Insects that are a bit 90's

[anitagreen]

Talking to my friend this evening and she doesn't believe that I haven't seen an Earwig since the late 90s? Same for woodlouce has anyone else seen them recently I'm sure their extinct now I genuinely haven't seen one since about 1999.

I saw an earwig a few days ago (in Ireland)

I have approximately 40 woodlice in my house at any one time so I can assure your friend they’re very much of the current decade unfortunately.

We’ve got tons of earwigs and woodlice in Cornwall!

Daddy long legs, haven't seen one in yonks. Any aul wans like me on here who remembers a book of the same name?

Lift up any old piece of wood or stone in your garden and you'll find hundreds of woodlice.

I honestly thought they'd died out! @Deadringer ah sorry we had one in a few weeks ago just batting around the ceiling

@Deadringer They're all in my house if you mean the non flying type. We're infested with them. The flying ones I would like to see go extinct however as they're the only bug I'm afraid of.

I've seen woodlice but haven't seen an earwig in yonks. Similarly though, when you drive at night there aren't nearly as many insect casualties on the windscreen..

We get approx 40 million daddy longlegs in our house every summer.

Loving this thread title - images of Liam Gallagher-esq earwigs and woodlice styling themselves on Damon Albarn are strangely pleasing.

where have all the stag beetles gone?

Its strange and probably very coincidental that you've started this thread as I was thinking the other day.
I haven't seen a caterpillar for years. Obviously I know they're Still around as we have butterflies.
Talking of insects and I'm too young to remember this. I wasn't even one, but Who remembers the summer of the lady birds in 1976. My mum and dad used to often talk about it. Apparently no one could explain where they came from and why it happened.
I'd love a summer of cute little baby spiders.

Grasshoppers. When I was little (ok, a bit earlier than the '90s) every lawn was alive with them. Now it is a rare and special thing.

where have all the stag beetles gone??

Seriously endangered, I don't think there are many left. People killed them.

All the caterpillars, woodlice, earwigs (yuk) and ladybirds are alive and well and in my garden. I also have daddy long legs in the cellar.

An earwig trundled across the carpet last night, tracked cautiously by the dog.

We demolished our very damp old shed and there were vast populations of insects under there. The whole base had been turned to sawdust which I think was down to the insects . We used to have frogs for years . No pond so not sure where they came from.I think they lived behind there and came out when it rained. No sign this year which is a shame. We held off demolishing the shed in case they were mating .

I think you don’t see as many bugs as when you were a child because you’re not grubbing about in dirt so much!

Exactly RiddleyW, how old are you op?

I ask as Since I’ve had a kid I’ve rediscovered all sorts of nature stuff that I’d completely forgotten about. I think adults don’t have time to stop and take stock of their surroundings enough to notice earwigs and woodlice!

I still see lots of woodlice - BUT - when I was a kid in the 80s, I thought woodlice were amazing because of you prodded then they’d curl up into a ball, and a I haven’t seen a curling up into a ball woodlouse since about 1990. Where did they all go? We’re they a slightly different species or something?

I had an old set of wooden garden table and chairs that I realised was absolutely stuffed with earwigs when I came to trying to get it dragged out for the council to collect.

It's possible that people's gardens are a bit less 'left to nature' as much as they were, with less wood and nooks and crannies. Everyone had compost heaps and fairly ramshackle outbuildings (outside toilets etc) when I was a kid.

There has been a huge drop in insect population in the country in recent years.

Anyone old enough will remember that if you drove a longish journey in the height of summer years ago then your windscreen and the front of your car would be thick with dead insects.

Rest assured though that all the stag beetles live here in the east.

East Anglian people - there have been far less Billywitches in recent years.

Saw a stag beetle last year dead but huge!

We've got wood lice in the garden and had an earwig recently in the house

What happened to all the thunderbugs (?) Those little black ones that looked like a hyphen and used to accumulate in picture frames and on anything yellow? You get lots of little shiny black round bugs on yellow things now but they’re not the same; wha happened there?

@Awwlookatmybabyspider
Here's a nest of baby spiders just for you. I took it on Thursday They didn't like the rain much yesterday and all huddled back together.