If you’re old like I am (63) then you probably remember going for a drive on a highway and having to clean your car’s windshield every time you stopped for gas because your windshield would be splattered with the carcasses of squashed bugs. Remember that?…Now think about when the last time was when that happened to you.
Well, according to recent scientific studies conducted around the globe, not just here in once buggy New Jersey, flying insects are disappearing! In these studies researchers have evaluated 27 years of insect collection data and have found that the biomass of flying insects has fallen by a seasonal average of 76%. That’s a lot of bugs! 3 out of every 4 bugs aren’t around any more.
This is good news, right? Who needs bugs? But, unfortunately they are a very important part of the Earth’s ecosystem, providing food for animals, birds, (their numbers are declining too)… and bugs are also a very important part of agriculture!
Seen any bees lately either? And Remember fireflies? We used to chase those guys around all summer long and fill jars full just for fun. I saw a firefly last summer and remember thinking, “Fireflies! Whatever happened to them???”
Scientists say that Climate change seems an unlikely culprit for the decline in bug populations since the increase in temperatures should have helped bugs to thrive rather than have harmed the insect population, so what’s bugging the bugs?
Could it be something that humans are doing besides warming the planet? Like making it more toxic? Or radioactive? Or plastic and polluted? If only the bugs could tell us! But seriously… what would the world be like without any bugs at all?… Will we even notice when they are gone?… Or will it be impossible to not?
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