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Where have all the insects gone?

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Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#101

Post by salynchnew »

MivLives wrote: post #40
nemacol wrote: post #28

Somehow mosquitos, stink bugs, and asian lady beetles persist in my area. It is amazing to see every other type of animal come back stronger with the waning of industry.

All these, and ticks, so many ticks. My roommate got lyme disease walking through are back yard which has next to no plant life and is mostly concrete.

Ants, birds, and spiders are all tick predators. FWIW, it sounds like there is a lack of natural predators for ticks in your area.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#102

Post by jonny_eh »

kgermino wrote: post #86
jonny_eh wrote: post #71

> He spent a sabbatical conducting field work on Trinidad and Tobago and in Suriname. What a great example for why we need the Oxford Comma.

You wouldn’t have an Oxford comma in a two item “list”. It’s for a series of three or more items.

Perhaps an exception if one of those items has an "and" in the middle?

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#105

Post by trutannus »

throwawayfear wrote: post #88
5faulker wrote: post #70

All that talk about invasive species without talking about the humans...

Because it is misanthropic to talk about it that way. You're describing thinking conscious beings that have needs and that are born without their choosing. Construing people as an invasive species is not going to be productive or win you any points in a serious conversation on the subject.

This won't be popular, but remember just 10 years ago when people were talking about the environmental advantages of a mass die-off of humans? It was trendy for a bit to spitball about how much better off the environment would be with an x% decrease in human population as a result of a global death event. In fact, "we need a new plague" was a running joke on online environmentalist forms for a while. Funny how an actual pandemic made those same people glibly taking up the advantages pull a 180 when it was their grandmother who was in the x% who were going to die.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#106

Post by eddiecalzone »

thisiscorrect wrote: post #49
jerry1979 wrote: post #36

Anecdotally, while driving along Minnesota's segment of I94 in the '90s, one would have to stop and scrape the bugs off the front window and grill. Today, this is no longer a problem.

Could that be explained by improved aerodynamics of cars now compared to then? Has that been studied?

Are they, though? So many trucks, SUVs, and other cars that don't have sloping windshields. Also, I would expect even pastier windshields given that the nationwide speed limit was 65mph until 1995, and it took years for states to nudge it upwards to where it is now (85mph at some places in Texas).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#109

Post by bluGill »

jonny_eh wrote: post #71

> He spent a sabbatical conducting field work on Trinidad and Tobago and in Suriname. What a great example for why we need the Oxford Comma.

No, that is why you need a semicolon. The Oxford comma is good as well, but what you showed was where a semicolon is called for.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#110

Post by eddiecalzone »

inter_netuser wrote: post #98
csmoak wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just drove across the US (down the east coast, across the south, up the Rockies) and found I had to do this only after driving across Texas.

meaning bugs are doing well in Texas, but not nowhere else? Really weird

Meaning Texas has the highest speed limits in the country
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