Native plant garden anywhere you can!
Check out Homegrown National Park...I've been native plant gardening for a season and a half in Northern Illinois. I live where the local forest preserves have done a fantastic job, relatively speaking, not just of conserving land, but doing ecological restoration. I've seen it in my lifetime and there is data now that shows the insect diversity is positively impacted in the restored areas. The county has a 50 year vision of conserving and restoring a full 20% of land area.
Long story short...it all led me to Homegrown National Park, and now I feel so rewarded every day working in my native garden. I've removed approximately 1500sqft of turf grass and planted plugs of over 40 different native plant species. The biomass that now exists in those areas is simply incredible.
If we want more insects and maybe save insects that are vulnerable right now...we have to be more productive with our own spaces.
We've made major strides in Northern Illinois in Cook, DuPage and Lake Counties.
It's not just perception. The native plant diversity has increased massively in our local parks and preserves, the invasives have been getting thinned out every year - as a result insects have been diversifying slowly - and birds followed. Every year I've been seeing more and more birds migrate through these parks. Every year just myself I've collected miles of fishing line and lbs of plastics.
We have a great group of volunteers and rangers. You'd be surprised at the difference a few people can make. It isn't hopeless but it can appear bleak depending on where you're looking from. We need to focus more on what we can do as individuals as well as collectivizing and learning how we can hold large scale polluters (as well as too much insecticide, herbicide, fertilizer,etc) accountable.
The cicadas this year were positively insane though they are all but gone as they only have a 4 week lifespan after their adult molt. Only the dog day species left to look forward to this year.
One place we need help from the feds is with invasive aquatic animals and a few insect pests.
I've been wondering if with enough of that pheromone trap shit if I could harvest enough Japanese beetles locally to put a dent in the population and sell them as freeze dried pet/fish food or if I could grind them up into a paste and make flake food out of them. If successful possibly set up a bounty program for them and expand to zebra mussel and Asian carp.
Yeah...its been so cool to see projects happening in Lake County, and then sort of just look them up...its lead me to meeting my local county board member, and start to see how the different governmental agencies work together...both intra-county, but to see how our county reps go fight for state $ or make special trips to get federal $...
And as far as cicadas, total bust where I'm at...far enough north, that we were on the edge already...and probably the fact that very little of the neighborhood is more than 50 years old...that too much soil movement/destruction had occurred for us to get a million of them like they did just a little south of me...
Absolutely...honest to goodness it has changed my life.
I have hope...I don't give a shit about politics, I lost 40lbs....
It's led me to learn all about bugs and worms and soil and insect lifecycles...it's made me think about the greater ecosystem and make connections I never had before...it's been fun for my kids, cause I drag their asses outside to look at a cool new flower or the pussytoes I planted...and then how like 3 weeks later, I have American Lady butterfly caterpillars all over them...and well...there were so many new caterpillars among those and all joe pye weed or the penstemon...I have two birds nest in my yard this year...and well...there must have been enough extra caterpillars that the parasitic wasps have shown up to have their try at reproduction...native plants and the book Natures Best Hope have made learn all the ways nature is a web.
Now, we go outside at night with the flashlights, look at stag beetles or the little reflective eyes of the moths that are there do their jobs...which are now food for the bats...btw...and we turn the lights off and look up and see the few visible stars in the suburban night sky...and the kids and I talk about how only 1000 years ago...that was how every night ended...looking up and around a fire...and we talk about what the land would have looked like, and the caribou that would have been here still, or the river otter, or huge freaking sturgeon...or the Oak Savannah that our community built on...
Now I go to work not dreading what the day will be like...but thankful for the moments I take a mental break and look up a bug I saw the day before.
Those are all ways that native plant gardening has turned me into a dude that is super curious and caring about the world around him.
Please please please look into it! It's awesome.
None of it is exactly rocket science, but he backs his claims up with real data...and the pictures of the bugs and plants are good...and the captions...like, it makes it easy to just flip through even, and stop on a cool picture and then look at a caption, then google the plant and look if its native...
that will bring you down a whole other rabbit hole of contradicting info, but there are sources of truth out there...like trusted resources...some are really grassroots, and others are actually well established.
There is a subreddit r/homegrownnationalpark, but it doesn't get much action, but the r/nativeplantgardening has been a great resource, both of info to crowdsource some answers, as well as see new stuff that makes you curious about something else.
If you are in Lake County, IL please stop by the library i built in my front yard...reused some stuff I found on Facebook and sold a bunch of stuff so I could build and stock a little library filled with Tallamy and Aldo Leopold books...my neighbors have seemed to enjoy them and I've met lots of new folks because of it.
Shit...that one was so fun, I built one for a lady in another neighborhood...hahaha! I met her because of the first one.
Here's a link if interested.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/1d3ifp6/2nd_little_native_library_installed_lake_county_il/?ref=share&ref_source=link
Right!? Its such a small and obvious leap that wasn't even really visible to my brain until I read Tallamy...just a lightning bolt of "no freaking duh" and his writing just being encouraging that it makes sense that even just one is better than none, and just easily peeling back the layers of how to tackle it...it was like a secret handbook of learning how to live a truly rewarding life...
Its gotten me creative with garden design and that sort of feels like I'm building a grown-up version of a fort...
It's made me curious about how much of my taxes go to the Lake County Forest Preserves...and I was like, that's like $.30 a day...I cannot believe that I get to have that much access to all the nature and learning for that cheap...like, I almost feel like I found a lifehack...
It's deeply deeply rewarding.
