No bugs on the windshield not a good thing

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Have you noticed something missing as you traveled this past summer? It used to be that the windshield would be covered with bugs if you traveled much distance at all. This past summer, bug splatter was noticeably absent.

While motorists possibly little regret the decline, what is becoming known by entomologists as “the windshield phenomenon” is a reason for concern. Insects are a vital part of the food web, and when those go missing it can spell disaster for the birds and bats that depend on them. And it doesn’t end there. As John Muir said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”

Ken Trimble, coordinator, Eureka Springs Pollinator Alliance, said while little research has been done on the overall population of flying insects, he does believe there’s reason for concern.

“The decline in the number of flying insects is a viable indicator of what’s going on,” Trimble said. “We did a road trip from Eureka to northern New York in July. That’s when bugs should have been incredibly dense across the whole Midwest. We did a lot of highway driving and saw very few bugs on the windshield. It may be anecdotal, but it might be indicative of the loss of the flying insect population. We are poisoning our air, water and soil with herbicides and pesticides. That is not sustainable and we are starting to see it. It is up to us to be the ones to take action.”

More research has been done on the declines of individual species like honey bees, monarch butterflies and lightning bugs. Less has been done on an overall count of insects. But a study in Germany published in the scientific journal PLOS One showed that total insect biomass declined 82 percent over 27 years at 63 nature protection areas in Germany.

Trimble is encouraged that Germany and other European Union countries have taken actions to counteract the problems. “Germany is one of the countries that in the past four years has banned most neonicotinoids, which are a class of insecticide that are very long lasting and have been linked to the declines of honey bees,” he said. “I know they are getting ready to review the honey bee decline again to see if there has been any positive result from banning neonicotinoids in the EU. Unfortunately, that is only one little segment of some of the problems we are facing.”

Trimble and the Eureka Springs Pollinator Alliance are working on the problem by educating people about the benefits of planting milkweed, necessary to monarch butterfly reproduction, as well as other types of native plants that benefit bees and other pollinators. He said they are also looking at starting a grassroots movement to work towards reducing pesticides and herbicide use.

“I don’t know if we can ever completely eliminate pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, but anything we can do to reduce them is good,” he said. “Unfortunately, thirty seven states including Arkansas have state bans that prevent municipalities and local government from making bans on agricultural chemicals. We need some changes to allow us to have more flexibility to come up against some of these pesticide and herbicide manufacturers. They have a stranglehold on the government.”

Trimble is encouraged that pesticide free efforts are happening across the country, as in Montgomery County, Maryland, which has declared the entire county pesticide free. South Portland, Maine, is the largest city to ban pesticides.

“As a grassroots movement, that is happening,” Trimble said. “Eureka Springs could be one of the cities to ban pesticides. We are a Bee City USA, a city that has committed itself to supporting and helping both bees and pollinators to be a healthier community. We’ve been joined now by Mountain Home, so now there are two Bee City USA towns in the state of Arkansas. We were number seventeen nationally a year and a half ago, and now there are close to sixty-five Bee City USAs across country. Lots of campuses and even some military bases have been certified as Bee Cities. People need to quit wringing their hands and realize we can actually do something to help our insect populations and pollinators.”

He sees some progress. The Arkansas State Plant Board has instituted a limited ban on dicamba, a long-lasting herbicide that has caused millions in damages with pesticide drift.

Another reason for cautious optimism is that the annual loss of honeybees in the U.S. has gone from 44 percent to about 33 percent.

“That is not great, but it is a positive sign,” he said. “Part of that is we are kind of finally getting a handle on the problem. We need more diverse and healthy forests and wildflower meadows. And we need to clean up our act with pesticides so foraging honeybees are not bringing those chemicals back into the hive.”

Trimble said beekeepers are also working to address the problem by being more careful about chemicals used to kill mites that can harm or kill bee colonies, and by developing healthier breeding stock.

“Hopefully we can begin to turn things around before it is too late,” he said. “We have already lost certain species of our bumblebees. Several bumble species that once populated wide regions of our nation are now missing, but only the rusty-patched Bumblebee is listed as endangered. Many of our insects don’t even have names yet. Who knows how many species we have already lost?”

For more information, see the Eureka Springs Pollinator Alliance Facebook page or email Trimble at espollinatorall@gmail.com.