What happened to all of the bugs? A 50 year observation from one location.

This lack of bugs is a problem. The birds eat bugs, they poop on trees and because of their diet of insects, their poop contains plenty of nitrogen and this makes the trees less flammable. They can pretreat trees with certain nitrogen chemistries that make them less apt to burn. But this natural chemistry is much better than the ones they spray.

We are poisoning the food of birds and paying the price. Our ecosystem is actually pretty delicate and if we upset it, then we risk great expense to fix the problems. If we ignore the problems then we turn our world into a dead planet, these toxins actually are dispersed in the winds and travel far.

I can't believe that we as humans consider ourselves intelligent compared to other animals in the world.

Where I live, in Toronto, there has been a very noticeable decline in the insect population. Over the last decade or so the population of bumble bees has practically zeroed out in our neighborhood. We have a beautiful flowering bush outside that used to be covered in flowers and bees in the summer, but no longer. Hardly any bees appear anymore. There are still wasps around.

The most drastic absence though, is the complete disappearance of "June bugs", those fat reddish beetles that used to swarm in unbelievable numbers in June. They would be all over the road near lamp posts. It would be hard to get in the door because they would be swarming around the porch light and banging into the glass on the storm door. Now I never see them.

The June bugs disappeared after the West Nile Virus scare. There was a widespread insecticide spraying campaign in the city connected to the prevention of mosquitoes spreading the virus. it knocked out the June bugs too and many other insects as well, I'm sure.

I miss the bees. They were a sign that natural processes were being industriously accomplished. Not any more. Sad. It doesn't have to be this way, but, oh I forgot, there are the elite whose standard of living must be maintained in all sorts of expensive, explosive and bloody ways. Ugh!

originally posted by: Guyfriday
a reply to: Justoneman


They could just be heading south, though some could adapt by evolving, it's more likely that they are just moving to a better environment for their own survival.

Yea or someting like that. The dormant species like locusts cicada are examples of creatures staying out of harms way and coming up just to do their business and there might be a mechanism in the DNA that sees the SHTF moment because of the geological activity. Especially, we should be concerned with the magnetic field of the Earth. The animals navigate using it.

originally posted by: TruthxIsxInxThexMist
a reply to: charlyv

This thread has a link in it www.abovetopsecret.com... to skynews report:

news.sky.com...

Don't know if you posted in that thread but the report is worth a read.

As to my experience, yes insects have declined rapidly over the last 20 years but I do live in London which is heavily populated and heavily industrialised but even in the parks that are still here, there are no wasps, bees, caterpillas, snails (Hardly), Butterflies, Moths. Not many flies either and I live right next to a park/forest so would expect to see a lot more. Also noticed a sharp drop with birds like your common Sparrow for instance has all but disappeared completely... seriously havn't seen any this year or Starlings, hardly any blackbirds either although we still got pidgeons. I remember there being loads of blue tits, great tits, gold tits, robins, greenfinch.... GONE. We still get spiders though unfortunately. If there's one insect I wouldn't mind gone forever, it's scary looking spiders but i guess we need them too, however without the other insects to feed on, i doubt they'll survive for much longer unless people start puttig trees and bush back into their gardens instead of concrete.

I'm not sure the globalists even realise what they've done tbh.

I've read Singapore is leading the way in bringing wildlife back to the cities:

Damn, i have plenty of wasps, yellow jackets and hornets here. I have some beekeeper buddies that I bet we could work out a deal. I think it depends on many more things than just man like the magnetic field change, but we are most assuredly chemically attacking their DNA. It might be the thing that we can do for certain plants wellfare, but it is not good for everything, nay even most things. Polluting the soil for food with a Monsanto monopolizing product just cannot be good for us. Our three letter agencies at work helping the greedy it appears will be our downfall.

originally posted by: ipsedixit

The most drastic absence though, is the complete disappearance of "June bugs", those fat reddish beetles that used to swarm in unbelievable numbers in June. They would be all over the road near lamp posts. It would be hard to get in the door because they would be swarming around the porch light and banging into the glass on the storm door. Now I never see them.

The June bugs disappeared after the West Nile Virus scare. There was a widespread insecticide spraying campaign in the city connected to the prevention of mosquitoes spreading the virus. it knocked out the June bugs too and many other insects as well, I'm sure.

The Japanese beetles that surely don't belong here in the US, that attack vine or bush fruits, have replaced them by being even better foragers of the same food. Those damn things attack the fruit and the leaves and do it before the June bugs arrive. Which has been later arrival also, i wonder if that is magnetic field.

a reply to: charlyv

No lack of bugs in Central FL. Around here I even saw some odd lightning bugs the past couple summers, when they're supposed to be 'extinct' in FL the past 20 years.

Everything you speak to is how I recall life in between a medium wooded swamp and the decent sized lake, up on the edge of suburbia MI thru the 80's & 90's. The damned houseflies you'd get about 10-15 per day inside the bastards would camp near the door to where a familiy of four just going in and out everyday itd be an ordeal of them being serious pests.