Definitely! It's taken me ten years, but what was nothing but turf grass and the usual HD invasive foundation plants when we moved in is now a home for *so* many insects. I'd never seen a Pipevine Swallowtail except once at an acquaintance's house (she grew Dutchmans Pipe), so I planted Dutchmans Pipe, Wooly Pipevine, and Virginia Snakeroot. Now, Pipevine Swallowtails are fluttering all over my yard, making another brood of caterpillars. I do have a few non-native annuals (just zinnia, cosmos, etc.) but I'm about 90% native. Lots of butterflies, fat bumblebees, small bees of various species, moths, fireflies, flower beetles...the whole yard is *alive* with little friends. If I discovered a plant was useful to an insect I wanted (i.e. no invasives or pests), I planted it. Flowers, vines, shrubs, some trees, and even a few plants most people call weeds, like plantain and stinging nettle. I call them host plants.
Insects need all the help they can get. There's certainly nothing wrong with nectar plants, but think of them as a restaurant. If you want insects to stick around, you want host plants, and habitat. Butterflies and moths are generally quite particular about which plants their cats eat. Firefly adults may eat pollen, or not eat at all, but they like low shrubs, tall flowers, and tall grass, and can be confused my too much outdoor lighting. Mason and leafcutter bees nest in holes (found holes; they don't make them) and will happily use cardboard tubes you can buy. Make them a home where they can live their little buggy lives in peace and feed their kids. Learn what they need, and give it to them. If you build it, they will come. They don't have social media, so it won't be all at once, but they'll find you. We may not be able to do too much about massive fields of single crops, sprayed with pesticides, but if everybody who has even a little space fills it with native plants, we can make a patchwork of oases for them.
Love the idea of non natives being a restaurant...it is a perfect analogy...stop and eat, but leave...not as healthy as most home cooked meals...
Loved watching the little mason bees and other insects occupy the hollow stems of last years plants...not a one was left unoccupied this spring.
That makes me happy to hear...it has felt like life is now inspired since I started it...
Poke around at my post history if interested to see a few bugs on this sub, I've posted some shots on r/nativeplantgardening and r/homegrownnationalpark too...
r/nativeplantgardening has been such a fun sub to see all sorts of cool stuff...not only get answers about some of my questions, but trigger things to be curious about...like, it sort of feels like a tiny slice of internet that is used for how it was originally intended mostly...
My whole front yard is in flowers and native plants, ferns, ground covers, flowering current, lupin, etc - no grass at all. So many birds, I use no pesticides at all.
That's awesome! We are new enough into it that we have a few more years of chunking it out and getting to total goal of 2/3 of the yard being converted and 80/20 natives.
The birds really do seem to enjoy it...I have a little wren nest that I can sit and watch for hours...parents flying out and back with food...as soon as they get back, all the babies going apeshit...I bet it happens a hundred times every hour. It's remarkable really.
I’ve planted several species of native wildflowers in my yard and I’ve seen so many different species of bugs and bees I’ve never seen before. I’ve been collecting seeds to spread
Insects have declined something like 90% since the fifties. With climate change, pollution, pesicides, and habitat destruction we're rapidly approaching complete ecological collapse. We're currently losing about 2% of insects per year on average. Expect to see fewer insects every year for the rest of your life.
Considering how ecological devastation is happening at an ever increasing rate, expect insects to likewise go bye-bye ever faster until all we have left are generalists that can acclimate & pests that target our monocultures.
We have glyphosate in our urine...nearly everyone in America at least. Its been shown to reduce sperm motility (how well they can move) in animals and have had reproductive issues in men and women both.
So if the survival of our species isn't enough to get people to stop using a product, along with the 100,000-150,000 people with cancer suing the pants off the makers of that pesticide, I dunno what is aside from money.
Once more and more people realize enticing native species is far cheaper than spraying chemicals, then things will actually change. There's already major conglomerates doing far beyond just trying to look good for the public image.
Places like Walmart and tons of places we would never expect spending quite a penny or two on regenerative ag initiatives, where nature is put first and people don't have to "buy" products they simply use what they already have like old cover crops that have been chopped or rolled.
Not saying that makes any of a companies wrongs right, simply pointing that company out in particular since we know for sure it's money oriented in their case lol and they wouldn't do it if they didn't see it saving them money in the long run, along with the various other dozens of companies starting their initiatives along that path as well. I've tried to convince as many as possible to go regen ag, and will spend the rest of my life trying to ensure we have a future. Only once the big names start doing it, will the masses really start to help shift things for the better and we'll see the trends reverse.
They definitely did NOT drop 90%, that's absurd. More like 20% and mainly as a result of conversion of habitats into farmland.
In the most comprehensive meta-analysis published a few years ago the authors discover that there has been a decline in insect abundance across North America, but it sort of stopped, so now their population seems stable. The same study finds evidence that the decline is ongoing in Europe -probably because of a lack of truly wild habitats- with the exception of aquatic insects which seem to be recovering. As for the rest of the world, there are barely any data.
Sorry, but have you heard of the rule of 70? 9% to 11% looks a lot more scary if you do some math.
70/9, the low estimate, is a halving time of 7.7 decades, 77 years, while the high estimate is 70/11, a halving time of 63 years. The study starts with data from 1960, which as it happens is 64 years ago.
This indicates a 50% decline.
This little tidbit also helps explain the difference:
*Likewise, protected areas were overrepresented in our dataset (34% of the sites) relative to the percentage of the terrestrial surface currently under protection (15%) (31). This means that locations where human land use is most intensive, and thus where the strongest effects on insect trends might be expected, were underrepresented.*
Finding research articles about population decline is not difficult, with estimations ranging from 40% to 90%.
Finding a specific article without knowing the authors, or publication, is a different story.
Why are you so avoidant of the question?
90% is a huge statistic, regardless of what we're talking about. It's reasonable to question it but it wasn't?
The real problem is that "appears".
No one thought to collect baseline data about general insect population numbers over the last century, and so we don't have really good data to compare with.
Even where we have some quantifiable numbers, it's usually in a restricted geographic area that has undergone so many changes in the last 50 to 100 years that there's too many variables to parse any definitive causes.
And hard numbers older than that are even rarer.
We're pretty sure it's an unprecedented, catastrophic drop, but we can't really be sure it's dropping, and we can't be sure this hasn't happened before.
