Where Have All the Insects Gone? (sciencemag.org)

Entomologists have been assessing diversity and abundance across western Germany and have found that between 1989 and 2013 the biomass of invertebrates caught had fallen by nearly 80 percent. From an article on Science magazine: Scientists have tracked alarming declines in domesticated honey bees, monarch butterflies, and lightning bugs. But few have paid attention to the moths, hover flies, beetles, and countless other insects that buzz and flitter through the warm months. "We have a pretty good track record of ignoring most noncharismatic species," which most insects are, says Joe Nocera, an ecologist at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. [...] A new set of long-term data is coming to light, this time from a dedicated group of mostly amateur entomologists who have tracked insect abundance at more than 100 nature reserves in western Europe since the 1980s. Over that time the group, the Krefeld Entomological Society, has seen the yearly insect catches fluctuate, as expected. But in 2013 they spotted something alarming. When they returned to one of their earliest trapping sites from 1989, the total mass of their catch had fallen by nearly 80%. Perhaps it was a particularly bad year, they thought, so they set up the traps again in 2014. The numbers were just as low. Through more direct comparisons, the group -- which had preserved thousands of samples over 3 decades -- found dramatic declines across more than a dozen other sites. Such losses reverberate up the food chain. "If you're an insect-eating bird living in that area, four-fifths of your food is gone in the last quarter-century, which is staggering," says Dave Goulson, an ecologist at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, who is working with the Krefeld group to analyze and publish some of the data. "One almost hopes that it's not representative -- that it's some strange artifact."

Comments

# Where Have All the Insects Gone?

[Hognoxious]

Cellphones killed them, every one.

When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn? /#

Re:# Where Have All the Insects Gone?

[Oswald McWeany]

That's why I don't let my pet fruit fly operate a cell phone whilst flying.

Re:# Where Have All the Insects Gone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Serves those bumblebees right for texting and flying.

Re:# Where Have All the Insects Gone?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Where have all the insects gone,
long time passing?
Where have all the insects gone,
long time ago...
Where have all the insects gone,
Cellphones killed them every one.
When will they ever learn? Oh when will they ever learn...

Where have all the cellphones gone,
long time passing?
Where have all the cellphones gone,
long time ago...
Where have all the cellphones gone,
They've gone to young girls every one.
When will they ever learn? Oh when will they ever learn...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:# Where Have All the Insects Gone?

[Misagon]

Actually ... there have been a couple of research papers that indicate that some species of insects would not be very fond of cell phone towers.

Not that the authors of all of those papers are known to be very trustworthy and are often ridiculed, but I prefer to keep an open mind until the actual facts in the papers have been confirmed or refuted.
For instance, look up Olle Johansson and Marie-Claire Cammaerts.

Re:# Where Have All the Insects Gone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Es gibt keine Maikäfer mehr (There are no may bugs left) – Reinhard Mey (1973)
Excerpt:

Hin und wieder sah der alte Schlüter meine Beute an
Er war Maikäferexperte, und erinnerte sich dran
Dass die Käfer damals eine Plage waren, dass sogar
Dem, der die meisten einfing, eine Prämie sicher war
Dass die Kinder schulfrei kriegten, für den Maienkäferfang
Und er sagte, dass ihm damals mancher schöne Coup gelang
Und die Zahlen die er nannte, die beeindruckten mich tief
So dass ich mit meiner Beute fast beschämt nach Hause lief

Rough translation:

Now and then old man Schlüter inspected my catch
He was a may bug expert and remembered
That the bugs used to be a plague, that even
Whoever caught the most got a reward
That the kids got leave from school for the may bug hunt
And he said he got some brilliant triumphs in his time
And the numbers he quoted deeply impressed me
So I walked home almost ashamed with my catch

Re:# Where Have All the Insects Gone?

[Hognoxious]

I make the joke and get modded down. You explain it and get modded up.

Sad thing is, it appears it needed explaining. There really are some ignoramuses around. Or maybe they're just under 40.

I've noticed it too

[110010001000]

I attributed it to climate change and loss of continuous habitat.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Blasting pesticides everywhere doesn't help either.

Re:I've noticed it too

[110010001000]

This is Europe and Canada. They are eco-friendly countries who wouldnt do that.

Re:I've noticed it too

[knightghost]

Especially with all those eco-friendly diesel cars and trucks that spew black dust that covers the arctic and causes ice to melt faster.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, at least they are not petrol cars, which produce more particulates and more CO2.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Yawn

Re:I've noticed it too

[smooth wombat]

That's only in the U.S. where diesel vehicles (still) throw out clouds of black smoke. In Europe they mandated cleaner burning diesel which resolved that issue.

It's the same thing with higher mileage vehicles in Europe. American car manufacturers make vehicles which meet those higher requirements without issue. It's only in the U.S. where they fight tooth and nail to prevent the same thing from happening.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

>implying

Re:I've noticed it too

[110010001000]

"In Europe they mandated cleaner burning diesel which resolved that issue."

Amusing. I guess you don't read the news much.

Re:I've noticed it too

[postbigbang]

You can make broad-brush statements all you want, but:

This was ONE SITE, not the entire country, the EU, or the world.

ONE SITE. You need to know about the ONE SITE because that's where the data lays.

The rest of the sites have had linear and mercurial declines. But the article isn't a broad, or even area-wide statistical analysis. ONE SITE. This is why science journalism gets a bad name.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Thelasko]

I attributed it to climate change and loss of continuous habitat.

I've attributed it to habitat loss, but not climate change. Roundup ready crops has enabled the farming industry to nearly eradicate a lot of habitat. Particularly the milkweed used by monarch butterflies.

Re:I've noticed it too

[angel'o'sphere]

Of course it is climate change, idiot.
Most insects need to 'hibernate' over the winter. Because: there is no food!
The winters used to be cold, really cold, in Germany. Now they are piss warm.
Insects preparing for hibernation now get killed by simple things like mold.
Because winters are now warm and moisty.

To grasp that you don't need a PhD.

Re: I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha, no. Diesel produces vastly more particulates and far more nitrous oxide which is one of the worst greenhouse gasses. But keep living in your pro-diesel fantasyland if it pleases you.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

I attributed it to climate change and loss of continuous habitat.

I attributed it to a large increase in birds.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

> Because winters are now warm and moisty.

The last winter was the coldest in Germany in years and it was quite dry. So, exactly the opposite of your claim.

> To grasp that you don't need a PhD.

Not believing any random politicized clickbait might help though.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Good point, but it is definitely true in my neighborhood as well. The bug zapper probably has something to do with it.

Re:I've noticed it too

[caseih]

Yes farming is an industry. But it's an industry that feeds you. you can't talk about it as some kind of "them" entity while blissfully enjoying the fruits of the lowest food prices in human history. Does this come at a price? Yes it does, and yes farming has to adapt and change to realities. This gap between what farms and farmers actually do and the people who consume food is increasingly worrying me. We need education in the worst way. Most people don't have any real sense of what farms actually do, and they certainly don't understand things like how herbicides work, how they are used, and what happens to them. Heck most people don't even know what raw food looks like, such as carrots, peas, and beans. They've literally never seen them growing before.

As for education on both sides, farmers are not ignorant people and they do want to learn and improve. Right now the study of soil health is becoming a major thing in agriculture in north America. We recognize that healthy soil is key to growing crops with less inputs, less disease, and more natural processes. We're recognizing that although chemical farming has saved billions from starvation over the decades (at one time the world's top minds were ready to write off the entire population of India and Pakistan), we've reached the limits as to what it can do. Fungicides in particular are leading us into a vicious cycle of plant disease, much like antibiotics can open up people to subsequent infections because all the good bacteria dies as well as the bad.

But I digress. I'm not sure you understand what Roundup is, let alone what it's used for. I don't think roundup has increased cultivated acres magically. Not sure where you got that from. Roundup has reduced herbicide use dramatically (cut it in half for resistant crops), which is overall a good thing, though there are problems with using it. How it connects to destroying habitat I have no idea. Cultivated cropland was already destroyed habitat for monarch butterflies before roundup. I'm not sure how you connect monarch butterflies in there either. Are you talking about GMO corn that kills the butterflies perhaps? Not sure what you're getting at. I'd say one of the biggest threats to all wild habitat these days is urban development. Agricultural cultivation is pretty stagnant, and has been for decades.

Re:I've noticed it too

[ShanghaiBill]

Roundup ready crops has enabled the farming industry to nearly eradicate a lot of habitat. Particularly the milkweed used by monarch butterflies.

Roundup-Ready crops are not, and never have been, grown in Germany.

Re:I've noticed it too

[PsychoSlashDot]

You can make broad-brush statements all you want, but:

This was ONE SITE, not the entire country, the EU, or the world.

ONE SITE. You need to know about the ONE SITE because that's where the data lays.

The rest of the sites have had linear and mercurial declines. But the article isn't a broad, or even area-wide statistical analysis. ONE SITE. This is why science journalism gets a bad name.

From TFS, "found dramatic declines across more than a dozen other sites."

Now, maybe my math skills aren't what they once were, but I'm pretty sure that one and a minimum or thirteen are not the same. Perhaps if it's in upper-case it's closer than if it's in lower case.

Re:I've noticed it too

[postbigbang]

The scope increases to perhaps twelve sites. Note how many other sites are mentioned. It would make nice research. A global clickbait phenomenon, it's not, although the global probable decline is onerous.

