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Thread: Horrific drop in number of insects |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 20
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adriverhoef
Master Cruncher The Netherlands Joined: Apr 3, 2009 Post Count: 1978 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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"Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say"
"Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/...-plunge-in-insect-numbers "Although it was known species such as bees and butterflies were declining, scientists were left shocked by the drop in numbers across nature reserves in Germany." "The decline was even starker in summer – when insect numbers are at their highest – with a loss of 82 per cent." "A UN report in March warned that pesticides, which are “aggressively promoted” by chemical industries, were found to have “catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole”." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fly...ent-plummet-a8008406.html |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3103 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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That really is astonishing, horrified & worrisome.
----------------------------------------In #Croatia a program has stared to make a hotels for bugs over the winter time: https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/uvoze-s...aznja-za-pcelama-20100716 Hopefully it will help out to populate #Europe again. ;) |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
We are hearing the same from our scientists in the UK, although not as harshly as in Germany. The study is being reported in the Plos One journal.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I share your concern.
Almost as if the krill would disappear from the oceans. On the small scale of this huge issue, I listened to a radio program several months ago upsetting enough for me to remember it, dealing with the decrease of the honey bee population in Denmark. One beekeeper told he was ruined. His bees had lost their orientation and did not return from the rape seed fields. Wild bee species are known to lose their fertility. The reason is presumed to be that the rape seeds are treated with neonicotinoid before they are planted. Neonicotinoid is not allowed for spraying in the EU, but the Denmark has wiggled an exception for the farmers allowing them to sow treated seeds. As I remember it, no other EU country does that. Also the neonicotinoid seeps into the waterbodies and affect the creatures living there. And that's just from treating the seeds. Thought provoking, indeed. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I On the small scale of this huge issue, I listened to a radio program several months ago upsetting enough for me to remember it, dealing with the decrease of the honey bee population in Denmark. One beekeeper told he was ruined. His bees had lost their orientation and did not return from the rape seed fields. Wild bee species are known to lose their fertility. The reason is presumed to be that the rape seeds are treated with neonicotinoid before they are planted. Neonicotinoid is not allowed for spraying in the EU, but the Denmark has wiggled an exception for the farmers allowing them to sow treated seeds. As I remember it, no other EU country does that. Also the neonicotinoid seeps into the waterbodies and affect the creatures living there. And that's just from treating the seeds. Thought provoking, indeed. Your reply has had me thinking about my not seeing so many bees, or indeed wasps as usual. Then I remembered as short story that the BBC ran earlier this year commenting on the sudden decrease in bee populations. Worrying times methinks. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Oct 20, 2017 12:43:36 PM] |
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adriverhoef
Master Cruncher The Netherlands Joined: Apr 3, 2009 Post Count: 1978 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Alarming times indeed, the decrease in bee populations in Europe was also published by The Independent, in March 2016. It was then said that "Honeybees across Europe are being poisoned by up to 57 different pesticides, a scientific study has found."
Polish investigators "detected 57 different types, the vast majority of which are approved for use in the European Union." "Bee health is a matter of public concern - bees are considered critically important for the environment and agriculture by pollinating more than 80 per cent of crops and wild plants in Europe." |
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enels
Senior Cruncher Joined: Apr 25, 2008 Post Count: 286 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Feeding bees, me. I have raspberrys and flowers the bees love. They also love hummingbird nectar. Nectar is 1 cup water to 1/4 cup sugar. Must be microwaved for 3 minutes to dissolve sugar. Will attract migrating hummingbirds as well. In the Northwest USA, Anna's hummingbird has become a year round resident in the last 100 years. Change nectar every couple of days.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
It's been a while since the German findings were published, but someone listens out there:
DR – Denmark’s Radio writes on their website A German survey showed last year that about four out of five flying insects have disappeared from German nature over the past three decades. Lone Andersen, Vice President of Agriculture and Food, fears that the situation is the same in Denmark. ”The insects are crucial. For example, agricultural crops are dependent on insects' help with pollination. It is incredibly important that we have many insects out there, and we would like to contribute.” Now, Danish agriculture will make an effort to help the insects back. Agriculture and Food has issued a number of recommendations to farmers about how they can help the insects. ”We can take many actions, most of which are even completely free. We just need to learn how to do it,” explains Lone Andersen. "If we learn to become a little more disordely and messy and for example leave dead trees in our hedges, it will be very good for the insects," she says. ”It takes so little on the part of the farmer to make a difference”, she points out, and you can quickly see that it creates results. For example, on Lone Andersen's own farms, they leave grass edges around the fields, and some old gravel mines have been allowed to remain and have turned into ponds or lakes where wildflowers grow in summer, and more insects like goldsmiths and butterflies are coming. ”It is a motivating factor. It's exciting when you can see that it works,” she says. "If we can spread the word among farmers so that they do not just talk money, hectares and kilos of milk, but also talk about the insects and flowers you get in the fields it would be fantastic.” It is the agricultural advisory center Seges, which has compiled recommendations for how farmers and other landowners can help the threatened insects in the Danish landscape, which Agriculture & Foods will now bring to the knowledge of farmers. The measures are fairly down to earth - leaving a bale of hay or a dead tree to rot in the edge of a field - establishing ponds and lakes - make lark spots in the field - naked spots where nothing has been sowed - tend to existing or establish new hedges of live bushes - make piles of stones, establish stripes of flowers dear to insects in or along the fields, make insect piles (earth piles), and grass borders |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3103 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Feeding bees, me. I have raspberrys and flowers the bees love. They also love hummingbird nectar. Nectar is 1 cup water to 1/4 cup sugar. Must be microwaved for 3 minutes to dissolve sugar. Will attract migrating hummingbirds as well. In the Northwest USA, Anna's hummingbird has become a year round resident in the last 100 years. Change nectar every couple of days. They are so sensitive to radio waves...so might be also sensitive to microwaved food! I'd do that the "old fashion way" of heating.  |
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Dayle Diamond
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jan 31, 2013 Post Count: 440 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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No worries KLiK- microwaved food doesn't become radioactive, it becomes warm.
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