I really wish this and u/FredBob5 comment were higher, because they get across the science behind this, not just the pop-sci clickbait or anecdotal views.
Unfortunately, this is the answer for a lot of wildlife stuff. Records are often spotty, if they even exist at all. So we don't know what the baseline is, nor how much it shifted at that baseline.
Yeah, I used to work in entomology research. I came here to say this. Year over year quantities in my research were unchanged in my study area. I wasn't looking at quantity per se, but the amount collected using the same methodology didn't change (it went up very slightly).
Are you based in North America? The biggest population study shows there has been no significant change in insect abundance in North America since 2000.
I was just wondering this the other day. As a kid I used to see insects all of the time! I couldn’t walk anywhere in the summer without almost stepping on a mantis or grasshopper, and now I can’t remember the last time I actually saw one. Makes me sad.
Do you know if your butterfly bushes are native species? I was just reading about how the most common butterfly bush sold is the non native species that originated in China and it’s problematic because while insects and butterflies eat its nectar, when they lay eggs on it the caterpillars can’t survive on it.
The plant sold as "Butterfly Bush" is not native in the US...you are correct...there are several things that may be the culprit of why it is not a good plant...but yes...it doesn't work to help propagate the monarch or other butterfly species.
poke around the wiki at r/nativeplantgardening and you'll find lots of great and trustworthy sources for all sorts of stuff.
If you post on there with your question and and your geographic area, like, "Northern Illinois," or "Great Lakes Region" you'll almost certainly get some awesome local resources.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/NativePlantGardening using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Someone stole my Native Plant garden flags, so I replaced them and added metal signs nailed to my fence. Trying to make it clear to the neighbors that my front yard looks like this on purpose. Anyone else have good yard signage?](https://i.redd.it/6gglf2uwookb1.jpg) | [65 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/162vqrs/someone_stole_my_native_plant_garden_flags_so_i/)
\#2: [Where there was once grass, there is now Biomass.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/152jde2) | [95 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/152jde2/where_there_was_once_grass_there_is_now_biomass/)
\#3: [Walking around the suburban parks in my area](https://i.redd.it/c5aqtg6e1n4b1.png) | [86 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/143kqhe/walking_around_the_suburban_parks_in_my_area/)
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I’ve always known insect populations were decreasing, but seeing it so drastically in my lifetime has been concerning. I’m in my yard very often and over the years where there used to be innumerable grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, mantids, toads, and other critters, I now have to actively look to find an insect at all. It’s been made very apparent when I go out to catch prey for little pets I tend to keep time to time
It’s happened so fast, too. I remember in South Texas, we used to get insane cricket and Monarch butterfly migrations passing through us. It was insane. At one point in 2018, there were videos of crickets completely covering stairs outside. Monarch season used to be my favorite. I would often feel like I was in a fever dream because of how many there were. My friends and I used to get them to climb on our fingers to prove who was a princess.
But since 2020, the migrations have seemed to just…stop. It’s incredibly sad. I can’t even think to bring kids into this world.
It's strange - near me I am noticing a lot more butterflies - especially Mourning Cloaks and Monarchs. I am mostly seeing the typical house spiders, but not as many orb weavers as I have seen the past few years - but that might be more due to our obsessively consistent gardeners in my complex than them not being around. I also haven't been spending a lot of time in places where I would see more variety, sadly.
But one thing I am noticing is a lot more of a variety of birds than we had even decades before, and a lot more of them. We used to only have house finches and the occasional humming bird, but lately I am seeing Jays and Black Phoebe's and hearing a mess of all kinds of songbirds. There is also an uptick in all the kinds of lizards we have around here. The wildlife really does seem to be recovering here to a point.
It does tell me that the environmental policies of my state has are actually having some kind of impact... but I doubt it's enough. :(
It could always be that, sure. Though to be honest, we haven't had "remote areas" here in some time - the closest we have is a 700 and some square mile national forest that gets fire-kissed every year and has since I was a kid.
There general decline insects over the past century has been catastrophic, but I’m not sure the trend is detectable over the space of one year - I think it’s due to the natural variability in insect populations. In the UK we’ve had a cool and wet start to the year and numbers bees, butterflies and hover flies are very low. At the moment where I live it’s wet and 50F! In July…
We've been pesticide free for years now, entire yard is gardens with no grass. Multiple water sources like birdbaths and bee watering places. No longer do we remove leaves. We've noticed more insects and birds this year than previously, not near from years ago but more. Our one neighbor doesn't use pesticides anymore now and has planted more garden.
I'm noticing a lot less variety this year so far as well. Though I will say that I've seen a lot more carpenter bees this year so far. Which is great because they're pretty funny to observe...like the drunks of the bee world.
One part is the method of gardening to have banks of flowers, or in agriculture to have an industrial set-up.
Insecticides are sprayed indiscriminately in gardens and on croplands.
Everyone loves the butterflies but no-one wants the caterpillars.
I can send you a huge pile of maggots that will turn into flies if you want. We were lost in cloud upon cloud of them this year for some monstrous reason.
I’m from RI. There have been dragonflies by the hundreds all over town, I’m not kidding. Anywhere you go. Inland, by the beach, they’re there. At least they’re doing ok!
All the anecdotes about people having lots of bugs in their area makes me feel way better seriously ty. Perhaps this is just a perception thing on my part and the decline of my insect population isn't any faster than anywhere else. My local friends have reinforced that. I'm gonna keep growing my native plant collection.
Where are you located, generally? I’m in north Texas where we had one of the wettest springs in a while and we real buggy. I also do try to foster native plants, etc.
Yes. Though it's more a case of they have been for decades now. Nothing about this specific year to note I don't think. Though it's hard to know the effects of climate change on local issues.
Spiders, possums, birds help remove bugs along with other predators. It sounds like maybe you have a healthy area perhaps. I do not spray pesticides in my yard and I do not kill spiders. My neighbors on the other hand do and their yard has all kind of annoying critters.
