insects

neilo · Oct 16, 2021

yellowbelly said:
No. 374 in @neilo 's list of money making schemes.
Is there no limit to his talents

Unfortunately not my bakehouse to lease out.

I only wish the estate would spend as much on the farmhouse as the the wildlife trust did on that building, which was reroofed twice to make it nice for the bats.

roscoe erf · Oct 16, 2021

Widgetone said:
Yep, sorry to say the arable East does not lend itself much to a great insect and bird population ( excluding cluster flies and buzzards ffs ).
Had a flier only last night from the local wildlife trust talking about re wilding in Suffolk...

missing a trick really these re-wilders just go back to mixed farming no need to reintroduce long dead species

roscoe erf · Oct 16, 2021

Jsmith2211 said:
I've seen a lot of people recently complaining about the lack of insects due to intensive farming in recent years. However, every night im out with the LEDs on i cant get out of the cab without hundreds of the damned things buzzing into my face and inevitably into my cab. I can provide a picture of them all swarming around the lights if anybody doubts this. How does this compare to other people's experiences with insects at night? I expect the reason we have so many round here is that it is a largely mixed system, with plenty of grassland and woodland around, which is very different to other parts of the country.

I think its area specific

Jonp · Oct 16, 2021

neilo said:
We have an old bakehouse behind the farmhouse, which is leased to a wildlife trust as a bat roost (apparently one of only two in Wales for this species).
Every year they come out over a few nights and count the numbers using the roost, to gauge what the population is doing. Numbers dipped drastically in 2012 and 13, a cold, wet summer followed by a long cold winter, which reduced insect numbers. Since then, numbers have climbed well ever since, which they think is directly down to them having plentiful food (they eat insects).

Incidentally, we moved here in 2012 and farm far more intensively than the previous tenant, although always with one eye on nature, like most farmers. I have gapped up a few hedges to reconstruct feeding corridors for those bats (who apparently wont cross a gap of more than 5m), but nothing else specific for insects or bats really, just carried on farming ‘normally’.

I see the bats in the late dusk flying up and down the tree lines and darting out into the fields a short way. One even brushed my hair..and I thought there were no flies on me!

toquark · Oct 16, 2021

roscoe erf said:
missing a trick really these re-wilders just go back to mixed farming no need to reintroduce long dead species

That would involve them admitting two things:
1) Farmers can be good for the environment
2) Red meat production is a beneficial component of the UK ecosystem.

Can’t see it happening any time soon tbh

ollie989898 · Oct 16, 2021

It's got fudge all to do with farming (which is anything has got more wildlife friendly in the last 20 years) and it is more to do with the climate.

Jsmith2211 · Oct 17, 2021

cb387 said:
I’m sure there are noticeably less insects about now. 30 years ago if you opened the cab door at night with the lights on for too long you soon had what seemed like hundreds of the buggers whizzing round in the cab with you. Not the case these days

I disagree. if i open the door at night with the lights on i get hundreds of the buggers flying around the cab with me. i know this because ive swatted so many of the barstewards!

toquark said:
That would involve them admitting two things:
1) Farmers can be good for the environment
2) Red meat production is a beneficial component of the UK ecosystem.

Can’t see it happening any time soon tbh

the media are in a large way responsible for this trend towards hating meat. they've been pushing chris packham and his ill informed vegan nutters for years pretending eating meat is bad for the planet, and without anybody actually putting the opposing argument forwards, people believe them.

Kidds · Oct 17, 2021

Av Gorritt said:
Better day a couple of days back , and I opened the landing window for a bit of fresh air . I now have four quite big clusters of hibernating ladybirds on the inside window frame corners . I don't mind them being there , in fact I'm quite pleased and I haven't got an O.H. to complain . I just hope they don't think Winter is over when the central heating comes on , is there anything I can do to help them survive the Winter , or shall I just leave them to their own devices ?

Careful not to get too many because they stink to high heaven. Don't get me wrong I do like them and have been host to millions of them but they do smell awful.

raymono57 · Oct 17, 2021

I've been riding motorbikes since the mid 1970's. I used to get splattered with insects of all sorts.
Nowadays, I can ride around with a visor up quite easily - hardy any insects around.
Same routes, same time of day.
Something has happened.

pycoed · Oct 17, 2021

raymono57 said:
I've been riding motorbikes since the mid 1970's. I used to get splattered with insects of all sorts.
Nowadays, I can ride around with a visor up quite easily - hardy any insects around.
Same routes, same time of day.
Something has happened.

Drag coefficient

toquark · Oct 17, 2021

I would expect that in the east the decline of mixed farming since the war is bound to have had an effect on insects. In the west which hasn’t really changed much, the insect levels are probably healthier. I know where I am I’d say there are good populations but we’re also surrounded by trees and every farm carries stock.

insects

neilo

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roscoe erf

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roscoe erf

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Jonp

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toquark

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ollie989898

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Jsmith2211

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Kidds

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raymono57

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pycoed

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toquark

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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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