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Author Topic: Extreme weather  (Read 111641 times)

Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2020 on: August 09, 2020, 02:58:28 pm »

Who do you think has a better chance of surviving?

Cockroaches and ants.
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LesPalenik

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2021 on: August 09, 2020, 03:16:27 pm »

Who do you think has a better chance of surviving?  Man or bear?

This is a win-loose thinking. Try to come up with a win-win scenario.
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Alan Klein

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2022 on: August 09, 2020, 03:35:16 pm »

This is a win-loose thinking. Try to come up with a win-win scenario.
Smokey Bear.

hogloff

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2023 on: August 09, 2020, 03:43:55 pm »

Who do you think has a better chance of surviving?  Man or bear?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypy4zHxeCCw

Cockroaches. They've been around before the dinosaurs.
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2024 on: August 09, 2020, 03:53:04 pm »

Tell that to the dodo.

Jeremy

And canis lupus, *recently* hunted to absolute extinction in the USA. Thanks, ranchers lobby.
Recently re-introduced to America with wolves from Canada.  Yer welcome.

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Alan Klein

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2025 on: August 09, 2020, 03:57:52 pm »

And canis lupus, *recently* hunted to absolute extinction in the USA. Thanks, ranchers lobby.
Recently re-introduced to America with wolves from Canada.  Yer welcome.


The same was done with bison from the Bronx Zoo.

Peter McLennan

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2026 on: August 09, 2020, 04:02:58 pm »

Speaking of which: bugs.  Living on the same 30 acres of rural land in SE British Columbia, I learned that I could tell what non-winter week it was by what kinds of bugs were about.

Now?  None.  For the last two years, there are virtually no bugs here at all, save mosquitoes and a few domestic honey bees, and even those are scarce. Grasshoppers and crickets, a sure harbinger of August, are totally absent. Dragonflies, which eat bugs, are completely gone, too. As are nearly all the birds. The corvids remain, but they'll eat anything.

I regularly drive across the province and my decidedly unscientific research proves that my local observations are valid from here to Vancouver.  My windshield is the measurement tool.  It acquires a quarter of the windshield deaths that it did in previous years.

Something has radically changed in the insect world in my part of the world and it's scary.
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Alan Klein

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2027 on: August 09, 2020, 04:35:46 pm »

Peter, I've noticed that here in New Jersey. There seems to be less bugs and mosquitoes.  When you drive, the headlights don't seem to illuminate many bugs on the road than when I was younger.

faberryman

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2028 on: August 09, 2020, 04:39:22 pm »

Peter, I've noticed that here in New Jersey. There seems to be less bugs and mosquitoes.  When you drive, the headlights don't seem to illuminate many bugs on the road than when I was younger.

It is climate change. Who wants to expend energy flying into windshields in this heat?
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2029 on: August 09, 2020, 04:42:48 pm »

Anybody else noticed this where they live?  Fewer insects?
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2030 on: August 09, 2020, 04:55:07 pm »

Anybody else noticed this where they live?  Fewer insects?

I'm tempted to say the same for here in Ottawa area, but I'm not sure I'm driving enough this year anyway. Don't trust my observations.

Local woods seemed full of deer flies 3-4 weeks ago but fewer mosquitoes than I expected. However, it was midday and very hot, something mosquitoes stay away from. I wasn't out in the bush much this spring so don't know what black fly season was like.

I used to volunteer at car rallies, often at the Rally of Tall Pines held in late November in the Bancroft area. It used to be considered a winter rally but it does not reliably get snow or even cold any more in the last 10 years. It's a shock to see deer flies and mosquitoes in the woods in late November.


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Alan Klein

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2031 on: August 09, 2020, 04:59:10 pm »

My biggest concern however is ticks, Lyme infected.  The disease has grown immensely and certainly there is no decrease in ticks.  I try to put on my Permethrin treated clothes when I'm photographing in the woods or even on grass off the side of roads.   Maybe the ticks are eating the other bugs. :)

Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2032 on: August 09, 2020, 05:21:36 pm »

Anybody else noticed this where they live?  Fewer insects?

While not a scientific study, this year I've had hardly any mosquitoes disturb me in my sleep. The Tiger mosquito has been inadvertently introduced and is spreading in parts of the country.

There is an increase in the number of ticks that carry Lyme disease. We've also had an increase of monster ticks, that actively hunt their prey. Last year we've had an invasion of oak procession caterpillars, but this year the massive placements of nesting houses for great tits might have had the intended effect. They have learned how to eat them, by hitting them on branches to lose the hairs that cause serious irritation.

