“Where have all the ladybugs gone?” 9/20/18 1/ nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna9…
2/ “Last year, a study that found an 82 percent mid-summer decline in the number and weight of bugs captured in traps in 63 nature preserves in Germany compared with 27 years earlier.”
“It was one of the few, if only, broad studies. Scientists say similar comparisons can't be done elsewhere, because similar bug counts weren't done decades ago.” 3/
As I posted earlier today, I went to the park with one of my son’s today looking for bugs for his science project. I found NO bugs. I picked up rocks; nada. It was like a sterile movie set. My son found a few. But dayum. I haven’t seen ladybugs in 20 years maybe more. 4/
“The 89-year-old Wilson recalled that he once frolicked in a ‘Washington alive with insects, especially butterflies.’ Now, ‘the flying insects are virtually gone.’” 5/
“After the German study, countries started asking if they have similar problems, said ecologist Toke Thomas Hoye of Aarhus University in Denmark. He studied flies in a few spots in remote Greenland and noticed an 80 percent drop in numbers since 1996.” 6/
“Suspects include habitat loss, insecticide use, the killing of native weeds, single-crop agriculture, invasive species, light pollution, highway traffic and climate change.” 7/
“Wagner, of the University of Connecticut, spends his summers teaching middle schoolers in a camp to look for insects, like he did decades ago. They have a hard time finding the cocoons he used to see regularly.” 8/
“‘The kids I'm teaching right now are going to think that scarce insects are the rule,’ Wagner said. ‘They're not realizing that there could be an ecological disaster on the horizon.’” 9/
“Governments are trying to improve the situation. Maryland is in a three-year experiment to see if planting bee-friendly native wildflowers helps.” 10/
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