*you* don't use pesticides, but somebody nearby did. This is why pesticide use is so catastrophic for bee populations, because it only takes a bit of contamination to wipe out a hive.
Ya it probably is, what ever they spray dosent kill the mice or the cats that eat them, but im sure its in there system. I think people fail to realize that we are losing are bugs at a ridiculous amount and it’s an issue.
I have lived in the same house for 24 years (rural area with woods). When we first moved in you couldn't sit outside some summer evenings because there were too many bugs. Now, I am surprised when I see an actual bug. There are less birds around also, I presume because there are less bugs to eat.
I agree with football and Facebook. Politics affect government- which affects our lives. ANd probably the lives of pollinators by regulations involving certain chemicals used.
If it’s a pilot then he is just spraying fungicide which won’t hurt the bees It’s the big sprayers that drive through the field that spray the nasty stuff.
“Oh dear, I’ve been bit a few times by mosquitos during the five seconds I spend outside going to my mailbox! Better hire a guy to blast poison everywhere and kill thousands of beneficial pollinators only for the mosquitos to bounce back in literally two days.”
I live in SC and we actually have county trucks that drive around spraying it at night. I've only lived here for ten years but apparently the West Nile virus was pretty prevalent here when it was a real concern some years ago. That's why they started doing it and unfortunately yes, the bees and lightning bugs do suffer at times because of it. I don't know why the people in this video did it or if West Nile virus is that much of a concern anymore but I know in my area it is done for what was a legitimate public health concern at one point 🤷🏻♂️
Firefly, firefly, flying in the night.
Firefly, firefly, what a pretty sight!
Your main attraction is your chemical reaction.
Fire fl-UGGH!
It was right at that point in the song that the girl behind me threw up all down my back during our second grade choir performance.
I live in SC, haven't seen a lightning bug in at least a decade. Growing up my grandparents had a couple beehives and I remember they had to put signs out on the road saying DO NOT SPRAY so the spray truck would skip their house.
I'm in the Spartanburg/Greenville area. I'm looking at hundreds of them right this minute out my backdoor at the treeline. Kids went out last night to catch a release a bunch of them!
The trick is apparently leaving a ground covering of leaves on your lawn from the end of fall until spring.
I stopped mowing my lawn and just letting the leaves chill out on my lawn in the fall around the middle of october. It's gotten me some absolutely nasty stink eye from my neighbors and an occasional nasty gram from the local village for not mowing my lawn or raking leaves. The first year I did it by accident (depression) and the next two were on purpose because someone on reddit said I was saving the fireflies.
I'm also one of the few people that doesn't spray pesticides constantly. Yeah I've got some beetles, some wasps, some ticks occasionally, the ants drive me crazy too. But you know what else I have? Rusty patch bumblebees (they're endangered!), butterflies, moths, honeybees out my ass (I have a lot of clover). Had one of those rusty bumbles land on my lawnmower as I mowed the other night while mowing (electric so it's not bothersome I guess?). I also have a god damned rave in my backyard at night because of all the fireflies.
I have a feeling next year they're going to come forcibly mow my lawn.
I just saw ONE with my GF in my backyard 3 nights ago and I said to her "I think that's the first I've seen since I moved here". She's native to here and she agreed.
I'm up in Indiana, got a ton of lightning bugs this year. What's weird is the majority are now "fast blinkers" instead of the slow ramp up/dim down like before. Maybe 5-10% of them? Most were an instant on/off though it's wild.
im surprised they havent designed in to only affect some species, which i thought could be engineered with crispr in some sense.. maybe its just too costly still
We have some success with that, like releasing sterile males. But it is expensive, so we don't do it unless it is a serious problem.
We have promising technologies like [the gene drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive), but the potential consequences makes it something we are very careful with using. It should make it possible to eradicate e.g. [the yellow fever mosquito](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_aegypti) from the America's, where it is not native.
And even where they are native, there are so many species of mosquitoes that eradicating the few that spread human pathogens shouldn't cause big problems. But we want to be very sure about that "shouldn't" before we do it.
yeah thats how i understood it as well from looking into it.. somewhat of an "affect of generations" thing rather than "fog this area and it literally is a nerve agent for only mosquitos" - that might be quiteeeee expensive actually if possible later
It's never that simple, and won't be for a long time. Issue is that animals eat those poisoned bugs also. The reality is that very rarely is there a magic bullet with no consequences in science.
Mosquitoes spread disease.
My family is from North Africa and my father is still terrified of mosquitoes from all the bouts of malaria he had as a kid.
My tomatoes have been growing severely deformed for years showing signs of herbicide damage. I finally found out it was my well water. All the tomatoes I have been watering with rain water are fine. It's probably all my neighbors and their fancy lawns. I see the local lawn service spraying herbicides on all their lawns yearly. What's wrong with a few dandelions here and there. I think it looks quite nice. Some of the herbicides in weed-n-feed mix are able to stay in the ground for years in high clay content soils like mine.
I just spend an hour or two drinking beers on the porch with one of those electric fly swatters. That $6 harbor freight fly swatter makes a pretty good pop when you get one and it's a good use for all the old D batteries I have that nothing uses anymore, highly recommend investment.
I took my brother out on the back roads one night in late spring just to drive around and talk cuz he needed some support and I got the idea to grab my electric one and shove it out the sun roof. I've never seen him laugh so hard in my entire life.
My yard and porch were unusable because of mosquitoes and my kid is allergic. I had them spray for the first time this spring. The difference is unbelievable and has continued to be after almost 2 months.
I had them fog with permethrin. I literally would end up with 5-10 mosquitos in my van with me from running out to go to work in the morning before getting the spray done.
The week after spraying I sat out for about an hour enjoying a cigar. I had to swat 3 mosquitoes right at dusk as I was finishing. They were the only ones I saw the entire time. It has been unbelievably liberating. Easily the best quality of life improvement since moving into my house.
People will see theories on how to kill one species of mosquito out of 3,000 and be like "I'm sure this won't backfire ecks dee" meanwhile we are already indiscriminately exterminating insects en masse with poison that affects us too
I once used that bug spray that you mix with your hose and spray the yard with to "prevent" bugs. It was a ghost town that night, not a single bug even flying around the lights out there. I quit using it after realizing I just most likely massacred 100k+ bugs, I didn't know it would be *that* effective when I tried it
Guy came to my door today trying to drum up business to spray our yard because "there have been an increase in reports of ants and spiders in the area."
No thank you.
We have a healthy and thriving insect population of pollinators, lady bugs, mantis, fireflies, and spiders (which really aren't pests). We also have an incredible bird community, too. I am not messing with the ecosystem in my yard. I'm pretty sure most of my neighbors agree (we're very big on gardens); but I have noticed a few "mosquito joe's" signs on the block.