My math skills say: needs a lots more research until you can tie these factoids together. Even boolean algebra says correlation!=causation. Causation still must be causation.

Re:I've noticed it too

[BlueStrat]

Haha, no. Diesel produces vastly more particulates and far more nitrous oxide which is one of the worst greenhouse gasses. But keep living in your pro-diesel fantasyland if it pleases you.

The devil is in the details. As usual.

There are particulates and then there are particulates.Diesel engine particulates trend heavily to larger sized, heavier particulates while gasoline engines produce far more fine particulates. Any guesses as to which one has more health effects and 'carries' greater distances?

As to your nitrous oxide claim, gasoline automobile engines produce far more than diesel automobile engines. This is the reason 3-way catalytic car exhaust converters were designed and implemented in the US over the previous 2-way catalytic converters. The problems with these converters is that the effective life is short compared to the life of the automobile and are often replaced with straight pipe when they fail, as the vehicle is almost certainly long out of warranty, high-mileage, and may be on it's second, third, or more, owner. That's not even accounting for the strong disincentive also posed by replacement converters demanding a stiff price on top of it.

Combined with the overwhelming difference in the numbers on the road, gasoline engines are responsible for the lion's share of nitrous oxide emissions from trucks & automobiles.

Strat

Re:I've noticed it too

[unixisc]

I attribute it to 80% of them having already been eaten by the birds. Note to the birds: You can't have your cake, & eat it too.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmmm, this seems to correlate with the recent influx of immigrants in both these countries. Is it possible that the insects simply do not like them and left?

Re:I've noticed it too

[Lord_Jeremy]

Precisely why some states (such as my home New York) require mandatory bi-yearly emissions testing to stay on the road. We also have a mandatory tailpipe emissions test for heavy-duty road vehicles such as trucks. I've known people who have had to either sink serious money into their car or junk it and buy a slightly younger car because of problems with emissions control equipment. Sure it sucks when you personally get hit in the wallet because of it but it helps ensure that the worst-polluting vehicles stay off the road. So much so that a friend of mine with a 60s-era vehicle had to go get it registered as a "classic car" in Connecticut because there was no feasible way to register it in New York.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the insects are just getting smart enough not to get caught.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Z00L00K]

Environmental changes are important, a lot of insects require a certain type of environment and humidity to prosper. Other factors is that a lot of insects actually also need manure and grazed areas for their development. Modern farming depends a lot on mono-culture growth and pesticides to keep up the yield.

In areas where you have free-ranging cattle in moderate numbers in the meadows with mixed vegetation you will get a better result with many different species.

Re:I've noticed it too

[BlueStrat]

Precisely why some states (such as my home New York) require mandatory bi-yearly emissions testing to stay on the road. We also have a mandatory tailpipe emissions test for heavy-duty road vehicles such as trucks. I've known people who have had to either sink serious money into their car or junk it and buy a slightly younger car because of problems with emissions control equipment. Sure it sucks when you personally get hit in the wallet because of it but it helps ensure that the worst-polluting vehicles stay off the road. So much so that a friend of mine with a 60s-era vehicle had to go get it registered as a "classic car" in Connecticut because there was no feasible way to register it in New York.

They simply need to buy an even older car, one that qualifies as "antique" or whatever the particular language used in your State's laws. Plates are cheap and no inspections. I don't mean go out there and get a 1970 426 cu in Hemi 'Cuda with a full racing cam, high rise plenum intake, and dual 4-barrel carbs and a nitrous kit. There are plenty of old cars with quite clean-burning and efficient engines, many of the older six and four cylinder vehicles were quite well-engineered. Some of the old '60s/'70s pickups with six-cylinder engines are quite fuel efficient as well as surprisingly clean-burning and low-emission even without a catalytic exhaust converter and using regular leaded gas. An engine like the old Dodge "slant-six" is the epitome of low maintenance costs and reliability, they just don't die. Easy and simple to work on if ever needed.

You're also saving the energy, resources, and emissions generated to produce a new car by driving an older vehicle. Not to mention, most people don't live in urban areas and even low-income people need a car as pubic transport is a joke in the US Cars are steadily getting more expensive with all the emissions equipment, computers, entertainment systems, GPS/"OnStar" type systems, far faster than inflation and that force people to keep more older cars on the road.

But of course, government and the corporations aren't receiving their expected rent if consumers aren't insuring, licensing, and taking out loans to purchase/lease new vehicles at a high enough rate.

Strat

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

It is everything, and it has been going on for over a century. North America had, originally, the largest continuous savannah in the world and the largest animal migrations, including insects. We managed to make North America the world's only continent that is not Antarctica without locusts. Not just any locusts, the worst in the world. Very good records put swarms in the trillions. The largest observed is estimated at 12.5 trillion individuals. Unfortunately for the locust, their life cycle included staying underground in the prime agricultural ground near rivers. We don't really know how we killed them all, but we apparently have according to DNA analysis.

It is not a good trend. The closer one gets to the producers in food web the more damage can be done to the web. Only around 10% of the energy of a layer of the web is transferred to the next. Knock out a producer or the link between the producer and the rest of the web and things get bad very quickly.

Re: I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Diesels have produced fewer particulates than petrol engines since particulate traps became standard on diesels. Additionally, petrol engines with direct injection (the vast majority currently) produce far more particulates than port-injected petrol engines and modern diesels. The current emission limits allow petrol engines to emit ten times as many particles as diesels and these limits are regularly exceeded in everyday driving.

NOx is not a greenhouse gas.

Re: I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Europeanâ countries tend to require annual emissions checks, along with the safety inspection (sometimes bi-annual for the first few years). However, they only check whether the car still meets the standards it was certified for when new. Old cars can pollute a lot (relatively) and still pass.

Re: I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

They voted 54-45 in favor of Insexit.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anne Thwacks]

I don't mean go out there and get a 1970 426 cu in Hemi 'Cuda with a full racing cam,

Surely the whole point of buying an "old" car is muscle (and gas consumption).

A plague on your new fangled ....

Re:I've noticed it too

[dunkelfalke]

You only prove his point - the last winter was as warm as autumns used to be 20 years ago. The fields around Frankfurt am Main were already green in mid February. My backcountry ski have been sitting in the cellar for several years - there is no snow and the temperature seldom falls below zero anyway.

Re:I've noticed it too

[BlueStrat]

I don't mean go out there and get a 1970 426 cu in Hemi 'Cuda with a full racing cam,

Surely the whole point of buying an "old" car is muscle (and gas consumption).

Sure, if you're old enough (as I am and I suspect you are) to have owned and driven the cars of that era, well...there's just no common frame of reference to describe how soul-satisfyingly-fun and empowering they were.

A plague on your new fangled ....

Hey, when it comes to cars, guitars, and vacuum-tube guitar amps, I'm with ya all the way!

However, the topic of the thread concerned emissions, and so I drew attention to the "less-thirsty" models of the same era. A '61 Mercury Comet with push-button transmission and a 144 cu in straight-six would be low-emission, high-mileage, and be uber geeky-cool to drive around, but there are many less expensive and easier to restore & maintain choices, too.

Hey! There's always the AMC Pacer! (party time! excellent! heheh!) I'm sure you'd have to supply your own Garth. I'm afraid the original is now wildly past the expiration date. :P

Strat

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt that boolean algebra says anything about correlation and causation. You need a lots more math skills to put sentences together.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Joce640k]

The last winter was the coldest in Germany in years

In... how many years, exactly?

Re: I've noticed it too

[PoopJuggler]

"NOx is not a greenhouse gas" The https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissio...">EPA disagrees.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha, ha, ha!

Re:I've noticed it too

[dunkelfalke]

Depends. The January was the coldest since 2010, on the other hand the February was on average the warmest ever. Matter of fact, on the 23rd of February several towns achieved a new record of over 21 degrees Celsius. That would be summer weather in, say, Helsinki.

Re:I've noticed it too

[pnutjam]

You know what's soul-satisfyingly-fun and empowering? The guarantee that my car will start and everything will work when I hop in. I find that so fun and satisfying. To just get in and go where I want, and far on a tank of gas.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Plumpaquatsch]

The scope increases to perhaps twelve sites. Note how many other sites are mentioned. It would make nice research. A global clickbait phenomenon, it's not, although the global probable decline is onerous.

My math skills say: needs a lots more research until you can tie these factoids together. Even boolean algebra says correlation!=causation. Causation still must be causation.

Well, they can't have much more sites when the nature reserve they are collecting from is only 250 acres. Yeah, they have samples from thousands of sites across the world - but they only have one sample for most of those.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Thelasko]

Cultivated cropland was already destroyed habitat for monarch butterflies before roundup.

Growing up on a farm in the 1980s, I remember milkweed was a nuisance to the crop. It was dispersed throughout the fields. It was simply too labor intensive to weed out and farmers just accepted the fact it would rob some of the crop of resources. Monarch butterflies were everywhere! I used to love catching them.

Roundup ready crops come along, and the milkweed is decimated. The monarchs have been decimated as well.

Milkweed is a weed. It doesn't take years to grow. It grows and matures faster than many crops, and can thrive on cultivated cropland. I'm sure there are many other species affected in similar ways.

Re:I've noticed it too

[angel'o'sphere]

The last winter in germany was as piss war ad all of the last 20 or 25 ones.
Perhaps we had a few days temperature below zero. But we had not the "usual" 6 - 8 weeks temperatures around -10 - -30 as we used to have when I was a child.

Did we even have snow last year outside of the Alps?

