9 ms·

My current point of concern is that I can go out and sit all evening without a mosquito bite. That was unheard of even 30 years ago when I was a kid. You'd be l

My current point of concern is that I can go out and sit all evening without a mosquito bite. That was unheard of even 30 years ago when I was a kid. You'd be lucky if you didn't have one for every minute you spent outside. I think the insects are dying, and it's frightening. Second item would be watching the bison migrate on the plains. Literally horizon to horizon, a hundred thousand individuals or more in a group. More than ten bison for every person alive on the continent. Same with the passenger pigeons - the sky would go dark from dawn to dusk with the movement of 6 billion birds.

swsieber 8y ago
To be fair, mosquitoes are the target of a fairly narrow, focused attack. That said, bees seem to be dwindling, so you have a point.
jonhendry18 8y ago
The mosquito situation might be due to the availability of CO2 based mosquito traps. You don't mention where you're located but perhaps you're in an area that isn't as hospitable for mosquito breeding as the location where you were a kid.
- jaggederest 8y ago
  Family has lived on the same land in a very rural area for 38 years, so that is not really applicable. I would doubt there are enough mosquito traps in the county to make a difference.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Droughts, less open water available, more activity in said waters? That could account for some mosquito reduction. But in other comment you mention other insects, so this indeed seems like a broader problem.
    - jaggederest 8y ago
      I don't know what it is, but it's absolutely disturbing. Insects are, by comparison with us mammals, incredibly resilient. Anything that is reducing insect populations on a massive scale is bad news for the entire world.
      - jonhendry18 8y ago
        Try leaving out some old tires to collect water.
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> I think the insects are dying, and it's frightening At least in New York, we put tremendous resources towards keeping harmful mosquito populations down. A better canary insect might be the bee.
- jaggederest 8y ago
  Wasps, beetles, grasshoppers, caddis flies, crane flies, are all substantially reduced in number. Just gone, by comparison.
  - sametmax 8y ago
    People bitch about wasps, but there are almost none now a days. I used to see plenty. The only species that thrive are the opportunist ones that tied their fate to the humans: cockroaches, fruit flies, dogs, cattle, chicken, etc. Those don't pollinate plants, they don't eat plant parasites , they pollute the water and air, and because we feed them with so much crap, even the land instead of fertilizing it.
    - dajohnson89 8y ago
      >The only species that thrive are the opportunist ones that tied their fate to the humans: cockroaches, fruit flies, dogs, cattle, chicken, etc. rats :-(
ekr 8y ago
My experience of this is that 10-15 years ago, when I was a child, my dad would often take us on road trips by car, sometimes arriving home late into the night. (the trips were around Central Europe) The headlights, windshield and parts of the body were always significantly covered by dead insects. For the past 5 years or so however, they have almost always been perfectly clean. This has amazed me.
- kurtisc 8y ago
  I wonder if any of that can be attributed to improved aerodynamics pushing bugs around the body of the car?
  - mmjaa 8y ago
    No, its farmers and their monoculture: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/19/europe/insect-decline-germany/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/19/europe/insect-decline-ger... Also, quite relevant to the topic at hand ..
  - plantain 8y ago
    Improved aerodynamics makes it worse not better. Less of a bow wave to divert them away from the vehicle earlier.
- gambiting 8y ago
  As someone who has just done a 13 hour drive from Amsterdam to Krakow, I can assure you that my car was absolutely covered in dead insects, the front licence plate was barely readable, the layer of dead bugs was so thick.
  - aerique 8y ago
    That must have been the last part of your trip then. When I drove from The Netherlands to Bretagne (about 900km, ±10 hours) last Summer I had less insects on the car than I had in my parent's car 35 years ago for 1/10 of the trip length.
ckastner 8y ago
I never understood why such changes -- dramatic as they may be -- were seen as a cause of concern, except in cases where the changes affected our food supply. Humans may be responsible for the decimation or outright extinction of entire species, but isn't that how Nature works? Nature has encountered countless extinctions before us (where's the Megalodon now?) and at least 5 mass extinctions, so why should this dynamic cease now? (I get the emotional argument for conservationism, and I even share it, even though I might not sound that way. But I've always considered that something purely subjective, not objective, and arguably just as manipulative of Nature.)
- emodendroket 8y ago
  Well I suppose the most pressing problem is that we will create conditions such that we ourselves are not longer able to survive, or at least some significant portion of us will not. Rising sea levels and increased extreme weather events will also cause substantial financial loss, even if you don't care about the loss of natural wonders.
- saiya-jin 8y ago