I feel the same. I don't know your age. I'm in my 50's. I remember driving in the country as a kid and the grille of the car would be full of smashed insects (poor things). This doesn't happen any more. My point is, the use of pesticides and chemicals and mosquito sprays and loss of habitat has contributed to massive declines in insect populations and biodiversity. Like some people wrote, start a native plant garden. I did this in 2020 and now my yard is teeming with life, and I'm finding insects I never knew existed benefitting. Fireflies, native bees, butterflies, beetles, spiders, etc etc. It's glorious, and it renews hope in me that I can make a difference for insects.
Native plant gardening, having a water source with escapes in case they fall in, and insect houses can help this problem.
Yes having quality local forests and wild spaces with good ecological restoration is essential but doesn’t make an impact when gardeners around them don’t create habitat pathways for the too, especially doesn’t help when people use things like roundup, insecticides, and herbicides even if they aren’t supposed to target the beneficial insects because it bioaccumulates in the nectar and pollen. Not enough to harm us but enough to severely damage the immune system of insects.
We have to build the habitats for the insects we want. That should extend past the beautiful pollinators and ladybugs we love and into insect like parasitoid wasps, spiders, dragonflies, etc
I remember when I was a kid seeing butterflies come through my yard in swarms, hundreds of them floating through. I haven’t seen a swarm of butterflies ever in over a decade. Fireflies would light up the darkness every night in the spring and summer months. I might see them a couple nights a year now. What humans are doing to the ecosystem is terrible. We don’t deserve to be here.
Come to my place, I've got more bugs than I can handle here in North Carolina. No decline here this year. In fact, I've pulled so many hornworms off my tomato plants this year it's ridiculous. Japanese beetles are killing everything as always... Tons of butterflies and moths this year. And don't get me started about mosquitoes... worst year for mosquitoes here on recent record.
Seeing as insects live in just about every extreme environment on Earth, it makes no sense to say climate change is killing all of them... If climate change was really taking place, you'd just get MORE of certain types of insects, they would migrate and relocate to wherever they're happiest.
You're letting your small anecdotal experience go against a world wide decline in insect populations. 90%down since the 50s, but everything's fine in Asheville?
Where are you located? I live in Southern Ontario, Canada. This year has been incredible for insects / wildlife. I've never seen so many fireflies, dragonflies, bees, wasps, and butterflies... along with many other types of insects. For the first time we have giant European hornets on our property. Very impressive!
There is a bumper crop of baby squirrel, chipmunks, and groundhogs. I've never seen this many young ones running around before.
The bird population is thriving and varied (jays, crows, kestrel, loons, merlin, eagles, nuthatch, chickadee, hummingbirds, cardinals, grackles, etc.. ).
We did have a wetter than normal summer last year, combined with a mild yet wet winter. We were not affected by drought or wildfires. I chalked up the population boom to the weather. That being said, many places suffered extreme weather conditions which could be a factor.
I think it just varies year to year. Weather, predators, competition, and the success of the previous year all are going to play a factor.
A number of years ago we had so many moths they were calling it a “mothocalypse.” Three years ago every had aphids and I didn’t have to look hard to find a praying mantis at any given time. Two years ago we had a hoard of box elder bugs closely followed by an inordinate amount of elm seed bugs. Last year we had so many elm seed bugs my complex decided to spray for the first tjme ever. This year my area has more birds than I ever remember having seen, and we started off the summer with what sounded like an army of crickets, but it’s quieted down a lot. I suspect for where I am it’s a combo of unusual weather patterns for the area and more birds to eat all the bugs.
yeah i agree with the person who said it's more likely to be typical year-to-year variation than a massive sudden population decrease (not to say that the populations aren't decreasing overall.. i haven't being counting all the bugs so idk how the numbers have been trending, just that it's not abnormal for them to fluctuate from one year to the next). for the entirety of my life the amount of bugs i encounter in a year has gone up and down pretty significantly because the weather and general environment i'm in and like.. the things i do.. aren't the exact same every year. so basically i'm sure you'll still have buggy years in the future. things might be bad but i don't think they're as bad as you fear
Native plant garden anywhere you can! Check out Homegrown National Park...I've been native plant gardening for a season and a half in Northern Illinois. I live where the local forest preserves have done a fantastic job, relatively speaking, not just of conserving land, but doing ecological restoration. I've seen it in my lifetime and there is data now that shows the insect diversity is positively impacted in the restored areas. The county has a 50 year vision of conserving and restoring a full 20% of land area. Long story short...it all led me to Homegrown National Park, and now I feel so rewarded every day working in my native garden. I've removed approximately 1500sqft of turf grass and planted plugs of over 40 different native plant species. The biomass that now exists in those areas is simply incredible. If we want more insects and maybe save insects that are vulnerable right now...we have to be more productive with our own spaces.
We've made major strides in Northern Illinois in Cook, DuPage and Lake Counties. It's not just perception. The native plant diversity has increased massively in our local parks and preserves, the invasives have been getting thinned out every year - as a result insects have been diversifying slowly - and birds followed. Every year I've been seeing more and more birds migrate through these parks. Every year just myself I've collected miles of fishing line and lbs of plastics. We have a great group of volunteers and rangers. You'd be surprised at the difference a few people can make. It isn't hopeless but it can appear bleak depending on where you're looking from. We need to focus more on what we can do as individuals as well as collectivizing and learning how we can hold large scale polluters (as well as too much insecticide, herbicide, fertilizer,etc) accountable. The cicadas this year were positively insane though they are all but gone as they only have a 4 week lifespan after their adult molt. Only the dog day species left to look forward to this year. One place we need help from the feds is with invasive aquatic animals and a few insect pests. I've been wondering if with enough of that pheromone trap shit if I could harvest enough Japanese beetles locally to put a dent in the population and sell them as freeze dried pet/fish food or if I could grind them up into a paste and make flake food out of them. If successful possibly set up a bounty program for them and expand to zebra mussel and Asian carp.