Re:I've noticed it too

[angel'o'sphere]

In Europe farming is not an industry.
I suggest to look at google earth.

Re:I've noticed it too

[PsychoSlashDot]

The scope increases to perhaps twelve sites. Note how many other sites are mentioned. It would make nice research. A global clickbait phenomenon, it's not, although the global probable decline is onerous.

My math skills say: needs a lots more research until you can tie these factoids together. Even boolean algebra says correlation!=causation. Causation still must be causation.

I don't disagree with your sentiment or desire for rigor. Where I'm coming from is that it's not right to be dismissive of the data that's been presented to the extent of disregarding the number of sites involved. Sure, maybe their conclusions - and methodology - are bunk. Probably even, given what this would mean to the food chain, and the lack of 80% die-off up said chain (yet). But... well, I couldn't resist the lure of comparing "ONE" and "more than twelve" with a gentle tease. Thanks for playing ball.

Re:I've noticed it too

[ebvwfbw]

No, not climate change. Stop drinking the cool aid.
A warmer environment, as we had when the Romans invaded England about 2000 years ago and when the seas were a lot higher would help insects. A lot greener earth. In fact, they used to grow grapes in Britain until the mini ice age came, which we're coming out of now.

Re:I've noticed it too

[postbigbang]

Were this a trend, it would be horrific, of course. But the problem is manyfold, and my objections lay around the lurid headline, coupled to what amounts to anecdotal data, spiced with teases and clickbait pullquotes.

So, not a trend, a dozen sites, no the sites aren't being adequately assayed, yes might be ugly, and no, does not represent nor mirror a worldwide trend.

There is an enormous number of people that actually don't believe that climate change is happening, and/or that it's man-made. Some aren't quite so much stupid, as allowed to be presented with conflicting information that lets them dismiss the notions because of crap articles like this one.

The title should be: Alarming data found in an insect count-- a trend? Under that aegis, and not tied together with limp noodle notions, one presents the data. That wasn't done. And so it's not so much useless, but does damage by allowing those that look at the data and say, wtf-- just a few sites? Might be a Round-Up binge.... to shake their heads in disgust.

Re:I've noticed it too

[BlueStrat]

I attributed it to climate change and loss of continuous habitat.

Or, maybe they just have a more accurate count now (satellites/GPS tracking, improvements in calculation methods, better computers/software, drones, etc etc) and previous numbers were over-estimated.

Hanlon's Razor, and all that jazz.

Strat

Re:I've noticed it too

[Troed]

You're absolutely correct. During the Medieval Warm Period (or the earlier Roman and Bronze Age equivalents, not to mention the Holocene Climatic Optimum) there were no insects anywhere in Europe.

Or not.

Re:I've noticed it too

[angel'o'sphere]

Hu? Which point do you want to make?
You are free to come to my house and check yourself.

And if you have a time machine we can check the medieval warm Period(S! ... you seem not even to know that we had 2 or 3 of them, depending which time frame you call "medieval")

And I never said: we have "no insects" that would be pretty stupid when a honey bee is right now above me in the tree. However: it is only one. It should be a few hundreds.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Troed]

My point was simple: Your anecdote does not constitute a valid hypothesis, considering northern Europe specifically is not warm compared to several other periods during the Holocene.

Re:I've noticed it too

[angel'o'sphere]

Anecdotes are data.
Hypothesizes are formalizations/rules how to interpret that data or make predictions.

considering northern Europe specifically is not warm compared to several other periods during the Holocene.

Temperature is irrelevant.

The change of temperature is not.

The insects are gone because the winters are to warm for them to survive. Not because it is "warmer" or cold in relation compared to the Holocene.

Mixing up various earth ages makes you look more like an idiot than like a smart person. During the Holocene it was basically everywhere in Europe colder than it is right now. But be my guest and find me a counter example, I'm interested in such stuff.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Troed]

During the Holocene it was basically everywhere in Europe colder than it is right now

We're in the Holocene, right now. However, during the Medieval Warm Period, the Roman Warm Period and the Bronze Age Warm period it was warmer than now in Europe. Additionally, during the Holocene Climatic Optimum it was warmer, globally, than now:

Current global temperatures of the past decade have not yet exceeded peak interglacial values but are warmer than during ~75% of the Holocene temperature history.

source: Marcott et.al 2013

The rate of temperature change now does not surpass previous periods, during which insects had no problems surviving.

Until a few decades ago it was generally thought that all large-scale global and regional climate changes occurred gradually over a timescale of many centuries or millennia, scarcely perceptible during a human lifetime. The tendency of climate to change relatively suddenly has been one of the most suprising outcomes of the study of earth history, specifically the last 150,000 years (e.g., Taylor et al., 1993). Some and possibly most large climate changes (involving, for example, a regional change in mean annual temperature of several degrees celsius) occurred at most on a timescale of a few centuries, sometimes decades, and perhaps even just a few years. The decadal-timescale transitions would presumably have been quite noticeable to humans living at such times, and may have created difficulties or opportunities (e.g., the possibility of crossing exposed land bridges, before sea level could rise)

source: Sudden climate transitions during the Quaternary (Adams, Maslin, Thomas)

Now tell me, since everything above is known and non-disputed climate science, why do you believe differently?

(And which "earth ages" have I "mixed up" specifically?)

Re:I've noticed it too

[Joce640k]

2010? As long ago as that...?

Sometimes I wonder what people think the term 'trend' actually means.

Re:I've noticed it too

[angel'o'sphere]

The rate of temperature change is according to climate scientists the fastest we ever had on the planet.

"However, during the Medieval Warm Period, the Roman Warm Period and the Bronze Age Warm period it was warmer than now in Europe." Actually it was about the same temperature, and probably even a little bit lower than it is right now. E.g. during roman times Germany had ordinary winters and not piss warm rain weather like right now. Those warms periods btw where not restricted to Europe we know at least about some regions in Asia that had "unusual" warming at the same time.

Why you are nitpicking about insects is beyond me. Most insects we are missing right now are used to have rather cold temperatures in winter and hibernate in a dry cold environment. Now they hibernate in a warm, damp and moldy environment. On top of that birds stay around and eat them in winter or their larva that usually are below frozen ground get eaten by birds. Many insects rely on flowers, so if the don't hibernate because it is to warm: they have no food.

Interesting book/article though, "Sudden climate transitions during the Quaternary (Adams, Maslin, Thomas)", I will check it out.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Troed]

The rate of temperature change is according to climate scientists the fastest we ever had on the planet.

I'm sure you can find scientists (persons) saying that, but it's not what the science (as created by following the scientific method) is saying. Or rather, barring so-called catastrophes (meteor impacts, maybe basalt flooding etc) it's simply unknowable. We do not have proxies of enough resolution to know. However, even if we use the best we have, we find sudden temperature changes to be common.

"Climate shifts up to half as large as the entire difference between ice age and modern conditions occurred over hemispheric or broader regions in mere years to decades."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

My point was not about "nitpicking" about insects. I simply pointed out that your original statement cannot be true. The warming we've seen since the coldest part of the whole Holocene (i.e, since about a few hundred years back) is not exceptional for the Holocene (see previous post for scientific reference) and thus cannot be responsible for a demise of insects.

Re:I've noticed it too

[angel'o'sphere]

The warming we've seen since the coldest part of the whole Holocene (i.e, since about a few hundred years back) is not exceptional for the Holocene (see previous post for scientific reference) and thus cannot be responsible for a demise of insects.
This is nonsense on two bases.
a) during other warming scenarios we might have a bit higher average temperatures but we most likely also still had icy winters
b) we don't now much about the insects during those times

So the current warming, or more precisely the super warm winters several times in a row are the most logical (Occams Razor) reason for the sudden lack of insects.

As your link is an american link I have humbly to say that I don't trust it, looks like an "official sanctioned denier" link, but I will investigate, as the thematic interests me.

Re:I've noticed it too

[Troed]

I'm sorry, but the scientific method cares little for nationality ;)

During the Holocene Climatic Optimum it's likely there was no or little summer sea ice in the arctic. I.e, we likely didn't have as cold winters as we've had recently.

Arctic Ocean sea ice proxies generally suggest a reduction in sea ice during parts of the early and middle Holocene (6000–10,000 years BP) compared to present day conditions.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...

(Please feel free to counter my science-based posts with links to scientific research articles rather than just claiming that it's "nonsense" based on your own personal views)

Re:I've noticed it too

[syntotic]

Correlate to increases in African populations and spreading of Oriental populations. I think you will get a positive. And meanwhile charismatic species would also be thriving, or going famous... Looks like it is the same phenomenon as with rams and goats, since they are mention in Chinese Astrology, they become less important in use, size and at the same time... well, we do care about them, dont we? Very particularly cared for.

Re: I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

That seems to be some US government website. The US has an obsession with NOx for economical reasons.

Re: I've noticed it too

[Anonymous Coward]

GP is right. Diesel cars and trucks in Europe are much cleaner than those in the US, since the US is so obsessed with NOx emissions they are willing to accept larger amounts of carcinogenic particulates in exchange for a bit less of the relatively harmless NOx. The US has a higher limit on total particulate mass and doesn't set a limit on particulate number at all. They also allow several times more sulphur in diesel fuel, which results in several times more SO2 from exhaust pipes.

Editor's note

[msmash]

It's actually a week-old story, but I only spotted it today. (It wasn't pitched by any reader.) Apologies for running what seems like an old story, but we found it important enough to run it. Thanks.