  Well yeah, stuff goes extinct all the time, but on scale of millions/tens of millions of years. the pace we're seeing these days is unprecedented and the pace is more on level of mass extinction rather than business-as-usual evolution state. Sure, we can keep looking at the half-full glass focusing what is not extinct yet, but over few generations, we might be pretty lonely on this planet when it comes to complex life. It's more an indication of how badly we're screwing our own environment, also for ourselves. It's clear that life itself will survive much harsher situations compared to mankind and repopulate once we're long extinct.
- antocv 8y ago
  > but isn't that how Nature works? Nature has encountered countless extinctions before us (where's the Megalodon now?) and at least 5 mass extinctions, so why should this dynamic cease now? This mass extinction caused by humans is an order of magnitude faster and affects far more varity of species and plants.
singularity2001 8y ago
IMO The lack of mosquitos is the single positive aspect of a crippled nature. Allegedly a Pharao had a slave covered in honey to get some peace from those beasts. New Zealand is paradise except that on some beaches you just can't stop unless you want to get drained.
- jaggederest 8y ago
  Yes, I just think they're the most durable bastards out there, and if they're being affected by whatever it is, surely all the more shy and retiring species are basically gone as well. If we were being deliberate, sure, a targeted assassination of the Anopheles mosquito might not be a bad thing. But I don't get that sense at all... More like collateral damage.
- sametmax 8y ago
  For your human comfort yes. But mosquitoes are part of the food chain, and also help mixing blood from very different species. This, in turn, allow micro-organisms that should never meet to interact with each others, giving a new path to biodiversity. As annoying as it is, it's a useful critter. You see, the way you react is the very cause of our current troubles: we only see the living systems as a way to please us, and only on the short term. When they don't please us, we start hating them, and find a way to bend them to our will. Now we destroyed most of the systems, or at least their balance, and we are painfully discovering that it may dooms us all. So let's try to adopt a different point of view before we face even more terrible consequences of our gluttonous actions.
  - mratzloff 8y ago
    Just to clear, there are about 3500 or 4000 species of mosquitoes, and if we eradicated the tiny handful that carry malaria, Zika, etc. it would only have positive results. That would leave thousands to continue pollinating and serving as food for fish, frogs, and other wildlife.
    - marliechiller 8y ago
baxtr 8y ago
This is all really bad and we're not on a good path here as a species... But one thing to remember is that nature works locally. I think there is a chance to protect the environment through isolated "islands" - with no human contact whatsoever - where flora and fauna have the chance to come back. Interestingly, Chernobyl is quite a good example for that: https://nordic.businessinsider.com/wildlife-near-nuclear-reactor-chernobyl-2017-3/ https://nordic.businessinsider.com/wildlife-near-nuclear-rea...
- sametmax 8y ago
  But I'm not worried about nature at all, although the massacre disturb my sense of aesthetic and empathy. It's sad we destroy it. I wish we would not. But it will survive, thrive even. The problem is that our current actions will kill us.
  - baxtr 8y ago
    My idea is to preserve nature so it can safe us. If there are large areas where no human being has access to, nature will thrive and we can then use that area to take whatever we need, whatever has been extinct through us and grow it back. Think of it as a safe for your most valuable things, in this case, nature
    - sametmax 8y ago
      Islands as Noe's ark. Why not. It's a good complement to old seeds data banks like kokopelli's.
      - baxtr 8y ago
        Exactly. It won't save many from dying, once some regions start collapsing, but it'll help us to survive as a species
kaybe 8y ago
In our area mosquitos are killed on purpose, by poisoning their main breeding areas when they are still in the water. (And I am just finding out that this is done by a sanctioned non-profit organisation.) Maybe something similar is done in your region? https://www.kabsev.de/ https://www.kabsev.de/ (German)
topmonk 8y ago
The following is conjecture, but I'm guessing that insects of the last century mainly survived off of crops from farmland, either directly or indirectly. So, if true, that means that it was hardly natural beforehand either. It may be we are just using better pesticides, so we moved from one artificial environment to a different one. Both are out-of-whack compared to what would naturally be there. How do you know the previous conditions, where there was lots of farmland, but no good pesticides was the better one?
animal531 8y ago
Where I live in South Africa the local Springbok deer herds were so large that they were once recorded to take 5 days to pass a camp.
HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
You clearly don't live in Minnesota, where the mosquito is the unofficial state bird. I come inside quickly in summer because there are mosquitoes and flies all over the place. Doing fireworks with my kids last week, I was deliberately standing downwind in the path of the smoke bombs to get some relief. I'm religious about not having standing water around, our cars are covered in bug carcasses after a 10-mile drive. I literally feel mosquitoes bouncing off my forehead as I walk through my dark backyard. I kill massive deer/horse flies constantly. If insects are dying, it sure ain't around here!

