Insect Die Off Thread

[aufbahrung]

Easy to skip the insect die-off, especially when its the stinging critters, but probably should have a thread of its own after they all taken to dying themselves out

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c134621devzo

Where have all the wasps gone?
Harriet Heywood
BBC News, East of England

Despite their bad reputation and tendency to disrupt picnics, wasps are an important part of our ecosystem.

During this time of year, it can seem like most outdoor activities are plagued by the flying insects... but they appear to have lacked their usual numbers in 2024.

Colder and wetter weather and climate change have had a global impact on the invertebrates.

The change has been monitored by gardeners, experts and pest controllers, but what do wasps do, why do we need them and will they return?

(never miss your water till your well be dry, slightly more complicated with wasps)

[Brian Peacock]

[Svartalf]

I'd be glad to drone for that queen bee

[JimC]

I gleefully kill vast numbers of introduced European wasps even summer in specially made containers with an attractant dissolved in water. They get in, can't get out and drown. I hate the little buggers, having been painfully stung...

[Sean Hayden]

I tend to leave our paper wasps alone. They are surprisingly disinterested in our comings and goings. I remember designing an experiment as a student to test various harmless ways to get them to piss off. They couldn’t be bothered then either. —stoic little bastids

[L'Emmerdeur]

I gleefully kill vast numbers of introduced European wasps even summer in specially made containers with an attractant dissolved in water. They get in, can't get out and drown. I hate the little buggers, having been painfully stung...

It's a respectable sting, certainly. They're helpful in their native lands, devouring troublesome insects. Same with the rather similar American vespids (yellow jackets). Not welcome as an invasive species though (including when dining al fresco). I just spent a pleasant half hour or so learning about the native wasps of Australia--you certainly could do without the Europeans.

[Tero]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... serves-aoe

The hum of wild bees has faded, and leaves that should be chewed to the stem hang whole and un-nibbled. It is these glossy, untouched leaves that most spook Janzen and Hallwachs. They are more like a pristine greenhouse than a living ecosystem: a wilderness that has been fumigated and left sterile. Not a forest, but a museum.


Over the decades, Janzen has repeated his light traps, hanging the sheet, watching for what comes. Today, some moths flutter to the glow, but their numbers are far fewer.

“It’s the same sheet, with the same lights, in the same place, looking over the same vegetation. Same time of year, same time of the moon cycle, everything about it is identical,” he says. “There’s just no moths on that sheet.”