Re:Editor's note

[110010001000]

No problem. These are really big issues. If the food web is broken we are all in big trouble.

Re:Editor's note

[caseih]

You mean I can google for food?! Amazing times we live in. But seriously, there's plenty of food in my grocery store, so we're good.

Re:Editor's note

[msmash]

You guys are the best. Seriously, reading the comments on Slashdot has been one of the things I have deeply enjoyed and cherished for years. Everyday, I learn something new. Everyday, someone shares anecdotes that often changes -- and always broadens -- my perspective on things. You guys are really smart, passionate, funny, and empathetic.

Re:Editor's note

[Anonymous Coward]

No prob. We shall not bug you about it.

Re:Editor's note

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard we'll 3D print our food in private space-based asteroid farms.

Re:Editor's note

[Anonymous Coward]

Merely knowing you guys read our comments and look at the feedback is a major improvement from the management. Keep up the good work.

Re:Editor's note

[fisted]

reading the comments on Slashdot

Not buying it.

Re:Editor's note

[sodul]

Actually, yes you can. Google delivers food to my house quite often. Although it is mostly non perishable but they do deliver bread and other edibles.

Re:Editor's note

[irving47]

Expect a lynch-mob on your doorstep by dusk. Oh. Wait. This isn't Hackaday... :) (Man, those guys are freaking brutal sometimes.)

Re:Editor's note

[HornWumpus]

He's a /. editor. What they clearly don't read is TFA, or even TFS.

Re:Editor's note

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be new here.

Re: Editor's note

[Zorpheus]

Yeah we all really care about bugs

Re:Editor's note

[ckatko]

Yeah, seriously. 99% of comments on Slashdot since the elections are shoehorned in, not-clever-at-all bashes at Trump. He's the devil, I get it. But what the fuck does that have to do with self-driving cars or patent law?

Re:Editor's note

[Ol Olsoc]

No problem. These are really big issues. If the food web is broken we are all in big trouble.

In so many ways. Wasn't there a story in here about tiny drones replacing bees to pollinate food? Hilarious.

Re:Editor's note

[unixisc]

You can't! Since there are fewer (species of) bugs

Re:Editor's note

[Anonymous Coward]

ditto

Re:Editor's note

[EmptyHead]

All the insects probably registered to vote in the last election and it still wasn't enough for the worst candidate in history to beat OC. Voter ID laws would have kept the insects in Europe! ....you're welcome.

maybe they learned not to fall into traps?

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe they learned not to fall into traps?

Re:maybe they learned not to fall into traps?

[Anubis IV]

I had two thoughts when reading this:
1) Saying "no" to this headline is far less satisfying than it should be. Betteridge's Law of Headlines has apparently failed me again!

2) That (though I don't think it to be the case) the evidence could just as easily back up the theory that--after decades of work--these researchers have successfully bred/selected the members of the insect species such that they no longer fall into those particular varieties of traps. I.e. More or less what you said, except that they've culled the weak from the herd, rather than teaching them.

Re:maybe they learned not to fall into traps?

[Anonymous Coward]

Insects move, as populations, so those being caught now are not the same as those before. The problem is the entire species is moving territory due to climate change - toward higher mountain elevations where temperatures are cooler.

I was asking the same question this summer...

[MindPrison]

It's nearly summer here, we got 23C today, and most of the leaves have sprung everywhere. But indeed - where are the insects? Yes, there are the odd bumblebee here and there, but this place (right in the middle of mother nature) is usually buzzing with insects this time of the year, but there is hardly any.

Of course - I can't say that I miss the Mosquito, in fact - it's my sworn enemy, but the rest of the insect hordes seems to be gone as well, I hardly see any banana flies, moths or any common insects here out in the wilderness any more. Maybe there is something going on here?

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you feel you miss the mosquitos come down to San Antonio. My back yard is full of them. No shortage of insects here.

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[hey!]

I spent many years in the mosquito control field. Trust me, they're coming. You just need rain followed by a warm spell.

Animal and plant species vary by how well they deal with disruptions. Species which deal well with disruptions and which have a high reproduction rate is a weedy species and thrives when we screw things up. Specie that reproduce slowly and are dependent upon certain specific things in the environment are the ones that disappear.

Most mosquito species are weedy. The larvae live on rotting organic matter in water and the adults live on nectar from a variety of sources. In some species a gravid female can lay two hundred eggs after a blood meal, and do that a half dozen times a year in some places. This means they have immense potential for exponential population growth, provided they have sources of water, temperatures warm enough to breed, and someone to get blood meals from.

Ecological disruption doesn't always look like death; in fact quite the opposite it can sometimes look like a profusion of life, as in a polluted lake choked with algae. But you lose most of the food chain: the fish and invertebrates they feed on. Or in cases like this it can be subtle; you might not see it until you look and wonder why a certain bird species is gone. Then you look and find out that the things it lives on are gone too.

But don't worry about mosquitoes. Unless your climate gets drier and cooler, you can count on them coming back.

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[tlhIngan]

Of course - I can't say that I miss the Mosquito, in fact - it's my sworn enemy,

Alas, even the mosquito is a delicacy for some predators as well - bats and frogs I believe love them as do many other creatures (spiders?).

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[MindPrison]

But it's so weird for all the other insects.

Even last summer I noticed the absence of insects. I live out on the country side. For a while I thought it might be my basement spiders (which I do have a lot of, they can get quite big, up to 15 CM long, yes, the fuel of nightmares for some), and I was grateful for them keeping the insect population to a minimum around here.

But somethings odd...we have knatts (do you call them that in your neck of the woods?), those are the smaller biting bugs that likes to hang out in the thuja trees or bushes that I have a lot of, we have had relatively mild winters here now, around 0 - 9c which is unusual for this area. But we've had this kind of weather since like 4 years ago, and sometimes before that as well, very unusual according to the natives around here.

I even made huge insect nets for my upper floor windows, I've hardly had any use for these the last 2-3 years as the insects have been almost non-existent here lately, I like it of course, but ...the lack of birds - is disturbing and sad, of course it is all connected, I'm not the alarmist type, but this makes me go "hmm... " a little.

Re: I was asking the same question this summer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes,there is something going on.
Vast numbers of insects are dead.
Here in the UK,we have had a number of early spring weeks,followed by bad cold snaps that are bad enough and last long enough to wipe out lots of insects,add in spraying,general pollution,the problem of hormones in the enviroment etc etc and suprise,suprise we have very low insects numbers..
It should hardly come as a shock or suprise,plenty of folk have been warning the world for at least the last 50 years that this would happen,now it is,add in climate/weather changes and theirs your explanation,we have buggered the environment in many areas so badly that the system is right on the verge of collapse..
Then we realy will be in trouble...

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're kidding, right? This comment is supposed to be a joke, right? TFA at least ostensibly cites responsible scientists, and you're sharing what you have personally noticed from just randomly walking around outside?? We are in trouble if anecdotal evidence like this is used to buttress scientific claims. No wonder people are losing faith in science.

They said this same thing about the monarch butterflies, and there never was a crisis there either. I'm even wondering if the entymologists have actually done their due diligence, or if they're just trying to stoke the flames of environmentalism too.

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but of 'all' the different mosquito species, only a very small handful are responsible for biting humans. And those species that do feed on people are statistically irrelevant in the food chain. Even bats and frogs don't survive on mosquitoes. As food sources go, mosquitoes are more like sunflower seeds. They're more energy to catch and eat than the nutrients they provide in return.

In other words, we don't have to eradicate all the mosquito species. And if we only eradicate the species that bite humans there will be little, if any, impact on predators that feed on mosquitoes.

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[angel'o'sphere]

Probably the remnants of Chernobyl?

-- oh that was a joke btw..

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[dargaud]

I know we all have anecdotal evidence but mine over 50 years are the following:

• when driving in summer we used to have to wipe the windshield every few hours while driving on the highway. Not so now.
• haven't seen lightning bugs in decades
• haven't seen groups of migrating swallows in decades, only a few isolated individuals
• seldom see butterflies anymore
• even at night, it used to be a pain to be near any camping light, now you see a night moth every once in a while

See what you can remember about the insects of your youth...

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[CaseCrash]

we have knatts (do you call them that in your neck of the woods?)

I've never seen that spelling before, but google seems to have a number of references to it. I've only ever seen "gnats" as the spelling. Interesting that both have a silent first letter

Learn something every day!

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[Anonymous Coward]

In my semi-urban neighborhood the number of insects and birds plummeted after a series of narrow ditches leading to a small river was all covered, along with a couple of meadow typed wastelands. Localized conditions can significantly change with urban development chipping away water and forest ecosystems.

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the things you notice moving from the eastern US to California (parts of it, anyway) is that there are so few bugs. I used to just assume I'd get mosquito bites and be pestered by flies outside in August. In California there are many places where water disappears during the Summer. There are almost no bugs. The whole deal where you leave a window open without a screen to "catch a sea breeze" is actually real. OTOH, many parts of California *do* have water all season, such as lakes. There, insects abound; but recently mosquitos didn't seem like too much trouble. This year I've actually gotten mosquito bits. I feel like I'm back east again.

Anyway, it's not just heat. It's water. Insects respond to water supply in interesting ways.

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[hey!]

There are many species of small flies called "gnats", some of which bite. Many of them have aquatic larval stages, so changes in river levels can affect their populations. Some of them, as well as larger biting flies, live in damp, organically rich soil which also means that low rain levels can suppress their populations.

