AIBU to worry that there are no insects in my house tonight?

[whiteroseredrose]

The windows have been open all day and this evening; the lights are on, but there is not a single moth or buzzing creature in my house at all.

We've still not mowed after 'no mow May' so there are lots of flowers everywhere, but only a few bees.

Has anyone else found this?

I wish. We have no fold doors and get every known bug in the house! Butterflies, bees, wasps, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders...
The moths come in at night as it gets darker.
Spend half my day clearing up dead flies and rescuing dopey bees.

I hate creepy crawlies. I splat as many as I can 🤣

I've been saying the same OP! We've been sleeping with all the windows open and haven't had to put the nets up this year. We live semi-rurally next to a small stream, and it usually turns into a nightmare during spring. This year we've had nothing except a couple of flies. It's so strange.

Well this is terrifying: "The UK's flying insect population has declined by as much as 60% in the last 20 years"

www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/may/uks-flying-insects-have-declined-60-in-20-years.html

We have loads of lavender and other flowers and barely a bee or ladybird to be seen, unlike previous years. We also have noticeably fewer small birds. Add this to the increasing heat and shortages of water and I can’t tell you how anxious I am about the future, particularly when otherwise intelligent people can’t seem to fathom that if the bugs go, so do we as a species. I don’t think people realise how much our food and water security is hanging by a thread.

Same, OP. I have noticed that yesterday, too. Was wondering what's happened to all insects last night. V strange.

Pesticides probably.

I've had loads of flies, an ant infestation yesterday, moths last night and my cat got a massive spider.

YABU - sorry!

Loads in NW

We have loads of insects in our house and garden but it is quite a big wild garden, small modern gardens with patios covering a lot of it aren't really welcoming to insects

Definitely not as many insects here as we've had even in recent years, and nowhere near as many as when I was a kid.
I've planted my garden full of insect friendly flowers, and created insect habitats as best I can and I've still noticed the reduction. It is concerning.

Nope, I leave the window open and I get loads of unwanted flies and carpet moths which I dispatch of with fly soray. Not had any big moths though, which I normally try and save and put outside.

Loads and loads here! Including so many of these stag Beatles! Never seen them in the UK! Recently in the evening the air has been full of them, quite magical to watch but terrifying when they land on you! Lived in the Thames Valley for 2 summers but didn't see a single one last year.

Same! I've been walking in our local park which is left to go wild in parts and there are so many flowers usually loved by bees. This year it's eerily empty

I was about to say the same thing 🤣 Our next door neighbours have bee hives and we live on the edge of a forest, so I currently spend most of my days ushering stray bees or insects out of the house. 😅

Ahh I didn't know that's what they were called, this is what I was trying to describe upthread with the pincer horns lol. Only I think mine was a more dark blue. Yeah it was menacing looking, never seen anything like it until this summer

Hmm, I know what you mean. I was reading by lamplight in bed the other night, and thought 'shit, I've left the window open'. I was too lazy to close it. I expected moths to fly in and there was nothing.

In rural Scotland - lots of bugs (despite bats, swallows, housemartins ......)

V few ladybirds- in fact the only ones I've seen are tiny and green. We do have bees and moths and bluebottles and butterflies but v few wasps this year.
I regularly drive on the motorway and my windscreen and number plate are sadly much cleaner than previous years on the same route.

Wales - loads of flies, bees and aphids. Hardly any butterflies, not even cabbage whites, and I haven’t seen a ladybird yet this year.

I sat in the garden yesterday, and pretty much watched all the cricket. In that time I noticed one solitary bee, loads of flys (food bin not collected due to strike) and not much else in the day. Surprised not to see a single butterfly.

Lots of moths when the sun went down though.

I put water out for the ants 2x in last few days. If I don't give them water they will come into the house looking for it.

Our bug count is also down. We are almost rural & usually see a lot more. dry and cloudy East Anglia.

Bats, swifts, martens, swallows: their numbers look down, too

I've only seen one ladybird this year and I'm a keen gardener. I am heartened by our councils approach to mowing (and our uni campus gardeners) who are deliberately not cutting large areas of grass to help out the insect population. Even if the local FB page is full of moaners complaining that the city looks messy.

I've had moths, daddy long-legs, flies, bluebottles, wasps. Made the mistake of leaving my bathroom window open all night, one of my DC then left the light on. The infestation of the previously mentioned Scottish midge was terrifying. They had made a colony 🙊😅 I've also seen a good few bees outside 😊