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Lack of insects in gardens

I know Darrel has already mentioned Prof Dave Goulson but he's a bit of a hero of mine and this video is criminally underwatched considering how important the subject is. It really is a eye opening chat that I urge everyone to listen to just for the statistics, like oranges grown with 27 different pesticides and the unsustainable use of pesticides in farming is very disheartening and frightening unbelievable. You'll be concerned after watching it but with hope, rather than negativity.

 
I'll also mention while I'm here an observation and hopefully prediction that I have made. It starts in the summer of 21 when we had a really massive population of cinnabar moths locally but since then I haven't seen a single one. In 22 we had the 6 month plus drought and extreme temperatures where all the wild flowers literally fried. It meant that in 23 we had very few ragwort plants and hence no cinnabar caterpillars but this year has had the most ragwort plants I've ever seen and even though the caterpillars were very few and far between, I do predict that their numbers should be bouncing back a little in the next few years if we don't get more extreme conditions.

If you consider all the other biennial/perennial plants that insects rely on that suffered at the same time and more importantly the time it takes for these plants to bounce back, you can see why numbers fluctuate massively.
 
Hi all,
greenbliss said:
It might be rough. But I know there won't be a massive disaster. I think we will all come together in the nick of time to save all this. I just feel it.
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I'm pretty sure that is what the last Mammoth hunters said, just before they killed the last Mammoth.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,
greenbliss said:
Darrel can I say I somehow appreciate the cynicism

May I ask if this comes from a lifetime of experience?
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No, I've never killed (or eaten) a Mammoth.

But in the past I've eaten plenty of Grey Partridge, Cod, European Eels and White-clawed Crayfish ......

Cheers Darrel
 
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Hi all,
greenbliss said:
I used to like eating things like that
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Yes, and that is some of the problem. It is shifting base-lines.

When I went fishing often my main aim was <"not to catch an Eel">. If we had <"White-clawed Crayfish"> (used for bait) left over, we'd eat them. "Fish (it really was <"Cod then">) and chips" was a very cheap meal, my mum (and @megwattscreative "nana"), a very careful and impecunious shopper used to buy <"Skate Knobs"> and <"Dublin Bay Prawns">, because they were cheap and tasty ... .

When I run around the road in the morning I'd disturb <"several pairs of Partridges"> collecting grit from the road. We still had <"nesting Curlew"> and <"Cuckoo">, there were literally <"thousands of Lapwings"> on the fields in the winter. <"Yellow-hammer"> nested in the hedge at our primary school, and <"Garden Tiger caterpillars"> ("Woolly Bears") were an everyday sight. In the summer I'd swim in the bridge pool at Bredwardine on the Wye, just downstream from the site of the capture of the <"second largest Salmon ever caught in a British river">

........ and none of the above would be true now.

cheers Darrel
 
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dw1305 said:
Hi all,

Yes, and that is some of the problem. It is shifting base-lines.

When I went fishing often my main aim was <"not to catch an Eel">. If we had <"White-clawed Crayfish"> (used for bait) left over, we'd eat them. "Fish (it really was <"Cod then">) and chips" was a very cheap meal, my mum (and @megwattscreative "nana"), a very careful and impecunious shopper used to buy <"Skate Knobs"> and <"Dublin Bay Prawns">, because they were cheap and tasty ... .

When I run around the road in the morning I'd disturb <"several pairs of Partridges"> getting grit from the road. We still had <"nesting Curlew"> and <"Cuckoo">, there were literally <"thousands of Lapwings"> on the fields in the winter. <"Yellow-hammer"> nested in the hedge at our primary school, and <"Garden Tiger caterpillars"> ("Woolly Bears") were an everyday sight. In the summer I'd swim in the bridge pool at Bredwardine on the Wye, just downstream from the site of the capture of the <"second largest Salmon ever caught in a British river">

........ and none of the above would be true now.

cheers Darrel
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I become interested in Veganism recently

It’s not that bad actually I think. Soy has omega 3 and complete protein like meat but it’s not going to cause liver disease.

We’d probably need less land for agriculture if more people did that…

I used to like eating rabbits as they are invasive but the meat is quite iron rich and iron especially in older ages builds up and causes diabetes… rabbit is very pale yet has more iron than beef? Also all meat is linked to fatty liver yet dairy isn’t.

Then again the dairy and beef industry are one so I think I’ll stick with the soy milk

Also soy milk is not an endocrine disruptor, quite the opposite.