Also, farms are potent sources of many kinds of lies. The closure of a nearby farm, or even a modest change in husbandry practices can have an effect on fly populations.

Re:I was asking the same question this summer...

[MindPrison]

You bring up some good points (about the farms).

Albeit you made me chuckle a little this morning:

"Also, farms are potent sources of many kinds of lies."

Yes, I'm sure that holds some truth to it, it's all good - we know what you meant, but anyway, thanks for the chuckle. ;)

Even the insects

[mspohr]

I used to think that climate change would only make mammals go extinct and that invertebrates and insects and bacteria, etc. would adapt and survive.
However, it looks like the insects are going... earth will need to start over from a clean slate. It should only take a few hundred million years for a carboniferous period to create conditions for mammal like creatures again.

Re:Even the insects

[knightghost]

Insects thrive on warmer weather. The only potential cause that I can think of are pesticides.

Re:Even the insects

[umafuckit]

The insects will bounce back once we're out of the picture, don't worry.

Re:Even the insects

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to think that climate change would only make mammals go extinct and that invertebrates and insects and bacteria, etc. would adapt and survive.
However, it looks like the insects are going... earth will need to start over from a clean slate. It should only take a few hundred million years for a carboniferous period to create conditions for mammal like creatures again.

There is only about 700 million years left for multicellular life on Earth anyway. We may very well be the final form.

Re:Even the insects

[angel'o'sphere]

Insects don't thrive on warm weather in winter!
From what would they live when they are usually hibernating at minus ten degrees?

Re:Even the insects

[Anonymous Coward]

Insects don't thrive on warm weather in winter!
From what would they live when they are usually hibernating at minus ten degrees?

The article is crap. It's one site, not a trend. And there's very little attempt to use logic to figure out what might be going on.
There's a lot of stuff that could be responsible for their traps yeilding less insect mass. More birds, for example, or the bulk of the mass could be an insect which has a non-annual hatching cycle (some bugs only hatch out every three or seven years) and they happened to hit a high point in '89.

Maybe the anomaly was the high point seen in the late 80's, not the low point seen now. There's far too little information to even say something is going on, let alone start attributing it to global warming or the 'usual suspect' man-made factors like increased pesticide use and reduced habitat.

Re:Even the insects

[HiThere]

I don't know about you, but I've noticed a marked, and reasonably considered alarming, decrease in earthworms over the last 4 decades. It used to be that whenever it rained the sidewalks would be covered with earthworms, these days nary a one. Snails and slugs also seem to be declining, but I have less info there. And when I consider a longer period back into the 1950, the number of bees and wasps of various kinds was staggering, and now I rarely see any. This is less good information, however, as I've moved several times since the original observations.

But all of these US based observations are consistent with the reported more precise data from Europe.

Re:Even the insects

[Anonymous Coward]

Related to pesticides: growing monocultures, including lawns, which are like deserts to most insects. The term "weed" is given to plants that humans consider bad, but almost certainly some insect species would consider the same plant species beneficial. Lower plant diversity leads to lower insect diversity.

Lightning Bugs

[Anonymous Coward]

Every night in the summer in WV you'd see them flying all around. I haven't seen a single on in many years. Very sad.

Re:Lightning Bugs

[MightyYar]

We still have them in neighboring PA, so they aren't completely gone.

Re:Lightning Bugs

[Anonymous Coward]

Psst. PA does not neighbor Krefeld, Germany

Re:Lightning Bugs

[Anonymous Coward]

West Virginia.

Re:Lightning Bugs

[MightyYar]

How do you know the US postal code for Pennsylvania but not West Virginia?

And nothing of value was lost.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck bugs. And don't give me any "muh ecosystem!" crap either.

Soylent brown is BUGS! BUUUUUUGGGGSSS!

[Thud457]

"Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015 to 2019", more accurate than the Farmers' Almanac.

It begins

[nospam007]

"Scientists have tracked alarming declines in domesticated honey bees, monarch butterflies, and lightning bugs. But few have paid attention to the moths, hover flies, beetles, and countless other insects"

In other news,:birds eating those missing insects are declining rapidly as well.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

I know where they went

[trybywrench]

The world's missing mosquitos are in my backyard. Everyone is welcome to them, just let me know when you want to come pick them up.

Re:I know where they went

[ChrisMaple]

I'll trade your mosquitos for my ticks and blackflies..

Re:I know where they went

[Plumpaquatsch]

The world's missing mosquitos are in my backyard.

So remove the rain water from the tires you store there.

Definitely an issue

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember when you had to clean the grill on your car twice during the summer to keep it from overheating from squashed bugs, no more, there is a definite drop...

The Mosquito Population is Fine, I can verify.

[Grog6]

Those bloodsuckers caught me off-guard last weekend.

I'm sure they will outlast the Human species, and live on to plague the next dominant species. :)

It's the shoes.

[eyenot]

Oh yeah? Well how do you know that the Krefeld Entomological Society aren't ones killing all the damn bugs? There's no way to ever know that for sure, so I say, we play it safe and just assume that's what's really happening. Now the real question is, what are we going to do about it? I say take their shoes off so they won't be able to crush the insects so easily. Take their shoes and laugh at them. That'll bring the fucking bugs back. Their MEMORIES, that is! Which we will all hold in OUR OWN SHOES!

More 'buggy' in the 80's?

[Anonymous Coward]

I seem to remember there being a lot more bugs of various types in the 1980's when I was a kid. Now it seems like you have to search a lot harder to find the same kind of insects. Of course, to be fair this might be a case of selective memory or selective bias - in the 80's I was a kid and I probably paid more attention to insects back then.

Wait for prices to rise

[mugnyte]

This has some scary downstream implications - bird migrations will immediately change, and the ecosystem will have geographic pockets of abundance and scarcity due to that. Food pollination also comes to mind. Corporations do not react to emotional pressures [often] - so any link from pesticide/herbicide usage to lack of pollinators will require a round of market disruption. Even then, the answer may not be insects but something like humans or drones to artificially pollinate sustenance plants until unequivocal proof is found that insects were affect by these chemicals.

Re:Wait for prices to rise

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't these insects get the memo that toxins are only good for them? What's going on??

Seriously, we spray our forests, and wonder why amphibians and insects disappear...

Re:Wait for prices to rise

[Verdatum]

Food pollination is typically performed by cultivated bees. Farms do not depend on pollination from the wild.

Re:Wait for prices to rise

[HiThere]

Sorry, but no. It depends on your crop. And "cultivated bees" are also dying off.

Re:Wait for prices to rise

[Verdatum]

o ok I didn't know.

Unless you mean vegetables or self/wind pollinators, you are mistaken. And if you do, then you're being a bit pedantic.

And you'd sort of need to be living under a rock to not know that bees are dying off. When you rent out your bees that doesn't matter in the same way. The farmer tells you the size of the field/orchard, you bring an appropriate amount of bees. If you don't have enough because of colony collapse disorder problems, then the farmer hires multiple beekeepers. The fees might go up, sure, and maybe it affects food prices a small amount, but, we've known about the bee problem for YEARS and fees have not risen by a significant amount.

Re: Wait for prices to rise

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet apparently it is also happening in Germany, where forests are not and probably never have been sprayed.

Re:Wait for prices to rise

[HiThere]

No, that's not what I meant. E.g., clover, at least red clover, explicitly depends on bumble bees. Some flowering plants depend on butterflies, others on moths. (You can generally tell based on flower shape and color. White and hanging down indicates moths, flat and colorful indicates butterflies, though bees will also handle them.)

Part of a massive eradication programme

[hAckz0r]

Somebody told Trump that the Chinese were making better "bugs" than the US.

/s

I saw a T-Shirt

[magusxxx]

It shows some bees and it said, "If we go we're taking you with us" *handed cease and desist order* Dammit! I should have read your article about stealing jokes first! :(

Klandathu

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Sir, I don't understand. Who needs a knife in a nuke fight anyway?

Re:Klandathu

[CaptnCrud]

Put your hand on that wall trooper..
Sir?
I said put your hand on that wall!! /throws knife
The enemy can't press a button if you disable his hand....Medic!

Re:Klandathu

[Anonymous Coward]

Sergent!

Sah!

Shoot that man for mentioning that horrible movie!

Yes Sah!

BANG!

Thank you Sergent.

My pleasure Sah!

Idiotic comments aside

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty sure it is signs of very bad news for the ecosystem where insects are a dominant component of biodiversity and play a key role bridging plants and other animals.

Questions now is what will happen, is this a leading or lagging indicator of things to come. If former, expects to see more "interesting" phenomenon in the ecosystem, of which we are a part of.

Very dubious

[SuperKendall]

This report sounds pretty suspicious. As is mentioned, loss of insects to that degree would have huge implications for the entire biomass - which we are not seeing.

I question the duration of the period being studied and the consistency of collection technique. Who is to say they did not have a much higher number of insects than normal when they started collecting? Or perhaps they over-fished the area they were collecting from and CAUSED the crash in local populations...

Personally I've noticed no decrease in insect population in my local area...

Re:Very dubious

[rl117]

The effect might not be immediate. It might not be noticeable or detectable for a few years, at which point it might be too late. Ecosystems are very complex, and can be fragile in ways we don't even suspect when some critical but unappreciated part is disrupted. When it concerns our future food production, it's only right to be concerned about it, irrespective of whether it eventually turns out to be a serious problem or not.

Re:Very dubious

[angel'o'sphere]

Insects and birds are on the decline since a decade.
But the US citizens blame our wind mills and our love for cats ...

