The equally scary question is-who eats the bugs? If there are no bugs, there are no birds. If there are no mosquitoes, there are no swallows. There are no reptiles, no amphibians. Where are they? The species that depend on the bugs are diminishing rapidly. We have sown the legacy of our own demise with the chemical fertilizer and pesticides we’ve been using for decades. Who’s responsible, who is liable, for this? Where are the studies, the research, on these questions?
You got that right, Michael! I cited the following study in my July 8, 2025 post called "Bugs face their own loneliness epidemic":
So, the decline of bugs appears to have sparked a decline of birds. A 2019 Science study found an estimated 3 billion fewer birds in the United States and Canada compared to data from 1970. And yes, that’s billion.
Scary stuff. I'm going to be going into birds more in the future. I'm planning to participate in the Audubon Christmas bird count for the first time this year. I'll follow up and see if the above authors have any updates. As Rachel Carson showed us, it's easier to get people concerned about birds than about bugs!
Thank you so much, Melanie. We’re nearly 7 years on from the Science study. I’d guesstimate we’ve lost another billion birds since then. And with development pressures on wetlands I wouldn’t expect to see any gains there. It’s critical that this gets brought to the fore of public knowledge and debate, instead of appeasing narcissistic politicians.
The reason your informal vigil reads as more than anecdote is that you're actually running three independent proxies.
Flower visitation, activity at lights, and windshield or plate collisions each carry different biases, so when all three point the same way, the agreement is the signal, not any single clean windshield. That's also what makes the crude license-plate counts trustworthy: a moving car integrates over whole landscapes and habitats, which a single-site sample never does. The convergence is doing the evidentiary work here, and it's a sturdier footing for the alarm than any one observation on its own.
In my experience there's a lot of regional variation. I spent mid-April through mid-June in western Colorado, and was frustrated that my windshield washer nozzles stopped functioning because there were enough insect collisions to impair visibility, at least at dusk and from headlights. I also had to clean my own headlights frequently. But this felt unusual, certainly as compared to southwestern New Mexico, where a long-term drought has led to a decline in seemingly all fauna and flora.
When I lived in the PNW, insects on the windshields were less of an issue, though there I was mostly in agricultural areas, where of course insects are targeted for extermination across the board.
Currently I'm in the Lake Tahoe area and am still bemoaning the lack of functionality of my windshield sprayers. (It's not lack of fluid; something else is going on.) I've been doing botanical surveys under powerlines here for a couple weeks, some of the plots in highly impacted areas like the sides of highways, and others in the middle of the forest or wildflower meadows. I've definitely seen more insects in the plots away from roads. I would have liked to see more insects in the wildflower meadows, where there was no lack of blossoms for them.
Over the next couple months, I plan to be traveling in northern Cali and the PNW and will be keeping my eye out for insects even more than usual.
Thank you, Kollibri, for sharing such helpful details. I’m seeing more insects in the back yard of the house I’m staying at in Saline, Michigan, than I’ve seen in a while, but still very few bees. I am seeing lightning bugs, aka fireflies, though! One of my favorites.
Exactly! It is Big Oil who mines the resources, Monsanto who patented Glyphosate as Round Up, Big Ag who makes all the farmers sign on the dotted line, and Big Pharma who cashes in on the end of life game. It’s a grand game of catch with one player, and this glyphosate is taking out every plant’s biome, every bug’s biome, every animal’s biome and every human’s biome.
I say it’s the Glyphosate, which acts as a defoliant on our interior garden- our guts.
I will say, Homeopathy has brought forth a way to reverse gut annihilation and rebuild. It’s called Homeopathic Biome Therapy, as taught by Kate Birch in her book Glyphosate Free. Let’s keep fighting.
Elites are becoming incredibly stupid. Those of us living in the 'real world' are constantly fighting snakes, spiders, & other unwanted insects & reptiles from our gardens, houses, & protected areas we create for innocent birds & animals. Idiots.
Well, MAscrappy, I'm glad you're seeing so many critters. Could you let us know what state or country you're in, what your landscape looks like, and what kind of critters you're seeing now compared to previous years?
For some people, one bug is too much. For instance, my niece said she wouldn't be able to stay in the hot tub of our Kentucky rental unless we caught the one moth that was flying to the light. (We did.)
Also, "protected" spaces are often sprayed with pesticides to kill "invasive plants." Those herbicides also kill bees and other insects. I think that's part of the problem.
I'm seeing plenty of bees in my neighborhood and garden. What I don't want around are the mosquitoes, June bugs, and moths. I have a powerful bug zapper that I use at night whenever I'm outside in my yard and that pretty much kills everything in a 250' radius around the zapper. And since bees don't fly at night, it's no harm to them!
I’m glad you’re seeing a lot of bees, Jeff. Could you let us know approximately where your neighborhood is, and whether it’s rural or urban?
I respect people’s rights to protect their homes from bugs, but do you really need to have a bug-free space for a 250-foot radius around you? The problem with those bug zappers is they actually attract insects, so you are killing bugs—and certainly many beneficial bugs—for a much larger area than just your yard.
But as long as you’re posting here, let me ask: Have you noticed a decrease in the number of bug bodies that you find at night under the zapper?