There has been an explosion of Mediterranean (wiggle butt) ant colonies that do not have a single queen but 10,000 queens, and their nests can spread below several street blocks, and they invade houses. No natural predator or effective cure has been found yet.

From others, I've heard about the declining number of various bee populations (due to pesticides and mites), despite efforts by my municipality to keep a lot of blooming grasses and wildflowers standing, and not cutting them until after they have bloomed.
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LesPalenik

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2033 on: August 09, 2020, 05:25:34 pm »

My biggest concern however is ticks, Lyme infected.  The disease has grown immensely and certainly there is no decrease in ticks.  I try to put on my Permethrin treated clothes when I'm photographing in the woods or even on grass off the side of roads.   Maybe the ticks are eating the other bugs. :)

I agree on the ticks, there are making serious inroads to the northern regions. So far, I haven't picked up any yet. Also japanese beetles are on increase in Ontario, maybe they don't have any natural enemies here. They eat voraciously leaves on raspberries, blackberries, currants and some other leafy plants, and the leafless plants die after two or three such seasons. Around my backyard and in the city parks I noticed this year fewer mosquitoes, maybe due to the long heat wave we have had this summer, but out in the country the flies and mosquitoes are still prospering.  I don't see as many bees, wasps, butterflies and dragonflies as in the previous years.
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faberryman

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2034 on: August 09, 2020, 05:30:48 pm »

I don't see as many bees, wasps, butterflies and dragonflies as in the previous years.

We have three hives, so lots of bees. Butterflies are down this year, though it still may a little early. It is just so damn hot. I think all the usual summer things are moving into the fall.
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hogloff

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2035 on: August 09, 2020, 08:01:36 pm »

Speaking of which: bugs.  Living on the same 30 acres of rural land in SE British Columbia, I learned that I could tell what non-winter week it was by what kinds of bugs were about.

Now?  None.  For the last two years, there are virtually no bugs here at all, save mosquitoes and a few domestic honey bees, and even those are scarce. Grasshoppers and crickets, a sure harbinger of August, are totally absent. Dragonflies, which eat bugs, are completely gone, too. As are nearly all the birds. The corvids remain, but they'll eat anything.

I regularly drive across the province and my decidedly unscientific research proves that my local observations are valid from here to Vancouver.  My windshield is the measurement tool.  It acquires a quarter of the windshield deaths that it did in previous years.

Something has radically changed in the insect world in my part of the world and it's scary.

I remember driving through the Okanagan during early evenings from Penticton to Midway and having to stop in Osoyoos to clean the windshield from all the bug guts. No such thing now. Definitely the bugs have bugged out.
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Frans Waterlander

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2036 on: August 09, 2020, 08:20:56 pm »

I remember driving through the Okanagan during early evenings from Penticton to Midway and having to stop in Osoyoos to clean the windshield from all the bug guts. No such thing now. Definitely the bugs have bugged out.

And maybe that's a good thing!
« Last Edit: August 09, 2020, 08:26:29 pm by Frans Waterlander »
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LesPalenik

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2037 on: August 09, 2020, 08:35:45 pm »

I remember driving through the Okanagan during early evenings from Penticton to Midway and having to stop in Osoyoos to clean the windshield from all the bug guts. No such thing now. Definitely the bugs have bugged out.

Could be due also to more aerodynamic shapes of the cars.

Quote
The RSPB’s State of Nature study suggests there has been a 59 per cent decline in insects in the UK since 1970.
While experts say the phenomenon is “near impossible” to prove, the changing shape of cars and increase in traffic on the roads could also be to blame.
Motors are now more aerodynamic, meaning fewer insects are likely to hit the windshield.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/4338549/this-is-why-your-car-windscreen-is-no-longer-covered-in-dead-insects/
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Alan Klein

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2038 on: August 09, 2020, 09:09:51 pm »

Maybe insects are getting smarter and just avoiding cars.  Darwin at work. Those that are drawn to the headlamps die.  Those that avoid the headlamps survive and have offspring who also avoid the lamps.  They're off in the woods biting photographers.

hogloff

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Re: Extreme weather
« Reply #2039 on: August 09, 2020, 09:55:13 pm »

Could be due also to more aerodynamic shapes of the cars.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/4338549/this-is-why-your-car-windscreen-is-no-longer-covered-in-dead-insects/

My car hasn't changed the last 10 years. The number of bugs splats has.
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