Re:Very dubious

[SuperKendall]

Insects and birds are on the decline since a decade.

Source? I've not read anything like that. Sounds like #FakeNews to me, spread by someone making lots of money from you being scared.

But the US citizens blame our wind mills and our love for cats ...

An increase in outdoor cats will absolutely affect local bird populations.

Re:Very dubious

[angel'o'sphere]

Source: personal experience.
If you need more reliable sources, google.
No one is scaring me, or if he would make money from it.
You can hardly make money from fear unless you are in the gun business. Facepalm.

Re:Very dubious

[SuperKendall]

Source: personal experience.

But as I said, I have not seen that, and since there are no articles to cover it - it's plainly your own personal opinion and not even close to fact.

If you need more reliable sources, google.

I did and found nothing but lunatics, certainly nothing credible or in any way scientific.

You can hardly make money from fear

AAAAnd I stopped listening to you. Post as you will, I see no reason to listen to those so clueless as to the actual workings of the world.

Re:Very dubious

[dunkelfalke]

Actually he is right, there are fewer and fewer birds in Germany.
If you can read German, then look no further than here:
http://www.spiegel.de/wissensc...

This article is based on the official data of the German government, so if you think that they are nothing credible or lunatics, then there is no point in arguing with you anyway.

And as for anecdotes, every winter I do see fewer birds at my feeder. Many used to come - great tits, blue tits, robins, thrushes, even wood pigeons. The last few winters, only a couple of great tits showed up.

Re:Very dubious

[silentcoder]

>The last few winters, only a couple of great tits showed up.

Are you sure you're watching BIRDS ? Because it sounds more like you're watching porn.

Re:Very dubious

[dunkelfalke]

I watch both, thank you very much. Yay for great tits.

Re:Very dubious

[angel'o'sphere]

The problem with people like SuperKendal is: they think an anecdote is a lie.
Or an anecdote is no data. So hundreds of people telling the same story is no science ...

I really wonder what they teach/learn in those schools today.

The most interesting change here (in Karlsruhe) are semi wild Macaws and Parakeets ... they stay over winter in the Zoo, as they get cared fore there.

The only birds left here are Doves, Crows, a few Sparrows at selected places, if you go out of town into the woods you have to be care full and alerted to see other species. Sure, they are still there but the wood is nearly silent, it used to be loud with birds. We used to have two or three dozens of Kestrels in town, despite the still huge amount of doves they are very few this year.

It's probably too late but...

[Anonymous Coward]

What did you think would happen when you GMO and spray everything with pesticides? Same reason why humans are sicker than ever with autoimmune / mental disorders. You can map those stats parallel on the same chart.

lightning bugs and forestry companies

[Revek]

When I was a kid you could see tens of thousands fireflies at night in the country around here. In the early eighties the pine beetle started spreading through the tree farms around here. They started aerial spraying of pesticides to kill them and in just a few years you stopped seeing them at all. In the last decade or so they have reappeared, in very low numbers.

Re:lightning bugs and forestry companies

[NG Resonance]

In the '90s, I spent summers on a Great Plains farm and saw fireflies by the multitude, year after year. By the mid-2000s, though, they had all disappeared. Haven't seen them in at least a decade, and I do wonder if pesticides are responsible -- the farmers who worked the surrounding land in my youth aren't those who are working it today.

Re:lightning bugs and forestry companies

[Anonymous Coward]

I've lived my entire life in the tidewater area of Virginia (Gloucester, Williamsburg, Hampton, etc), and we've had crazy species die-offs here, to the point where I think many are regionally extinct. I spend a lot of time in the woods, and am always looking for small things. My hobby as a child was finding bugs, and my hobby now is macro photography, so I have roughly the same habits. Off the top of my head, these have all died off in the last 20 years:

Bugs:
  - Luna Moth (almost gone)
  - Polyphemus Moth (almost gone)
  - Fireflies (80% reduction)
  - June Bugs (almost gone)
  - Cicadas (50-60% reduction)
  - Water striders (almost gone)
  - Bess Beetles (70% gone)
  - Hercules Beetle (regionally extinct)
  - Grapevine Hoplia (regionally extinct)
  - Pine Sawyer Beetle (regionally extinct)

Reptiles and Amphibians
  - Eastern Fence Swift (almost gone)
  - Pine Snake (regionally extinct?)
  - Marbled Salamander (regionally extinct)
  - Red Eft (regionally extinct)
  - Rana frog species (bull, green, leopard, pickerel) (70% reduction)

Bats are almost gone too, but white nose probably contributes to that.

Can't really speak for birds but I do see fewer bluebirds than I remember and goldfinches are kind of rare now... both used to be abundant. Our grouse, pheasants, and quail were already rare when I was a child and seem to be gone now. Turkeys are still reasonably common.

Re:lightning bugs and forestry companies

[Anonymous Coward]

Not us. My dad hated mosuqitoes and sprayed all the bushes around the house with ddt,
and then some other insectiside. Had to get the EPA to help us clean out the basement
after he died. So no firefies as a kid. I see more in the city (DC) than I did as a kid.

Re:lightning bugs and forestry companies

[gstovall]

Yes, when I was a child in the 70s, fireflies were extremely numerous. Now, even though I live in a very rural location, there are almost no fireflies.

The strange thing is that I live in an area where there is really nothing but hay fields and small ranches; there is very little pesticide use, as far as I can tell. Yet, everything is way down. Insects, spiders, birds seem all much less common here in the city than they were when I was a child in a city of 100,000 people. The only species I encounter are typically those with some human involvement -- flies, spiders, rodents, crows. I use absolutely NO pesticides of any kind -- I don't need to -- no pests.

Deer have been plentiful, but the last few years CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) has been thinning the population. Coyote population more visible.

Re: lightning bugs and forestry companies

[Anonymous Coward]

Except two of your examples I could contradict from personal observation. One, we have problems with Hercules beetles around our house (can't get rid of them, where you say they are extinct) and we are just seeing reports of an unexpected brood of Cicadas emerging now. I have observed this personally as well.

Re:lightning bugs and forestry companies

[Anonymous Coward]

When they have the air force flying over to spray the whole area, it always makes me wonder what they're killing alongside the mosquitos here. (Lived in Tidewater my entire life too).

Re:lightning bugs and forestry companies

[poofmeisterp]

I like the repeated mention of "almost" and "regionally". That leads to questions of adaptation, let alone improper or lazy methods of observation.

moron scientists still don't understand evolution

[Anonymous Coward]

they caught all of the insects prone to being caught... the rest, better fit for their environment through not being caught, survived and passed on their elusiveness.

They left.

[Anonymous Coward]

They saw the Dolphins and the bees leave and they thought they should too.

On leaving, they were heard to say, "So long and thanks for all the garbage and shit."

High-frequency pulsating EM fields

[Anonymous Coward]

the kind we rely on today for our cellphone and other radio communications. Pulsating EM fields affect all living matter, since bio-electrical properties are a key to living tissue, and all electrically charged particles are affected by EM fields. If you start interfering with the bio-electrical properties that make our whole biology work... This may only affect us slightly, and only under longer frames of exposure, but it's a different story for tiny insects.

We've already seen how certain seeds can not germinate while under the effect of certain EM fields, such as those emitted by WiFi routers, and we'll eventually get it on paper that small insects are affected too.

Maybe you've also noticed how there are less small birds around?

The proof is in the pudding

[Anonymous Coward]

The life cycle of consumption includes proper waste disposable. Easier said then done at the cost of upgrade. There are greener pastures though. It's just Proof we need proper poop disposal for the people. The proposal is possible, someone needs to provide a process to prevent the pandemic from spreading to developing countries.

Evolution

[lengel]

How do we know it is not evolution and survival of the fittest? Maybe all of the stupid bugs have been weaned out of the gene pool over the years and now they can't catch the ones smart enough to avoid the traps.

Re:Evolution

[poofmeisterp]

How do we know it is not evolution and survival of the fittest? Maybe all of the stupid bugs have been weaned out of the gene pool over the years and now they can't catch the ones smart enough to avoid the traps.

Lunacy, I tell ta. We have never been educated, ever, about adaptation and evolutionary behavioral changes. Those eagles that learned how to drop bones on the top of a mountain to crack them open to get at the marrow inside, leaving smooth eroded areas of rock after millions of drops? BS. Even though we watch it happening, it's not true. It just doesn't happen and doesn't work that way. All animals other than Humans just repeat the same thing over and over and never, EVER adapt!
</humor> ;)

Where did the insects go?

[LynnwoodRooster]

All is quiet on the Western Front...

Evolution/observer effect

[The Grim Reefer]

It's actually evolution in action. All of the stupid insects in the area are being caught by these traps, thus removing their lower intelligence from the local gene pool. Over time the insects that are breeding are only having smarter offspring, so they aren't getting caught in these traps. It's the long term results of the observer effect. I heard that in the areas that have been doing this the longest, many of the traps have been vandalized by what appear to be tiny stone weapons.

Re:Evolution/observer effect

[Anonymous Coward]

It's actually evolution in action.

Really? I thought evolution had to do with one species suddenly magically changing into another. So what new organism has recently come on the scene in place of these bugs?

Re:Evolution/observer effect

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

No. No thought whatsoever was involved in that post of yours.

Check the EU

[Anonymous Coward]

They've assumed human form and run the European Union.

Many effects would be immediate

[SuperKendall]

The effect might not be immediate.