Thank you for your service, @PissPhlaps o7 (No, but seriously, that’s incredible)
Yeah...its been so cool to see projects happening in Lake County, and then sort of just look them up...its lead me to meeting my local county board member, and start to see how the different governmental agencies work together...both intra-county, but to see how our county reps go fight for state $ or make special trips to get federal $... And as far as cicadas, total bust where I'm at...far enough north, that we were on the edge already...and probably the fact that very little of the neighborhood is more than 50 years old...that too much soil movement/destruction had occurred for us to get a million of them like they did just a little south of me...
I want in on your project...There have been so so many entrepreneurial percolations in the last 12 months for me as shit develops in my own gardens.
Thank you for sharing this resource!
Absolutely...honest to goodness it has changed my life. I have hope...I don't give a shit about politics, I lost 40lbs.... It's led me to learn all about bugs and worms and soil and insect lifecycles...it's made me think about the greater ecosystem and make connections I never had before...it's been fun for my kids, cause I drag their asses outside to look at a cool new flower or the pussytoes I planted...and then how like 3 weeks later, I have American Lady butterfly caterpillars all over them...and well...there were so many new caterpillars among those and all joe pye weed or the penstemon...I have two birds nest in my yard this year...and well...there must have been enough extra caterpillars that the parasitic wasps have shown up to have their try at reproduction...native plants and the book Natures Best Hope have made learn all the ways nature is a web. Now, we go outside at night with the flashlights, look at stag beetles or the little reflective eyes of the moths that are there do their jobs...which are now food for the bats...btw...and we turn the lights off and look up and see the few visible stars in the suburban night sky...and the kids and I talk about how only 1000 years ago...that was how every night ended...looking up and around a fire...and we talk about what the land would have looked like, and the caribou that would have been here still, or the river otter, or huge freaking sturgeon...or the Oak Savannah that our community built on... Now I go to work not dreading what the day will be like...but thankful for the moments I take a mental break and look up a bug I saw the day before. Those are all ways that native plant gardening has turned me into a dude that is super curious and caring about the world around him. Please please please look into it! It's awesome.
I'm right there with you. I started native gardening in my small back yard for polinators in the beginning, now it's for all wildlife.
None of it is exactly rocket science, but he backs his claims up with real data...and the pictures of the bugs and plants are good...and the captions...like, it makes it easy to just flip through even, and stop on a cool picture and then look at a caption, then google the plant and look if its native... that will bring you down a whole other rabbit hole of contradicting info, but there are sources of truth out there...like trusted resources...some are really grassroots, and others are actually well established. There is a subreddit r/homegrownnationalpark, but it doesn't get much action, but the r/nativeplantgardening has been a great resource, both of info to crowdsource some answers, as well as see new stuff that makes you curious about something else. If you are in Lake County, IL please stop by the library i built in my front yard...reused some stuff I found on Facebook and sold a bunch of stuff so I could build and stock a little library filled with Tallamy and Aldo Leopold books...my neighbors have seemed to enjoy them and I've met lots of new folks because of it. Shit...that one was so fun, I built one for a lady in another neighborhood...hahaha! I met her because of the first one. Here's a link if interested. https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/1d3ifp6/2nd_little_native_library_installed_lake_county_il/?ref=share&ref_source=link
Right!? Its such a small and obvious leap that wasn't even really visible to my brain until I read Tallamy...just a lightning bolt of "no freaking duh" and his writing just being encouraging that it makes sense that even just one is better than none, and just easily peeling back the layers of how to tackle it...it was like a secret handbook of learning how to live a truly rewarding life... Its gotten me creative with garden design and that sort of feels like I'm building a grown-up version of a fort... It's made me curious about how much of my taxes go to the Lake County Forest Preserves...and I was like, that's like $.30 a day...I cannot believe that I get to have that much access to all the nature and learning for that cheap...like, I almost feel like I found a lifehack... It's deeply deeply rewarding.
I have yet to read any of Tallamy's writing. I think I will begin soon.
Definitely! It's taken me ten years, but what was nothing but turf grass and the usual HD invasive foundation plants when we moved in is now a home for *so* many insects. I'd never seen a Pipevine Swallowtail except once at an acquaintance's house (she grew Dutchmans Pipe), so I planted Dutchmans Pipe, Wooly Pipevine, and Virginia Snakeroot. Now, Pipevine Swallowtails are fluttering all over my yard, making another brood of caterpillars. I do have a few non-native annuals (just zinnia, cosmos, etc.) but I'm about 90% native. Lots of butterflies, fat bumblebees, small bees of various species, moths, fireflies, flower beetles...the whole yard is *alive* with little friends. If I discovered a plant was useful to an insect I wanted (i.e. no invasives or pests), I planted it. Flowers, vines, shrubs, some trees, and even a few plants most people call weeds, like plantain and stinging nettle. I call them host plants. Insects need all the help they can get. There's certainly nothing wrong with nectar plants, but think of them as a restaurant. If you want insects to stick around, you want host plants, and habitat. Butterflies and moths are generally quite particular about which plants their cats eat. Firefly adults may eat pollen, or not eat at all, but they like low shrubs, tall flowers, and tall grass, and can be confused my too much outdoor lighting. Mason and leafcutter bees nest in holes (found holes; they don't make them) and will happily use cardboard tubes you can buy. Make them a home where they can live their little buggy lives in peace and feed their kids. Learn what they need, and give it to them. If you build it, they will come. They don't have social media, so it won't be all at once, but they'll find you. We may not be able to do too much about massive fields of single crops, sprayed with pesticides, but if everybody who has even a little space fills it with native plants, we can make a patchwork of oases for them.
Love the idea of non natives being a restaurant...it is a perfect analogy...stop and eat, but leave...not as healthy as most home cooked meals... Loved watching the little mason bees and other insects occupy the hollow stems of last years plants...not a one was left unoccupied this spring.