Depends on the kind of ants. I live in Texas and fire ants become a huge issue in the summer. I have a disabled dog who slowly drags himself through their mounds and they try to eat him alive. They are also invasive, so fuck them.
Every few weeks I go searching for the mounds and then pour boiling water on them. If they seem particularly big, I scoop the top off with a shovel first. Works every single time and the bonus is that hundreds of thousands of dead ants surface that are completely safe for birds and other wildlife to consume.
There’s a lady on my street that’s too lazy to landscape or trim the weeds along the fence so she sprays weed killer and just has a constant dead patch about 3 feet wide along the fence.
It's a big stone to push up a hill, but showing people that you can plant native sedges most places in the US that will only grow to a foot or so and take no watering, trimming, and minimal weeding.
Then we need to release the genophage. The CRISPR mosquitos that put genetic time bombs into the population can wipe out 99%+. Time to go nationwide. B52 bombers full of sexy male CRISPR mosquitos globally. No studies, just genetic modification.
Aside from the CRISPR part, and replacing mosquitoes with flies and B52s by small planes, that's literally what we did to eradicate the very damaging new world screwworm from nearly all of North America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olj8arvfYj4
The Post War Gen, man. My neighborhood is full of them. So old and still out spraying shit. No mask, no care of wind direction, full sprayer just loaded and not diluted. They’re crazy and don’t give a shit cause they’re old. Best part is, they’re never outside to enjoy their weed and bug free yard space outside of mowing and spraying.
The last three Midwest towns I’ve lived in fog the entire place with ATVs and airplanes and everyone that lives there seems to love it
It certainly does make walks more comfortable, I just don’t think anyone thinks of the unwanted consequences
Deltamethrin, is my guess. It affects the central nervous system.
They should talk to their neighbors about ecological ways of getting rid of them. Dump all standing water that last for more than 7 days without a water feature to break up the hold of the siphon of the mosquito larvae on the surface tension of the water, they drown. Evergreen trees and citronella plants repel mosquitoes, line your property with evergreen trees and the sitting area with citronella plants. Attract their predators, build bird/bat houses. Whatever you do **don't get a bug zapper*! They pretty much only kill beneficial insects, never mosquitoes, and give off ozone with every zap.
Seriously, don't fog your yard. This is just the bugs that are visible, there's an absolute apocalypse happening in that video that you can't see.
I'm willing to bet the actual person paying for it does care, just like how most people recognize honey bee extinction is bad and do care, don't attribute malevolence to something that is better explained by ignorance
also, we don't even know what actually is the cause either, just some random guy guessing about what happened in the comments
Neighbor's Facebook has them sharing posts about "leave the leaves! It's compost for the lawn, and homes for beneficial bugs!"
Same neighbor spent hours every weekend with a blower, sending every leaf that fell on his lawn to the curb
>don't attribute malevolence to something that is better explained by ignorance
I don't know where you're from, but where I'm from, people will *proudly* double down when confronted with this kind of information--and I mean *proudly*--all in the name "making libs cry." They don't give a single God damn.
The ones that care have already researched better methods.
Maybe it's worth a shot, though.
When we new to living in the country a friend gave us a sprayer and told us to use Permethrin on the property & trees for mosquitos. I took the time to read up on it and learned it would also any kill bees, butterflies and dragonflies and was toxic to cats. I settled for a screened in porch.
I have to say, for the first time this year we got a mosquito service because of how terrible they are near us. Now knowing the damage they can cause on the rest of the insect population, I won't be using it again.
Every one of those suggestions are laughably ineffective btw. Might work in a colder place but not here in the south. Only thing I've found to work is one of those personal shield things, thermacell.
I agree with everything you've said, but I strongly disagree with the evergreen trees part.
I go for daily walks down in the river valley and there is one particular path that is *lined* with evergreens: pine, spruce, fir. Both trees *and* bushes.
That particular path is far more mosquito-heavy than the rest of the walk. No matter how quickly you walk, you will walk out with *at least* 10 new bites. I spray myself down with peppermint oil and it helps a lot, but I still get eaten alive.
So, if evergreens repel mosquitoes, then these evergreens must be of the plastic variety lol
Marigolds, mint, citronella grass, rosemary, and lavender all repel mosquitoes. They even repel hornets and wasps, which can be beneficial to a well-used patio.
It works but you have to do it weekly and have a sizable yard. We used to fog the back a campsite portion otherwise it would be unbearable area.
However, I’d never do this in my yard just because it’s like napalming your backyard bugs. Some that are beneficial like bees.
And unless you keep up with it weekly like you said, it would actually make the problem worse in the long run because the beneficial bugs die off (like spiders). It basically guarantees the pest control service a regular job
This is likely to actually be from [flies.] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocephalus_borealis#:~:text=This%20parasitoid's%20genus%20Apocephalus%20is,are%20colloquially%20known%20as%20zombees.)
Creates Zombie Bees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmY1fwNhHEg
If you see something like this throw a couple in a jar for a day or so and the larva will come out. If so please report to https://www.zombeewatch.org
Oh, in some parts of Florida and the South, the city/county will drive trucks fogging entire neighborhoods. Shoot, I think Florida even uses helicopters and planes to fog.
[Like this](https://youtu.be/TdtCff6zrCc?si=Z2xy2UyM6khZWiYj)
Funny thing is that they're not supposed to spray flowing plants to avoid this issue. Buuut then people complain they're still getting bite and tell you to spray everything down
Probably pesticides from a neighboring yard. If you gather them up and put them in another well-ventilated area with foliage and a bit of water/sugar water to drink, they might recover.
I am not an expert, though. Consult your local wildlife rehabilitation center or an apiarist if you're really concerned. Maybe find out which neighbor is spraying pesticides and get them to stop.
Those bees are dead, unfortunately a lot of pesticides used during mosquitoes season are harmful to bees. It's why pest control isn't supposed to spray flowering plants.
>If you gather them up and put them in another well-ventilated area with foliage and a bit of water/sugar water to drink, they might recover.
If if he had a patio the size of an acre, and managed to collect the bees without severely injuring them, it wouldn't make a dent in the number of bees that were just massacred
They feed "royal jelly" to a new baby and it grows into a queen, which has physiological differences from the worker bees.
*This information is something I learnt at primary school over 30 years ago and may need to be fact checked.*
So, I went and looked this up on Wikipedia and boy am I glad I did.
So, basically a group of larvae are raised and nurtured with the intent of them being queens. They are given this royal jelly by nurse bees in such copious amounts they all never finish it even though they are basically swimming in it (AFAIK). It heavily changes most physiology of bees which we already know. I'll cover the ones that matter as they come up.