People imagine some strange stuff if you talk about veganism or vegetarianism..
 
dw1305 said:
When I run around the road in the morning I'd disturb <"several pairs of Partridges"> getting grit from the road. We still had <"nesting Curlew"> and <"Cuckoo">, there were literally <"thousands of Lapwings"> on the fields in the winter. <"Yellow-hammer"> nested in the hedge at our primary school, and <"Garden Tiger caterpillars"> ("Woolly Bears") were an everyday sight. In the summer I'd swim in the bridge pool at Bredwardine on the Wye, just downstream from the site of the capture of the <"second largest Salmon ever caught in a British river">

........ and none of the above would be true now.
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Myself and my brother were discussing this the other day. We both grew up on the South Coast (Sussex for anyone interested) and we can both remember vividly Summers during the 1990s where we would regularly encounter and catch Stag Beetles in the local park. Now speaking to people that i know that are still in the area no one has seen one in decades.

Saying that i have not seen any Grass snakes, Adders, Toads or Newts in a very long time thinking about it
 
greenbliss said:
It might be rough. But I know there won't be a massive disaster. I think we will all come together in the nick of time to save all this. I just feel it.
Click to expand...

Hoping for a hail mary to save humanity is the wrong way to look at things. The diversity of the natural world is one of the most important things to human life and the biggest problem is that we are losing species before we even knew they existed, or figured out their role in life.

Our activity is degrading soil and destroying fertility. I think we are already at about a third of the world's soil being degraded and the prognosis is that the figure could reach 90% by 2050, so killing things that maintain a healthy ecosystem, through unsustainable farming practices, isn't the cleverest thing to do.

The good news is that some insects can bounce back and repopulate quickly once the threat to their existence is removed.
 
Well double digging works for me.

I dont think its long term. But its okay for a few goes round. If I was farming for real I wouldn't be so reckless.

old fashioned methods aren't so bad if we blend them with our modern understanding

if we use intensive agriculture we will need less land to grow food leaving more pockets of nature around

also I feel like we need religion in our society and for people to control themselves and stop being such gluttons and eating all this meat and crap that is so inefficient to grow. I don't think the answer to this is political or whatever.
 
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dw1305 said:
Hi all,

I'll have a go, how about "if we let Elon Musk have as much money as he wants, he won't take it all".

cheers Darrel
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Well I'm not sure about that but I think unless people eat less meat and such we need to stick to intensive agriculture for now. I think with a vegetarian diet at minimum we can feed the world with better methods.

I like this double dig gardening stuff, but I also grow wildflowers and make compost which is always full of all sorts of insects. All about balance.

People are going to need to be physically fit if we are to help the climate and environment. What better way to do that than digging the garden.
 
The biggest things we can do personally, as people who clearly enjoy fiddling about with plants, is to turn our own front and back gardens, estates, balconies, etc into places for nature. Wildflower meadows, flower beds, piles of logs, ponds, anything like that truly does make a difference. Even when you food grow it creates habitats for wildlife (our slow worms love compost heaps) It's literally the same process as making a tank... just outside, and we don't have to pay for the creatures. If you don't have a garden, join a local park or a community garden or find a patch of unused land and starting guerilla gardening. These tiny patches make up huge tapestries of land which will make a real difference. Every square meter of enriched green space makes a difference.

This year my family transformed our back garden and even though this was a particularly bad year for insects, there were still so many butterflies and moths I've never seen before, loads of bees, hoverflies, tiny beetles, weird little wasps and 3 frogs have appeared too. It made a difference, and it will support even more in years to come as we enrich and layer it with more habitat. We have to create these oasis for wildlife, they don't have anywhere else to go. If we can protect them in our own pockets of eden through these times, maybe when it gets really bad (and it will) we will still be able to bring them back.

greenbliss said:
Well double digging works for me.
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It doesn't work for the land though, you are robbing it of its lifeforce. Why not put your money where your mouth is, be part of the solution and try no dig? Our vegetables grow far better with no dig anyway.
 
shangman said:
It doesn't work for the land though, you are robbing it of its lifeforce. Why not put your money where your mouth is, be part of the solution and try no dig? Our vegetables grow far better with no dig anyway.
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Its a tiny garden not a nature reserve. How am I robbing anything when I dump loads of manure, homemade compost, pelleted chicken manure and stinging nettle tea back on it??? It really grows good food. I do have unique soil though. I mean it truly is like concrete in places, nothing is getting through that.

I tried no dig and it didn't work. Very sickly looking vegetables. The beetroot were honestly tiny. Now I have ones up to 4lb that still taste as good. Aren't vegetables good for us? Don't we need more not less? I've attached a picture of my nodig beetroot
IMG_0834.JPG

double digging also builds muscle and makes you fitter... eat some beans after doing it mmmm
 
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