Flying insects caught in a malaise trap, used by entomologists to collect samples. Photograph: Courtesy of Entomologisher Verein Krefeld
The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists. (emphasis added)
Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.
The new data was gathered in nature reserves across Germany but has implications for all landscapes dominated by agriculture, the researchers said.
The cause of the huge decline is as yet unclear, although the destruction of wild areas and widespread use of pesticides are the most likely factors and climate change may play a role. The scientists were able to rule out weather and changes to landscape in the reserves as causes, but […]
This is why I became a beekeeper, again. The pollinators were so low, the garden only produced 4 squash and far fewer pole beans. Shared on my FB page. The Guardian is a daily good read as are some articles in Truthdig. Thanks Stephan.
Thank you, John Gabriel for your work as a beekeeper. You and others, like you are holding an important trust for all of the rest of us – that a life giving future can still happen.
Over the last year or so I’ve been thinking about the decline in insects in our world. I think often about a moment in the mid 1950’s when I was 10’ish or so and was in a goldenrod field down on my hands and knees absorbed in awe watching a 6” praying mantis holding on to a stem with it’s bottom 4 feet with a honey bee in its’ top left fore munching away on it head first! I was just inches a way amazed and thrilled. Bees flying all around everywhere at work amongst the bright yellow flowers and one of those whitish yellow spiders in a web near by – and other insects crawling and or flying here and there – but I was completely focused on the mantis. All of a sudden in a flash and faster than you could perceive the praying mantis had snatched another bee flying by with with its free right hand – having not even deviated the the very slightest from it’s current dining. Real multitasking!
What impresses me about that scene is not just the mantis but how absolutely filled with insects that space was.. They were everywhere!
And I’ve been thinking a lot over the last year about how few insects there seem to be these days. When was the last time you had to wash the bugs off your windshield or even one or two? I remember when I was a kid and a teen ager and even later when sometimes you couldn’t go five or 10 or 30 miles without having to stop at the filling station to wash your window – especially if you were driving in the country. And driving at night was almost like driving through a snowstorm though I’m exaggerating a bit – but how many bugs do you see at night in your headlights when you drive anymore?
This article just reinforces all that thinking and concern! This is probably one of the most alarming bits of news we’ve had and I think very few people will understand it’s real significance. And its my guess that this probably has more to do with land use practices and especially pesticides than climate change – but that has its place in this too.
I think we’re screwed to put it bluntly. We’re just doing and have done too much damage to the world – and there are lags in the resultants of our damages – and even if they were appearing faster – the nature of the momentum and cascading effects and of exponential growth mean that they are slow to be perceived then suddenly accelerate upon us in the relative blink of an eye. We have not seen or noticed the half of it yet – or maybe the 10th or maybe even the 100th
It’s a sad thing – to see the unfathomable beauty of the living paradise of which we are such a small part being destroyed – by us.
If we don’t get a handle on this pesticide issue very soon, we will be S.O.L. and paying people to hand pollinate crops like they are doing in China. I don’t know what it will take for people to heed the wake-up call…but inability to grow food staples might be something that gets some attention!
Thank you for your work as a beekeeper! I urge everyone who reads this to find a way to add your voice to the farmers, the gardeners, the knowledgeable citizens by signing petitions, writing letters and calling your representatives. Public records show that the use of pesticides from Monsanto, Bayer, Dupont, Syngenta have harmed our food supplies. That these same poisons are now being found in large amounts in human blood streams and are often linked to cancer. They are also traveling from the original points of application to neighboring fields and farms. These pesticides which are infused into GMO plants and seeds have become a death cocktail for us, for our food supply and the system that supports what we eat.. including insects. If all of us took these actions that would require 5-10 minutes per day, the sheer numbers of voices would be deafening. And as an activist, I can tell you, large numbers do initiate and support life affirming change.