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Where are all the different small creatures ???

J

JD Seller

Well-known Member
Those I am talking about are the bees and butterflies. I had the chance to walk the farm yesterday. It was early evening. Just when it cools off just a little. In years past I can remember there being thousands of butterflies and bees flying around in the pastures an fence rows. I did not see a single monarch butterfly and very few bees. Not a single bumble bee. Later towards dark the swarms of gnat and mosquitos where few too. Then after dark maybe less than ten fireflies in the yard. I can remember there being thousands in the lower parts of the yard.

This is new for this year. There are fewer flies too. It seems like the insect populations are really down around here. (Northeast Iowa) Is the cause the late cold weather when it dipped to 23 degrees??? Is it the heavy down pouring rains we seem to be getting twice each week??? We are not getting slow easy one inch rains. We get one inch in ten minutes. I about have the gravel in the drive worn out dragging it back up the hill. LOL

Just puzzling seeing the difference in things this year. It has been really hot and humid here this week too. Usually this leads to more bugs.

It seems like there are more problems with many common small creatures in our world. Honey bees are struggling in many places. The common bats are having troubles with diseases too. There is a colony of them in the top of the one old shed. I leave them be as I like to watch them hunting bugs at night. There used to be 30-40 adults bats in this colony. Now it is around 10-15. They even seem to be fewer baby bats around than the lower population would cause.

It seems like the entire world is struggling with troubles. Plants, animals and humans seem to not be able to live together in any type of harmony.
 
Quite a few posters have noted the decline or absence of bugs of all kinds this year. Of course many posters come back with replies that populations are normal in their area. I noted the almost total absence of moths around my place months ago and they are still absent. The lightening bugs have come in but down in number. I've seen 2 ticks this entire year. Can't speak to a cause since the weather last year and this haven't been significantly different to past years.
 
What I've found is you have to feed them. I plant Russian Sage, and the bees and BB's are feeding every day, maybe 6 - 10 bees on each plant. I plant butterfly bush, but so far I don't personally see the butterflies so much.
 
I guess it depends on where you are .We have no shortage of flys , or mosquitos, cabbage moths , bees etc . But the most noticeable this year for me , has been the early arrival of grasshoppers. We don't normally see grasshoppers till August, this year they have been with us mid July on . As for the Monarch butterfly , around here they should still be in the larva or worm stage, eating milkweed leaves and growing fat. Bruce
 
they just moved lol, there all here on our place including bats after sunset, nothing like siting out to watch satellites , [ the wife and bet those sightings against airplanes] and then be in the middle of hundreds of bats!
 
Good Question JD. NO shortage of insects here in SE WI. I've been watching fire flies every evening all summer... more than we had 20 or 30 years ago. I was thinking just last week how maybe that change is due to less corn rootworm insecticide used here than 30 years ago. Since then soybeans have come into the crop rotation (we don't have rootworms after beans yet here), and BT corn has pretty much eliminated the soil insecticde use. Being they burrow in the ground during a phase of their life, it seemed like a reasonable explanation.

It seems various ag products get blamed for bees- could be, but I'm guessing not all the issue. There was a study done in IN last year that found more lawn pesticides in bee hives than crop stuff, even when the hives were next to a treated field.

Some of the bug loss isn't all bad- we haven't had to spray alfalfa for potato leafhopper in years. It used to be a yearly occurance- sometimes 2x a year. But another observation- they used to always be worst next to a field of beans. Perhaps the beans were a host when the alfalfa was cut. Now, with many beans being treated with Cruiser, etc, no more leaf hoppers in either crop. Just an observation.

Anyway, it seems we have no shortage of horseflies, wasps, etc. We can send some over.
 
All bees and wasps numbers have been way down in my area,used to be I'd get into at least 2 or 3 Yellow Jacket and Bumble Bee nests in each field cutting hay now I don't get into
3 or 4 the whole Summer.
 
We have a good amount of bugs and birds this year. we have noted that there are more varieties of birds hanging around here, mostly more northern types.
I also only use bug lites and no sprays due to nephews honey bees.
 
Not the case in central Illinois, you can come get the flys and mosquitos cause I think we got more than average. It's been hot and humid here as well with storms every other day or night.
 
We seem to have an abundance of fireflies this year. Gone are the days when you drove down a rural blacktop at night and there were so many cornbore moths it looked like it was snowing. But that's a good thing.
 
I guess your wife needs to plant more flowers around the house. We have no shortage of bees,butterflies and humming birds.
 
I noticed the mud daubers activity and the carpenter bees way down this year also. My cherry tree died all of a sudden last year. Have some BTO's in the area now, so their spray must of got it.
 
Lets see.
In years past many fields looked like this.


milkweed-field060726-8797conemnrz.jpg



And now they look like this.


spraying_of_herbicides_David_R._Frazier_Alamy.jpg



And yet we wonder where all the bugs have gone.
 
