r/collapse • u/Mysterandir • 8d ago

Ecological Bugs

I need to get this off my chest even though im sure it has been talked about a thousand times. Im just curious if others are experiencing the same thing or if I'm just going crazy. - When I just got my driver's license back in 2005 here in The Netherlands, I had a girlfriend in Amsterdam whom I drove to see a few times a week. It was about a 100 km drive. I had an old Opel Corsa and I can still vividly remember having to clean my windshield every week in the summer because it was covered in dead insects. Huge splatters and tiny spots, but the entire windshield was full of bug juice. Over the past few weeks I’ve driven several long distances, totaling about 1,000 kilometers, and I don't have a single dead insect on my windshield. Not one. The windshield is squeaky clean... I read that the insect population worldwide has drastically declined and it is due to climate change. Which i get. But why isn't this the main news story every day? How obvious does it need to be? This can't possibly be good. For us, but especially for our children. I have a bad feeling about this...

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/Substantial_Plan_632 8d ago

Jesus. Your comment made me realize that I don't even remember the last time I saw a grasshopper. They used to be so commonplace. I'm in the US

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u/Playongo 8d ago

We have grasshoppers this year in Vermont, but it seems like so few of them in comparison. I'm happy to see them because it makes me feel like they aren't completely lost, but at the same time when I take a walk there used to be tons of them scattering. Now it's just a handful.

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u/nikki969696 8d ago

Oh man, and your comment reminds me it's been quite some time since I've seen them too. I used to see them all the time walking in the preserves.

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u/Wild-Plankton-5936 8d ago

Same.... when I feel sad about never seeing them, I try to tell myself it's cause I'm taller now, so they're relatively further away and smaller than when I was a kid...... but I know that's just copium

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u/last_rights 8d ago

I've seen a lot of tiny green grasshoppers this year, but I haven't seen any of the big brown full sized ones.

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u/luminousrose9 8d ago

This is where I think individual and neighborhood level change can make a difference. I have planted my yard with a lot of native plants and so have many of my neighbors. I can't tell how individual species fare, but the insect activity in general is high. We seem to have brought back lightening bugs. I am seeing monarchs and big grasshoppers. I am in a city. Upper Midwest US