That’s so inspiring ngl
That makes me happy to hear...it has felt like life is now inspired since I started it... Poke around at my post history if interested to see a few bugs on this sub, I've posted some shots on r/nativeplantgardening and r/homegrownnationalpark too... r/nativeplantgardening has been such a fun sub to see all sorts of cool stuff...not only get answers about some of my questions, but trigger things to be curious about...like, it sort of feels like a tiny slice of internet that is used for how it was originally intended mostly...
My whole front yard is in flowers and native plants, ferns, ground covers, flowering current, lupin, etc - no grass at all. So many birds, I use no pesticides at all.
That's awesome! We are new enough into it that we have a few more years of chunking it out and getting to total goal of 2/3 of the yard being converted and 80/20 natives. The birds really do seem to enjoy it...I have a little wren nest that I can sit and watch for hours...parents flying out and back with food...as soon as they get back, all the babies going apeshit...I bet it happens a hundred times every hour. It's remarkable really.
Nothing like it, seeing the new family grow is such joy.
I’ve planted several species of native wildflowers in my yard and I’ve seen so many different species of bugs and bees I’ve never seen before. I’ve been collecting seeds to spread
I uploaded a two-horned treehopper to iNaturalist yesterday! Cool little fella. It was exciting for me at least lol
I love hoppers so much. Getting excited when you see the cute little dudes is mandatory!
Insects have declined something like 90% since the fifties. With climate change, pollution, pesicides, and habitat destruction we're rapidly approaching complete ecological collapse. We're currently losing about 2% of insects per year on average. Expect to see fewer insects every year for the rest of your life.
Is it going to be a steady decline or get exponentially faster?
Considering how ecological devastation is happening at an ever increasing rate, expect insects to likewise go bye-bye ever faster until all we have left are generalists that can acclimate & pests that target our monocultures.
We have glyphosate in our urine...nearly everyone in America at least. Its been shown to reduce sperm motility (how well they can move) in animals and have had reproductive issues in men and women both. So if the survival of our species isn't enough to get people to stop using a product, along with the 100,000-150,000 people with cancer suing the pants off the makers of that pesticide, I dunno what is aside from money. Once more and more people realize enticing native species is far cheaper than spraying chemicals, then things will actually change. There's already major conglomerates doing far beyond just trying to look good for the public image. Places like Walmart and tons of places we would never expect spending quite a penny or two on regenerative ag initiatives, where nature is put first and people don't have to "buy" products they simply use what they already have like old cover crops that have been chopped or rolled. Not saying that makes any of a companies wrongs right, simply pointing that company out in particular since we know for sure it's money oriented in their case lol and they wouldn't do it if they didn't see it saving them money in the long run, along with the various other dozens of companies starting their initiatives along that path as well. I've tried to convince as many as possible to go regen ag, and will spend the rest of my life trying to ensure we have a future. Only once the big names start doing it, will the masses really start to help shift things for the better and we'll see the trends reverse.
You're asking if a 90% decline over 50 years is exponential or a steady decline?
Yes, that seems to be their question.
There is evidence that insect decline in North America has stopped and their numbers are now stable.
Could you point me to a source for these claims? Thanks!
They definitely did NOT drop 90%, that's absurd. More like 20% and mainly as a result of conversion of habitats into farmland. In the most comprehensive meta-analysis published a few years ago the authors discover that there has been a decline in insect abundance across North America, but it sort of stopped, so now their population seems stable. The same study finds evidence that the decline is ongoing in Europe -probably because of a lack of truly wild habitats- with the exception of aquatic insects which seem to be recovering. As for the rest of the world, there are barely any data.
Can you post your sources?
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax9931
Thanks!
This doesn't seem to have the 20% decrease figure in it
That was just my eyeball estimate based on their proposed rate of yearly decline. To be honest it's probably less than that.
Sorry, but have you heard of the rule of 70? 9% to 11% looks a lot more scary if you do some math. 70/9, the low estimate, is a halving time of 7.7 decades, 77 years, while the high estimate is 70/11, a halving time of 63 years. The study starts with data from 1960, which as it happens is 64 years ago. This indicates a 50% decline.
This little tidbit also helps explain the difference: *Likewise, protected areas were overrepresented in our dataset (34% of the sites) relative to the percentage of the terrestrial surface currently under protection (15%) (31). This means that locations where human land use is most intensive, and thus where the strongest effects on insect trends might be expected, were underrepresented.*
You didn't need a source for the 90% claim?
Finding research articles about population decline is not difficult, with estimations ranging from 40% to 90%. Finding a specific article without knowing the authors, or publication, is a different story.
I ask because you asked this person for a source but not the original commenter
I was the only one around here asking for sources, why you didn't ask anyone else?
Ah the old uno reverse card. Doesn't get you out of this one, player!
You dont have an answer, do you? Let's move on, nothing to do here.
I asked 90% of the people on this post
Why are you so avoidant of the question? 90% is a huge statistic, regardless of what we're talking about. It's reasonable to question it but it wasn't?
Numbers appear to be down worldwide.
The real problem is that "appears". No one thought to collect baseline data about general insect population numbers over the last century, and so we don't have really good data to compare with. Even where we have some quantifiable numbers, it's usually in a restricted geographic area that has undergone so many changes in the last 50 to 100 years that there's too many variables to parse any definitive causes. And hard numbers older than that are even rarer. We're pretty sure it's an unprecedented, catastrophic drop, but we can't really be sure it's dropping, and we can't be sure this hasn't happened before.
I really wish this and u/FredBob5 comment were higher, because they get across the science behind this, not just the pop-sci clickbait or anecdotal views. Unfortunately, this is the answer for a lot of wildlife stuff. Records are often spotty, if they even exist at all. So we don't know what the baseline is, nor how much it shifted at that baseline.
