Several studies suggest that grazing reduces wild-insect populations (and hence, probably wild-insect suffering) on pasture fields, but some studies point in the opposite direction. Cattle poop supports large numbers of insects, which adds uncertainty to the overall analysis. The fields of organic cattle farms generally have higher insect densities than those of conventional cattle farms.
Whether cattle grazing increases or decreases total invertebrate populations on a given piece of land depends in part on whether the pasture is irrigated. For example, converting formerly dry land in the Western USA into green pastures would likely increase total invertebrate populations.
https://reducing-suffering.org/how-cattle-grazing-affects-insect-populations/
Yet it has become the apparent repositioning of water to large population areas, like in California, and it is moved right past the agricultural areas. So they need to make up their minds, if you want bugs, you need water. If you want cattle, you need water. If you don’t supply water or allow it to run naturally, then bugs and cattle will go by the way side. Now what do you eat...cake?
wy69
Plenty of all the usual bugs here at 7,600 ft. in the Rockies.
The swallows are still here, two weeks later than most years, so there must be plenty of flying bugs. That’s all they eat.
BUGS are EXACTLY why I will always live on, ‘The Frozen Tundra.’
*SHUDDER*
Army Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC: This Yankee Gal never KNEW Cockroaches grew to the size of a VW Bug!
Further training in the swamps of Louisiana: Good Lord! I STILL wake up screaming, LOL!
Just me but Harris and AOC really bug me and I find Biden, Jill and Liz Cheney to be real pests.😁
Speaking of invasive species, if you check out the weather radar between 7:30am. and 8:00am, you'll see many rings expanding outward all over the state. That's referring to Ohio. The only explanation I can find is, those are millions upon millions of European starlings rising in the morning.. And it's getting worse every year..
"Birds gotta eat too, just like worms" Clint Eastwood.
I have seen very few stink bugs this year. Very noticeable drop from recent years.
yeah yeah. First bees were gonna all die. Then frogs. Is there anything manmade global warming can’t do?
Lots of lightening bugs here (SW Pennsylvania), though may be less than normal.
They appear normal around where I am.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Here in the mountains of far western Maryland there are more bugs this summer than in any year since I moved here in 2003.
I have noticed a serious lack of Mosquitos here in Atlanta metro. I jusr figured the county was being sprayed. Come to think of it I have not seen many butterflies either.
I just looked up what starlings eat. The source says they are omnivores but insects are their primary food source. Especially while rearing their young.
Apparently no shortage of insects there.
We are so screwed.
How we gonna survive with no meat or no bugs???
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Rabbits, Squirrels, and chickens. And maybe an occasional pigeon!
We have many fewer mosquitoes out near Lake Lanier, GA. Fireflies are way down too. Wasps and bees and beetles are healthy though.
And the ants are ridiculous.
“I’m sorry this fella is lacking bugs.”
He’s a ‘Professor’ at UW Madistan. Did you read any of his quotes? LOL! I’m not sure that he’s even SHAVED, yet!
He has HUGE shoes to fill. Phil Pelateri was our UW ‘Bug Guy’ for many decades. Phil was no nonsense and common sense. This ‘New Kid on the Block’ is trying to stake his claim as an alarmist. And in Madistan, it will work. The Socialists love nothing more than a crisis to use for this or that. ;)
(Usually Tax Dollars are involved.)
I think you've hit on something there, Watson.
Too bad author hasn't put two key factors together. Drought (in many places) resulting in fewer insects. Check with flood stricken areas and you'll find a different story.
I live on a small lake with wetlands, and still very few mosquitoes this summer. And the flocks of starlings have come out of nowhere over the last few years.
Interesting.
Fliezzz.? I don't eat Fliezzz, not when I can get nice...juicy...spiders....He, He, He.....:
From the movie, Dracula 1931..
Would you care to rephrase that ?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.