Redo of nature

Some random thoughts on how nature seems to be springing back to life.

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A few months back I was hanging with a friend at a gardening center. Rather than stay on the beaten path, we wandered a bit into a nearby stream and attempted to search for wildlife.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to be seen aside from the stream and its water source which seemed to be a bit hidden. Here, she made a comment about a conversation she had with another person on how there didn’t seem to be too many insects relative to when they were younger.

She mentioned the number of insects that would swarm you when camping, which seems to have all but dissipated in recent years.

This was, again, one of those experiences I didn’t quite have growing up, although I do recall the multitude of caterpillars that would crawl all over my house and would freak me out during the warmer months. My dad would usually deal with them quickly, and over the years I did notice that they stopped appearing. Of course, younger me didn’t have the tools necessary to understand the ramifications for the disappearing caterpillars.

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With the onset of rampant pesticide use, changing environments and artificial lights many insect populations have been on the decline, with many species landing onto the endangered or threatened species list. The commonly cited disappearing insect is, of course, the bees, which serve as one of our most critical pollinators. If the bees go, so too do many of the fruits and vegetables we rely upon in our everyday diet.

But there’s also the fireflies, which serve as one of nature’s most illuminating insects. I’m sure many readers can recall summer evenings attempting to catch these balls of bioluminescence- a proverbial lightning bug in a bottle. For many kids of this generation this concept may seem all-too foreign, and not because of the lack of wanting to be outdoors, but likely due to the lack of any fireflies as their populations dwindle.

From USAToday. I’m rather critical of mainstream press, but they tend to have pleasant images. This article is more an infograph than an descriptive article detailing the decline of fireflies.

Indeed, fireflies are one of the most telling insects that warns of something amiss with the balance of nature. In reality, all insects serve as telling signs of nature’s disarray.