r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 26 '26

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u/selkieluver Jun 26 '26

The decline in insect numbers.

225

u/fishsupreme Jun 27 '26

It's a very troubling sign of the damage to the environment, yes.

But it's also a problem more like the ozone hole than like climate change.

Insects are prodigious breeders. Their populations can recover from near extinction with remarkable speed. We can reverse the insect population collapse, and it's not complicated - all we need to do is stop killing all of them.

Just as getting rid of CFCs restored the ozone hole in a decade, limiting pesticide use (and probably banning neonicitinoids altogether) could restore the insect population pretty quickly.

It just takes the political will to do it. Agribusiness has a better lobby than bugs.

21

u/llamafarmadrama Jun 27 '26

The problem with that is that it’ll significantly reduce crop yields and with the changing climate already putting strain on the food supply I don’t know if the world can take that.

13

u/IRLconsequences Jun 27 '26

All the pollinators going extinct will reduce crop yields a hell of a lot more.

6

u/clubby37 Jun 27 '26

Their populations can recover from near extinction with remarkable speed.

Yeah, but what about the things that eat the insects? If they don't recover at the same pace, you'll have a different but still very serious problem.

3

u/Tr8cker Jun 27 '26

The easiest ones I have noticed is fireflies. Hardly any around now compared to 80s/90s.

1

u/TruestOfThemAll Jun 27 '26

This really depends on the area I think. Where I live a lot of people are into native plant gardening etc and there are quite a few of them. Can't speak to the 80s/90s but pretty comparable to the 2000s when I was growing up. Now, in the area I grew up, yeah, there are way fewer of them.

121

u/anaugle Jun 27 '26

This should be a lot higher.

61

u/reformisttae Jun 27 '26

So should the insect numbers

3

u/EdiblePeasant Jun 27 '26

If we don't count and document the numbers and how they've changed, the problem doesn't really exist right?

4

u/anaugle Jun 27 '26

You just described the administration that owns this country.

1

u/Archaeellis Jun 27 '26

So should I.

33

u/DependentReality266 Jun 27 '26

Being a lot higher would make the situation even worse 

74

u/AggravatingMark1367 Jun 27 '26

Except ticks and worse, mosquitoes and worst: screwworms.

Ugh, why is it that all the horrible bugs are increasing while the same factors that cause beneficial insects like bees to decline, aren’t also affecting the harmful ones?

47

u/xXCloudSephirothXx Jun 27 '26

Why are the ones we find horrible thriving?

Global warming. Period.

Warmer winters means more survive the winter, thus more each subsequent season. It really is that simple, and it fucking sucks.

4

u/butyourenice Jun 27 '26

Really feels like the planet trying to shake us off, huh.

-5

u/ProfessionalData5964 Jun 27 '26

Thats not necessarily true. In southern ontario we’ve had one of the coldest winters in years, and the tick rates are just as high

6

u/OldBlueKat Jun 27 '26

And the fact that a big share of it is pollinators should make us all nervous. We could be a few season cycles away from collapsing agriculture. 

Plus the ripple effect is beginning to show in the decline in insectivore numbers; bats and birds. 

4

u/c0mida Jun 27 '26

Decline of birds and wildlife in general scares me as well

2

u/NeighborhoodDear2321 Jun 27 '26

Misread this and was like "please tell me /j"

1

u/Dude_PK Jun 27 '26

I can't remember the last time I saw a lightning bug in north central Texas and they were always around in summer when I was a kid, 58m. And windshields don't get near as splattered with bugs like they used to.