has anyone noticed the butterflies are missing?

a reply to: HODOSKE

Oh yeah all over the place around here.

Weather by me is a month off. I have tons of monarchs now.

We have a few this year here in Alberta. Certainly a lot more than I've seen in years prior, but nothing like I remember as a kid back home. Flowers were teeming with butterflies and bees in New Mexico.

a reply to: HODOSKE

I haven't seen many butterflies this year either. Perhaps I'm simply not looking for them. I have seen more bumble bees this year and last year than in a while. There seem to be slightly more red wasps this year than the last. The fire ants aren't as bad as some years, but they are still in abundance obviously.

It's an ebb and flow. The butterflies will be back in droves before you know it.

We haven't had many in the last couple years where I live on Vancouver Island but I figured it might just be the flight patterns moving around for those that migrate. It has been humid these last summers while it normally isn't so that might indicate a weather pattern shift that they avoid. I'm guessing really but it could be tons of different factors, depending on where we live.

Now that you mention it, no...haven't seen a lot of butterflies here in Colorado this year either.

Actually, haven't seen a lot of bugs period this year. With as much rain as we've had (thank God) I would have expected a lot more mosquitos too. Haven't had a single bite yet. **happy about that**

In my neck of the woods some 50 miles north of GR, there have been a lot of certain butterflies, including a few Monarchs. The plague of gypsy moths stripping the trees bare hasn't stopped the butterflies it seems.

I've seen the following . . .
Spring Azure
Fritillary (lots of them)
Monarch

Not sure about others but will keep an eye out and try to identify them when I find them.

originally posted by: HODOSKE
I had some family over the other day. My aunt mentioned there are no butterflies this year and they all have gone missing... I said this cant be true. I believe i have seen them . But when i actually started looking by my flowers, that always have butterflies, there was none. I see lots of bees and some white cabbage moths, but no butterflies..Any one else notice this? I live in New jersey

Since you mention it, now that I think about it, I haven't seen any at all...

originally posted by: HODOSKE
new jersey
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Air and water Pollution in NJ has been bad for decades.

My first job many years ago was in research. We were looking for ways to eradicate industrial pollution using microbes and did find several that worked and targeted needs.

Elizabeth and Tom's River, where TR was a resort area, both had an issue. The Deer in Tom's River were fenced in so they couldn't get off the property. In Elizabeth it was in the news that the only known animal found alive in the NY Harbor and bay was a crab species. The history of pollution in NJ makes it rough. All of us and the wildlife suffer when we don't clean it up and keep it clean. That is possible without killing the business too. Unfortunately the commie tree hugger class of Environmentalist have the bully pulpit at the moment.

The good scientist do outnumber them. More honest scientists have to get in the fray here. Balanced stewardship with economic ability to put food on your plate and a roof over your head is a goal to obtain.

Yeah, nope. Butterflies everywhere here in rural Indiana.

I must live in a bubble that's immune to all these conspiracy theories.

There's no bee shortage. They are everywhere.

There's zero global warming. We set cold record for winters and summers.

Plenty here all over Georgia....

Seen less butterflies and dragon flys than expected but they are still here in south Georgia.

a reply to: Nyiah
SE of GR Michigan we will have many over our butterfly bushes soon. The horsefly and deer fly population is way up as are the ticks.

Fortunately the bats are around as well.

originally posted by: Zrtst
a reply to: Nyiah
SE of GR Michigan we will have many over our butterfly bushes soon. The horsefly and deer fly population is way up as are the ticks.

Fortunately the bats are around as well.

We just saw a recent increase in flies too.

I had to move the time up on my evening walk, because the increase in the number of bugs out just before dusk, was making me a neon dinner sign for the bats.

I didn't realize what was happening at first. I thought I had walked near an angry Jay's nest. These birds where swooping past me, too frequently to be by accident. When I came from under the shadow of the trees, I could see they were bats, and they were attracted to all the bug, that were attracted to me.

I moved my walk time up two hours. It is hotter, but less noisome.

originally posted by: Zrtst
a reply to: Nyiah
SE of GR Michigan we will have many over our butterfly bushes soon. The horsefly and deer fly population is way up as are the ticks.

Fortunately the bats are around as well.

Yep indeed, I've noticed the flies of all kinds have suddenly BOOMED after that 2 weeks or so of daily rain. We grill most of our lunches and dinners the majority of the year, even in snow, but this past week we've noticed a ramping up of the population totals that turn around & pester us as relentlessly soon as the grill lid opens.

I thought it was just us, but maybe it's a simple natural reset of the food sources for other predating animals. Have enough population-short years, and maybe the egg hatch success rates spike? Or maybe more eggs are laid? I'm no entomologist, but it does seem like a fairly logical outcome for natural balancing.

Plenty of butterflies in MA, plus the lightning bugs are back in much greater numbers.

Noticed a lot less mosquito this year than in the past, which is good for people, but not for bats.

Not many in Seattle, Ive seen maybe 2 tigerstriped butterflies the entire summer. Not many honeybees either, but we have bumblebees and cabbage moths in droves.

a reply to: HODOSKE
nope.. same butterflies, same mosquitos , same bees , same crickets, same frogs, same birds, same people looking for a conspiracy...
yep all the same here in Oz

a reply to: HODOSKE

The butterflies usually fly over our garden and go somewhere else even though we have a ton of flowers but this year they are all over the place Norther ca, only one bee we have seen so far!

It seems they are shifting locations as they travel. Maybe like everything all relating to the changing magnetic field.

Jist saw some a day or so ago?