this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Not just the bees, all bugs in North America have seen a 75% die off in the last 20 years.
Big shocker that songbirds, which eat those bugs, have also seen a massive die off.
Despite those deniers that still blame housecats, the true culprit is almost certainly pollution and pesticides.
Both things can be true. They aren't mutually exclusive.
Also we have less pollution and pesticide use than we did in the 60s and 70s. Why is it just becoming a problem now?
I bet that while we have less general pollution and less dumping trash in the environment kinda things, we have developed much more potent insecticides. And if those insecticides do not degrade within a few weeks they will accumulate in the earth and the water.
Edit: Wikipedia about one type of modern pesticides: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid
Yeah, pretty sure your lawn has almost nothing to do with insects vanishing. It's much more likely the insane amounts of highly potent pesticides we put directly into our food chain. Those pesticides obviously aren't classified as pollution so we aren't polluting, we're killing the environment on purpose.
Btw. The development and use of neonicotines corelate quiet nicely with the drop in the insects population.