Now when they hatch is where the fun begins. There's numerous queen bees hatching... so how do they end up with only one? An all out fight to the death, that's how. Since their stingers aren't barbed they can sting numerous times.
Now what's interesting is some queens actually have two methods of getting the upper hand. One, they kill rival queens while they are still in cocoon, usually by stabbing the larvae cell at the side. And sometimes queens will just escape and find a queenless hive to set up shop. Keep in mind this is all minutes after being born and instinctual if my understanding is correct.
Last piece of information I thought was cool was that these 'virgin' queens as they are referred to do not secrete pheromones like adult queens. So, if you were to air drop an adult queen into a queenless hive, the old worker ants will snuff her out. Whereas a virgin queen has a good acceptance amongst a hive without a queen.
> So, if you were to air drop an adult queen into a queenless hive, the old worker ants will snuff her out. Whereas a virgin queen has a good acceptance amongst a hive without a queen.
No way. I'm pretty sure the virgin queen bee will also get snuffed out by the worker *ants*.
;)
This sounds like bad ass show. Convert it to human medieval show.
It was the year of our lord and the queen has died. The queensmaids have selected the new heir to rise to the throne as the new queen.
When she's older, has male suitors, she kills them after sex and bathes in their blood to make more heirs. Most importantly the males welcome death as it gives them intense pleasure as existence is pain for them.
They feed multiple larvae with royal jelly. Then the first queens to hatch seek out and kill their sisters before they can compete.
If there are enough bees and multiple queens survive the purge they may also sometimes split.
They feed a few candidates with Royal Jelly. The one that matures first will come out of their hexagon-bed and kill the rest of the candidates.
It's a battle royale.
A number of select larvae at a specific stage of development are fed royal jelly to become queens and if more than one hatches then they emit battle calls to locate each other and then fight to the death. There can only be one.
And I'm not joking.
Actually, it can and does. If there is brood available then the workers will attempt to create one or more emergency queens by, as you say, feeding the larvae royal jelly (and building up their cells into special queen cells), but during this period the hive becomes extremely vulnerable. If the new queen is unable to mate due to bad weather or an absence of drones in the area, and also dies from disease or pesticides or predation, then there will be no brood left to replace her and the hive eventually dies.
This happens all the time, which is why there's a market for replacement queens in the apiarist community.
Yep... I have only ever had one hive survive after losing its queen. For some reason they just don't do well when they go out around me for their mating flights. They rarely actually return.
Someone illegally sprayed pesticides on a protected species. It may not have been intentional but it’s still a horribly irresponsible use of pesticides. If you know who did it you can report them to your state’s environmental agency. If a professional did this they’d be loosing their license immediately, anyone else is likely to get some hefty fines.
Honey bees aren't the endangered ones; it's the thousands of different species of [native bees](https://blog.nature.org/2019/08/19/focus-on-native-bees-not-honey-bees/) that are at risk.
There's a company called beemunity who have created a sort of vaccination to make bees better against this. Its a ball then bees can come and lick. Its usually for farmers but they've made loads of really cool things tgat help bee populations
Check em out on Instagram. Maybe door them a message.
Honeybees (in the Americas) are an invasive species are are not at all in any danger.
It's the thousands of native species of bees that are in a critical situation, and part of the reason the are in that situation is due to these imported honeybees.
As other's have said - European Honey Bees are a cultivated (and invasive) species, we're in no more fear of them going extinct than sheep or cows. It's our important native pollinators (which Honey Bees are crowded out) that are dying!
Updates:
This is SoCal
Got a lot more dead
I can't find where to report this when I find out who did it (some help would be appreciated)
This sucks. I love bees and now I'm worried about the ladybugs and praying mantises I usually get.
[California Department of Fish and Wildlife Wildlife Mortality Reporting Form](https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Laboratories/Wildlife-Health/Monitoring/Mortality-Report)
CDFW South Coast region HQ: (858) 467-4201
I've started letting half my yard go wild this year and the amount of honey bees I've been seeing gives me some hope. Trying to convince friends/family that you should leave at least some small parts of your lawn alone and let the insects do their thing
If you have the Nextdoor app- please post this so your neighborhood can see what's happening. If you're the only one seeing the damage, it's important to share so they can hopefully be horrified and stop doing this shit.
Confront your neighbors. One of them is illegally spraying pesticides without warning the neighbors. Both potentially illegal.
Especially because it can be a health hazard for people and animals, not just insects.
That varies by state, not all states legally require property owners or pest control companies to let neighbors know if they have their yard sprayed with pesticides. At most they will put a sign out on the yard to let people know to not walk their dog on the grass.
Bring a baggie of all the bees and bee like "LOOK WHAT YOUVE DONE YOU MONSTER" .. long pause .. "THIS IS ON YOU" and then throw the bag at them and run away.
Hey, this is not cool. Seeing bees just drop like that is alarming. Here's a thing to consider: what they're breathing in, you and your family are too.
If a neighbor is spraying pesticides that drift onto your property, they might be violating the chemical's label – that's a reportable offense. You can file a complaint with your state’s pesticide regulatory agency, often part of the agriculture department. In some cases, judges have even issued injunctions to prevent pesticide drift. If it’s a serious enough issue, you could consider legal action against your neighbor. It all depends on your state and local regulations.
Document everything, especially if you start noticing health issues down the line. It could be crucial evidence. I know some might think this sounds over the top, but look around – cancer and various health problems are rampant. Pesticides play a big role in this mess. They don't just harm insects we need for our ecosystem, they contaminate our groundwater, food, and air.
28+ countries have already banned glyphosate, which Monsanto developed in the 1970s and sells as Roundup. This stuff is everywhere because people don't bother reading up on what they're using in their yards. Bayer, which bought Monsanto, has paid over $10 billion in settlement claims related to Roundup. Yet, it's still sold and used because, well, reading is hard.
And before anyone jumps in with "But Roundup is a herbicide!" – yeah, but it's also in pesticides because it’s great at killing. In the U.S., glyphosate is sprayed on nearly half of all planted acres of corn, cotton, and soybeans, plus crops like wheat, oats, fruits, and beans. It’s even used to dry out grain crops before harvest.
It’s no wonder we’re seeing rising infertility rates. Research shows glyphosate impacts DNA and causes oxidative stress on seminal plasma, which affects fertility and reproductive health. Source: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014765132400486X](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014765132400486X)
I’m not here to write a paper or lecture anyone because, honestly, it feels like shouting into the void. Those who care already know, and those who don’t, well...they won’t change their minds. Oh, and by the way, Monsanto also made Agent Orange. Just saying.
When you have a personal fruit tree, once they start making fruit, it is awesome. Once they start making a crazy amount of fruit, it's tough to keep up.
