VeeJun 5, 2025
What's been lost...
Entomologists from Krefeld, Germany, collected flying insects for two weeks in August 1994 (left) and—at the same site, with an identical trap— in August 2016 (right). Similar data from 63 German protected areas overall gave a shocking result: a 76 percent drop in insect biomass between 1989 and 2016.
It has worsened significantly in the past 9 years.
Photographed at Entomological Society of Krefeld
Show threadGalad
@VeroniqueB99 I highly suspect that this is a direct consequence of pesticides being overused.
Jun 5, 2025 at 11:56pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadcontrasocialJun 6, 2025

@galad @VeroniqueB99

The horrible thing is that similar declines are seen in protected areas with minimal interference from direct human activity like pollutants.

Pesticides definitely don't help, but this is driven by climate change. Many insects and other life are evolved to fit in a very specific environmental niche, when the timing of seasons and weather patterns gets messed up it throws the life cycle of these insects into chaos. Like when a tree blooms too early and gets killed by frost

Show threadVeeJun 6, 2025
@galad 👍 💯