The windshield effect and the decline of insects around the world...
I remember when I was a kid, back in the early 1980s, we'd go out for a drive maybe on a Sunday evening in the summer or spring. When we got home, our car's windshield and the grill of the car was totally plastered in dead bugs of all kinds. This was a frequent occurrence, it happened all the time. And no one really thought much about it, other than that the car windshield needed cleaning. Nowadays, this phenomenon occurs less and less frequently. I call this the windshield effect.
A few days ago, I came across this. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/18/warning-of-ecological-armageddon-after-dramatic-plunge-in-insect-numbers
This study's findings appear to corroborate with my anecdotal observations. Although, I live in Canada and the study occurred in Germany. The patterns are and have been occuring in North America too. You maybe aware that honeybee populations are in trouble in recent years, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Most pollinating insects, apart from honeybees are not studied to any great extent. We barely even know where or when many of them occur and many of them appear to be in serious decline. Take for example the Rusty-patched Bumblebee. Up until the 1980s it was one of the most common bumblebees in Ontario, but it is now considered extirpated (not longer occurs). The story is much the same in the nearby northeast US.
Pollinating insects are in decline, but so are the birds and bats that feed on them. In Canada, swallows, swifts, nighthawks and flycatchers are almost ubiquitously in serious decline. Many are considered "Species-at-risk" by the federal and provincial authorities, like the Barn Swallow (see photo).
Bats are in serious trouble too, in part, due to an emerging and devastating disease called White-nose Syndrome. But the common link, I think, is the apparent decline in the insect food supply...
So what is going on? Why is this all happening? I would love to hear thoughts from the Steemit community.
Many factors to take into account, but I can't help but look toward the fields that have been sprayed with poisons for generations now the world over. This practice was bound to have unintended and dire consequences, and I'm afraid we may not yet know just how far the effects of such methods could reach.
and nowadays, they don't spray as much insecticide. Instead, they treat the seeds with poison and the plants incorporate the poison into their tissues. This is currently routine practice for soybeans and corn and huge variety of other crops. Very deadly to insects. But don't worry, it apparently has no effect on us (sarcasm). Bon appetit.
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