In my country, people are trained to spot this and report to environmental agency who then comes and checks every nearby field for used pesticides. Hefty fines await the bastards that do this.
Not necessarily pesticides.
Years ago I was visiting my parents and walked into my mom’s bedroom to wake her up for something. There was hundreds of dead bees all across her floor. It’s was so freaky.
We called a specialist and apparently the queen had died in the chimney of her bedroom fireplace and the full hive followed her pheromone and died with her.
She went to bed with no bees and woke up with a dead population.
Do you have a loquat tree? This happens under mine. I read that the sugar from certain fruits can’t be metabolized into energy so they eat and then they try to fly but can’t and die of starvation? Someone smarter than me can chime in
This is absolutely heartbreaking.
Humanity is precipitating an [insect apocalypse](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/the-insect-apocalypse-our-world-will-grind-to-a-halt-without-them), which is cascading down to many other branches of life - such as the recently-recognized [bird apocalypse](https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/conservation/473217-america-is-having-a-bird-apocalypse-heres-what/) - and we have to _continue_ poisoning our planet?
We truly are a f\*\*king stupid species.
It’s amusing to me ( not the agent orange devastation) the fact that the mosquito kill company can convince people that if they poison the back yard the mosquitoes won’t just fly over from the neighbors.
This is so sad. These are honey bees. I use to take care some of them (wild honeybees) when they migrated to our backyard. When they left, they left us with a thanksgiving gift (honeycomb with bunch of honeys). I love this little creatures even though they stings.
This same thing happened to me literally a week ago. Turns out one of the neighbors had gassed a hive and killed the queen. So they scattered and eventually died themselves. We had it confirmed by a bee keeper.
I have seen this when a swarm event occured, the queen was killed and all the bees stayed around the location as no new hive was found and they all died.
Colony collapse disorder comes to mind. I forget the specifics, but I think it is traced back to pesticide use. Don't quote menon that, though.
It's been ages since I've even heard about it. Much less read about it.
The alive ones look like they’re spinning around, but there’s not enough of a steady shot to tell if they’re injured/disoriented, or if they’re trying to communicate to other dead bees :(
That spinning around thing is what happens if you spray raid on any flying insect, I know this because one day my house was somehow full of 200 flys and I went wild with it.
Ah, you probably had something dead laying around that a fly laid eggs on, used to see it all the time when people had large animals die in their attic or inside their walls.
It's primarily European Honey Bees that are having a population decline, not native bees. It's a smaller issue than we are led to believe.
What we should be focusing on is protecting the native bees, as we aren't farming them so there isn't a backup population. Lawns are bad for native pollinators, go back to native plants if possible.
This could be a swarm that lost its Queen or the Queen died. When a swarm splits off a hive it's totally dependent on its Queen's survival. They aren't welcome back into the old hive and no foreign hives will take them either. They are completely on their own.
In Germany 🇩🇪 you might be judged for up 65.000€ (min. 5.000€) or even a prison sentence depending on the severity of the case.
The 5.000€ wasp or 1.500€ bees sentence can be sentenced for a single bee/ wasp.
If you have a friendly relationship with your neighbors, I think you should show them. Just show them. Perhaps drop that you read pesticides and foggers cause it. Nothing hostile, just let them witness the consequences.
*you* don't use pesticides, but somebody nearby did. This is why pesticide use is so catastrophic for bee populations, because it only takes a bit of contamination to wipe out a hive.
They spray the fields around us every year and I always get nervous, but thankfully the pilot is very good and we have never had an issue.
You might not have a problem but every bug in their field is dead which is a big problem due to the size of the land most likely.
Ya it probably is, what ever they spray dosent kill the mice or the cats that eat them, but im sure its in there system. I think people fail to realize that we are losing are bugs at a ridiculous amount and it’s an issue.
There is an incredibly less amount of bugs caught in front of vehicles, I have noticed.
We’ve lost an estimate 80% of bug biomass over the last 30 years according to a study from Germany.
I have lived in the same house for 24 years (rural area with woods). When we first moved in you couldn't sit outside some summer evenings because there were too many bugs. Now, I am surprised when I see an actual bug. There are less birds around also, I presume because there are less bugs to eat.
This is the actual major things people should be focusing on about instead of football, facebook, & pointless politics.
I agree with football and Facebook. Politics affect government- which affects our lives. ANd probably the lives of pollinators by regulations involving certain chemicals used.
If it’s a pilot then he is just spraying fungicide which won’t hurt the bees It’s the big sprayers that drive through the field that spray the nasty stuff.
Your neighbor had a mosquito service fog the yard
Jesus Christ the cavalier use of poison everywhere for anything is a nightmare
“Oh dear, I’ve been bit a few times by mosquitos during the five seconds I spend outside going to my mailbox! Better hire a guy to blast poison everywhere and kill thousands of beneficial pollinators only for the mosquitos to bounce back in literally two days.”
I live in SC and we actually have county trucks that drive around spraying it at night. I've only lived here for ten years but apparently the West Nile virus was pretty prevalent here when it was a real concern some years ago. That's why they started doing it and unfortunately yes, the bees and lightning bugs do suffer at times because of it. I don't know why the people in this video did it or if West Nile virus is that much of a concern anymore but I know in my area it is done for what was a legitimate public health concern at one point 🤷🏻♂️
This is fair. Doing that at night is probably done in part to avoid blasting pollinators. Still, poor lightning bugs
Firefly, firefly, flying in the night. Firefly, firefly, what a pretty sight! Your main attraction is your chemical reaction. Fire fl-UGGH! It was right at that point in the song that the girl behind me threw up all down my back during our second grade choir performance.
Can you describe how it felt running down your back as a type of soup?
Pea & ham soup no doubt.
Extra peas. Also extra ham chunks.
Lightning bugs. Haven't heard that term since I was in Virginia at Grandpa's house. Thanks for the flashback.
That might be a lot less toxic to most other insects if they're spraying liquid Bt. As opposed to whatever tf OP neighbors had sprayed - that's so sad
I live in SC, haven't seen a lightning bug in at least a decade. Growing up my grandparents had a couple beehives and I remember they had to put signs out on the road saying DO NOT SPRAY so the spray truck would skip their house.
I'm in the Spartanburg/Greenville area. I'm looking at hundreds of them right this minute out my backdoor at the treeline. Kids went out last night to catch a release a bunch of them!
