New study finds "alarming" 75 percent decline in insect populations Atlanta Journal-Constitution At

[yuiyoshida]

Insect populations have declined by 76 percent in 30 years, according to a study. Researchers in Germany found the flying insect community had been decimated. Loss of insects jeopardize the rest of the ecosystem. "There is an urgent need to uncover the causes of this decline," they wrote.

[Blindingly apparent]

1. My head tells me this is probably a bad thingvery bad

But the part of me that responds to creepy crawlers ask how could this not be a good thing

[Quixote1818]

2. I wonder if cars have made an impact? One car can kill hundreds in one trip.

One four or five hour trip can s sometimes cover my car in dead insects. Multiply that times millions of cars driving at all times of the day and perhaps it has been part of the issue?

[Honeycombe8]

3. Pesticides. People LOOOOOVE Roundup. nt

[gordianot]

4. Agriculture has been at war with insects for generations.

Getting between humans and profit is hazardous to your health.

[yuiyoshida]

5. i used to see fireflies as a kid...

no longer.

[pbmus]

6. I will get concerned when these 29 insects are threatened..

https://www.insectidentification.org/helpful-insects.asp

[Linda Ed]

7. I heard or read

something quite a while back that one of the reasons for this is due to cell towers and the radio frequency signal strength.. Don't know if this is true or not but kind of makes sense...

[caraher]

9. There's no sensible physical mechanism for that to be a problem

The pervasive use of pesticides is by far the most plausible explanation. They are, after all, designed for the very task of killing insects, spread virtually everywhere, and we know how they cause harm. Biological effects of cell tower radiation are very hard to discern, and there's no obvious way for low photon energy electromagnetic radiation to cause insect mortality (or for that matter, any of the adverse health effects in humans some folks attribute to cell phones).

[pansypoo53219]

8. booming centipede pop here. must be eating something.