Bugs on head lights

[nails]

Read a interesting article the other day about driving in the 80s, in the summer time there would be thousands of dead insects stuck to the front lights, number plate etc etc, Today however, not a problem any more, I think i know whats caused it, what about everyone else. Could it have a knock on affect in the cycle of life.[/QUOTE
I would agree there are far less insects around this year,. What's the reason? Well is it the effect of pesticides and herbicides being used over a period of time and is now having a noticeable effect on the natural world. Not just insects , but where have all the birds gone?. Things definitely changed at a quicker rate in the last 40 years

 

[Kidds]

If you take away neonics and chlorpyriphos and say you can now only use pyrethroids what would you think likely to happen?

I can't say what effect neonics had on the wider insect population but my own experience tells me chlorpyriphos used sensibly was as environmentally friendly as an insecticide could be.
"Used sensibly" is an unfortunately rare practice it seems to me.

 

[Gong Farmer]

Pyrethroids more broad spectrum than chlorpyrifos so using only pyrethroids would/will be worse for wildlife.

 

[Spudie]

Was eatin alive with midges this evening sorting lambs. Thought they'd be gone now

 

[icanshootwell]

Where there has been a small improvement is, a lot of smaller shoots are about today with additional game covers, i am in a small shoot, and the wildlife has increased over the last 10 years, with wider margins around the hedges has helped, but you are right there is a decline over all in our birds, even where i live, there used to be loads of starlings in the Spring feeding there young, hardly see any now.

 

[Cowabunga]

Where there has been a small improvement is, a lot of smaller shoots are about today with additional game covers, i am in a small shoot, and the wildlife has increased over the last 10 years, with wider margins around the hedges has helped, but you are right there is a decline over all in our birds, even where i live, there used to be loads of starlings in the Spring feeding there young, hardly see any now.

They go where the easy pickings are. To livestock farms that user mixer wagons and especially ones that feed maize in accessible troughs. They come in crowds of clouds. Block out the sun as they fly on many farms.

If starlings really are in decline, and they certainly are not in West Wales, could it be because they are so well fed that they are too fat to fly home when time to migrate?

 

[Brisel]

Bugs like hot dry weather. We haven't had any of that since July. No wonder the numbers are supposedly down!

I can imagine a small flying insect being taken down by a big fat raindrop. There have been a few...

 

[Gong Farmer]

I can imagine a small flying insect being taken down by a big fat raindrop.

Might be all we have to control them, soon

 

[Blaithin]

You have weak bugs there then. The only kind that like hot and dry here are grasshoppers. The rest are happy to take over the world while it rains

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

Where there has been a small improvement is, a lot of smaller shoots are about today with additional game covers, i am in a small shoot, and the wildlife has increased over the last 10 years, with wider margins around the hedges has helped, but you are right there is a decline over all in our birds, even where i live, there used to be loads of starlings in the Spring feeding there young, hardly see any now.

Hardly any starlings around here, ditto housemartins, swifts etc, the telephone lines used to be covered with them every September, just the odd two or four sitting on the lines these past few years.
And yes insect numbers seem to have crashed, except for the parasitic varieties, cleggs, ticks etc.

 

[Cowabunga]

Hardly any starlings around here, ditto housemartins, swifts etc, the telephone lines used to be covered with them every September, just the odd two or four sitting on the lines these past few years.
And yes insect numbers seem to have crashed, except for the parasitic varieties, cleggs, ticks etc.

Start feeding maize silage in open troughs and you will soon find that you are swamped by dear little starlings. I don't have any here yet [don't feed maize] but my neighbours [who do], already have flying armies of them.

Flying insect numbers late in the season, when they peak, is very much influenced by the weather early in the season when they would multiply in bulk. Less insects in June and July results in markedly fewer numbers in August and September.

Don't worry, they will be back next year if its warm and damp, but not sopping wet like this year. Seen it all before.

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

Start feeding maize silage in open troughs and you will soon find that you are swamped by dear little starlings. I don't have any here yet [don't feed maize] but my neighbours [who do], already have flying armies of them.

The murmurations of starlings that were a common sight around here are largely a thing of the past.
But who knows? they might just have migrated to,your part of the world

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

Start feeding maize silage in open troughs and you will soon find that you are swamped by dear little starlings. I don't have any here yet [don't feed maize] but my neighbours [who do], already have flying armies of them.

Flying insect numbers late in the season, when they peak, is very much influenced by the weather early in the season when they would multiply in bulk. Less insects in June and July results in markedly fewer numbers in August and September.

Don't worry, they will be back next year if its warm and damp, but not sopping wet like this year. Seen it all before.

I have a feeling the Guardian and this bloke in particular, will be as appreciated as a fart in a lift on here but the points he raises are worrying.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...astrophe-climate-breakdown-insect-populations

 

[Exfarmer]

Probably a big thing in insect life is the lack of mixed farming. In my village there are no longer any livestock at all. The meadows have been requistioned by the wildlfe trust who obviously believe nature knows best , which mean they are now semi waste only fit for wasing birds.
We are inundated with mosquitoes but thankfully no malaria yet

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

Probably a big thing in insect life is the lack of mixed farming. In my village there are no longer any livestock at all. The meadows have been requistioned by the wildlfe trust who obviously believe nature knows best , which mean they are now semi waste only fit for wasing birds.
We are inundated with mosquitoes but thankfully no malaria yet

And yet lots of mixed farming around me, and lots of trees and hedges but apart from the buggers that bite, insect populations have definitely fallen and bird populations, also rabbits, hares and smaller mammals are rarely seen.
Roadkill, which is usually a good indicator of the wildlife populations practically non existent.

 

[icanshootwell]

I have a feeling the Guardian and this bloke in particular, will be as appreciated as a fart in a lift on here but the points he raises are worrying.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...astrophe-climate-breakdown-insect-populations

There is not much i would disagree with in that report, I can see big changes on the horizon.

 

[Farmer Roy]

You have weak bugs there then. The only kind that like hot and dry here are grasshoppers. The rest are happy to take over the world while it rains

haha - our bugs love humidity

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

Probably a bad example as they wouldn't go fast enough to kill bugs but the same design comment applies to most cars pre-1970s

I have driven LR most of my adult life and if ever a vehicle was designed to swat bugs, its the LR and for a few years now insects on my windscreen haven't been a problem.
Also 'summer snow' the crowds of insects that used to appear in your headlights! Also now seemingly a thing of the past.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Must still be plenty of mosquitoes around in S America . Had to have the yellow fever jab before I could visit the Iguassu Falls ,and carry repellant against mossy bites .

 

[joe soapy]

Its not only insects that have dissappeared, we are on the side of an estuary, only noticed recently that the Limpits have gone, also the flat fish, lapwings Widgeon, golden plover,
Curlews and sheld ducks etc have all dropped massively in numbers. Not noticed any eels either or snipe recently. frogs and toads also missing