To be worried that I haven’t seen any insects.

[Viscoelasticity]

I live in the Welsh countryside. It’s 11pm and I’ve been sitting in my living room with two windows wide open and the lamps on for the past 4 hours. There are no insects in my house. No moths or daddy long legs fluttering around my lampshades. Where are they?

I have seen no butterflies this year. No ladybirds. No wasps. No ants. About 3 bumble bees, and one earwig. Very few spiders.

I never thought I’d miss insects, but I do, and I am worried. What will the birds and the frogs eat? Nature is dying 😢

I’m in Lancashire; there are loads here! We’ve had plagues of beetles and small flies that I haven’t seen before. There was a swarm of honeybees in my garden the other day too.

I haven’t seen many butterflies yet, but my buddlia has just flowered, so I’m hopeful.

I'm on the coast in Wales and I've seen plenty of insects.

i live near a river and there’s generally loads of insects, but i’ve definitely noticed less flying ones this year, though they’re still around.

I thought it was because we had such a horrible cold wet spring, but that was just my assumption.

My house is out of the village and surrounded by farmland, this year it’s wheat close to us and rape further up.

I have a big unkempt garden, an unmown area, huge buddleias, sage and lavender, borage and comfrey, calendula, roses, a honeysuckle hedge, ivy and willow… usually teeming with insects. Ladybirds were late arriving but now seem to have vanished. I’ve seen two butterflies, a few hoverflies, five or six small bees, five or six bumblebees weeks ago. The fields have all been sprayed and I’m sure there’s a connection, whatever they used.

For the first time in over 30 years the rose is spectacular, without a single greenfly, when previously the buds have been smothered and I’m forever blasting them off. This year, none.

I'm also in Wales and being eaten alive by midges

I feel very lucky in that case, as my garden is heaving with bees, hoverflies, moths, earwigs, spiders etc.
I do have a lot of flowers and I leave parts of my lawn uncut as the bees love the clover flowers. I have plenty of borage growing and it’s nearly always got a bee on it when I walk past. I’m in Essex.

There is a U.K. pollinator monitoring scheme that may be of interest to anyone with these concerns.

https://ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts

I've had loads of bees though far less so over the last few weeks as the rain has turned my garden to rotting weeds :( some butterflies though I never have many of those.

The fields around us have all been turned into housing. Old hedges grubbed up, trees cut down and fields that were “set aside” are now covered in concrete and tarmac.

First year I haven’t seen a butterfly in my garden. The barn owls have gone too.

I keep finding cockchafers in the house. Stupid things seem to have a death wish.

Lots in my garden in the Cotswolds but definitely much less than there were. When I was school age our garden was full of butterflies and bees and ant nests. We used to regularly see swarms of bees.
Worrying isn't it. I've made sure my garden is planted with lots of bee friendly flowers, I've got insects houses. Bloody tonnes of slugs!!!

yes Dave Goulson thank you Bluuuemooon.
I always get his name wrong.

Barely any bees or butterflies at all this year compared to previous summers. We have an area of the garden which is unmown all year round, and the borders are full of plants for pollinators. Last year we had several different kinds of bumble bees, and even leaf cutter bees. I’m in Cheshire. It’s worrying…

I was just thinking how many there were this year in comparison to other years. my windscreen is a mess and I'm being plagued by midges every time I go outside.

The swallows and housemartins have run out of normal nesting places there are so many of them this year and one has nested against one of my children's bedrooms window frame which is really cool for them to watch.

I think the bad weather earlier this month might have delayed a few things emerging by a week or so.

I've been noticing this for a long time, but I'm a tiny bit cheered up at the moment because for the past few days I've had quite a few moths getting into the house at night - haven't had a lot of moths in on summer nights for years. They're small ones, though, not the big furry ones. I remember when it was impossible to open the windows at night in summer, even for five minutes, without being invaded by large moths.

I read an article yesterday about encouraging wildlife in the garden, and one of the things it suggested for insects was to have a pile of rotting wood, so I've started making a wood pile today.

Where I go go for my daily walk there used to be clouds of them if disturbed walking through the grass. Now, nothing. Extremely worrying as lack of insects will lead to ecosystem collapse. We are doomed.

My garden used to be full of lacewings, hoverflies and moths, but they have all been in decline and this year we've had none. No birds either.

Get some comfrey. It's covered in bumblebees at the moment.

I echo what others have said.
I'm in the South at the foot of the Downs. The garden is covered in Lavender, the Buddlia is just starting and the grass is overgrown and full of wild flowers.
I saw quite a few Bees in April/ May but none this month. Nothing.
I am shocked as have never had this before. I also wonder if the farmers are using different harmful pesticides.

The bees are all living in my lavender!

We have a distinct lack of insects too. Usually see lacewings and bees. Very few about. There are a lot of European hornets being spotted, which could have something to do with it. We have made a lot of effort to have a wild area in our small garden. I haven’t seen any butterflies, I need to buy some buddlea.

Loads of slugs and snails though, and we do have hedgehogs. 🦔

Completely agree. Very very few insects around. Numbers have been declining for a long time, but this year there's hardly anything around at all.

I think the weather has had a big impact. Severe heat and drought a couple of years ago, then more than a year of continual rain. Plus all the habitat loss, light pollution, chemical pollution, nutrient pollution, insecticides. It's relentless.

I've noticed it, too. I know insect depopulation is a serious issue - it's due to pesticides - but thought the dearth of the little buggers this June was probably down to the crappy cold weather we've been having. Now it's warmed up, some of them might reappear? (I'm very unsure on whether most insects can prolong their juvenile stages.)

The dawn chorus is pretty feeble at the moment, too. Maybe my local birds have all relocated to PPs' insect-filled gardens!

I'm in rural Herefordshire, same here.

Really worried

I have 4 acres of garden, wood, pool, meadow

Yeah, I've noticed this too - I'm autistic and find watching bees visiting flower s very soothing. I keep going for walks in the countryside and seeing empty foxgloves and I find it very sinister - 5 years ago I'd always see at least one bee on every foxglove.