And damn the mosquitos as bad as anything FL can dish out in its worst....

And dont get me started on the deer flies in MI. I once had a literal SWARM chase me down a mile and half from the deep woods down the trail all the way to my front door. I've only seen that happen in FL once up in one of those bighunting club private property deals up in northern central florida. Dad was doing like super fast down all the two tracks, I was in the back of the truck bed getting whipped around like a maniac, and the deer flies they were pacing behind us it felt like he was doing 70MPH and I'd just watch the cloud of them behind the truck, and then he about slam the breaks and wap wap wap wap they'd be peppering me in the face. And despite the seemingly very dangerous driving situation me a teenie bopper flailing around back there for like an hour it seemed me crazy ass dad wheelman, those deer flies most impressed the entire time and were scarier than the wreckless driving. I'll never forget it!

Now I havent hardly been in that MI environment to know if its changed, nor have I been to that FL hunting parcel since the early 90's to know if the deer flies are still menace. If I lived in that same house I can hardly imagine ny less houseflies / mosquitos.


But they might be spraying around you if still in the same house and there's been a change. Cant imagine it bothering those damned houseflies though.

a reply to: FyreByrd

In just 3 decades, insect populations in German nature reserves have plummeted by more than 75%, according to a new study.

The reasons for the decline aren’t clear...

Ummmm...

a reply to: Guyfriday

This makes a good deal of sense, but I hazard that there's probably more to fear from the crap we're putting into our atmosphere than a cooling phase.

Harold (the last man on Earth, living in a plastic bubble near the foot of the Eiffel Tower) often mused on how foolish his ancestors had been - those responsible for the progressive 'he said, she said' weaponisation of the atmospheric medium (pro tip: which supported all life on Earth) had to rank as the #1 Collective Darwin Award recipients in any conceivable reality. "Perhaps the Mandela Effect was the Universe's way of trying to wake us the f#ck up..", thought Harold, as he painted pollen onto the last remaining apple tree in the Garden....

a reply to: charlyv

Nice post. I have to say that I live about 30 miles south of you in southern Plymouth county and we have plenty of bugs here. I fish quite frequently and being pond-side at dusk or dawn is tortuous down here. I'd also add that the cicadas this year were amazingly loud. I do notice less Monarchs however, and I've noticed that for a few years now. It could be something very local to Braintree. There has been a lot of construction there, especially since '73. Perhaps they've run over much of the wetlands.

They were talking about something similar on a local radio station here in Australia. Its been noticed that there is less "insect splatter" on car windscreens when driving than there used to be and they were actually thinking about getting people to do insect splatter counts to try and monitor the situation lol. Personally I still find my place to be riddled with insects and spiders of all kinds but I have noticed that I am seeing insects I've never seen before and not seeing insects that used to be common. That may be a different issue though (think climate change) I have lived in the same property since 1987.

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: charlyv

We are living through an ecosystem collapse..

Oh how melodramatic!

Mother nature is never the same twice.

originally posted by: charlyv
Perspectives from an old dude.

I realize that ATS has changed considerably from it's roots. The major populus is in the younger crowd. However, I will inject the fact that I am increasing in age, and, though it is not as drastic a change as it was a decade ago, it is definitively something to take note of, and that is the decreased presence of insects.

I live next to a swamp in Braintree, Massachusetts (10 miles from Boston), and when I moved here in 1973, the bugs were the worst nusance that you could possibly imagine. You could not stay outside after 7pm in the Spring, through Autumn, without being bit to hell with mosquitos, flies and other insects.

It got so bad in 1990, I purchased (like many around me), one of those electronic bug killers. This thing worked so well, we had to remove it because the noise that the bugs made burning up, kept me and my wife awake at night. Some were so big, they cought on fire and you could see the trap sparking endlessly.

We had a nice flower garden, and butterflies and lighting bugs frequented it every year. There were those Monarque butterfly types and yellow ones that were really beautiful, and you could see them fluttering around almost every day in the yard in the Spring, through Autumn.

Within the last few years, I will tell you about such a drastic decrease in all insects, that is it is noticeably overwhelming.

No more flies except the occasional horsefly when something is dead, hardly any other insects, even though there is standing water in the swamps, no butterflies, hardly any mosquitos, although there are some,.... It is like deadville for most all of this insects I have been used to here for the last 50 years. This is important, because hardly anyone today stays in one location for 50 years, but we did, adding on to our house every 10 years or so. It is a nice community.

The lack of Wasps is alarming, as they used to be one of our biggest pests in the past. We also used to hear Cicada's in the trees and there were many caterpillars and other strange insects everywhere... but no more. The occasional Bee visits the flowers., but no like they used to.

There were so many spiders that flourished here, because there was such a diversity of insects, that there were webs everywhere, but now just a few.

