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Where have all the insects gone?

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Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#241

Post by dmux »

mod wrote: post #215
quasse wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been planting wildflowers at my new house as well and it's very fun to watch which plants different insects prefer. I've noticed that Monarch butterflies ignore almost all plants in my area but they love Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia). I wonder how much of that is regional, since they're supposed to like Zineas and Verbena but they've shown zero interest in mine.

At my place the Monarchs (a couple weeks ago) were all attracted to a plant I haven't properly identified. It looks like queen anne's lace--crowns of many tiny, white flowers. We have a few similar-looking species in the region (Ozarks), and it could be any of them. Maybe worth a shot finding out if you want some other options for them!

I'm not sure if this is the plant you're describing, but in New England, Monarchs are really attracted to Milkweed. The White Swamp [0] variety may be what you're describing.

[0] https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepia...

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#243

Post by thrashh »

BayAreaEscapee wrote: post #197
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.

Everytime this "the insects are dying" thread comes up, people come out of the woodwork with anecdotes like this. But I am one of them! I remember getting my first car in the late eighties and scrubbing tons of splattered insects off my windshield every time I went to the gas station. Now I barely even notice them. Antecdote is not data, but I certainly believe people when they say the insects are dying.

But people who haven’t seen fewer insects probably aren’t posting.

Anecdotes are misleading and they are always a huge trick.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#244

Post by ModernMech »

boringg wrote: post #85
marksbrown wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps consider a steel man instead of a straw one. Socialist institutions that cover natural monopolies save the state money simply by economies of scale. I'll grant not all industry could or should be nationalised but certainly healthcare in the US is a prime example of market failure.

I don't disagree with healthcare - its a complete debacle. That said the US models actually pays for a lot of the leading edge R&D in healthcare while a lot of foreign countries get to ride along the cost curve by buying that same healthcare after the bleeding edge making their healthcare costs more manageable.

That would be more tolerable if the US had better healthcare outcomes compared to those other nations. We don't -- they're doing it cheaper and better than we can. Probably the most important factor in getting good outcomes is catching diseases early. It doesn't matter how good your state-of-the-art new stage IV cancer treatment is, it's always going to be better to catch it early. Catching diseases early in their progression requires regular visits to the doctor, which in America cost an arm and a leg if you're not insured, leading to postponement of treatment and the poor outcomes we experience.

https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2020/07/how-does-the-us-healthcare...

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#245

Post by nickff »

ashtonkem wrote: post #194
nickff wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree that many specific regulations in the USA have been reduced/eliminated, but overall regulations have steadily increased throughout the last 90+ years. You may be able to pick out one year that they decreased overall (though I can't), but I doubt you can find a 5-year period over which they've decreased (by any measure).

Sigh I gave tons of examples and an entire decade with bipartisan deregulation as the norm. It seems that you're ignoring what I actually wrote, all while demanding more evidence I already gave and offering none of your own. I'm forced to conclude that you're not really acting in good faith, and that there's no point in continuing.

You're citing what Congress said, and I'm talking about what regulators actually did; take a look at GWU's graph's relating to regulatory agency rules and sizes, as well as the data on the Federal Register: https://regulatorystudies.columbian.gwu.edu/reg-stats

edit: look at this graph, which shows the total code of regulations expanding almost monotonically https://regulatorystudies.columbian.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/za...

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#247

Post by sammalloy »

Where I live, we first noticed the insects and then the birds disappearing around 2010. That was also around the time that the local climate changed considerably, and the summers became unbearably hot. Construction has also removed many of their former habitats in my area, while decreasing rainfall has led to drier conditions. The last of the local bee population near me disappeared around 2018.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#248

Post by SuoDuanDao »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #162
robocat wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Research says no: “The research included vintage cars up to 70 years old to see if their less aerodynamic shape meant they killed more bugs, but it found that modern cars actually hit slightly more insects.” From https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-spla... (Second hand comment from a journalist; actual research results may vary).

Is it possible for there to be so many more vehicles than decades before that the number of insects hitting each car is much less?

Insects getting better at avoiding cars in a much shorter time than we'd expect would certainly be a prediction of Sheldrake's 'morphic resonance' theory.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#250

Post by gerdesj »

"Wilson once stuck his arm into one of these mounds and described the pain as “immediate and unbearable.” "

That's science, that is!

We have systematically reduced the world's ecosystems into smaller and smaller islands and this bloke has demonstrated what happens on smaller islands: loss of diversity, fewer species.

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