swsieber 8y ago

To be fair, mosquitoes are the target of a fairly narrow, focused attack. That said, bees seem to be dwindling, so you have a point.

jonhendry18 8y ago

The mosquito situation might be due to the availability of CO2 based mosquito traps. You don't mention where you're located but perhaps you're in an area that isn't as hospitable for mosquito breeding as the location where you were a kid.

jaggederest 8y ago
Family has lived on the same land in a very rural area for 38 years, so that is not really applicable. I would doubt there are enough mosquito traps in the county to make a difference.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  Droughts, less open water available, more activity in said waters? That could account for some mosquito reduction. But in other comment you mention other insects, so this indeed seems like a broader problem.
  - jaggederest 8y ago
    I don't know what it is, but it's absolutely disturbing. Insects are, by comparison with us mammals, incredibly resilient. Anything that is reducing insect populations on a massive scale is bad news for the entire world.
    - jonhendry18 8y ago
      Try leaving out some old tires to collect water.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> I think the insects are dying, and it's frightening At least in New York, we put tremendous resources towards keeping harmful mosquito populations down. A better canary insect might be the bee.

jaggederest 8y ago
Wasps, beetles, grasshoppers, caddis flies, crane flies, are all substantially reduced in number. Just gone, by comparison.
- sametmax 8y ago
  People bitch about wasps, but there are almost none now a days. I used to see plenty. The only species that thrive are the opportunist ones that tied their fate to the humans: cockroaches, fruit flies, dogs, cattle, chicken, etc. Those don't pollinate plants, they don't eat plant parasites , they pollute the water and air, and because we feed them with so much crap, even the land instead of fertilizing it.
  - dajohnson89 8y ago
    >The only species that thrive are the opportunist ones that tied their fate to the humans: cockroaches, fruit flies, dogs, cattle, chicken, etc. rats :-(

ekr 8y ago

My experience of this is that 10-15 years ago, when I was a child, my dad would often take us on road trips by car, sometimes arriving home late into the night. (the trips were around Central Europe) The headlights, windshield and parts of the body were always significantly covered by dead insects. For the past 5 years or so however, they have almost always been perfectly clean. This has amazed me.

kurtisc 8y ago
I wonder if any of that can be attributed to improved aerodynamics pushing bugs around the body of the car?
- mmjaa 8y ago
  No, its farmers and their monoculture: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/19/europe/insect-decline-germany/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/19/europe/insect-decline-ger... Also, quite relevant to the topic at hand ..
- plantain 8y ago
  Improved aerodynamics makes it worse not better. Less of a bow wave to divert them away from the vehicle earlier.
gambiting 8y ago
As someone who has just done a 13 hour drive from Amsterdam to Krakow, I can assure you that my car was absolutely covered in dead insects, the front licence plate was barely readable, the layer of dead bugs was so thick.
- aerique 8y ago
  That must have been the last part of your trip then. When I drove from The Netherlands to Bretagne (about 900km, ±10 hours) last Summer I had less insects on the car than I had in my parent's car 35 years ago for 1/10 of the trip length.

ckastner 8y ago

I never understood why such changes -- dramatic as they may be -- were seen as a cause of concern, except in cases where the changes affected our food supply. Humans may be responsible for the decimation or outright extinction of entire species, but isn't that how Nature works? Nature has encountered countless extinctions before us (where's the Megalodon now?) and at least 5 mass extinctions, so why should this dynamic cease now? (I get the emotional argument for conservationism, and I even share it, even though I might not sound that way. But I've always considered that something purely subjective, not objective, and arguably just as manipulative of Nature.)

emodendroket 8y ago
Well I suppose the most pressing problem is that we will create conditions such that we ourselves are not longer able to survive, or at least some significant portion of us will not. Rising sea levels and increased extreme weather events will also cause substantial financial loss, even if you don't care about the loss of natural wonders.
saiya-jin 8y ago
Well yeah, stuff goes extinct all the time, but on scale of millions/tens of millions of years. the pace we're seeing these days is unprecedented and the pace is more on level of mass extinction rather than business-as-usual evolution state. Sure, we can keep looking at the half-full glass focusing what is not extinct yet, but over few generations, we might be pretty lonely on this planet when it comes to complex life. It's more an indication of how badly we're screwing our own environment, also for ourselves. It's clear that life itself will survive much harsher situations compared to mankind and repopulate once we're long extinct.
antocv 8y ago
> but isn't that how Nature works? Nature has encountered countless extinctions before us (where's the Megalodon now?) and at least 5 mass extinctions, so why should this dynamic cease now? This mass extinction caused by humans is an order of magnitude faster and affects far more varity of species and plants.