The equally scary question is-who eats the bugs? If there are no bugs, there are no birds. If there are no mosquitoes, there are no swallows. There are no reptiles, no amphibians. Where are they? The species that depend on the bugs are diminishing rapidly. We have sown the legacy of our own demise with the chemical fertilizer and pesticides we’ve been using for decades. Who’s responsible, who is liable, for this? Where are the studies, the research, on these questions?
You got that right, Michael! I cited the following study in my July 8, 2025 post called "Bugs face their own loneliness epidemic":
So, the decline of bugs appears to have sparked a decline of birds. A 2019 Science study found an estimated 3 billion fewer birds in the United States and Canada compared to data from 1970. And yes, that’s billion.
Here's that link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1313
Scary stuff. I'm going to be going into birds more in the future. I'm planning to participate in the Audubon Christmas bird count for the first time this year. I'll follow up and see if the above authors have any updates. As Rachel Carson showed us, it's easier to get people concerned about birds than about bugs!
Thank you so much, Melanie. We’re nearly 7 years on from the Science study. I’d guesstimate we’ve lost another billion birds since then. And with development pressures on wetlands I wouldn’t expect to see any gains there. It’s critical that this gets brought to the fore of public knowledge and debate, instead of appeasing narcissistic politicians.
The reason your informal vigil reads as more than anecdote is that you're actually running three independent proxies.
Flower visitation, activity at lights, and windshield or plate collisions each carry different biases, so when all three point the same way, the agreement is the signal, not any single clean windshield. That's also what makes the crude license-plate counts trustworthy: a moving car integrates over whole landscapes and habitats, which a single-site sample never does. The convergence is doing the evidentiary work here, and it's a sturdier footing for the alarm than any one observation on its own.
Excellent point! Thank you so much for sharing your insights here.
In my experience there's a lot of regional variation. I spent mid-April through mid-June in western Colorado, and was frustrated that my windshield washer nozzles stopped functioning because there were enough insect collisions to impair visibility, at least at dusk and from headlights. I also had to clean my own headlights frequently. But this felt unusual, certainly as compared to southwestern New Mexico, where a long-term drought has led to a decline in seemingly all fauna and flora.
When I lived in the PNW, insects on the windshields were less of an issue, though there I was mostly in agricultural areas, where of course insects are targeted for extermination across the board.
Currently I'm in the Lake Tahoe area and am still bemoaning the lack of functionality of my windshield sprayers. (It's not lack of fluid; something else is going on.) I've been doing botanical surveys under powerlines here for a couple weeks, some of the plots in highly impacted areas like the sides of highways, and others in the middle of the forest or wildflower meadows. I've definitely seen more insects in the plots away from roads. I would have liked to see more insects in the wildflower meadows, where there was no lack of blossoms for them.
Over the next couple months, I plan to be traveling in northern Cali and the PNW and will be keeping my eye out for insects even more than usual.
Thank you, Kollibri, for sharing such helpful details. I’m seeing more insects in the back yard of the house I’m staying at in Saline, Michigan, than I’ve seen in a while, but still very few bees. I am seeing lightning bugs, aka fireflies, though! One of my favorites.
Exactly! It is Big Oil who mines the resources, Monsanto who patented Glyphosate as Round Up, Big Ag who makes all the farmers sign on the dotted line, and Big Pharma who cashes in on the end of life game. It’s a grand game of catch with one player, and this glyphosate is taking out every plant’s biome, every bug’s biome, every animal’s biome and every human’s biome.
I say it’s the Glyphosate, which acts as a defoliant on our interior garden- our guts.
I will say, Homeopathy has brought forth a way to reverse gut annihilation and rebuild. It’s called Homeopathic Biome Therapy, as taught by Kate Birch in her book Glyphosate Free. Let’s keep fighting.
Elites are becoming incredibly stupid. Those of us living in the 'real world' are constantly fighting snakes, spiders, & other unwanted insects & reptiles from our gardens, houses, & protected areas we create for innocent birds & animals. Idiots.
Well, MAscrappy, I'm glad you're seeing so many critters. Could you let us know what state or country you're in, what your landscape looks like, and what kind of critters you're seeing now compared to previous years?
For some people, one bug is too much. For instance, my niece said she wouldn't be able to stay in the hot tub of our Kentucky rental unless we caught the one moth that was flying to the light. (We did.)
Also, "protected" spaces are often sprayed with pesticides to kill "invasive plants." Those herbicides also kill bees and other insects. I think that's part of the problem.
https://melanielenartecologic.substack.com/p/monsanto-spurred-furor-to-poison
I'm seeing plenty of bees in my neighborhood and garden. What I don't want around are the mosquitoes, June bugs, and moths. I have a powerful bug zapper that I use at night whenever I'm outside in my yard and that pretty much kills everything in a 250' radius around the zapper. And since bees don't fly at night, it's no harm to them!
I’m glad you’re seeing a lot of bees, Jeff. Could you let us know approximately where your neighborhood is, and whether it’s rural or urban?
I respect people’s rights to protect their homes from bugs, but do you really need to have a bug-free space for a 250-foot radius around you? The problem with those bug zappers is they actually attract insects, so you are killing bugs—and certainly many beneficial bugs—for a much larger area than just your yard.
But as long as you’re posting here, let me ask: Have you noticed a decrease in the number of bug bodies that you find at night under the zapper?