Reply to post: Re: Maybe if they collected less insects, there would be more around...

The case of the disappearing insect. Boffin tells Reg: We don't know why... but we must act

Voland's right hand Silver badge

Re: Maybe if they collected less insects, there would be more around...

It is not that - they are disappearing in the countryside too.

IMHO some of it is pesticides, the rest Roundup and other herbicides. In fact, this is a bigger reason to ban Roundup and friends than anything else.

All herbicide resistant crops - maise, cereals, etc are wind-pollinated. They need no insects. Maise and cereals which are not sprayed with GlyPhospate always have a sprinkle of flowers throughout. Similarly, a lawn which has been left to develop "naturally" always has quite a few daisies and 20-30% clover which ranks towards the top of the bee, butterfly, etc "wishlist".

Unfortunately, both are very rare nowdays and the study proves it. The former is because of the endless industry push, the latter because people are idiots. The "norm" for a lawn is it to be uniform, green, rye grass only and nothing will stop your average suburbia dweller splashing a bottle of glyphosphate a week on it to keep it this way. Quite funny - he expects there to be insects after that. How about actually putting some thought on what do insects like bees actually need?

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