IT'S NOT JUST BEES! IT'S DARN NEAR EVERY INSECT. FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS! WAKE UP!
I live in the Willow Creek area. I'm almost 60 years old.
I've been watching the precipitous decline of ALL INSECTS for 4 years. As a young Californian, I remember that in summer, insects were HELLLISH. You could NOT leave the door open or you'd have flys inside in great numbers. It was difficult to find a place to sit on the ground that wasn't covered with ANTS of ALL DESCRIPTIONS. Bees and wasps in the house were a daily occurrence. Mosquitoes would flood in after dark and moths of ALL DESCRIPTIONS would cover any window with a light in it. As a young man, walking barefoot on a lawn was hazardous because of the honeybees on every little flower and clover.
For the last 4 years, I have been able to leave my doors and unscreened windows wide open any hour of day or night. I may get a few gnat/flies inside. I may see 2 or 3 tiny moths. The lights outside the house have no moths around them. Finding an ant hill is a rarity. The only ants that invade are the tiny black ones. There is a healthy population of "Daddy longleg" spiders (So they must be eating something, but finding a spiderweb with a bug in it isn't common any more. Dead flies on windowsills are almost non-existent. Lawns covered with daisies will have almost ZERO insects on them.
This is year 5. I purposely have not washed the windshield on my vehicle during summer any of these years. I can literally go the whole summer without any problem seeing around the bug splats. What splats are there are small.
I remember so many insects in California that on any long trip you had to wash out your radiator to keep the car from overheating from the thousands of insects of all descriptions plugging it.
I remember turning over rocks and finding scorpions very often.
I remember having mosquito bites all summer long.
I remember so many bees in the fruit trees and the blackberry bushes that the air vibrated from them.
I remember the forest being FULL of songbirds of ALL descriptions. There were so many that the forest was NOISY from birds, squirrels and insects.
NONE OF THAT EXISTS TODAY. NONE. NONE. NONE. I've noticed the same thing from the Columbia river on the North to the Bay Area on the South.
I've also spoken with people around the country and many of them are seeing a severe drop in insect populations. Notably Manitoba Canada and Fairbanks Alaska have both reported very few insects and small wildlife.
WAKE UP, IT'S NOT JUST THE BEES!
INSECT EXTINCTION ON NORTH WEST COAST. PLEASE READ!
Dear esperanza, thank you for your kind reply. As you can see, it's difficult to find anyone who really seems to care about insects that aren't bees. I guess it's the cuteness factor, because insects of all types pollinate flowers here. (Or they used to anyway).
I'M BEGGING PEOPLE TO OBSERVE AND REPORT ON THE TOTAL INSECT POPULATION IN THEIR AREA. PLEASE THINK BACK A DECADE TO WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN SUMMER PRE-2000. PLEASE! PLEASE! WHILE YOU'RE OBSERVING BEES, LOOK AROUND YOU!
For clarification, the area I live in is surrounded by wilderness. Most of Northern California North of San Francisco/Sacramento is wild. The nearest stoplight to my home is 40+ miles in one direction, 50 in another and running N and S... there aren't even any real roads to speak of for hundreds of miles. This extends endlessly to the North and even in areas surrounding the major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, there are endless uninhabited rolling hills within scant miles of the outskirts.
Where I live now is a primarily forested/canyon country. Coastal mountains cut through by 6 major rivers (Six Rivers National Forest) and countless streams, creeks and branches.
As a boy, I lived on the outskirts of the Bay Area and we frequently drove North into Oregon to visit relatives. That area was mostly wild grassland, rolling hills, wild flowers and Oaks. I can say that in summer, there were so many insects of every possible variety that it was a real problem to keep them out of your home, your car, your hair, your food, your clothing. The variety was immense and the numbers of insects was incalculable.
When I was in grade school, we had giant blooms and migrations of Monarch butterflys that would literally cover trees in orange. There were common butterflys of every description. The little white "Common" butterflys fluttered from every flower. Insects that pollinate flowers were so numerous that in a big field of flowers, or flowering trees, they literally competed and every flower that was vacated by one insect was immediately occupied by another. I didn't exaggerate when I said that flying insects would plug your car radiator on any trip of over a day or so.
We had ants of every description. Red, black, big, little, red and black, huge, tiny, biting, non-biting, furry, giant ant hills, ants coming from every crack in the sidewalk. Turn over any rock or piece of paper on the ground and there would be hundreds of pillbugs, ants etc. . Scorpions were common, (Green, grey, black, white).
Mosquitos? All kinds. In some areas, you literally couldn't stay outside in the early evening. Clouds of mosquitoes and gnats flying over creeks and rivers caused trout and other fish to rise and hit the surface in large numbers.