Insects (not just bees) play a huge part in pollination. You should see a dramatic drop in plant growth if nothing else if the insect population had declined by 80% - not to mention the also immediate effect on populations of birds and other animals that rely on a daily intake of insects to survive.

Ecosystems are very complex, and can be fragile in ways we don't even suspect

I guess they aren't fragile after all if you can drop 80% of insects with no immediate observed effect.

Look Up - Chemtrails

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone acts as if there is a huge mystery, meanwhile massive amounts of aerosols are pumped in the sky by jets that are not on commercial flight paths.

Geoegineering
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/

Chemtrail Summit:
http://www.aircrap.org/2017/05/14/global-chemtrail-summit-2017-matt-landman/

Now let's see if /. censors and removes this post like they did the last time.....

Re: Look Up - Chemtrails

[Anonymous Coward]

Chemtrails? Are you lunatics still around? I thought your pet "theory" had gone the way of orgone energy and hollow earth.

If we want to find out where all the bugs are

[angularbanjo]

We'll just have to wait for the next drop from the Shadow Brokers

My backyard

[vanyel]

They should come checkout my backyard - it seems to have plenty of bugs in it, even with three pots of pitcher plants.

Where have they gone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Up your ass, 'cause they can smell you're full of shit. Haha.

Seeing it here as well...

[Anonymous Coward]

The fruit trees are blossoming as we speak, but I can almost count on one hand how few bees and bumblebees I have seen yet this spring in Norway. Few insects at all, when I think of it.

Re:Seeing it here as well...

[rhyderstorm]

Here in the US the only place there are bees are where people are actively putting effort into their hives. Still there are very few bees flying around when you approach the hives here in CA US. I suspect pesticides and Chemtrails: http://www.aircrap.org/

Re:Seeing it here as well...

[poofmeisterp]

Here in the US the only place there are bees are where people are actively putting effort into their hives. Still there are very few bees flying around when you approach the hives here in CA US.

I suspect pesticides and Chemtrails:
http://www.aircrap.org/

Is it too mean to say "You got what you asked for" to people?

Hey, the crop-harming insect count is reduced. "It has absolutely no effect on the food chain whatsoever, other than an increase of crops as food," says the chemical company.

Re:Seeing it here as well...

[rhyderstorm]

Yes, getting what we asked for, for those that can see the chemtrails and admit that they are there. Meanwhile there are bots and programmed or paid shills in the forums calling people who see chemtrails, calling them crazy, absurd, etc. The only way we could have asked for chemtrails, without having knowledge or control (we are not supplying planes), is through some unknown karmic process, meaning our consciousness and life destiny somehow allows for it. Chemtrail deniers are going to slice and dice me on that one ;-)

Re:Editor's bloat

[Anonymous Coward]

Food=web? Faggy mastication fantasy. Basically doesn't exist ... local consumption-cultures exist independently of each-other. Forever! Only snowflake cockroach-fucking libcoms worry about the cockroach population. Might lose a brother or sister ... hehehe.

This is why there're so many climate change skepti

[Solandri]

Because an alarming ecological story comes up, and without evidence or even a rational hypothetical cause, it's immediately blamed on climate change.

Most insects are herbivorous, so rely on plants for food. Global warming (increasing global temperatures, higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations, shorter winters) are conducive to plant growth. So you'd actually expect temperatures increasing by a few degrees to lead to more insects, not fewer.

Loss of continuous habitat is possible, but I'd consider it unlikely. Larger species are more susceptible to that than smaller ones like insects. We would've noticed the loss of biomass there first.

My bet is on pesticides. You state later that Canada and the EU are eco-friendly, therefore speculating that they use less pesticides. But this map (pages 17, 47-49) shows the EU uses more pesticides per hectare than the U.S./Canada, and are only exceeded by China and some South and Central American countries. (The EU uses more pesticides than the U.S. and Canada because it has less arable land but more population. So to feed itself the EU needs to grow more food per hectare.) Pesticide use in kg/ha is down slightly since 1989, but I suspect this is more than offset by development of more effective pesticides.

Check the gas chambers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time there was a mass extinction in Germany, they tried to hide the evidence with incinerators.

Re: Check the gas chambers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gas chambers are still in use in California. Not in Germany.

Bees and Dragonflies are vanishing

[slincolne]

When I was a kid there were always bees and dragonflies around. Now the only bees you see are the introduced ones (I live in Tasmania - someone solved the pollination problem way illegally importing them and releasing them). I miss the dragonflies though - as far as your average bug goes they were always the most exciting thing on the wing. We still seem to have wasps though - they seem to be thriving :-(

Re:Bees and Dragonflies are vanishing

[Anonymous Coward]

Iowa here, and the last three months the paper wasps have been completely out of control. Can't go outside without 5-10 of them buzzing around. Whole city is like this.

Wife and kid don't want to be outside for fear they'll be stung by them. Really wish for the days of all the biting flies instead - at least they were only going to hurt a little, and you didn't have to worry about allergies.

Re:Bees and Dragonflies are vanishing

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in a major city and I see bees and dragonflies as much as I did ~20 years ago. I would even guess there's more bees due to beekeeping being quite a trendy hobby now.

Uh, What?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the climate here has been getting warmer, and wetter every year I have seen a MASSIVE explosion in insects! Seriously, I have never seen so many in my 20+ years of living in this area.

Maybe it's just specific species of insects but carpenter ants, carpenter bees, spiders, and wasps have been doing just fine!

Now lets talk about vines/weeds. Holy shit! It has gotten out of control in the last 5 years! I seriously can't even control how much these are killing everything in their path. I figure in 10 years that's all that will be left and all normal trees/bushes/plants will be dead.

Our climate has gone from "temperate" with normal winters and normal summers, to just "hot and humid" all year round! I'm seriously considering moving from the East Coast US because it sucks!

Please!

[Anonymous Coward]

have some more children.

DIE. I could care less. BURN WORLD (bugs included)

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, yeah the food-web. Blah ecosystem. Yap. Yap. Birds. Now for something completely different: Let them all die. Why? I hate insects (well maybe dragonflies are cool), birds, and most of all HUMANS. So, yes, mass bug death probably means a collapse of the ecosystem, downstream species extension, etc... My main hope is that it's actually severe enough to impact the human population. Something needs to, and it's not going to be humans.

Religious folks won't stand for any kind of population control. Climate change isn't happening fast enough to do any real damage and it'll still create winners and losers. Nukes could do it, but the line of Kim Ill Dong doesn't have a big enough nutsack for it.

Before Captain Obvious shows up, let me be clear, if it kills me, too, I'm not concerned. My life isn't as "important" as all of you. So, I'm set. Nothing to lose means no fear, either.

Bees Missing

[Anonymous Coward]

Every spring, fruit trees and flowers around my home town would be buzzing with bees. On a heavily flowered crabapple tree you didn't dare disturb the tree there would be so many of them! We're talking hundreds of bees simultaneously, the entire tree would hum.

Now, there are no bees, or maybe one if you are lucky. And this isn't an agricultural biome, this is forest country.

It's been like this for 10 years, minimum. Where did the bees go? Yes, I know about CCD. If neonicotinoids were the only issue, you'd think there would have to be the agricultural land base where those get used at scale. The only things around here are homeowners gardens and some relatively small market gardens.

Monsanto

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Glyphosate's fault : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate

Re: Monsanto

[Anonymous Coward]

Not used in Germany, moron.

found them

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry. I think I found most of the missing bugs all over the front of my car after I drove through the Central Valley here in California.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[Ol Olsoc]

Because an alarming ecological story comes up, and without evidence or even a rational hypothetical cause, it's immediately blamed on climate change.

The article does not mention global warming or climate change at all. A much more likely culprit is Neonicotinoid pesticides. An interesting tidbit form the article is that they have been able to reconstruct some avian diets from the 40's round th etime DDT came into use. Possibly smoked the beetles pretty good, and after DDT was outlawed, thee beetles only made a small comeback.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Most insects are herbivorous, so rely on plants for food. Global warming (increasing global temperatures, higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations, shorter winters) are conducive to plant growth. So you'd actually expect temperatures increasing by a few degrees to lead to more insects, not fewer.

Perhaps, assuming that the increased plant growth is the only thing that happens. Which it probably doesn't.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[ShanghaiBill]

A much more likely culprit is Neonicotinoid pesticides.

Unlikely. Neonicotinoid pesticides were banned in Germany almost a decade ago.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[ShanghaiBill]

So you'd actually expect temperatures increasing by a few degrees to lead to more insects, not fewer.

You misunderstand. There are not fewer insects, but fewer species of insects. Their number has not diminished, their diversity has.

No shortage here!

[p51d007]

Every time I drive my Mustang on the interstate highways, I think 2/3 of the states insect population ends up on the front & windshield of my car.

I've noticed it

[gatkinso]

When I was a kid the porch spot lights on my mothers house in rural Western MD would attract an insane swarm of hundreds of bugs on a summer night.

These days you get about a dozen or so bugs flying around them.

Good riddance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Good riddance.

i'm doing my part

[Anonymous Coward]

it's great isn't it? i hate bugs. kill them all.

I dose my yard every few weeks alternating imidacloprid and some type of permethrin related compound.

Re: This is why there're so many climate change sk

[Anonymous Coward]

With reports of increased mosquito populations every year, causing communities to have to consider spraying to combat Zika virus, an increased grub population attacking crops, and now an unexpected brood of Cicadas emerging, one wonders how accurate the original premise of reduction in insects actually is.

