Warning of ‘ecological Armageddon’ after dramatic plunge in insect numbers

The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years …. When the total weight of the insects in each sample was measured a startling decline was revealed. The annual average fell by 76% over the 27 year period, but the fall was even higher – 82% – in summer, when insect numbers reach their peak.

Wipe out 75%of skeeters and I’ll smile and nod (although that’ll still be really bad news for birds and bats tat eat them). Wipe out 75% of the pollinating insets like bees… and that’s just plain Not Good.

Pesticides are assumed to be largely responsible for the decline in flying insects. Like antibiotics, a good case can be made for assuming that modern societies have become to dependent upon them. Solutions would seem to include things like genetically modified food crops that don’t need pesticides, creating synthetic foodstuffs in factories (“So how’s the Soylent Green?” “It varies from person to person.”) and contracting with the Drax Corporation to do some spraying over high population density regions like NYC, LA, India and China.