Moths. There were so many moths circling every streetlight that you could literally see swarms of them from 1/4 mile away at night. Bats would collect and dive through the swarms picking them off. We could catch bats by tossing a fishing weight with a hook on it under a streetlight.
Lizards. EVERYWHERE. All kinds. Bluebellys, skinks, horned toads, neon striped. Running across the street in front of the cars, squished all over the highways, sunning themselves on nearly every fence post and rock.
Snakes. Very common, many different types.
Birds. Immense numbers. The blackbirds roosting on the phone lines would be in such great numbers that the lines sagged under their weight. Buzzards in 10's and 20's circling on thermals. Hawks screaming. Falcons. Songbirds everywhere. Woodpeckers boring holes in every dead tree.
Deer were a major traffic hazard in the forested areas. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing them browsing on peoples flowers or lawns. There were dead deer along every highway and you had to be on the watch for them or you'd wreck your car.
NONE OF THAT EXISTS HERE ANY MORE. NONE NONE NONE. Just from personal observation, I would put the different types of insects here at maybe 1% of previous numbers. (In other words, 99% disappeared) and the numbers of those that remain would also be reduced by about 99%. I haven't actually counted, but when you can leave your doors and windows open all summer long and have almost ZERO insects inside (Except daddy long leg spiders that are apparently feeding off other spiders like black widows), that says a lot.
Now, seeing a few flys buzzing around a garbage bin is UNCOMMON. Can you imagine?
The frightening part is nobody notices. Unless it's bees. Nobody seems to remember the forests being LOUD with birds. Nobody remembers having problems with carpenter bees and woodpeckers boring holes in their homes. Nobody remembers being run off a picnic by yellow jackets attacking the food. And here we are in an area served by Humboldt State University, which is SUPPOSED to be some huge ECOLOGY UNIVERSITY. They not only don't notice, they won't LISTEN. They still pimp this idea that the North West Coastal area is some wonderland of massive diversity. IT'S CRAP.
It's so sad. It really breaks my heart.
Something is going on on the North West Coast. Something horrible and huge and I can't help but wonder how far it extends. I miss it. I miss the wonder of carpets of insects moving and shimmering on every flower. My children will never get to see it, or the birds that preyed on them, or the birds and scavengers that preyed on them.
Please everyone. Wake up to this and observe in your own area. Bees are very important they've largely disappeared too, but while you're out there looking for bees, look around for any other insects. Remember the past and ask yourself, are you missing something?
And if you're still using any pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or other poisons. Please stop now. We need to stop this!
peace on earth
d
It's not just the bees
I'm sorry your area is losing so many insects.
I live in Philadelphia, PA in a section that is very close to one of the largest park systems in the city and includes Pennypack Creek which runs throughout the park. This is a protected woodland area and it's one of the places to which Canada geese migrate in the fall. Needless to say, I assumed that when I moved here, there would be lots of insects.
Even though I've lived here two years, this is the first year my landlord let me have a garden. I'm a fairly experienced gardener from many years ago and then I had all kinds of insects and had an interesting relationship with bees. I could be out in the garden hoeing a section and bees would just sit on the handle while I was working. They'd buzz all around me. It was lovely. I was hoping to have that experience in this garden too.
This year I started planting in April and by June, I hadn't seen any bees, just lots of hungry mosquitoes which I assumed migrated up here from the park. By the beginning this month, I still didn't see much. About two weeks ago that all changed. I planted lots of flowers including sunflowers, but we have lots of birds here, and most of the flowers didn't grow presumably because the birds ate the seeds. But in my garden the favorite attraction is basil.
It started with wasps, which used to scare me until I read about their reproductive behavior. I'd see a couple hanging out on the leaves which is nice. We've also had lots of bumblebees. This week a couple grasshoppers jumped on the leaves, but the great surprise came this morning when I saw three honeybees flying around the flowers on my basil plants: small, cute little things. It was pure joy.
The only thing missing is butterflies which I love dearly. I only saw a couple with interesting blue markings, but that's all. And that's probably due to the lack of flowers.
Reply to esperanza APPEAL TO OTHERS TO OBSERVE ALL INSECTS.
Dear esperanza, thank you for your kind reply. As you can see, it's difficult to find anyone who really seems to care about insects that aren't bees. I guess it's the cuteness factor, because insects of all types pollinate flowers here. (Or they used to anyway).
I'M BEGGING PEOPLE TO OBSERVE AND REPORT ON THE TOTAL INSECT POPULATION IN THEIR AREA. PLEASE THINK BACK A DECADE TO WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN SUMMER PRE-2000. PLEASE! PLEASE! WHILE YOU'RE OBSERVING BEES, LOOK AROUND YOU!