I need to tell this to all, because it is so obvious that something has drastically changed in the insect community, that I am at a loss to explain it. I know about the global decrease in Bees, but sure, the town sprayed stuff every once in awhile to hold down the mosquito community, but over time, they just stopped because it was no longer a problem.

I just want to put this out as the historical recollection of someone who has stayed in a local area for 50 years, and this is MY observation.

I would be interested if any others out there had the same situation, and have noticed anything close to what I have witnessed.

Thanks ATS, as this is a place to put stuff like this out in the wild, and reap what comes back.

Well off the cuff, potential explanations (based on other locations) range from pesticide/herbicide accumulation to electronics. The bees have been affected by this stuff right?

originally posted by: nerbot

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: charlyv

We are living through an ecosystem collapse..

Oh how melodramatic!

Mother nature is never the same twice.

We actually are though. Scientists are calling it the "Sixth Great Extinction," with rates of species extinction due to environmental impact of humans outstripping both the natural background rate and the rates during previous "great" extinctions, including that of the dinosaurs.

time.com...

As this Hopi Elder wisely says, '' they forgot the instructions on how to live on earth''.



I don't want to sound pessimistic but modern civilisation and way of life is currently heading for a disaster with uncertain outcome for man , i think it is a logical conclusion. What we're doing to the planet is suicide to ourselves, we can't thrive if nature becomes sick, unfortunately innocent species that has nothing to do with our mistakes are going down with us.

All the bugs, the silence of the bees(Yes i've noticed the same thing here in Sweden) is only one symptom of many more to come that tells us that nature is suffering tremendously because of mans ígnorance and exploitation, i believe the ancient scriptures somehow predicted this and put the stories within their own cultural context, the Bible, the Vedas, the prophecies of indigenous people.

I don't think they knew our could see into the future with any major precision(Unless extraterrestrial told them, ''star brothers/people'' as the natives in america refers to them)but observing the ways of unspiritual human beings through the ages, their wars, conquests & control over the unfortunate ignorant masses led them to that conclusion, sooner or later it would happen.

Being unspiritual and not in tune with nature while having access to capable enough technology is a very dangerous situation. Perhaps man disappearing globally for some time is not the worst thing that can happen( I certainly don't whish it) when looked from an objective perspective, yes it will be terrible but afterwards there may come a much needed renewal, as the Hopi Elder in this video says, ''time evolves''.

a reply to: charlyv

I've seen weird and unusual bugs in my yard the last couple of springs/summers....plenty of spiders, wood bees, wasps, hornets....etc...too.

I am 46. I haven't noticed a shortage of any bugs either. HOWEVER, we had far, far fewer houseflies this year than any other years in this house (17 years).

I am not complaining, but I cannot explain it.

a reply to: charlyv

Thanks for raising awareness of the bug problem.

However bug killers like those electric things end up killing potential mating partners and ruining hundreds to thousands of offspring.

Your concern is good to see.

One thing is for sure.... we are alllll inundated by electronic signals. Cell phone towers, wifi, transmission lines, radio waves.... perhaps that is a part of the cause. It is harder and harder to find places with nothing electronic going on at all. Satellites transmit cable tv signals, phone signals, the planet is widely covered one way or another and That is different than in the past.

Well being in Agriculture, you should research the amount of insecticides and fungicides in millions of gallons (TONS) each year that is pumped out over our crops in the US. Crops that we don't necessarily should be eating, Field Corn, Soybeans, cotton, and frankenWheat. Cash crops. All the rest of the vegetables are a small fraction that 75% are grown in Cali.

Off target drift that the sprayer doesn't care about or isn't seen doing, there was a Mosquito sprayer in South Carolina who wiped out some ones bees in one swipe last year.

The responses to the thread were fantastic. Thanks all who commented.
Things seem to be winding down, and there is a lot of data here. I will start off working on a spreadsheet with locations vertical, and data rows for correlations (present,missing, weather,climate, and other stuff I have not thought of yet.

Right off the bat, it looks like Climate,Pesticides, EMF and other things, in that order, as prime movers, but we will see...

We have proliferate fire ants and roaches in SC. I have a five feet around the house rule where roach killer, termite, and ant killer goes. Snakes and mice are in trouble if they cross that line too. Other wise three acres of woods teaming with creatures who are pretty happy including bees and hornets. The owls have moved on slightly due to urban developments near by. The hawks are intimidating to humans in the yard in the spring. I catch all the animals on trail cam at night including a bob cat. We compost, and garden organically, tree logs are stacked at the back of the property to rot down naturally. Planting flowers draws in the insects and Japanese beetles. The heat of South Carolina keeps people indoors for three months and this probably protects the insects from the humans. Its our figurative winter. In actual Winter we do all our yardwork, bug and snow free. Stop using pesticides, except around the house, compost, and plant flowers. They will come back.