As a experiment for our honeybees, my family and Mother Nature, I pulled a few acres out of production on some marginal soil. Planted a wildflower/honeybee seed blend two years ago. When checking the rest of the field I see not much life. When I drive through the wildflowers the amount of insects and such is unbelievable! They just need a place a live, we took a lot of it. I never spray an ounce of insecticide over the top of my crops. My honeybee side wins over my chemical rep trying to push insecticides on me.
 
clothyindinum (spelling ) plays a major role in the decline of insects ,, especially beees ,, jd , the corn seed co's are putting rootworm clothydinum on all seed corn these days ,we used to pay extra for this insecticide ,, now we all pay more and get this chemical trearment whether we need or want it or not,.. the clothydinum does indeed stop rootworms ,,BUT the corn plant has faint residue of the chemical in the tassle , which in turn gets comingled with the ear and the poor bees , one contaminated bee bringing back to the hive a trace of clothydinum is not fatal hundreds of bees contaminated will sicken a hive and it will not last til the next summer ,,. no doubt other insects in heavy corn country are feeling the same pain
 
When I grew up I remember seeing a lot of those little brown sparrows. I live on 30 acres. I rarely ever see a sparrow. bluebirds, robins, barn swallows, blue jays and some others I will see on my place. butterflies are none existant. lots of those ticks though. Have seen more squirrels , rabbits this year. Bees are down. They say the bee production is down due to land being removed and that brings the loss of flowers. Not sure what the answer is but it has changed a lot ovwer the years.
 
Bats are in the middle of an epidemic caused by a fungus brought over from Europe a few years ago. They're almost completely gone from here although there are signs they're starting to recover. We still have plenty of tree and barn swallows eating the bugs. This is the first year we had a pair of bluebirds raise a family in the nest box I put up about ten years ago.

Honeybees are almost gone around here too. Some people blame that on tree sprays, but there aren't any sizable orchards for miles around so I have to believe it's something else. Lots of carpenter bees drilling holes in the shed rafters and woodpeckers going in after them. This year is about normal for fireflies; they seem to be around in lower numbers for most of the summer but peak for a couple of weeks.
 
Turned out almost everything she claimed was fabricated. Allowing emotion to over rule science, research and facts allowed her little book to kill millions of people with little or no benefit to anyone or anything.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2012/09/05/rachel-carsons-deadly-fantasies/#4975c41415d1
 
We do things and there are consequences. Sometimes we don't realize the consequences for years. In a couple of short years we can disrupt and ecosystem that developed over thousands.

Chemicals are tested for safety but they miss things or groups of chemicals interact in ways that were not tested. Look how long we used lead and asbestos before fully realizing the hazards. How many things on food labels are unpronounceable?

I'm no hippy but perhaps we are not being careful enough.
 
Possible good news = Just went out to mulch and water the Russian sage and the butterfly bushes, and you are right ... no butterflies. Bees a plenty, which is good. BUT, I stood there for 10 - 15 minutes, arms folded and silent and not moving, and the butterflies came back in to feed. Probably 3 or 4 couples, flitting around each other, and many singles. I think when us big noisy rude humans go romping up to their dinner table, particularly when we drive some big engine noise / smoke machine, they run away for a while. If we're polite and quiet and don't move, they figure it's safe.
 
Hasn't seemed to affect the tics much here in SW MO. but I have noticed there are a lot fewer bugs on the windshield when driving at night. gm
 
Similar observations here in West Pa. (my observations span 70 years with notes). Butterflies, moths, june bugs etc way down. Leaves on all species of trees still solid green in spite of dry weather; no leaf miners. Last summer was strange in a different way.
Jim B
 
Sorry, you can believe what you want but my own long term observations tell that the "springs" are much much quieter around here. (Western Pa where R. Carson lived)
Jim, B (far, far from being an enviro wacko)
 
Just a thought but when they started blaming farmers for to much fertilizer in the lakes it turned out a lot came from cities. Farmers are usually more regulated then city folk (pesticides operator license for one) but people in the city can simply buy anything and as much as they want straight off the shelf. Might not some of the damage be coming from the cities how many butterflies do you see in the downtown of a major city
 
I wasn't talking about bug population this spring - I was addressing the specific crimes against humanity done in the name of Rachel Carson.
 
I've noticed that next to insect free fields the groves and ditches can be pretty lifeless too. As you get 1/4 mile or more away from row crop fields the bugs are back.
 
An urban friend was blaming me and other farmers for the loss of habitat for monarchs. " Why don't you leave some land for milkweed for them?" was her demand. I explained I make my living from the land and suggested she turn her lawn into a milkweed patch if she was so concerned. She was aghast that I even think that. Ben
 
I'm seeing more honeybees this year. Still not like when I was a kid, though. No cicadas this year, I mean the annual, not the 17-year. Bats in the barn are much lower lately. I think animal and insect populations rise and fall for a lot of reasons. Wet or dry, harsh or mild winters, food supplies, etc. Haven't seen a bullfrog for about 30 years either. Used to be at least one in every puddle.
 
We are missing the hummingbirds. We have one at our place. Normally several. At our kids place they feed them. Last year they had over 30. This year they have 3 pair.
 
Most people who think all farmers blast the entire neighborhood with chemicals have never tried to pay for all of those chemicals with the income from the crops produced.
 
Hummingbirds not like normal here. Usually they are lined up at the feeder, but only a few this year. Ants? All over the place. Honeybees are out there but way fewer than 50 years ago.
 
Pesticides. But the quantity of crops are up. No l'm not bashing farmers. My bees are doing great, we have a plage of grasshoppers, and very few flys this year.
 
Just so you know - your pictures should be reversed. There are fewer acres in tillage today then there was 80 years ago and the number of acres being tilled has declined 8% in the last 20 years. The number of acres being tilled have declined nearly 20% since 1949. The number acres in pasture have declined about 4% since 1949.
 
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