For clarification, the area I live in is surrounded by wilderness. Most of Northern California North of San Francisco/Sacramento is wild. The nearest stoplight to my home is 40+ miles in one direction, 50 in another and running N and S... there aren't even any real roads to speak of for hundreds of miles. This extends endlessly to the North and even in areas surrounding the major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, there are endless uninhabited rolling hills within scant miles of the outskirts.
Where I live now is a primarily forested/canyon country. Coastal mountains cut through by 6 major rivers (Six Rivers National Forest) and countless streams, creeks and branches.
As a boy, I lived on the outskirts of the Bay Area and we frequently drove North into Oregon to visit relatives. That area was mostly wild grassland, rolling hills, wild flowers and Oaks. I can say that in summer, there were so many insects of every possible variety that it was a real problem to keep them out of your home, your car, your hair, your food, your clothing. The variety was immense and the numbers of insects was incalculable.
When I was in grade school, we had giant blooms and migrations of Monarch butterflys that would literally cover trees in orange. There were common butterflys of every description. The little white "Common" butterflys fluttered from every flower. Insects that pollinate flowers were so numerous that in a big field of flowers, or flowering trees, they literally competed and every flower that was vacated by one insect was immediately occupied by another. I didn't exaggerate when I said that flying insects would plug your car radiator on any trip of over a day or so.
We had ants of every description. Red, black, big, little, red and black, huge, tiny, biting, non-biting, furry, giant ant hills, ants coming from every crack in the sidewalk. Turn over any rock or piece of paper on the ground and there would be hundreds of pillbugs, ants etc. . Scorpions were common, (Green, grey, black, white).
Mosquitos? All kinds. In some areas, you literally couldn't stay outside in the early evening. Clouds of mosquitoes and gnats flying over creeks and rivers caused trout and other fish to rise and hit the surface in large numbers.
Moths. There were so many moths circling every streetlight that you could literally see swarms of them from 1/4 mile away at night. Bats would collect and dive through the swarms picking them off. We could catch bats by tossing a fishing weight with a hook on it under a streetlight.
Lizards. EVERYWHERE. All kinds. Bluebellys, skinks, horned toads, neon striped. Running across the street in front of the cars, squished all over the highways, sunning themselves on nearly every fence post and rock.
Snakes. Very common, many different types.
Birds. Immense numbers. The blackbirds roosting on the phone lines would be in such great numbers that the lines sagged under their weight. Buzzards in 10's and 20's circling on thermals. Hawks screaming. Falcons. Songbirds everywhere. Woodpeckers boring holes in every dead tree.
Deer were a major traffic hazard in the forested areas. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing them browsing on peoples flowers or lawns. There were dead deer along every highway and you had to be on the watch for them or you'd wreck your car.
NONE OF THAT EXISTS HERE ANY MORE. NONE NONE NONE. Just from personal observation, I would put the different types of insects here at maybe 1% of previous numbers. (In other words, 99% disappeared) and the numbers of those that remain would also be reduced by about 99%. I haven't actually counted, but when you can leave your doors and windows open all summer long and have almost ZERO insects inside (Except daddy long leg spiders that are apparently feeding off other spiders like black widows), that says a lot.
Now, seeing a few flys buzzing around a garbage bin is UNCOMMON. Can you imagine?
The frightening part is nobody notices. Unless it's bees. Nobody seems to remember the forests being LOUD with birds. Nobody remembers having problems with carpenter bees and woodpeckers boring holes in their homes. Nobody remembers being run off a picnic by yellow jackets attacking the food. And here we are in an area served by Humboldt State University, which is SUPPOSED to be some huge ECOLOGY UNIVERSITY. They not only don't notice, they won't LISTEN. They still pimp this idea that the North West Coastal area is some wonderland of massive diversity. IT'S CRAP.
It's so sad. It really breaks my heart.
Something is going on on the North West Coast. Something horrible and huge and I can't help but wonder how far it extends. I miss it. I miss the wonder of carpets of insects moving and shimmering on every flower. My children will never get to see it, or the birds that preyed on them, or the birds and scavengers that preyed on them.
Please everyone. Wake up to this and observe in your own area. Bees are very important they've largely disappeared too, but while you're out there looking for bees, look around for any other insects. Remember the past and ask yourself, are you missing something?
And if you're still using any pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or other poisons. Please stop now. We need to stop this!
peace on earth
d
Reply to esperanza APPEAL TO OTHERS TO OBSERVE ALL INSECTS.
Dear esperanza, thank you for your kind reply. As you can see, it's difficult to find anyone who really seems to care about insects that aren't bees. I guess it's the cuteness factor, because insects of all types pollinate flowers here. (Or they used to anyway).
