I also read somewhere about the "windshield splat test", meaning it was a common occurrence in the 60's and 70's to have to clean bug splatter off your windshield when one stopped to gas up. I vaguely remember that and really haven't touched a window washer squeegee in a gas station in the longest time. Maybe once or twice a year I'll drive along the Delaware during a hatch and get moderate splatter.
Correct. We have some large bat caves in Morris County, NJ that were devastated about 10 years ago. Good news is I'm starting to see bats again, bad news is the lack of food (insects) will keep the population down. Hell I didn't even have a bad mosquito year sitting outside on the deck. Suburbia is to blame.
If you look at the study, they considered fertilizers as well as a host of other factors to determine which were most consequential before arriving at their hypothesis.A little skeptical of this theory. Plant nutrient concentrations have been decreasing for decades due to intensive fertilization, pesticide use and planting the same crops on a plot of land, year after year. Its why farmers used torotate crops and leave land fallow. We have seen this in the drops of nutrient densities in alot of greens ie spinach broccoli etc. If the nutrients are in the soil the plant will uptake same. CO2 is part of the Photosynthesis process in which the plant uses CO2 and water to create sugar ie glucose for its use and O2 is expired to the air.
My guess is alot of hoppers that were living in farmers fields and fertilized lawns are decreasing in number due to nutrient loss via repeated fertilization, pesticide use, and maximal harvest yeilds, more so than high CO2 due to climate change
How modern food can regain its nutrients
There are concerns that in our rush to grow food on ever bigger scales, we have inadvertently caused its nutritional content to wane. What can be done to reverse that?www.bbc.com
This is what I’m talking about! Cool stuff.Yes. White nose
White-Nose Syndrome Killed Over 90% of Three North American Bat Species
New Study Unveils the Impacts of the Disease on Native Bat Populationswww.usgs.gov
Omg your freaking batman.
You should see the bat cave. They raise pups in there every year. They fly out every night. I like having them there. That building can be a little stinky though in the summer. Once they migrate, I clean up their bat poop and dump it in the garden.
Spoken like bat-girl, or at least bat-girl's mee-maw! 😉
I have been into the bat cave exhibit at the Pittsburgh zoo.....that is hands down the worst smell I know of. And I have worked on garbage trucks in a 90 degree non air conditioned shop.
Those are some specimens!
They're so big they look fake. Grasshoppers on steroids! I could see them being great bass bait.
FlyShack just sold out of 3/0 ultrafine dry fly hooks.🤣
To those wondering, they are the Eastern Lubber, and I guess they secrete a nasty smelling and tasting substance and fish do not like eating them? I never really looked into this much, but perhaps some WW folks from the southeast could chime in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romalea
When we moved to our current house 6 years ago in a nice neighborhood I started "keeping up with the joneses" and spraying the yard and fertilizing and then I realized there were no bugs. Since I stopped doing that and we started planting native flowers and letting the clover grow we have seen a massive uptick in bees, butterflies and all sorts of pollinators. I had to use roundup the other week to get rid of a rhizome and I winced thinking it mya kill some of the bugs.
Sometimes, Round-Up and disturbed land is very beneficial to pollinators, believe it or not. The fields after harvest of corn or soy will grow full of deadnettle and shepherd's purse, two early blooming non-native pollinator friendly weeds. Those are some of the first and most abundant nectar sources for many pollinators. But yeah, people killing all weeds for the sake of a yard of just grass is lunacy.