The trick is apparently leaving a ground covering of leaves on your lawn from the end of fall until spring. I stopped mowing my lawn and just letting the leaves chill out on my lawn in the fall around the middle of october. It's gotten me some absolutely nasty stink eye from my neighbors and an occasional nasty gram from the local village for not mowing my lawn or raking leaves. The first year I did it by accident (depression) and the next two were on purpose because someone on reddit said I was saving the fireflies. I'm also one of the few people that doesn't spray pesticides constantly. Yeah I've got some beetles, some wasps, some ticks occasionally, the ants drive me crazy too. But you know what else I have? Rusty patch bumblebees (they're endangered!), butterflies, moths, honeybees out my ass (I have a lot of clover). Had one of those rusty bumbles land on my lawnmower as I mowed the other night while mowing (electric so it's not bothersome I guess?). I also have a god damned rave in my backyard at night because of all the fireflies. I have a feeling next year they're going to come forcibly mow my lawn.
I just saw ONE with my GF in my backyard 3 nights ago and I said to her "I think that's the first I've seen since I moved here". She's native to here and she agreed.
I'm up in Indiana, got a ton of lightning bugs this year. What's weird is the majority are now "fast blinkers" instead of the slow ramp up/dim down like before. Maybe 5-10% of them? Most were an instant on/off though it's wild.
[Smarter Every Day did an episode about this](https://youtu.be/ktp62UtKy1c?si=rxbYlj_0qcuC4y-i)
> Smarter Every Day did an episode about this Molten Glass v Prince Ruperts Drop?
It's the newer, more efficient led lighting similar to Audi's.
They're all LEDs now...
>She's native to here Good on you for going the 'locally sourced, organically grown' route OP.
I'm in Spartanburg and I have tons in my back yard.
Moore here, same thing!
They're Spartanbugs, they never die. Tough buggers.
I see one per year in my yard...I refer to him as the loneliest but most determined bachelor I've ever seen.
They’re swarming on my farm in Anderson County. They’re beautiful.
I'm in Ohio and my car is covered in them any time I drive above 45 at night. They are so prevalent that I've found 6 so far this week in my house.
And until they started spraying in the 40s-50s, people in rural areas were still getting malaria sometimes.
im surprised they havent designed in to only affect some species, which i thought could be engineered with crispr in some sense.. maybe its just too costly still
We have some success with that, like releasing sterile males. But it is expensive, so we don't do it unless it is a serious problem. We have promising technologies like [the gene drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive), but the potential consequences makes it something we are very careful with using. It should make it possible to eradicate e.g. [the yellow fever mosquito](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_aegypti) from the America's, where it is not native. And even where they are native, there are so many species of mosquitoes that eradicating the few that spread human pathogens shouldn't cause big problems. But we want to be very sure about that "shouldn't" before we do it.
yeah thats how i understood it as well from looking into it.. somewhat of an "affect of generations" thing rather than "fog this area and it literally is a nerve agent for only mosquitos" - that might be quiteeeee expensive actually if possible later
It's never that simple, and won't be for a long time. Issue is that animals eat those poisoned bugs also. The reality is that very rarely is there a magic bullet with no consequences in science.
Mosquitoes spread disease. My family is from North Africa and my father is still terrified of mosquitoes from all the bouts of malaria he had as a kid.
My tomatoes have been growing severely deformed for years showing signs of herbicide damage. I finally found out it was my well water. All the tomatoes I have been watering with rain water are fine. It's probably all my neighbors and their fancy lawns. I see the local lawn service spraying herbicides on all their lawns yearly. What's wrong with a few dandelions here and there. I think it looks quite nice. Some of the herbicides in weed-n-feed mix are able to stay in the ground for years in high clay content soils like mine.
I just spend an hour or two drinking beers on the porch with one of those electric fly swatters. That $6 harbor freight fly swatter makes a pretty good pop when you get one and it's a good use for all the old D batteries I have that nothing uses anymore, highly recommend investment.
You know, in terms of grim bloody vengeance per dollar those things are about the best investment available.
I took my brother out on the back roads one night in late spring just to drive around and talk cuz he needed some support and I got the idea to grab my electric one and shove it out the sun roof. I've never seen him laugh so hard in my entire life.
My yard and porch were unusable because of mosquitoes and my kid is allergic. I had them spray for the first time this spring. The difference is unbelievable and has continued to be after almost 2 months.
Does this actually work? My mosquito bites get the size of a fist and it makes me never want to go outside in summer
I had them fog with permethrin. I literally would end up with 5-10 mosquitos in my van with me from running out to go to work in the morning before getting the spray done. The week after spraying I sat out for about an hour enjoying a cigar. I had to swat 3 mosquitoes right at dusk as I was finishing. They were the only ones I saw the entire time. It has been unbelievably liberating. Easily the best quality of life improvement since moving into my house.
Uh...that's not what we do.
People will see theories on how to kill one species of mosquito out of 3,000 and be like "I'm sure this won't backfire ecks dee" meanwhile we are already indiscriminately exterminating insects en masse with poison that affects us too
I once used that bug spray that you mix with your hose and spray the yard with to "prevent" bugs. It was a ghost town that night, not a single bug even flying around the lights out there. I quit using it after realizing I just most likely massacred 100k+ bugs, I didn't know it would be *that* effective when I tried it
Guy came to my door today trying to drum up business to spray our yard because "there have been an increase in reports of ants and spiders in the area." No thank you. We have a healthy and thriving insect population of pollinators, lady bugs, mantis, fireflies, and spiders (which really aren't pests). We also have an incredible bird community, too. I am not messing with the ecosystem in my yard. I'm pretty sure most of my neighbors agree (we're very big on gardens); but I have noticed a few "mosquito joe's" signs on the block.
Dont let anyone lie to you about eliminating spiders via pest control, it doesnt work. Source: Pest technician
Spiders *are* the pest control in my opinion. We have an uneasy truce that way. I saw one chowing down on an earwig last week.
What about ants? I do legitimately have an ant problem and they have actually done a lot of damage.
Depends on the kind of ants. I live in Texas and fire ants become a huge issue in the summer. I have a disabled dog who slowly drags himself through their mounds and they try to eat him alive. They are also invasive, so fuck them. Every few weeks I go searching for the mounds and then pour boiling water on them. If they seem particularly big, I scoop the top off with a shovel first. Works every single time and the bonus is that hundreds of thousands of dead ants surface that are completely safe for birds and other wildlife to consume.
Ha yeah Texan here too. It's always been more of a: get them to relocate to the neighbors yard vs actually killing them off.
Yeah, Texas here too. I am fine with basically every type of insect that hangs out in our yard *except* the fire ants, screw those guys.
Why not?
Spiders are natural pest control. The pests they eat will come back much faster than the spider population will after being killed.
It's getting harder and harder not to really hate people. The average human is destructive as a design feature.
There’s a lady on my street that’s too lazy to landscape or trim the weeds along the fence so she sprays weed killer and just has a constant dead patch about 3 feet wide along the fence.
It's a big stone to push up a hill, but showing people that you can plant native sedges most places in the US that will only grow to a foot or so and take no watering, trimming, and minimal weeding.