I'M BEGGING PEOPLE TO OBSERVE AND REPORT ON THE TOTAL INSECT POPULATION IN THEIR AREA. PLEASE THINK BACK A DECADE TO WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN SUMMER PRE-2000. PLEASE! PLEASE! WHILE YOU'RE OBSERVING BEES, LOOK AROUND YOU!
For clarification, the area I live in is surrounded by wilderness. Most of Northern California North of San Francisco/Sacramento is wild. The nearest stoplight to my home is 40+ miles in one direction, 50 in another and running N and S... there aren't even any real roads to speak of for hundreds of miles. This extends endlessly to the North and even in areas surrounding the major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, there are endless uninhabited rolling hills within scant miles of the outskirts.
Where I live now is a primarily forested/canyon country. Coastal mountains cut through by 6 major rivers (Six Rivers National Forest) and countless streams, creeks and branches.
As a boy, I lived on the outskirts of the Bay Area and we frequently drove North into Oregon to visit relatives. That area was mostly wild grassland, rolling hills, wild flowers and Oaks. I can say that in summer, there were so many insects of every possible variety that it was a real problem to keep them out of your home, your car, your hair, your food, your clothing. The variety was immense and the numbers of insects was incalculable.
When I was in grade school, we had giant blooms and migrations of Monarch butterflys that would literally cover trees in orange. There were common butterflys of every description. The little white "Common" butterflys fluttered from every flower. Insects that pollinate flowers were so numerous that in a big field of flowers, or flowering trees, they literally competed and every flower that was vacated by one insect was immediately occupied by another. I didn't exaggerate when I said that flying insects would plug your car radiator on any trip of over a day or so.
We had ants of every description. Red, black, big, little, red and black, huge, tiny, biting, non-biting, furry, giant ant hills, ants coming from every crack in the sidewalk. Turn over any rock or piece of paper on the ground and there would be hundreds of pillbugs, ants etc. . Scorpions were common, (Green, grey, black, white).
Mosquitos? All kinds. In some areas, you literally couldn't stay outside in the early evening. Clouds of mosquitoes and gnats flying over creeks and rivers caused trout and other fish to rise and hit the surface in large numbers.
Moths. There were so many moths circling every streetlight that you could literally see swarms of them from 1/4 mile away at night. Bats would collect and dive through the swarms picking them off. We could catch bats by tossing a fishing weight with a hook on it under a streetlight.
Lizards. EVERYWHERE. All kinds. Bluebellys, skinks, horned toads, neon striped. Running across the street in front of the cars, squished all over the highways, sunning themselves on nearly every fence post and rock.
Snakes. Very common, many different types.
Birds. Immense numbers. The blackbirds roosting on the phone lines would be in such great numbers that the lines sagged under their weight. Buzzards in 10's and 20's circling on thermals. Hawks screaming. Falcons. Songbirds everywhere. Woodpeckers boring holes in every dead tree.
Deer were a major traffic hazard in the forested areas. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing them browsing on peoples flowers or lawns. There were dead deer along every highway and you had to be on the watch for them or you'd wreck your car.
NONE OF THAT EXISTS HERE ANY MORE. NONE NONE NONE. Just from personal observation, I would put the different types of insects here at maybe 1% of previous numbers. (In other words, 99% disappeared) and the numbers of those that remain would also be reduced by about 99%. I haven't actually counted, but when you can leave your doors and windows open all summer long and have almost ZERO insects inside (Except daddy long leg spiders that are apparently feeding off other spiders like black widows), that says a lot.
Now, seeing a few flys buzzing around a garbage bin is UNCOMMON. Can you imagine?
The frightening part is nobody notices. Unless it's bees. Nobody seems to remember the forests being LOUD with birds. Nobody remembers having problems with carpenter bees and woodpeckers boring holes in their homes. Nobody remembers being run off a picnic by yellow jackets attacking the food. And here we are in an area served by Humboldt State University, which is SUPPOSED to be some huge ECOLOGY UNIVERSITY. They not only don't notice, they won't LISTEN. They still pimp this idea that the North West Coastal area is some wonderland of massive diversity. IT'S CRAP.
It's so sad. It really breaks my heart.
Something is going on on the North West Coast. Something horrible and huge and I can't help but wonder how far it extends. I miss it. I miss the wonder of carpets of insects moving and shimmering on every flower. My children will never get to see it, or the birds that preyed on them, or the birds and scavengers that preyed on them.
Please everyone. Wake up to this and observe in your own area. Bees are very important they've largely disappeared too, but while you're out there looking for bees, look around for any other insects. Remember the past and ask yourself, are you missing something?
peace on earth
d