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 😢

We used to need to wash windscreens mid journey because of splattered insects. I worried we no longer need to do it

Then someone pointed out vehicles are more aerodynamic so that may be why.

That's very true, we always had to do that after a long journey.

I did 1000 miles of driving around France recently and my windscreen was plastered in dead bugs that had hit it, I haven’t seen that here since the 90s when I started driving. It used to be a regular thing to have to pressure wash windscreens to remove them but it hasn’t been for many years in England now…because there clearly aren’t nearly as many as there used to be.

I am ashamed to admit that I only really got into nature during lock down. There are definitely less insects than there used to be. I want to learn more about their importance and will definitely get the book mentioned earlier. It doesn’t help that so many people are ripping up lawns and beds to put in plastic grass and shiny patio slabs.

We should be worried, there's been a 60% decline in flying insects in the UK over the last 20 years. My garden is the only garden in my street with plants and trees. Everyone else has concreted theirs or put down plastic grass. My neighbourhood FB page is full people moaning about the length of grass on the estate or the bushes not being trimmed back enough (we all pay for gardening), in the middle of nesting season! People are stupid.

Some people just see insects as a nuisance and not something intrinsic to the eco system.

This has been on my mind for the last few years. I’ve lived in this house for the last 20+ years. It’s on a development surrounded by fields and countryside. Years ago if I left the door of the conservatory open all day at this time of year without being in there, by the evening there would be dozens of flying insects either struggling to get out or expired already. I would rescue the ones I could and put them back outside and clean up the others. Nowadays, there might be half a dozen so either they’re getting better at finding their way back out or numbers have decreased dramatically.

Also, I remember when I was younger, say 40 years ago, if I drove any distance on a motorway in the spring/summer, the windscreen would be absolutely covered in bugs, big and small. There are still flies splatted on the windscreen but nowhere near the numbers or variety that there used to be.

I haven’t imagined this and it worries me. The knock-on effect with birds and wildlife is also starting to show.

It won’t be helped by the increasing numbers of people who think it’s fine to put plastic grass down or pave over any green spaces. It’s sad and it concerns me but it takes a collective effort to make a difference.

Lots of people will just be delighted that they don’t have to get the fly spray out as often 😨

Hampshire/Berkshire border in rural location. I have spent the last 3 years encouraging wild life in my garden feeding birds planting the right plants etc.
We 2 bat species, 3 types of owl, the only nuthatches recorded in Hampshire in the RSPB big garden bird watch. Of the migratory birds we have gold and green finches and chaffinches. There are two greater spotted woodpeckers. We have swifts this year that we haven't had before. Plus there used to be a buzzard hanging about.
Spiders, bees, butterflies and lady birds in abundance.
I have lavenders and salvias in my garden offer rich long lasting supply of nectar.
Farmers daughter who grew up being taught we are custodians of the countryside and we have to make an effort to support and encourage her wildlife.

I live on a small suburban housing estate right beside a woodland park, with quite a lot of grassed areas nearby too. We have lots of bees and hover flies in our garden, but I do plant for them. I’m trying to counteract next door’s plastic monstrosity.

Not many butterflies yet, and not as many ladybirds as usual, but there are plenty of midges and mosquitos - clouds of them everywhere - probably because of all the puddles in the woods that have not dried up since last September… Certainly we have swifts here this year, and I haven’t seen those for several years, and there seem to be more small garden birds than usual. The spiders seem to be very happy.

But the general trend across the country is very worrying.

I echo a PP's recommendation to read Dave Goulson's books, especially his Silent Earth on the decline of insect populations, and he's also written a great one on how to garden to attract wildlife, especially insects (though very worryingly, a few PP in this thread have said that they already do that, but are still not seeing many insects).

And as someone else said above, far too many people think of insects as a nuisance, those annoying flying buzzy things that fall in your lemonade or get stuck in your kitchen. This could not be more wrong, and more people need to be aware of how absolutely essential insects are to life on this planet. More than 80% of all the crops grown in Europe are pollinated by insects (of which bees and hoverflies are the most important ones). The vital contribution of insects to our food security was discussed in parliament earlier this year: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5804/cmselect/cmsctech/326/summary.html

So no, the OP is not pointlessly catastrophising about this, she's absolutely right to be concerned. I'm just glad and relieved that a few of us in the thread have been seeing lots of insects.

