Early Retirement Extreme Forums

study shows massive insect loss

The canary in this mine we call Earth isn't looking too hot?

So I plant a vege garden every spring. This year my veggies would flower eg cucumber and zuchinni and then no fruit would happen. I researched and came to the conclusion it was a lack of pollination. I have only seen one Bee at the beginning of spring and then we found it dead in the driveway. Since then I've been planting lot's of pollinators and setting up a Bee hotel in the hopes of attracting more bees. I've only seen 2 since. I've also tried to pollinate the plants myself unsuccessfully. It is really disturbing. Any other gardeners seen this as well?

Indeed! I remember summers from 20 years ago where the garden airspace was thick with flying buzzers. Now seeing a single bee in the garden is sufficiently significant to constitute a facebook post. How ironic!

But yes, the insect apocalypse is a real thing. Thanks neonicotinoids. The way I usually wake people (over 35) up to this fact is to make them compare the amount of bugsplatter on their car windscreens back then compared to now.

Might not be too long before mechanical pollinization is part of agrofarming practices.

I absolutely believe it is happening, but I am not currently experiencing any difficulties with insect population in my very messy, quite damp, very fertile poly-cultures. In fact, my forearms are covered with miscellaneous bug bites (tick, ant, spider-mite), and I am a bit worried about West Nile confirmation in region.

jacob wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 18, 2019 11:50 am

The way I usually wake people (over 35) up to this fact is to make them compare the amount of bugsplatter on their car windscreens back then compared to now.

Yes! I'd forgotten all about that and I'm only 36

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_ ... e_disorder

About problems with the honey bee. Has been going on for some time now.