singularity2001 8y ago

IMO The lack of mosquitos is the single positive aspect of a crippled nature. Allegedly a Pharao had a slave covered in honey to get some peace from those beasts. New Zealand is paradise except that on some beaches you just can't stop unless you want to get drained.

jaggederest 8y ago
Yes, I just think they're the most durable bastards out there, and if they're being affected by whatever it is, surely all the more shy and retiring species are basically gone as well. If we were being deliberate, sure, a targeted assassination of the Anopheles mosquito might not be a bad thing. But I don't get that sense at all... More like collateral damage.
sametmax 8y ago
For your human comfort yes. But mosquitoes are part of the food chain, and also help mixing blood from very different species. This, in turn, allow micro-organisms that should never meet to interact with each others, giving a new path to biodiversity. As annoying as it is, it's a useful critter. You see, the way you react is the very cause of our current troubles: we only see the living systems as a way to please us, and only on the short term. When they don't please us, we start hating them, and find a way to bend them to our will. Now we destroyed most of the systems, or at least their balance, and we are painfully discovering that it may dooms us all. So let's try to adopt a different point of view before we face even more terrible consequences of our gluttonous actions.
- mratzloff 8y ago
  Just to clear, there are about 3500 or 4000 species of mosquitoes, and if we eradicated the tiny handful that carry malaria, Zika, etc. it would only have positive results. That would leave thousands to continue pollinating and serving as food for fish, frogs, and other wildlife.
  - marliechiller 8y ago

baxtr 8y ago

This is all really bad and we're not on a good path here as a species... But one thing to remember is that nature works locally. I think there is a chance to protect the environment through isolated "islands" - with no human contact whatsoever - where flora and fauna have the chance to come back. Interestingly, Chernobyl is quite a good example for that: https://nordic.businessinsider.com/wildlife-near-nuclear-reactor-chernobyl-2017-3/ https://nordic.businessinsider.com/wildlife-near-nuclear-rea...

sametmax 8y ago
But I'm not worried about nature at all, although the massacre disturb my sense of aesthetic and empathy. It's sad we destroy it. I wish we would not. But it will survive, thrive even. The problem is that our current actions will kill us.
- baxtr 8y ago
  My idea is to preserve nature so it can safe us. If there are large areas where no human being has access to, nature will thrive and we can then use that area to take whatever we need, whatever has been extinct through us and grow it back. Think of it as a safe for your most valuable things, in this case, nature
  - sametmax 8y ago
    Islands as Noe's ark. Why not. It's a good complement to old seeds data banks like kokopelli's.
    - baxtr 8y ago
      Exactly. It won't save many from dying, once some regions start collapsing, but it'll help us to survive as a species

kaybe 8y ago

In our area mosquitos are killed on purpose, by poisoning their main breeding areas when they are still in the water. (And I am just finding out that this is done by a sanctioned non-profit organisation.) Maybe something similar is done in your region? https://www.kabsev.de/ https://www.kabsev.de/ (German)

topmonk 8y ago

The following is conjecture, but I'm guessing that insects of the last century mainly survived off of crops from farmland, either directly or indirectly. So, if true, that means that it was hardly natural beforehand either. It may be we are just using better pesticides, so we moved from one artificial environment to a different one. Both are out-of-whack compared to what would naturally be there. How do you know the previous conditions, where there was lots of farmland, but no good pesticides was the better one?

animal531 8y ago

Where I live in South Africa the local Springbok deer herds were so large that they were once recorded to take 5 days to pass a camp.

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago

You clearly don't live in Minnesota, where the mosquito is the unofficial state bird. I come inside quickly in summer because there are mosquitoes and flies all over the place. Doing fireworks with my kids last week, I was deliberately standing downwind in the path of the smoke bombs to get some relief. I'm religious about not having standing water around, our cars are covered in bug carcasses after a 10-mile drive. I literally feel mosquitoes bouncing off my forehead as I walk through my dark backyard. I kill massive deer/horse flies constantly. If insects are dying, it sure ain't around here!