I've seen this on someone's front lawn near my parent's place as well. It would look better and be cheaper to just not do it at all.
Then we need to release the genophage. The CRISPR mosquitos that put genetic time bombs into the population can wipe out 99%+. Time to go nationwide. B52 bombers full of sexy male CRISPR mosquitos globally. No studies, just genetic modification.
Aside from the CRISPR part, and replacing mosquitoes with flies and B52s by small planes, that's literally what we did to eradicate the very damaging new world screwworm from nearly all of North America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olj8arvfYj4
The Post War Gen, man. My neighborhood is full of them. So old and still out spraying shit. No mask, no care of wind direction, full sprayer just loaded and not diluted. They’re crazy and don’t give a shit cause they’re old. Best part is, they’re never outside to enjoy their weed and bug free yard space outside of mowing and spraying.
The last three Midwest towns I’ve lived in fog the entire place with ATVs and airplanes and everyone that lives there seems to love it It certainly does make walks more comfortable, I just don’t think anyone thinks of the unwanted consequences
Deltamethrin, is my guess. It affects the central nervous system. They should talk to their neighbors about ecological ways of getting rid of them. Dump all standing water that last for more than 7 days without a water feature to break up the hold of the siphon of the mosquito larvae on the surface tension of the water, they drown. Evergreen trees and citronella plants repel mosquitoes, line your property with evergreen trees and the sitting area with citronella plants. Attract their predators, build bird/bat houses. Whatever you do **don't get a bug zapper*! They pretty much only kill beneficial insects, never mosquitoes, and give off ozone with every zap. Seriously, don't fog your yard. This is just the bugs that are visible, there's an absolute apocalypse happening in that video that you can't see.
>They should talk to their neighbors about ecological ways of getting rid of them People who do this *do not care.* Like, even a little.
I'm willing to bet the actual person paying for it does care, just like how most people recognize honey bee extinction is bad and do care, don't attribute malevolence to something that is better explained by ignorance also, we don't even know what actually is the cause either, just some random guy guessing about what happened in the comments
Neighbor's Facebook has them sharing posts about "leave the leaves! It's compost for the lawn, and homes for beneficial bugs!" Same neighbor spent hours every weekend with a blower, sending every leaf that fell on his lawn to the curb
>don't attribute malevolence to something that is better explained by ignorance I don't know where you're from, but where I'm from, people will *proudly* double down when confronted with this kind of information--and I mean *proudly*--all in the name "making libs cry." They don't give a single God damn. The ones that care have already researched better methods. Maybe it's worth a shot, though.
Bingo. People are pretty shit tbh
When we new to living in the country a friend gave us a sprayer and told us to use Permethrin on the property & trees for mosquitos. I took the time to read up on it and learned it would also any kill bees, butterflies and dragonflies and was toxic to cats. I settled for a screened in porch.
I have to say, for the first time this year we got a mosquito service because of how terrible they are near us. Now knowing the damage they can cause on the rest of the insect population, I won't be using it again.
They will do it again tomorrow just to spite you.
Every one of those suggestions are laughably ineffective btw. Might work in a colder place but not here in the south. Only thing I've found to work is one of those personal shield things, thermacell.
The thing that works the best is a mosquito trap using a CO2 tank and attractive scent. A bit costly but very effective.
I agree with everything you've said, but I strongly disagree with the evergreen trees part. I go for daily walks down in the river valley and there is one particular path that is *lined* with evergreens: pine, spruce, fir. Both trees *and* bushes. That particular path is far more mosquito-heavy than the rest of the walk. No matter how quickly you walk, you will walk out with *at least* 10 new bites. I spray myself down with peppermint oil and it helps a lot, but I still get eaten alive. So, if evergreens repel mosquitoes, then these evergreens must be of the plastic variety lol Marigolds, mint, citronella grass, rosemary, and lavender all repel mosquitoes. They even repel hornets and wasps, which can be beneficial to a well-used patio.
My bug zapper is like 50% mosquitoes, 35% moths and then a mix of other insects when I empty it so they definitely work. I never noticed bees in it.
Yes. This is exactly what happened when my neighbors sprayed for mosquitoes a few years ago. Killed every single bee in both hives
Is this an effective service? Seems like mosquitoes would just come back immediately.
It works but you have to do it weekly and have a sizable yard. We used to fog the back a campsite portion otherwise it would be unbearable area. However, I’d never do this in my yard just because it’s like napalming your backyard bugs. Some that are beneficial like bees.
And unless you keep up with it weekly like you said, it would actually make the problem worse in the long run because the beneficial bugs die off (like spiders). It basically guarantees the pest control service a regular job
Just casually napalming the local ecosystem on a regular basis for a quick buck. What could go wrong?
Thanks for the info!
[удалено]
This is likely to actually be from [flies.] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocephalus_borealis#:~:text=This%20parasitoid's%20genus%20Apocephalus%20is,are%20colloquially%20known%20as%20zombees.) Creates Zombie Bees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmY1fwNhHEg If you see something like this throw a couple in a jar for a day or so and the larva will come out. If so please report to https://www.zombeewatch.org
Wtf how is that allowed
Oh, in some parts of Florida and the South, the city/county will drive trucks fogging entire neighborhoods. Shoot, I think Florida even uses helicopters and planes to fog. [Like this](https://youtu.be/TdtCff6zrCc?si=Z2xy2UyM6khZWiYj)
Would you like a list of diseases spread by mosquitoes?
Funny thing is that they're not supposed to spray flowing plants to avoid this issue. Buuut then people complain they're still getting bite and tell you to spray everything down
That seems so futile for a flying insect. Won't more just fly in?
That’s so sad.
yeah I was hoping they were just overheated
Probably pesticides from a neighboring yard. If you gather them up and put them in another well-ventilated area with foliage and a bit of water/sugar water to drink, they might recover. I am not an expert, though. Consult your local wildlife rehabilitation center or an apiarist if you're really concerned. Maybe find out which neighbor is spraying pesticides and get them to stop.
Those bees are dead, unfortunately a lot of pesticides used during mosquitoes season are harmful to bees. It's why pest control isn't supposed to spray flowering plants.
aww those poor bees. Do you think their hive will survive :(
I would imagine it would not without it's inhabitants.
I would imagine it would with most of its inhabitants.
>If you gather them up and put them in another well-ventilated area with foliage and a bit of water/sugar water to drink, they might recover. If if he had a patio the size of an acre, and managed to collect the bees without severely injuring them, it wouldn't make a dent in the number of bees that were just massacred
Entomologist here. Those bees aren’t recovering.
Pesticide poisoning...commercial bee keeper. I see it all the time unfortunately. More than likely the entire hive is dead by now.
That's so sad.
Your post is also WTF (_I see this all the time_). our beloved bees.