Valid concern OP. The spring we had seems to have had an impact on wildlife. Earlier this week was the first butterfly I have seen, and the local ducks (about 40 of them) have only had one family with ducklings.

I think it's weather related. North east Scotland and it's taken until a week or two ago to see some warm weather. Now all the spiders are out and bees too. Before then, there were very little going around.

I live in a South East coastal town and have seen lots of insects in my front/back garden.

Bumblebees, butterflies, ants, ladybirds, spiders, flies...

You can have some of mine!

I'm seeing insects, but what's got me concerned is that I haven't seen any frogs.

I've also done a lot of mileage in the last ten days, and the splat count on the numberplate is looking positive.

I live near water, there’s loads, can you create a small pond?

I also think it’s weather related. Long cold & wet spring. It almost felt like we went straight from winter to summer here, it’s only warmed up in the last few weeks. (NE England)
Lots of insects here now, in fact far too many in the house! The garden is stocked full of plants, we have a continuous display of perennial flowers all summer long. I also have lots of bedding plants in pots, troughs etc. Flowering is definitely later this year though.
The wildflower part of my garden has significantly less insects than the formal, pretty, well stocked garden.
The trend for plastic grass and massive patios can’t be helping things. Not many people have well stocked gardens anymore, people don’t have the time perhaps or maybe just not interested in gardening.
I know other posters have heavily blamed farmers using pesticides but there are significant other factors too. And fwiw, we use less pesticides than previously, pesticides have increased significantly in price in the last few years (along with everything else) and most farmers do actually care about the environment. We can’t all switch to organic farming as the crop yields would not be enough to feed everyone and not everyone can afford the premium price organic produce demands.

Of course you should be worried. We all should be worried.

I've noticed it too. We have left some of our lawn unmown and there are plenty of wildflowers in it but no bees. We have a water source and some woodland too so it should be a welcoming environment but I've seen very few insects this year. Slugs on the other hand...

Same in my garden (north west). A few bees, a few moths, lots of spiders actually but virtually no butterflies - I've literally seen two all year. Garden is wild - should be a haven for bees and butterflies and insects generally but it's so so quiet, it's disturbing. When I think back to the wildlife of my childhood I could honestly weep at the paucity now.

That said I did a walk about 20 miles away in early May and saw 5 or 6 different species of butterfly that day. So maybe it's localised. I don't know why our area would be so badly hit though, just average suburbia not farmland.

I'm in Wales, coastal, and a lazy gardener. Definitely less bees and butterflies this year, maybe due to the weather? But my buddleias aren't out yet, so I'm sure I'll see more then. Have little moths and midges in the house at night - daddy long legs don't tend to come til later here anyway.

Loads of spiders in my (overgrown) grass and my house. Lots of moth/butterfly caterpillars in the bushes. I wonder if things are just late?

No pesticide use here that I know of - livestock farming only.

Tonnes in my garden alone.

I've even seen my first ever hawk moth - when it clung to my leg. Huge beast.

And despite an involuntary full spider eradication in my house last year due to necessary pest control measures, lots of cellar spiders have already reclaimed their space in my home.

I'm in rural France. We have rather too many insects! Mosquitos, spiders, flies, dragonflies, stag beetles, aphids, moths, bees and hornets, crane flies, caterpillars, dung beetles, and those are just the ones I can identify. There are all sorts of winged insects that appear on the wall of the house that I've never seen before. And that's before I start on the frogs, toads, hares, deer, owls, polecats and rats and mice.

I work in ecology and yes huge concerns.

Slightly relieved this morning to see 2 small white butterflies and a peacock butterfly caterpillar shuffling along the footpath by my on my dog walk.

Very few hoverflies this year and they're so important. Haven't even seen many wasps.

Forgot to mention butterflies! Lots of them!

Of course one of the best indicators of a healthy insect population is a rousing dawn chorus.

Totally agree we have destroyed the insects population with relentless pesticide use on farmland and urban areas, built on and paved over most the green areas fields and gardens near me. Taken down or blocked up all the buildings that bats and swallows roosted in. Endless road kill with dead birds and hedgehogs. I’m not optimistic about the future.

it’s noticeable that when I cycle in the countryside through lanes and fields there are no insects but when I cycle on a scruffy urban cycle path there are clouds of them.

I have recently started ordering an organic veg box as I felt like a hypocrite for shopping in supermarkets.