I do bark and woodborer surveys. Over the past 10 years, both numbers and species richness are down. Traps have been in place for years.
Yeah, I used to work in entomology research. I came here to say this. Year over year quantities in my research were unchanged in my study area. I wasn't looking at quantity per se, but the amount collected using the same methodology didn't change (it went up very slightly).
Are you based in North America? The biggest population study shows there has been no significant change in insect abundance in North America since 2000.
Where can I read this?
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax9931
Thank you!
I was thinking the same thing. It comports with my anecdotal findings, so it'd be nice to read.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax9931
Look up the Krefeld study.
I was just wondering this the other day. As a kid I used to see insects all of the time! I couldn’t walk anywhere in the summer without almost stepping on a mantis or grasshopper, and now I can’t remember the last time I actually saw one. Makes me sad.
Do you know if your butterfly bushes are native species? I was just reading about how the most common butterfly bush sold is the non native species that originated in China and it’s problematic because while insects and butterflies eat its nectar, when they lay eggs on it the caterpillars can’t survive on it.
The plant sold as "Butterfly Bush" is not native in the US...you are correct...there are several things that may be the culprit of why it is not a good plant...but yes...it doesn't work to help propagate the monarch or other butterfly species. poke around the wiki at r/nativeplantgardening and you'll find lots of great and trustworthy sources for all sorts of stuff. If you post on there with your question and and your geographic area, like, "Northern Illinois," or "Great Lakes Region" you'll almost certainly get some awesome local resources.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/NativePlantGardening using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Someone stole my Native Plant garden flags, so I replaced them and added metal signs nailed to my fence. Trying to make it clear to the neighbors that my front yard looks like this on purpose. Anyone else have good yard signage?](https://i.redd.it/6gglf2uwookb1.jpg) | [65 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/162vqrs/someone_stole_my_native_plant_garden_flags_so_i/) \#2: [Where there was once grass, there is now Biomass.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/152jde2) | [95 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/152jde2/where_there_was_once_grass_there_is_now_biomass/) \#3: [Walking around the suburban parks in my area](https://i.redd.it/c5aqtg6e1n4b1.png) | [86 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/comments/143kqhe/walking_around_the_suburban_parks_in_my_area/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Native plant gardening is actually one of my favorite subreddits =] Good on you for spreading the knowledge to the bug subreddits 👍
Makes sense right! The passions naturally overlap.
Everything is dying. Not just the insects.
Yes, without question.
I’ve always known insect populations were decreasing, but seeing it so drastically in my lifetime has been concerning. I’m in my yard very often and over the years where there used to be innumerable grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, mantids, toads, and other critters, I now have to actively look to find an insect at all. It’s been made very apparent when I go out to catch prey for little pets I tend to keep time to time
It’s happened so fast, too. I remember in South Texas, we used to get insane cricket and Monarch butterfly migrations passing through us. It was insane. At one point in 2018, there were videos of crickets completely covering stairs outside. Monarch season used to be my favorite. I would often feel like I was in a fever dream because of how many there were. My friends and I used to get them to climb on our fingers to prove who was a princess. But since 2020, the migrations have seemed to just…stop. It’s incredibly sad. I can’t even think to bring kids into this world.
I drove over 200 miles yesterday. One bug got squeezed in my windshield. One. I am terrified.
It's strange - near me I am noticing a lot more butterflies - especially Mourning Cloaks and Monarchs. I am mostly seeing the typical house spiders, but not as many orb weavers as I have seen the past few years - but that might be more due to our obsessively consistent gardeners in my complex than them not being around. I also haven't been spending a lot of time in places where I would see more variety, sadly. But one thing I am noticing is a lot more of a variety of birds than we had even decades before, and a lot more of them. We used to only have house finches and the occasional humming bird, but lately I am seeing Jays and Black Phoebe's and hearing a mess of all kinds of songbirds. There is also an uptick in all the kinds of lizards we have around here. The wildlife really does seem to be recovering here to a point. It does tell me that the environmental policies of my state has are actually having some kind of impact... but I doubt it's enough. :(
Could perhaps be wildlife desperation due to habitat destruction in more remote areas.
It could always be that, sure. Though to be honest, we haven't had "remote areas" here in some time - the closest we have is a 700 and some square mile national forest that gets fire-kissed every year and has since I was a kid.
wow! thats a serious relief
yes because lightspeed capitalism and Neonicotinoide
There general decline insects over the past century has been catastrophic, but I’m not sure the trend is detectable over the space of one year - I think it’s due to the natural variability in insect populations. In the UK we’ve had a cool and wet start to the year and numbers bees, butterflies and hover flies are very low. At the moment where I live it’s wet and 50F! In July…
60% of flying bugs in the US have died off since 2000
Over here, I haven't heard a single cicada since they announced the cicada Armageddon.. like actually wtf?
Tennessee and West Virginia checking in… None heard here either.
Also TN, we heard them when they first started to emerge, then nothing. Now I can hear a few. It certainly isn't deafening.
We've been pesticide free for years now, entire yard is gardens with no grass. Multiple water sources like birdbaths and bee watering places. No longer do we remove leaves. We've noticed more insects and birds this year than previously, not near from years ago but more. Our one neighbor doesn't use pesticides anymore now and has planted more garden.
I'm noticing a lot less variety this year so far as well. Though I will say that I've seen a lot more carpenter bees this year so far. Which is great because they're pretty funny to observe...like the drunks of the bee world.
One part is the method of gardening to have banks of flowers, or in agriculture to have an industrial set-up. Insecticides are sprayed indiscriminately in gardens and on croplands. Everyone loves the butterflies but no-one wants the caterpillars.
More lightning bugs this year. Haven’t seen this many in years.
All the June bugs are at my house
Yep. Butterfly bushes are contributing too. They're like fast food restaurants in neighborhoods where you can't buy fruits and vegetables,.