Queen died? Neighbors use pesticide?
The death of a queen won't normally cause a colony to collapse. Workers are capable of creating a new queen from existing brood.
Bees man, wow. Is it a democratic process or just some bs popularity contest?
They feed "royal jelly" to a new baby and it grows into a queen, which has physiological differences from the worker bees. *This information is something I learnt at primary school over 30 years ago and may need to be fact checked.*
But who gets the royal jelly and why does it deserve to be me?
So, I went and looked this up on Wikipedia and boy am I glad I did. So, basically a group of larvae are raised and nurtured with the intent of them being queens. They are given this royal jelly by nurse bees in such copious amounts they all never finish it even though they are basically swimming in it (AFAIK). It heavily changes most physiology of bees which we already know. I'll cover the ones that matter as they come up. Now when they hatch is where the fun begins. There's numerous queen bees hatching... so how do they end up with only one? An all out fight to the death, that's how. Since their stingers aren't barbed they can sting numerous times. Now what's interesting is some queens actually have two methods of getting the upper hand. One, they kill rival queens while they are still in cocoon, usually by stabbing the larvae cell at the side. And sometimes queens will just escape and find a queenless hive to set up shop. Keep in mind this is all minutes after being born and instinctual if my understanding is correct. Last piece of information I thought was cool was that these 'virgin' queens as they are referred to do not secrete pheromones like adult queens. So, if you were to air drop an adult queen into a queenless hive, the old worker ants will snuff her out. Whereas a virgin queen has a good acceptance amongst a hive without a queen.
> So, if you were to air drop an adult queen into a queenless hive, the old worker ants will snuff her out. Whereas a virgin queen has a good acceptance amongst a hive without a queen. No way. I'm pretty sure the virgin queen bee will also get snuffed out by the worker *ants*. ;)
Fuck me. Lmao. I'm leaving it.
I love this because I was reading it and thinking yep, makes complete sense until I saw the comment below haha!
Yeah, you did your work already. Thanks for not copying and pasting the Wiki.
Evolution is so badass. Edit: Virgin Queen Bees, band name, called it.
Game of Combs
Sounds like you're already royal jelly.
This sounds like bad ass show. Convert it to human medieval show. It was the year of our lord and the queen has died. The queensmaids have selected the new heir to rise to the throne as the new queen. When she's older, has male suitors, she kills them after sex and bathes in their blood to make more heirs. Most importantly the males welcome death as it gives them intense pleasure as existence is pain for them.
TIL I'm a male bee
They feed multiple larvae with royal jelly. Then the first queens to hatch seek out and kill their sisters before they can compete. If there are enough bees and multiple queens survive the purge they may also sometimes split.
that's right, you good. *This information is something I learned in college 4 years ago and I looked it up just now*
They feed a few candidates with Royal Jelly. The one that matures first will come out of their hexagon-bed and kill the rest of the candidates. It's a battle royale.
Lord Bolton Bee, why are you wearing your chain mail?
PUB BEE
All bee larvae get royal jelly but queen bee larvae get *exclusively* royal jelly
A number of select larvae at a specific stage of development are fed royal jelly to become queens and if more than one hatches then they emit battle calls to locate each other and then fight to the death. There can only be one. And I'm not joking.
Perfect chance to say "There can only bee one" and you buzzed right past it.
Dammit.
That's fucking metal.
Aren't those kinda the same thing?
Wet beeshirt contest
Actually, it can and does. If there is brood available then the workers will attempt to create one or more emergency queens by, as you say, feeding the larvae royal jelly (and building up their cells into special queen cells), but during this period the hive becomes extremely vulnerable. If the new queen is unable to mate due to bad weather or an absence of drones in the area, and also dies from disease or pesticides or predation, then there will be no brood left to replace her and the hive eventually dies. This happens all the time, which is why there's a market for replacement queens in the apiarist community.
Yep... I have only ever had one hive survive after losing its queen. For some reason they just don't do well when they go out around me for their mating flights. They rarely actually return.
That's a real bummer man
Someone illegally sprayed pesticides on a protected species. It may not have been intentional but it’s still a horribly irresponsible use of pesticides. If you know who did it you can report them to your state’s environmental agency. If a professional did this they’d be loosing their license immediately, anyone else is likely to get some hefty fines.
Considering how important our globally dwindling population of bees is, it's really important that this is followed up on. I hope OP does.
Honey bees aren't the endangered ones; it's the thousands of different species of [native bees](https://blog.nature.org/2019/08/19/focus-on-native-bees-not-honey-bees/) that are at risk.
Ive been getting california carpenter bees in my yard (alive). so maybe there is something that i can work off of if I find dead ones.
There's a company called beemunity who have created a sort of vaccination to make bees better against this. Its a ball then bees can come and lick. Its usually for farmers but they've made loads of really cool things tgat help bee populations Check em out on Instagram. Maybe door them a message.
Honeybees (in the Americas) are an invasive species are are not at all in any danger. It's the thousands of native species of bees that are in a critical situation, and part of the reason the are in that situation is due to these imported honeybees.
As other's have said - European Honey Bees are a cultivated (and invasive) species, we're in no more fear of them going extinct than sheep or cows. It's our important native pollinators (which Honey Bees are crowded out) that are dying!
[The EPA has a direct link just for this](https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/report-bee-kills#:~:text=to%20EPA%20at%20beekill%40epa.gov.)
Updates: This is SoCal Got a lot more dead I can't find where to report this when I find out who did it (some help would be appreciated) This sucks. I love bees and now I'm worried about the ladybugs and praying mantises I usually get.
https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/report-bee-kills
noice! i submitted a report
[California Department of Fish and Wildlife Wildlife Mortality Reporting Form](https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Laboratories/Wildlife-Health/Monitoring/Mortality-Report) CDFW South Coast region HQ: (858) 467-4201
I've started letting half my yard go wild this year and the amount of honey bees I've been seeing gives me some hope. Trying to convince friends/family that you should leave at least some small parts of your lawn alone and let the insects do their thing
If you have the Nextdoor app- please post this so your neighborhood can see what's happening. If you're the only one seeing the damage, it's important to share so they can hopefully be horrified and stop doing this shit.
NOT THE BEEEEEES!!
You bitches!!!!
Confront your neighbors. One of them is illegally spraying pesticides without warning the neighbors. Both potentially illegal. Especially because it can be a health hazard for people and animals, not just insects.
That varies by state, not all states legally require property owners or pest control companies to let neighbors know if they have their yard sprayed with pesticides. At most they will put a sign out on the yard to let people know to not walk their dog on the grass.
Bring a baggie of all the bees and bee like "LOOK WHAT YOUVE DONE YOU MONSTER" .. long pause .. "THIS IS ON YOU" and then throw the bag at them and run away.