Personally, I would welcome it.

Honeybees?

[Anonymous Coward]

Honeybees are increasing in the US, I guess Germany doesn't care about the environment.

U.S. honeybee colonies hit a 20-year high

Funny how long it takes some to realize

[Anonymous Coward]

They are boned.

They seem to be in my yard

[drinkypoo]

We have more bugs here than we've ever had this year, and we've lived here for about a decade.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[Z00L00K]

And the cause is probably that humans to a large extent try to eradicate what we think is weed. There are also some insects and plants that depends on forest fires for their survival.

No, because you're nutjob denialist wankers.

[Uberbah]

Because an alarming ecological story comes up, and without evidence or even a rational hypothetical cause, it's immediately blamed on climate change.

Right. In the same way that every time a newspaper reports on a fatal car accident and mentioned the fact that the dead weren't wearing their seat belts, just proves how pervasive and devious the Newtonian Conspiracy is when promoting their liberal seat belt-wearing agenda.

Global warming (increasing global temperatures, higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations, shorter winters) are conducive to plant growth.

Remedial biology fail. Every mass extinction in history has resulted from the environment changing too fast for life to adapt to new conditions. Guess what happens when humans change the environment faster than life can adapt - and that's before even approaching the subject of climate change.

But don't mind me. Go on back to spreading the gospel of Jenny McCarthy while giving lead-painted toys to your kids and feeding them oatmeal steeped in arsenic, sending them off to school with a pack of Camels in each of their backpacks. Because science is a Big Lubrul conspiracy.

Re:No, because you're nutjob denialist wankers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Right. In the same way that every time a newspaper reports on a fatal car accident and mentioned the fact that the dead weren't wearing their seat belts, just proves how pervasive and devious the Newtonian Conspiracy is when promoting their liberal seat belt-wearing agenda.

Depends on whether they omit 'dead WERE wearing their seat belts' when applicable.

Every mass extinction in history has resulted from the environment changing too fast for life to adapt to new conditions.

Dafuq?

First, 'adapt' in this context is the same - likely - as 'go extinct'. Second, you can read about causes to educate yourself (spoiler: there are many different causes):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event#Identifying_causes_of_particular_mass_extinctions

Third, how the fuck could these things:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obligate_anaerobe

have survived this thing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event

via adaptation????????????????????????

Answer: they can't, they're fucked by definition.

You fail on the fail on the first, known "mass extinction in history".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event

Simply, ~20%+ O2 became a thing and it wasn't before.

Something about 'not enough time to adapt' is oft repeated - thoughtlessly - in the context of these issues. Site some sources rather than simply repeat what you've heard/read but clearly didn't understand.

Lucky them

[Areyoukiddingme]

My entire neighborhood is being invaded by massive swarms of ants. Literally hundreds have gotten into my house. Judging by the number of exterminators ringing my doorbell, my neighbors are just as bad off. As a result, the bird population is gigantic. The sheer racket in the morning when they all start up their pre-dawn calls is enough to wake me up. It's obnoxious.

The amphibian population is also dramatically up. Frogs are in all the drainage ditches. The noise at night from tree frogs is worse than the cicadas once were.

For that matter, the small mammal population in my neighborhood has exploded in the past few years. I can look out my windows at almost any time of day and see a rabbit in my yard. Mice are everywhere. Raccoons have been getting into my house for years (until I poured some concrete to close gaps in my foundation). Last year I started seeing skunks again, after not seeing any for half a dozen prior years. My yard started getting invaded by moles two years ago, after a good eight years without any. The only typical suburban species I haven't been seeing yet is possums. A decade ago, they were getting squished on roads left and right. Haven't seen one, live or dead, in some years.

The burgeoning rabbit population has attracted several predator birds as well. I see a sparrow hawk on a regular basis during the day, and hear a great horned owl at night. And sometimes see him too, through my living room skylights, perched way up at the top of my honeylocust tree.

These things are cyclical. It's not just the cicadas that come and go. I've lived here for 15 years, and some years my entire back yard is alight with lightning bugs. Other years, there's a handful of them. There's a lot of extremely local factors that affect suburban species, and a lot of variance in those factors.

Cars

[Anonymous Coward]

When I started driving (years ago), in summer my windscreen would get covered with splatted bugs. Not now. Perhaps we've splatted too many.

[NT] They learned to avoid the traps.

[Anonymous Coward]

They learned to avoid the traps.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[Anonymous Coward]

So you'd actually expect temperatures increasing by a few degrees to lead to more insects, not fewer.

You misunderstand. There are not fewer insects, but fewer species of insects. Their number has not diminished, their diversity has.

No. TFA says explicitly that there is 80% loss of total mass of insects caught, so regardless of breakdown by species, there is fewer insects in total.

Hipsters

[Anonymous Coward]

Hipsters have been eating them in fancy burgers.

Too much trapping ?

[fygment]

Trapping seems like a non-productive and destructive technique. It's also highly localized and possibly 80% of bugs in those areas now recognise the traps or conversely, all the bugs lacking the IQ to avoid the traps have been caught and hence removed from the gene pool.

As a side note: of the few entomologists that I've met, they all catch and kill bugs. So the story is kind of like hearing hunters complain about how there is less game in an area. "We've been shooting deer here for years. But these past few years there seem to be fewer of them around."

Good (The Movie)

[tmjva]

Why is it I imagine somewhere in Germany there is a concentration camp where they have sent the insects?

Of course they would deny it.

The decrease in insect numbers is real.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an old guy (I'm 71.). When I was a teenager/young man, I had to clean the bugs off my car's wind shield every day that I drove more than about 25 miles in the summer, both in Oklahoma and in New York State. Today, if I travel from Michigan to New York to visit my grandchildren in June, I may have to wash my wind shield once, or not at all. There are that many fewer bugs.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[Xyrus]

Because an alarming ecological story comes up, and without evidence or even a rational hypothetical cause, it's immediately blamed on climate change.

Most insects are herbivorous, so rely on plants for food. Global warming (increasing global temperatures, higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations, shorter winters) are conducive to plant growth. So you'd actually expect temperatures increasing by a few degrees to lead to more insects, not fewer.

WRONG!

Plant growth depends on the climate, of which temperature is just ONE SINGULAR FACET. If that increase in temperature is accompanied by a decrease in precipitation, the encroachment of an invasive species, the temps exceed the temperature range for the plants or any plants they may depend on, etc. then plants will NOT grow.

It is a completely false assumption that warmer temperatures are universally good for plants. Just like it's completely false to say that we can simply move all are farms north in a warmer world. It doesn't work that way.

Here

[Anonymous Coward]

They're all in my back yard. Please come pick them up.

so what are current trends showing?

[Anonymous Coward]

each year awareness increases on the consequences of pesticide use

Are we seeing any increase in insect population since the end of the 2013/2014 sampling run?

Butterflies...

[poofmeisterp]

Cell phones cause tunnel vision. Tunnel vision causes lack of thought. lack of thought causes global warming. Global warming causes insect increases. Insect increases increase predator food levels. Increased predator food levels increase populations counts of predators. Increased level of predators increases need for food from said predators. Increased need for food causes increase in ingestion. Increase in ingestion causes declination of populations of prey.

--

Decreased levels of food for prey decreases population counts of predators. Decrease of population of predators increases survival rate of prey. Increase in survival rate of prey leads to ^^ repeat. Over and over and over and over (repeat hundreds of millions of times).

Okay, okay, I had to throw global warming in as a cause just because it's popular these days. Also, the cause of global warming was mentioned as a humorous causation element. :)

Wait, wait. I should make mention of the Butterfly Effect, given the mention in the summary of the article.

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[angel'o'sphere]

You misunderstood, too.
Both have diminished, the numbers and the diversity.

Problem solved

[Anonymous Coward]

The Arabs ate them.

Where?

[iq145]

India's Famine Solution: We'll Eat Bugs... – Hopefully people in India like munching on crickets and other, um, delicacies. As the country's Food and Agriculture Organization warns a global famine will strike in 50 years, scientists are experimenting with an interesting source of alternative protein: bugs. "We are now doing a lot of work on edible insects," says a professor who has studied 29 different insect species included in the diet of the Bodo tribe in Assam. An FAO report notes bugs like caterpillars, termites, beetles, and grasshoppers have a high nutritional value that could match other kinds of meat, Quartz reports. Plus, insects are already part of traditional diets for two billion people worldwide, according to the report. So how do you feed a country like India with bugs? The answer is large-scale insect farms, FAO says, adding that such a diet would be environmentally friendly and cheaper than other proteins. As for the Bodos, "they do not have much inhibition about insects. It is an age-old tradition for them," the professor says. But one member of the country's Dalit population, which has also eaten bugs, notes they did so "out of compulsion ... If you ask them to go back to eating just that, they will tell you to go to hell." Maybe this will help: "Salty and sweet" preserves made from leftover silkworm pupae apparently taste like prawns, a scientist says. The Waco Tribune-Herald notes the trend toward creepy-crawly meals is also playing out in the US. http://www.newser.com/story/18... https://science.slashdot.org/s...

Re:This is why there're so many climate change ske

[EmptyHead]

Your reasoned arguments and data don't line up with the common narrative that human-caused climate change causes all of the world's problems. Shame on you! I was going to blame it on second hand smoke, since that's a popular target of their wrath as well.

I suppose we should all be paralyzed with guilt for being born human, too.