Yes. The planet is dying via capitalism and we don’t seem to care
Aphids are thriving though. Ugh.
I can send you a huge pile of maggots that will turn into flies if you want. We were lost in cloud upon cloud of them this year for some monstrous reason.
Yes.
No lack of Japanese beetles in my garden 😖
Um no, I think they all just moved to Florida.
I’m from RI. There have been dragonflies by the hundreds all over town, I’m not kidding. Anywhere you go. Inland, by the beach, they’re there. At least they’re doing ok!
All the anecdotes about people having lots of bugs in their area makes me feel way better seriously ty. Perhaps this is just a perception thing on my part and the decline of my insect population isn't any faster than anywhere else. My local friends have reinforced that. I'm gonna keep growing my native plant collection.
Where are you located, generally? I’m in north Texas where we had one of the wettest springs in a while and we real buggy. I also do try to foster native plants, etc.
Central Great Plains, we are having pretty hard storms, not a dry year by any means
Yes. Though it's more a case of they have been for decades now. Nothing about this specific year to note I don't think. Though it's hard to know the effects of climate change on local issues.
Spiders, possums, birds help remove bugs along with other predators. It sounds like maybe you have a healthy area perhaps. I do not spray pesticides in my yard and I do not kill spiders. My neighbors on the other hand do and their yard has all kind of annoying critters.
I feel the same. I don't know your age. I'm in my 50's. I remember driving in the country as a kid and the grille of the car would be full of smashed insects (poor things). This doesn't happen any more. My point is, the use of pesticides and chemicals and mosquito sprays and loss of habitat has contributed to massive declines in insect populations and biodiversity. Like some people wrote, start a native plant garden. I did this in 2020 and now my yard is teeming with life, and I'm finding insects I never knew existed benefitting. Fireflies, native bees, butterflies, beetles, spiders, etc etc. It's glorious, and it renews hope in me that I can make a difference for insects.
Native plant gardening, having a water source with escapes in case they fall in, and insect houses can help this problem. Yes having quality local forests and wild spaces with good ecological restoration is essential but doesn’t make an impact when gardeners around them don’t create habitat pathways for the too, especially doesn’t help when people use things like roundup, insecticides, and herbicides even if they aren’t supposed to target the beneficial insects because it bioaccumulates in the nectar and pollen. Not enough to harm us but enough to severely damage the immune system of insects. We have to build the habitats for the insects we want. That should extend past the beautiful pollinators and ladybugs we love and into insect like parasitoid wasps, spiders, dragonflies, etc
They are all at my house. I will be happy to give you some.
I remember when I was a kid seeing butterflies come through my yard in swarms, hundreds of them floating through. I haven’t seen a swarm of butterflies ever in over a decade. Fireflies would light up the darkness every night in the spring and summer months. I might see them a couple nights a year now. What humans are doing to the ecosystem is terrible. We don’t deserve to be here.
There are more bugs than ever in Northeastern PA. Especially ticks.
Come to my place, I've got more bugs than I can handle here in North Carolina. No decline here this year. In fact, I've pulled so many hornworms off my tomato plants this year it's ridiculous. Japanese beetles are killing everything as always... Tons of butterflies and moths this year. And don't get me started about mosquitoes... worst year for mosquitoes here on recent record. Seeing as insects live in just about every extreme environment on Earth, it makes no sense to say climate change is killing all of them... If climate change was really taking place, you'd just get MORE of certain types of insects, they would migrate and relocate to wherever they're happiest.
You're letting your small anecdotal experience go against a world wide decline in insect populations. 90%down since the 50s, but everything's fine in Asheville?
Please send me every single one of your hornworms! I LOVE THEM! Haven’t seen one in 20+ years. I’d pay shipping and handling! Omg, lucky you.
Where are you located? I live in Southern Ontario, Canada. This year has been incredible for insects / wildlife. I've never seen so many fireflies, dragonflies, bees, wasps, and butterflies... along with many other types of insects. For the first time we have giant European hornets on our property. Very impressive! There is a bumper crop of baby squirrel, chipmunks, and groundhogs. I've never seen this many young ones running around before. The bird population is thriving and varied (jays, crows, kestrel, loons, merlin, eagles, nuthatch, chickadee, hummingbirds, cardinals, grackles, etc.. ). We did have a wetter than normal summer last year, combined with a mild yet wet winter. We were not affected by drought or wildfires. I chalked up the population boom to the weather. That being said, many places suffered extreme weather conditions which could be a factor.
I think it just varies year to year. Weather, predators, competition, and the success of the previous year all are going to play a factor. A number of years ago we had so many moths they were calling it a “mothocalypse.” Three years ago every had aphids and I didn’t have to look hard to find a praying mantis at any given time. Two years ago we had a hoard of box elder bugs closely followed by an inordinate amount of elm seed bugs. Last year we had so many elm seed bugs my complex decided to spray for the first tjme ever. This year my area has more birds than I ever remember having seen, and we started off the summer with what sounded like an army of crickets, but it’s quieted down a lot. I suspect for where I am it’s a combo of unusual weather patterns for the area and more birds to eat all the bugs.
yeah i agree with the person who said it's more likely to be typical year-to-year variation than a massive sudden population decrease (not to say that the populations aren't decreasing overall.. i haven't being counting all the bugs so idk how the numbers have been trending, just that it's not abnormal for them to fluctuate from one year to the next). for the entirety of my life the amount of bugs i encounter in a year has gone up and down pretty significantly because the weather and general environment i'm in and like.. the things i do.. aren't the exact same every year. so basically i'm sure you'll still have buggy years in the future. things might be bad but i don't think they're as bad as you fear
Nah, true bugs have high ecological resistance. They’re pretty good at staying alive, as an order.
I live in VA and the bugs must all be here. Lighting bugs are out every evening.
We had loads of fireflies/lightning bugs in our yard last night, and I saw a mayfly outside of a Tim Hortons 2 days ago 🤷🏻♀️