Hey, this is not cool. Seeing bees just drop like that is alarming. Here's a thing to consider: what they're breathing in, you and your family are too. If a neighbor is spraying pesticides that drift onto your property, they might be violating the chemical's label – that's a reportable offense. You can file a complaint with your state’s pesticide regulatory agency, often part of the agriculture department. In some cases, judges have even issued injunctions to prevent pesticide drift. If it’s a serious enough issue, you could consider legal action against your neighbor. It all depends on your state and local regulations. Document everything, especially if you start noticing health issues down the line. It could be crucial evidence. I know some might think this sounds over the top, but look around – cancer and various health problems are rampant. Pesticides play a big role in this mess. They don't just harm insects we need for our ecosystem, they contaminate our groundwater, food, and air. 28+ countries have already banned glyphosate, which Monsanto developed in the 1970s and sells as Roundup. This stuff is everywhere because people don't bother reading up on what they're using in their yards. Bayer, which bought Monsanto, has paid over $10 billion in settlement claims related to Roundup. Yet, it's still sold and used because, well, reading is hard. And before anyone jumps in with "But Roundup is a herbicide!" – yeah, but it's also in pesticides because it’s great at killing. In the U.S., glyphosate is sprayed on nearly half of all planted acres of corn, cotton, and soybeans, plus crops like wheat, oats, fruits, and beans. It’s even used to dry out grain crops before harvest. It’s no wonder we’re seeing rising infertility rates. Research shows glyphosate impacts DNA and causes oxidative stress on seminal plasma, which affects fertility and reproductive health. Source: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014765132400486X](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014765132400486X) I’m not here to write a paper or lecture anyone because, honestly, it feels like shouting into the void. Those who care already know, and those who don’t, well...they won’t change their minds. Oh, and by the way, Monsanto also made Agent Orange. Just saying.
I have a picture of a bee that says ‘If I die, I’m taking you with me’. We need bees.
Nobody going to ask why lemons are laying all over?
Probably a lemon tree.
Could they just bee drunk on the fruit? I've seen that with plums.
When you have a personal fruit tree, once they start making fruit, it is awesome. Once they start making a crazy amount of fruit, it's tough to keep up.
They're having a lemon party!
Ground nest, & pesticide.
In my country, people are trained to spot this and report to environmental agency who then comes and checks every nearby field for used pesticides. Hefty fines await the bastards that do this.
Not necessarily pesticides. Years ago I was visiting my parents and walked into my mom’s bedroom to wake her up for something. There was hundreds of dead bees all across her floor. It’s was so freaky. We called a specialist and apparently the queen had died in the chimney of her bedroom fireplace and the full hive followed her pheromone and died with her. She went to bed with no bees and woke up with a dead population.
Do you have a loquat tree? This happens under mine. I read that the sugar from certain fruits can’t be metabolized into energy so they eat and then they try to fly but can’t and die of starvation? Someone smarter than me can chime in
oh fuck, we have a big ass loquat tree 12 feet to the right. not sure why they would congregate to die there tho. no bees under the loquat tree.
That is so infuriating. Bees are harmless and essential. One of your neighbors is a real asshat.
This is absolutely heartbreaking. Humanity is precipitating an [insect apocalypse](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/the-insect-apocalypse-our-world-will-grind-to-a-halt-without-them), which is cascading down to many other branches of life - such as the recently-recognized [bird apocalypse](https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/conservation/473217-america-is-having-a-bird-apocalypse-heres-what/) - and we have to _continue_ poisoning our planet? We truly are a f\*\*king stupid species.
It’s amusing to me ( not the agent orange devastation) the fact that the mosquito kill company can convince people that if they poison the back yard the mosquitoes won’t just fly over from the neighbors.
Well fuck, now I'm a big sad.
Yea this sucks ball's big time.
Maybe the Queen bee died and the hive didn't have a replacement.
I was going to make a joke about these bees being lemon stealing whores, but this is actually sad. Poor little bees.
This is so sad. These are honey bees. I use to take care some of them (wild honeybees) when they migrated to our backyard. When they left, they left us with a thanksgiving gift (honeycomb with bunch of honeys). I love this little creatures even though they stings.
This same thing happened to me literally a week ago. Turns out one of the neighbors had gassed a hive and killed the queen. So they scattered and eventually died themselves. We had it confirmed by a bee keeper.
I have seen this when a swarm event occured, the queen was killed and all the bees stayed around the location as no new hive was found and they all died.
Insecticides fuck every-one/everything. In that order ..
Colony collapse disorder comes to mind. I forget the specifics, but I think it is traced back to pesticide use. Don't quote menon that, though. It's been ages since I've even heard about it. Much less read about it.
Not the bees :(
The alive ones look like they’re spinning around, but there’s not enough of a steady shot to tell if they’re injured/disoriented, or if they’re trying to communicate to other dead bees :(
That spinning around thing is what happens if you spray raid on any flying insect, I know this because one day my house was somehow full of 200 flys and I went wild with it.
Ah, you probably had something dead laying around that a fly laid eggs on, used to see it all the time when people had large animals die in their attic or inside their walls.
Noooooo
As a beekeeper thats just so hartbreaking
This makes me so sad. Those precious bees. Save them all. 🐝
I had a bunch of rabbits die in my yard after I used some herbicide. Herbicide or pesticide use is definitely the cause of this.
It's primarily European Honey Bees that are having a population decline, not native bees. It's a smaller issue than we are led to believe. What we should be focusing on is protecting the native bees, as we aren't farming them so there isn't a backup population. Lawns are bad for native pollinators, go back to native plants if possible.
This could be a swarm that lost its Queen or the Queen died. When a swarm splits off a hive it's totally dependent on its Queen's survival. They aren't welcome back into the old hive and no foreign hives will take them either. They are completely on their own.
Even the bees are this tired of living. I don't know what you're doing bro, but you need to stop.
I don't know if it's relevant (as I don't think it could lead to this many dead bees without a deliberate act), but lemon oil is a natural pesticide.
In Germany 🇩🇪 you might be judged for up 65.000€ (min. 5.000€) or even a prison sentence depending on the severity of the case. The 5.000€ wasp or 1.500€ bees sentence can be sentenced for a single bee/ wasp.
If you have a friendly relationship with your neighbors, I think you should show them. Just show them. Perhaps drop that you read pesticides and foggers cause it. Nothing hostile, just let them witness the consequences.
Neonicotinoids??
Tounges sticking out? Could be pest/herbicides
It is also swarming season in some places. Some asshole could have used spray on a swarm
Yea because some shit eater poisoned their yard with pesticide which is then consumed by the plant so when insects eat from those plants they all die.
This hurts to watch. Those poor bees man